Starcraft II Dev Tracker

Players, fans and commentators from around the world are converging on Eastern Europe for WCS Spring, live from Kiev, with competition kicking off this Friday. Here’s what you need to know!

Broadcast Times

Season 1 is approaching its end, which means Season 2 is just around the corner! In Season 2, we are introducing several new maps and map features (Rich Vespene Geysers, Inhibitor Zone Generators, and Reduced Mineral Fields.) Due to the experimental nature of these new map features, we will be introducing three new maps instead of four to the 1v1 map pool in the upcoming season. This should help players more easily get acquainted with all the new items coming in next season.

Once the new season commences on May 21, PDT, Port Aleksander LE, Automaton LE, and Year Zero LE will be removed from the 1v1 ladder. Furthermore, Ulzaan, Black Site 2E, and Last Impact will also be removed from the Team ladder. In their place, we’re adding the following new maps to the 1v1 ladder, as well as a new selection of Team maps.

...

With the BlizzCon 2019 announcement now out in the world, we wanted to give a few more details about the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) Global Finals!  

BlizzCon Opening Week

Opening Week, as usual, will see the Top 8 point-earners from both the WCS Circuit and WCS Korea fight it out to make the overall WCS Top 8. We will share more regarding the epic finale of WCS 2019 soon, but wanted to let fans know that this year StarCraft II’s Opening Week will not take place at Blizzard Arena. This year, Opening Week will be hosted somewhere quite different. Keep an eye on ...

Get ready for the most epic family reunion on the planet! BlizzCon® is returning to the Anaheim Convention Center on November 1 and 2, and you’re invited to join us for a weekend filled with games, esports, cosplay, and the latest news on everything Blizzard—all in celebration of the best community of playmates, teammates, and guildmates in the known universe.

Tickets to this year’s show go on sale May 4 at 10 a.m. PDT and May 8 at 7 p.m. PDT through AXS—check out the ...

BUG FIXES

User Interface

• Updated description for certain items on the Collection to properly display.

BUG FIXES

Campaign

• Fixed an issue where a mission on Legacy of the Void Campaign or Nova Covert Ops Mission Packs could not be properly saved when the previous mission was saved and loaded.

Co-op Missions

• The Dark Pylon Recall now properly works with Vorazun’s units, as well as allied units.

Versus

• Fixed an issue where a certain location could be blocked off by only two Pylons on New Repugnancy LE.

User Interface

• Fixed an issue where a previously selected homescreen background could briefly appear before loading the new homescreen background.

GENERAL

• Swann: Machined Bundle is going to be available as a part of Twitch Prime offer starting April 11. Stay tuned for more details.
  • Swann Co-op Commander
  • Swann Announcer
  • “Live Now” Terran Banner
  • “Live Now” Spray and Emoticon Pack
• A new Mr. Sheng Announcer is now available.
• 5 new Feats of Strength are added with loading screen race banner rewards for completing all Campaign and Mission Pack achievements.
  • Give Me Liberty: Complete all the Liberty Campaign achievements.
  • Swarming the Castle: Complete all the S...

The second Circuit event of the 2019 StarCraft II World Championship Series will take place at the Kiev Cybersport Arena, Ukraine, from May 17 to 19, and we are pleased to announce that registration for players and casters have begun, and ticket sales are now live!

Ticket Sales

Although the venue is only open to tournament participants on Friday May 17, you can visit WCS Spring as a spectator on Saturday and Sunday May 18-19. Both days will start at 14:00 local time (GMT +3) and entry is free. However, as we expect high attendance, you have the option of buying a Priority Pass which will help you to avoid long queues even if the venue is packed. The in-house commentary will be in Russian, but we will be loaning radios with English commentary for our English-speaking guests. Priority Pass tickets can be purchased on ...

The 2019 WCS Challenger Season 1 Open Qualifiers are almost here, and we are now taking applications for Community Casters looking to cover the event! Think you’ve got what it takes? Read on for details, including how to apply for a spot.

How To Apply

Send your application to [email protected] by April 10th. Ensure that the subject line reads “Community Caster WCS “, and that the following information is included:

• Full name
• Discord handle
• Email address
• Broadcast language
• Broadcast channel
• Summary of your casting experience

Other Requirements

• Casters must broadcast the Open Qualifiers exclusively on Twitch.
• Casters must ...

Long have we waited. After seven qualifiers and six group stages combined for the Americas and Europe—with a cheeky IEM Katowice in between—we are about to embark upon the 2019 WCS Winter Finals. Six players from each region will be flying to California to compete live and in-person at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles this weekend in a king-of-the-hill-style bracket, where they will play for precious WCS points and their share of a USD $60,000 prize pool (USD $120,000 total across the Americas and Europe).

Schedule

The WCS Winter Finals will take place on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7, kicking off at 8 a.m. PDT/5 p.m. CEST each day. On day one, we will play out the WCS Winter: Americas, and on day two we’ll have WCS Winter: Europe.

