Watch the world’s best pro-gamers at MLG Providence live this weekend
A portion of PC Gamer has just got back from Bristol’s very first Barcraft event, to watch the Providence Major League Gaming finals. Many drinks were drunk and much StarCraft II was watched, making it a turbo-excellent night. It’s getting close to kicking out time here in the UK, but fans of tip-top level pro-gaming, don’t panic: the MLG Providence finals are still ongoing, closing up tomorrow. If you want to watch them – and you really should, as they’ve been brilliant so far – get over to their website and catch the live stream. There’s some incredible games still to go, and the whole event to play for.
We’ve also got two high-quality MLG Providence passes to give away to the first two people who comment with the name of a previous MLG StarCraft II winner below. Be quick about it, mind.
Got a Blizzcon ticket and cash to spare? Buy some limited edition tat
I’m a sucker for official merchandise. Not so much t-shirts and hoodies but classy stuff like plushies and figurines. That’s why the official post-Blizzcon sale has got me interested. These products might be overpriced (and some might qualify as girl-repellent) but they’re official and limited in number.
The special merchandise is available from now until November 18 at 10 a.m. PT. To gain access to the items, sign into the site with your Blizzcon 2011 ticket, virtual ticket or Blizzcon 2011 Pay Per View pass. Then enter your credit card details and bankrupt yourself!
Let us know what’s in your basket/wishlist in the comments. I want the Diablo 3 t-shirt featured in the thumbnail image, lots. Whoops! I just contradicted the first line of this post. Sorry.
Play with StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm units now on modder’s custom map
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is still in development somewhere behind the supply depot/bunker ramp defence in front of Blizzard HQ, but Blizzard did drop lots of details on Heart of the Swarm’s new units at Blizzcon a couple of weeks ago. One modder on Reddit has devoted 60 hours of his life to recreating the new units in a custom map using the StarCraft 2 editor.
Why Blizzard invited the world’s best StarCraft: Brood War players to Blizzcon 2011
Jaedong, Fantasy, Bisu, and Jangbi are some of the world’s premier StarCraft: Brood War players. This year, these four StarCrafting superstars were invited to Blizzcon.
But why were they there? Sites like Teamliquid swirled with rumours prior to the event: they were there to perform show matches, playing 1998′s Brood War on the big screen to foreign fans. They were there to test out the next StarCraft II expansion, Heart of the Swarm. They were there to mark their transition from professional Brood War – still the majority esports share in Korean viewing schedules – to StarCraft II. But Blizzcon came and went, and the four players were absent from headlines outside of citizen-papparazzi snaps and videos. Why were they there, flown out to Anaheim from their Korean home? The answer is simpler than you might expect. Read on to find out why.
StarCraft 2 tournaments will move over to Heart of the Swarm “when the community decides”.
Just when you think you’ve finally got your head around defending a 1/1/1 push and locked down your warp prism/immortal micro, Blizzard are adding a set of new units to StarCraft II’s multiplayer armies. But what happens to SC2 tournaments like MLG and the GSL who’ve built their empires around Wings of Liberty’s multiplayer? Will they be forced to move over to Heart of the Swarm half way through their season?
StarCraft 2: new Zerg, Terran and Protoss units spotted at Blizzcon
The show hasn’t even started yet, but someone on Reddit has been busy taking snaps of the cardboard cut-outs at Blizzcon 2011. They reveal two new units for StarCraft 2. The first is a new flyer, The Viper. It’s described as a “flying unit with support abilities. It can grant detection to units, create a cloud to hinder ranged attacks and abilities, and quickly pull units to safety (friendly) or their doom (enemy).”
The second Zerg unit is called the Swarm Host. “This Zerg host can gradually spawn endless waves of attackers while burrowed to overwhelm your enemy.” Eek.
Another two images show three new Protoss units, including the Protoss Replicator, which can copy enemy units and their abilities. The Tempest is a devastating new capital ship and the Oracle can see what enemy buildings are constructing, and distrupt the enemy mineral line.
Three new Terran units are also shown. The Warhound is “a versatile factory unit.” The Battle Hellion is, as many guessed, a Hellion that can transform into a more durable walking bot. Finally, there’s the Shredder that can “deploy a whirlwind of death around it.” See the images and descriptions of all these units below. Exciting news for StarCraft fans, but which of the new units is more OP?
PC cleans up at the Golden Joystick Awards
Whoa. When did PC gaming become so damn… award-winning?
PC has cleaned up at the Golden Joystick awards with a wealth of exclusives. And the non PC exclusive games that took an award? We get to play most of those too, only more anti aliased, and in a better resolution.
The best bit? Gamers voted for these. Real-life gamers with strong opinons. A record-breaking 2.06 million of them in fact. Well done PC gaming community – you rose to the challenge and pwned.
Click through for the full results. Don’t agree with some of the winners? It’s time for a furious debate. See you in the comments.
