Starcraft II Dev Tracker

I don’t know about you, but IEM so excited to watch the world’s best StarCraft II players compete for $400,000 in Katowice, Poland from February 24 to March 1.

(Terrible pun. Sorry.)

I’m referring, of course, to Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice 2020, the first major StarCraft II tournament of the year and the first global event of the new ESL Pro Tour, set to be an electrifying display of interstellar warfare. The competitors are as fearsome a group of generals, executors, and broodmothers as have ever been assembled. There’s Park "Dark" Ryung Woo, arguably the best Zerg player in South Korea, fresh off a victory in the 2019 WCS Global Finals. Also in attendance is Riccardo "Reynor" Romiti, the 17-year-old Italian Zerg prodigy who fell to Dark in those finals and will be looking for revenge here.

With so many top players, it’s inevitable that year-spanning storylines will gain new chapters—and new tale...

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GENERAL

• War Chest 5 Skin Bundles are now available for purchase.
  • Terran Tyrador Units Bundle
  • Zerg Cerberus Units Bundle
  • Protoss Ihan-rii Units Bundle
• All previous War Chest skin set bundles have been made available for purchase in the Featured section of Collection.
  • Terran Special Forces Units Bundle
  • Terran Mira’s Marauders Units Bundle
  • Terran Umojan Units Bundle
  • Terran Special Forces Structures Bundle
  • Zerg Leviathan Brood Units Bundle
  • Zerg Primal Units Bundle
  • Zerg Simulant Units Bundle
  • Zerg Simulant Structures Bundle
  • Protoss Forged Units Bundle
  • Protoss Purifier Units Bundle
  • Protoss Golden Age Units Bundle
  • Protoss Forged Structures Bundle
• War Chest 5 “Classic” unit skins have now been made available for purchase.
  • Classic Marine
  • Cl...

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The signs are unmistakable. The bassy hum of Acceleration Zone Generators… the crackle of deep-nebula electricity… the crunch of unexplored ice beneath Siege Tank treads… the fecund scent of a distant planet’s boiling primordial sea…

That’s right: It’s new map season in StarCraft II. The 14th TLnet Map Contest is underway, with 16 finalists across four categories awaiting your consideration. (Explore the full list here.) Public voting between February 24 and March 1 will determine an ultimate ranking. Though each of these mapmakers will receive $100 for reaching the top 16, additional prizing will be awarded to those whose creations finish in the top 5. Plus, as in previous years, the community’s favorite maps will have a chance to be sel...

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For almost 10 years, StarCraft II esports has stood as the epitome of competition and community in the esports world. We are excited to share with you the next era of StarCraft II esports: ESL and DreamHack, together with Blizzard, will establish a brand-new competitive circuit for the next three years of StarCraft II esports.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO STARCRAFT II ESPORTS?

After seven amazing years, and following Park “Dark” Ryung Woo’s incredible global finals victory at BlizzCon, the World Championship Series (WCS) is being retired. The WCS mobile app will be shut down on December 31, 2019, and the WCS site will be taken down in early 2020.

WCS has been a huge part of the StarCraft II community, and we know just how much it has meant to you all, as it has to us.

But rest assured—StarCraft II esports is evolving, respawning in a new form with ESL and DreamHack.

To replace WCS, we are excited to announce the new ESL Pr...

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GENERAL

• Added 4 new Console Skin rewards for registering a copy of Warcraft III: Reforged Spoils of War Edition. All of these Console Skins can be used for any race in multiplayer games.
  • Alliance
  • Horde
  • Scourge
  • Sentinels
• Added 8 Portraits based on the War Chest: BlizzCon 2019 comics for players who purchased any of the War Chest: BlizzCon 2019 bundles.
• Added a WCS 2019 Champion Portrait for players who purchased any of the War Chest: BlizzCon 2019 bundles.

CO-OP MISSIONS

General

• Brutal+
  • Lowered the difficulty of Brutal+1 through Brutal+5.
  • Brutal+1 through Brutal+4 is now capped at 3 mutators.
  • All Brutal+ missions are now much more heavily weighted towards having fewer mutators.

Commanders

• Mengsk
  ...

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Greetings! Now that BlizzCon is behind us and the post-show patch looms, we’d like to take one final opportunity to examine some tweaks we could make to our initial proposals. As we’ve received generally positive feedback on the direction of the changes we’ve proposed, we intend to make these tweaks as small as possible while we wait for games to play out that will showcase these changes—for instance, at HomeStoryCup XX next week. Below is the list of final changes we’d like to make:

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Lurker

• Lurkers affected by Blinding Cloud will now only fire to melee range.

Previously, Lurkers under Blinding Cloud could not target enemies outside of melee range, but their spines would still fire to maximum range if they attacked a unit at melee range. After this change, Lurkers will effectively only shoot out a single spine if an enemy is within melee range. As a result, we believe Ultralisks will become a more competitive option i...

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The Global Finals are here!

After a memorable year of competition, 16 competitors battled for a spot in the Round of 8 at BlizzCon. The top 8 players from the Circuit and the top 8 from the GSL met at the WCS Global Finals Opening Week in Seoul, Korea. Here’s a look at the players who made it to BlizzCon, and how they’re seeded into the bracket. 

BlizzCon Schedule

Broadcast Day	PDT	CEST	KST
Friday, November 1	12 p.m.	9 p.m.	4 a.m. (November 2)

Streams

As always, English-language coverage will be available on our ...

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Hi all! In the excitement before the culmination of this year’s WCS finals, we think it’s a good opportunity to revisit the proposals made earlier in the month with a fresh perspective. Special thanks to Wardi and his Balance Test Mod Invitational, which showcased these new changes in action. After further watching games and following feedback, below are a few changes we’d like to make to the testing queue:

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Adjustments to Old Changes:

• Reverted: Viking health increased from 135 to 150.

Based on feedback, we’d like to pull this change back for now due to concerns surrounding the Viking’s subsequent increased power in TvT as well as its increased strength in earlier parts of the game. If the Viking has any deficiencies, we believe they exist later on when end-game units and area-of-effect abilities start coming into play. Thus, if necessary, we’d like to instead tackle the Viking’s strength in late-game with alteratio...

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