The Top Six

The Americas (Saturday, April 6 - ...

We’re releasing a balance update for Versus that affects Forge and Cybernetics Core upgrade times, and Nydus Worms. The following changes are now live, including bug fixes.

VERSUS BALANCE

• The Testing tab is now disabled.

Protoss

• Forge/Cybernetics Core
  • Level 1 upgrade times increased by 15 seconds.
  • Level 2 upgrade times increased by 18 seconds.
  • Level 3 upgrade times increased by 22 seconds.

Zerg

• Nydus Worm
  • Nydus Worms now have 3 armor, down from 5, while under construction.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue where the Nexus could gain additional energy from the effects of Chronoboost.
• Mineral values are now consistent on all bases in Port Aleksander LE.
• Updated the tooltip for Tim...

Now that the excitement of IEM Katowice and WESG are behind us, it’s time to dive into the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) Winter Round of 8.

The Top 8

The World Championship Series (WCS) Challenger tournament is a crucial piece of the puzzle for aspiring and professional StarCraft II players alike. In addition to seeking the title of regional champion in the European and North American events, players can win prize money and those all-important WCS points, which count toward qualifying for the WCS Global Finals.

Here are all the details for Season 1 of the 2019 WCS Challenger tournament. 16 players in North America and another 16 in Europe will qualify for this season of WCS Challenger.

In each region:

• Four will qualify from their standings in the WCS Circuit after the WCS Winter Round of 8
• Four players will qualify from their rank in the Season 1 Ladder Race
• Eight players will qualify from the online open qualifiers

Requirements for Open Qualifiers

To compete in WCS Challenger Europe or North America Season 1, you must have achieved at least Master Leag...

For the first time ever in StarCraft II we’re teaming up with Twitch Prime to bring you some special loot to enhance your experience, including announcer and co-op commander Commander packs as well as all-new console skins, portraits, race banners, sprays, emoticons, and more!

We’re kicking things off with a tribute to the masterful zerg strategist Abathur. Starting today, Twitch ...

IEM Katowice is just around the corner! We have brackets, broadcast times, and...a surprise! You will have the chance to earn in-game loot simply by tuning in to Twitch for the first major tournament of the StarCraft II World Championship Series for 2019. $400,000 will be on the line for players, but you can earn these items simply by watching! Remember, the IEM Katowice War Chest is still available, which means you have the chance to earn War Chest XP and Twitch drops at the same time! Here’s everything you need to know about SC2 at IEM Katowice, including how to ensure you’ll earn your Twitch drops.

Brackets

IEM Katowice ...

GENERAL

• Abathur: Evolved Bundle is going to be available as a part of Twitch Prime offer starting later this month. Stay tuned for more details.
  • Abathur Co-op Commander
  • Abathur Announcer
  • “Live Now” portrait pack
  • “Live Now” portrait for Abathur
  • “Live Now” portrait for Swann
  • “Live Now” portrait for Vorazun
  • “Live Now” Zerg Banner
  • Evolved Zerg Console Skin
• A new Lowko Announcer is now available.
• A set of 8 comic portraits have been added for players who own War Chest: Katowice 2019 for at least one race.

BUG FIXES

General

• Queens can now properly spawn a Creep Tumor on ramps in certain Heart of the Swarm campaign missions, and Co-op Missions.

Co-op Missions

• Commander
  • General
    • Fixed an issue where incorrect portrait could ...

Simon "Lowko" Heijnen, a tremendously passionate contributor to the StarCraft community, is not only an amazingly consistent video producer, a charismatic streamer and an enthusiastic caster; he’s also a remarkably upbeat, chill and humble guy you could just be friends with and share StarCraft tips (and cheesy jokes). Lowko often participates in major events and you can always be sure that he’s having fun, either it’s broadcasting from the Blizzard booth at Gamescom, or casting for HomeStory Cup. Reflecting his winning personality, his voice pack is full of energy and positivity, passion for all things StarCraft and genuine Dutch charm.

We are very happy to welcome Lowko to our family of community announcers and would like to present samples of what you can expect to hear:

While IEM Katowice, ...

After six qualification events and ladder races in the Americas and Europe, the top 32 players in each region have emerged for the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) Winter event. These players will be fighting for their share of a USD $60,000 prize pool per region—for more information about WCS Winter, check out ...

When we last checked in with DeepMind, Oriol Vinyals stepped on to the BlizzCon 2018 stage to share the exciting progress their AI had made in StarCraft II. The AI, or agent, was able to perform basic macro focused strategies as well as defend against cheesy tactics like cannon rushes.

It’s only been a few months since BlizzCon but DeepMind is ready to share more information on their research. The StarCraft games have emerged as a "grand challenge" for the AI community as they're the perfect environment for benchmarking progress against problems such as planning, dealing with uncertainty and spatial reasoning.

On January 24, at 10:00 AM Pa...