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Zerg unit teased
As promised, Blizzard have released another silhouette for a new StarCraft 2 unit to be added with Heart of the Swarm. The last one was some sort of OP Terran shape. This time it’s a Zerg unit, but WHAT IS IT?
Facebook commenters are torn. “infested stalker,” says one. “It’s obviously a flyer,” says another. “Its kind a like extra-armored evolved roach. Whatever that is,” says another. We turned to resident StarCraft 2 nerd, Rich for DEFINITIVE ANSWERS.
“A weird Ultralisk or a Lurker,” he said. See the full image below and decide for yourself.
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm multiplayer unit teased
Blizzard have started teasing Heart of the Swarm’s new multiplayer units. That’s one of them up there! Click through to see his legs and for the first snippets of info.
Intel Extreme Masters New York: world’s best CS 1.6, LoL and StarCraft 2 players to fight for $93k
The best Counter-Strike 1.6, StarCraft 2 and League of Legends players will clash in New York next month, hoping to win a share of the enormous $93,000 prize pot up for grabs at the Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge event. It all kicks off on Thursday October 13 and runs through until the finals on Sunday October 16. The best teams will also win the chance to participate in the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Hanover, Germany next year.
MLG Raleigh event draws record viewing figures
It looks as though e-sports spectators are on the rise. The MLG Raleigh tournament that took place the weekend before last is the most watched MLG event to date. At its highest point, 138,000 people were watching the MLG Raleigh live streams. According to info MLG sent over, viewers tuned in from 173 countries and three million hours were “consumed” over the course of the competition.
Raleigh is the fourth competition in a six-part city-hopping tour and MLG will be live-streaming their events in Orlando and Providence, too. If you missed the StarCraft 2 and League of Legends tournaments that took place in the last event, MLG Raleigh 2011tournament matches are now free to watch on demand. Check out some of the best e-sports players in the world doing their best work, and be inspired/slightly crushed by the ludicrous ability on display.
Tonight: Microsoft vs. Zynga in the StarCraft 2 After Hours Gaming League finals
Can Bing’s Banelings best Farmville’s Ghosts? Tonight, Microsoft and Zynga are going to settle their differences in StarCraft 2. The tech competitors face each other in the final of the After Hours Gaming League, a for-charity tournament between top tech companies in Silicon Valley. Starting at 6 PM PST, tonight’s final is the culmination of a month-some of round robin action between Yelp, Amazon, and others.
StarCraft 2′s self-professed “funsmith” Day[9] will be doing the commentary, streamed here and embedded after the jump. To the winner: $5000 for the charity of their choice and immeasurable bragging rights.
I’m running out the door now to attend the tournament. For on-site updates, follow me at @elahti as I make the trip from PC Gamer to Facebook HQ, where the finals are being hosted.
StarCraft 2 Starter Edition offers free maps and missions to new players
The StarCraft 2 demo is dead! It has been reborn as the bigger and better StarCraft 2 Starter Edition, which includes four single player missions, two challenge maps and four skirmish maps that will let you play as Terrans against AI opponents. That’s a great big slobbering shank of free StarCraft 2 for new players.
The starter edition has no time limit, the missions and maps can be replayed as often as you like. All you need to get your chunk of free StarCraft 2 is an internet connection and a Battle.net login. You can set up an account and download the starter edition from Battle.net now.
In a Q&A on the StarCraft 2 blog Blizzard say they plan to rotate the available skirmish maps, and will make a limited selection of custom maps available to Starter Edition players, including the Blizzard-made StarJeweled mod. You’ll even be able to play the custom maps with friends. Read on for the full list of features currently included.
Watch it live: MLG Anaheim StarCraft 2 tournament kicks off tonight
In about eight hours time, MLG Anaheim will bring the world’s best StarCraft 2 players together to compete in front of a global audience. The first match, Naniwa vs. Huk, is set to kick off at 5:30 PM PDT / 1:30 AM GMT. You can find the full schedule on the MLG site, and watch matches live, for free, on MLG TV. Gold and Silver subscribers will be able to watch HD streams of every match.
If you’re new to e-sports and want an introductory taste of the StarCraft 2 competitive scene, we rounded up videos of ten of our favourite matches. For more on pro-gaming, Rich recently wrote about why he loves watching StarCraft 2.
Starcraft Universe trailer shows boss battles and Ultralisk mobs
Starcraft Universe, formerly known as World of Starcraft, impressed us with its pre-alpha footage before. Now it’s back with an even more impressive video, spotted by ChaosSmurf on twitter. The last we heard of the mod, the creators were involved in a minor legal scuffle with Activision and Blizzard over the mod’s name. That’s all resolved now, so the team has been able to get back to creating some impressive new levels, including what looks like a set piece in which players defend a flying platform from Zerg attack. The mod is created entirely using the free editing tools bundled with StarCraft 2. Find out more on the StarCraft Universe ModDB homepage.
