Last week, Blizzard Entertainment launched a new site with some pretty radical changes, namely the introduction of a digital download store. For the first time, gamers can purchase digital copies of Warcraft III, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and StarCraft Anthology. More games (Diablo) are promised to be added later on.
This is just what I needed. As someone who has lost or destroyed three copies of StarCraft, I can’t justify buying physical copies anymore. Now I don’t have to deal with awkward store clerks and waste gas when I need to get my Craft on.
Read: Blizzard Gets Its Digital Download On.
Chun “Sweet” Jung Hee has retired from Warcraft III, ending his career as one of the strongest Undeads to compete in the realm of Warcraft. He played since the days of MaDFroG on the SK Warcraft III team, wrapping up his career in BeT with the FoV and Winners.
Now, Jung Hee will enter the Korean military, fulfilling duties required for Korean citizens. At the age of 22, Sweet ends his time in the Warcraft III with a great number of accomplishments under his belt.
The current status of BeT is unknown, with some speculation that powerhouse FoV may also be retiring, and Winners following his teammate Check to mTw (currently mTw has only four players on its roster, indicating more roster additions are incoming).
More info as it comes.
SCForAll.com has announced a StarCraft tournament open to the public with 128 slots available. the 300th, 500th, and 1000th user will receive a free mousepad autographed by a Korean pro gamer.
Prizes will be awarded to players who place from 1st to 16th place. Shoutcasting will be provided for the best matches. All players are eligible, regardless of nationality.
The tournament format is single-elimination, best of three. Semi-finals are best of five, and finals are best of seven. All the details can be found at the post at SCForAll.com.
Continued from Part 1.
Vanguard sticks out as one of the biggest failures in MMORPG history. The game was praised as the hardcore player’s wet dream; promising as it was, the publisher made a crucial mistake by releasing the game before it was finished. The coding was largely incomplete, and the game required extensive polishing.
Without proper coding or optimization, the players who played Vanguard felt they had been sold an unfinished product. This lead many players to cancel their subscriptions and move on to another game. Furthermore,the developers were forced to spend their time fixing coding issues after the game was released.
Players left the game in droves, and Vanguard would become just another failed MMO.
Hellgate: London had many of the same problems. Many players had the feeling that the game was unfinished when released and the developers should have been given more time. Even now, Hellgate: London players feel that the developers are still working to finish their game. Continued…
After six years as one of the most prominent sources of StarCraft news, TeamLiquid.net is hosting its own tournament for the international community: the TeamLiquid StarLeague. Broadcast live with experienced English commentators, the TSL will attempt to look and feel just like a professional Korean tournament.
On the eve of StarCraft’s 10th Anniversary, with thousands of viewers watching and a prize pool of over $10,000 at stake, you could be the champion in StarCraft’s most prestigious online international tournament ever.
There are no invites. Anyone can make it. The ambitious will enter, the determined will qualify, but only the best will be victorious.
Prizes will be awarded to the top 16 players. View the breakdown: Continued…
World of Warcraft addicts everywhere celebrated this morning as the highly anticipated 2.4 patch, dubbed Fury of the Sunwell, was released.
The new patch introduces adventurers to Sunwell Isle. Here new quests can be found, along with new 5-man dungeons and a 25-man raid where gamers get to battle Kil’jaeden.
The rest of the patch has less noticeable changes. All the details can be found here.
Read: Blizzard Unleashes Fury Of The Sunwell.
E-Stars Seoul is set to take place July 24-27, 2008. Stars from the western European side of the world will be competing against the east Asian countries for both glory and prizes.
Candidates will be selected “50% from on-line poll result, 20% from achievements in 2007, 30% from the evaluation of the Continental Cup Committee,” according to E-Stars.
Voting will be open at http://www.estarsseoul.org.
Note: Yoan “ToD” Merlo, Warcraft III Human player, was not invited due to last year’s last minute drop involving a conflict with tournament organizers.
Don’t break out the champagne yet; Blizzard hasn’t officially stamped the 1.22 patch for standard play.
However, the development teams has been hard at work pulling data together and gathering input from pro players. The players have been selected to test the patch before its public release, soon publicly accessible for testing by anyone who wants to give it a whack.
Players have been itching to see the newest balance changes and maps for ladder.Test servers will be up with the patch, as well as forums for reporting bugs and feedback.
Karune’s progress log can be found here
Yes, that’s the correct headline.
As a result of the Activision/Vivendi merger, Blizzard (soon to be Activision-Blizzard) will be working on the Guitar Hero III expansion pack, helping bring the game to internet cafes in Korea and China.
The PC bang culture that birthed the professional StarCraft scene is going to get a dose of rhythm game action.
CEO Bobby Kotick also opened the door for a Guitar Hero MMO, something that could go over very well in Asian markets. Typically, Asian MMOs are free, but items, outfits, and other gear is bought on a microtransaction level–exactly the kind of thing you’d see a virtual rockstar doing.
Source: Shacknews
The GSI comes to a close soon, with only two players remaining. Their paths to this match were long and hard-fought against other invitees. Proxy builds, cheese plays, and guerilla drops all played their role in bringing us to this final moment.
Catch up on the VoDs, player bios, and schedule at the GSI website!
Flash’s path:
Flash > Savior, AnyTime, Mind in group play
Jaedong, AnyTime in elimination stage
Flash is on fire now, playing with unparalleled poise. He rose out of his group 3-0, then pushed out two favorites for event. His play against AnyTime in the semi-finals match on Blue Storm was incredible in both games. He managed to spot proxy gateways and adapted to AnyTime’s strategies each game. Though he took a loss on Katrina, a quick game on Baekmagoji tallied one more point in his favor. At a critical juncture in the match, Flash subtly moved a barracks and landed it to trap AnyTime’s units, changing their pathing into Flash’s favor. Unable to quickly finish the game on the second Blue Storm game, AnyTime bowed out after an all-in attack. Continued…
