The ultra competitive world of professional eSports took another step forward today with the joint announcement between MLG, IEG and KeSPA of the MvP Invitational.
Featuring 48 of the best Starcraft II players in the world, the MvP tournament should be spectacular.
Like some kind of awesome superhero team-up, gaming hardware giant Razer, pro gamer Chiren Boumaaza aka Athene, and DC Entertainment have banded together and raised just over one million dollars for the ShareCraft Save the Children Challenge.
Razer and Athene powered most of the efforts, with Razer sponsoring Athene's livestreaming and prizes. Meanwhile, DC Entertainment, famous for handling most of DC Comics's animated features, promised to match 10% of the donations made, up to one million, which has been reached. There's still one more day of the challenge left, so if you're just hearing about it now, you have a little more time to get in on this awesome effort by the gaming community.
In light of yesterdays' news that BlizzCon 2012 would not be taking place, Blizzard did drop one golden drop of hope: the world famous BlizzCon eSports scene would not suffer as a result. To prove this, Blizzard jointly announced with their sad BlizzCon news that they would be hosting the 2012 Battle.net World Championship Event later this year in Asia. With a large prize pool and the high-quality shindigs Blizzard is known for hosting, this could be an important stepping stone in the eSports industry.
Just yesterday, TeamLiquid sat down with Ilja Rotelli, Global Director of Community & eSports at Blizzard, where they got to discussing some of the big plans Blizzard had with their 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Of particular interest was the fact that Blizzard doesn't want the tournament to revolve around an immense prize pool; instead, they want to focus on delivering a high quality competition that players will want to participate in for prestige and recognition. This doesn't mean, of course, that Blizzard is taking a step back in its cash rewards, but it does indicate a shift of focus toward creating a more serious industry.
Ilja Rotelli also had some choice words for eSports competitors Riot Games and Valve, both of which have placed a large amount of prize money into their tournaments. When asked if Blizzard's eSports philosophy differed from Riot or Valve, he noted that their approach to eSports relies on what he calls "stunts," where he notes that they are "trying to achieve . . . a lot of media attention while asserting yourself in the industry." Meanwhile, Ilja argues that Blizzard is taking a more grassroots approach to building eSports as an industry, and he's hoping to not tarnish that vision by making the entire focus on big cash prizes.
It's a great read and Ilja Rotelli is very honest in the interview, so head over to TeamLiquid and take a read!
We still have more than a month to wait for BlizzCon 2011 to open its doors, but players attending in person or from the comfort of their own home will soon get the chance to purchase their swag. Blizzard will be hosting BlizzCon Store pre-sales on the following dates:
If you're a fan of the music from Blizzard's games, you may want to check out the new Music Section on the official Blizzard site. You can browse through a variety of albums from the Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo universes and listen to samples from all of the songs. If you'd like permanent copies, you can purchase the albums and individual tracks through iTunes. Every album costs $9.99, while songs cost $0.99 each.
So which album is your favorite? Do you enjoy listening to music from a game when you're not playing it, or do you hear it enough while in-game?
Can you believe it's already been a year since Blizzard released StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty? The game launched on July 27, 2010 and sold sold over 1.5 million copies within the first 48 hours, making it the fastest-selling strategy game of all time.
In the birthday announcement, Blizzard looks back at the past year, including eSport victories and the impressive additions of the mod community. But what's next for StarCraft II? Blizzard gives some hints:
"Today we have a Blizzard DoTA playtest. Tomorrow we are going to play the first part of the Heart of the Swarm campaign (complete with cutscenes!). We continue to work on expanding multiplayer and improving Battle.Net. We can’t wait for BlizzCon this year: not only will we get to meet with players from all over the world and make some exciting announcements, but we’ll also get a chance to watch some of StarCraft II’s best players go head to head live in both the Global Battle.net Invitational and the GSL Finals."
If you'd like to keep track of the top StarCraft II players, be sure to check out our SC2 Ranks site.
We still have three months to wait until BlizzCon 2011 kicks off, but Blizzard is already getting players prepared for the convention by launching a new BlizzCon community site. In the weeks leading up to the show, the site will be the place to keep tabs on panel schedules, activities, tournament updates and more.
As you might expect, the BlizzCon site is a bit sparse at the moment. The most active thing you can do is join in on the discussion on the new BlizzCon forums while you wait for more content.
BlizzCon will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA from Oct. 21-22. Tickets are sold out, but you can still purchase a virtual ticket to watch all the festivities from the comfort of your couch or computer chair.
As part of Blizzard's 20th anniversary celebration, founders Mike Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York on March 7. Pearce and Morhaime decided to take the opportunity to play some StarCraft II, with Pearce earning a narrow victory.
To keep the festivities going, the Blizzard founders then projected a seven-story-high video featuring cinematics from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty on the NASDAQ tower for a full hour.
Keep an eye on Blizzard's 20th anniversary site throughout the year for videos, interviews, photos and more. Also, don't forget to enter their anniversary video contest by April 19 for a chance to win an expenses-paid trip to BlizzCon.
Blizzard just updated its 20th anniversary site with a video that takes a candid look at the history of the company. The mini-documentary clocks in at 48 minutes long and is certainly worth watching for any Blizzard fan.
Check out the video to see how Allen Adham, Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce met at UCLA and formed Silicon and Synapse, which ultimately became the Blizzard Entertainment that we all know today. The video contains commentary from a number of Blizzard employees and follows the company's rise to become a leader in online gaming.
Blizzard just announced that BlizzCon will return to the Anaheim Convention Center from Oct. 21-22! This will be the sixth BlizzCon convention, so clear your calendar now if you'd like to attend or watch live coverage of the event. As always, BlizzCon will include a mix of discussion panels, tournaments, hands-on gameplay, contests and much more.
Details regarding ticket information should be released in the coming months. Tickets to BlizzCon 2010 cost $150 each and sold out in minutes on June 2 and 5 last year.
