ECG Gaming Does Starcraft 2 Livestreamed  | read this item

Kaiba has been streaming live gameplay for a couple years now and has recently moved from streaming World of Warcraft towards streaming Starcraft 2.

He streams about 4 nights a week, typically as Terran, and does everything from 1v1, to 4v4, and FFAs.  He rolls with the ECG clan and loves to interact with the viewer community.

http://www.justin.tv/kaiba12

He will be streaming tomorrow Oct 13th @ 5PM EST!

GomTV GSL News: First Preliminary Round Complete for Season 2  | read this item

The first day of the gomtv gsl season 2 qualifiers are complete. Now we know the first 16 players that are going to be taking part in the broadcasted part of GomTV’s Starcraft 2 GSL Tournament. A couple of names, particularly IdrA, have made it in among the non-Koreans. However, at the same time, some more names didn’t quite make the cut into the Starcraft 2 Tournament.

Among those that got knocked out this time around include GomTV’s english commentator Artosis (who did make the cut last year). In addition to him, a couple other names that were hopefuls coming in also got eliminated. Luffy and Moon, that latter of whom made the transistion from WC3 to SC2.

Just a reminder that this is the first set of players to be qualified for the RO64 matches that will start on October 18th. There are still 3 more days of qualifiers before we’ll get our complete bracket going into the live broadcasts.

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Starcrafting 16-Player Tournament on Sunday October 10th  | read this item

This Sunday, we’ll be getting in some major Starcraft 2 Tournament action.  A 16-player Diamond level tournament is planned for this Sunday evening.  The spots will be filling up fast.  So, if you’re playing at the Diamond level and want to get in on some live streamed action, be sure to signup ASAP.  There are only 16 slots available and they’re first come, first serve.  Sign up on the forums.

If you aren’t able to participate in the tournament, you can watch it live on the Starcrafting Live Stream.  The tournament starts at 7pm EDT (4pm PDT).

For those that are wondering, Saturday Night Starcrafting will be returning next Saturday with Psylence going full throttle at the helm.  Expect the signups to open up for next weekend’s tournament series sometime in the next few days.

oGs Has Acquired Nada  | read this item

He is a legend of Brood War and now he’s making the move to Starcraft 2 progaming official.  Nada has signed a contract with Korean team oGs.  As his first event as oGsNada, he’ll be taking part in GomTV GSL Season 2.  No doubt that this is huge for the GSL as Nada is now one of the biggest names now participating in the Starcraft 2 Tournament.  Unfortunately, one of the bigger storylines of the upcoming tournament has failed to develop as Boxer seems oddly absent from any GSL news.  Which means no Nada vs Boxer.

Officially speaking, Nada is retired from the Brood War pro circuit.  At least thats the word from KeSPA.  Now, he is spending his time prepping for the GSL Prelims with his new teammates.  While not living in the oGs/TeamLiquid house, he will be spending a lot of time there practicing for his matches.  It seems the house is even more full of famous names to the worldwide Starcraft 2 Community.

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Blizzard Project Director Hints At 2012 Release For Heart of the Swarm  | read this item

There has been a lot of speculation about when the date in question might occur.  Heart of the Swarm, the second part of the Starcraft 2 Trilogy, still has no real confirmation on anything resembling a release window, as per Blizzard’s ‘It’ll be released when its done’ strategy for release dates.  Normally, Blizzard employees are very careful when speaking about release projections or plan that involve a release window.  However, one Blizzard rep let a juicy tidbit slip out.

When speaking that GDC Online out in Austin, Texas, Battle.net Project Director Greg Canessa spoke about the future plans of the all-encompassing service.  When responding to question, he hinted at the current release plans for Hear of the Swarm stating “a main area of focus we’re going to be seeing on the Starcraft 2 side over the next 18 months between now and Heart of the Swarm.”

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ESL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament Live at New York ComicCon  | read this item

Lots of ProGaming News today after a bit of a post-GSL lull, but we’re getting back into full swing this month.  If you guys are looking for some quick Starcraft 2 Tournament action right now, there is one ready and waiting.  The Intel Extreme Masters event for the American Championship is going on right now.  The tournament consists of 8 players that have already survived a stage event and will be playing over the next couple of hours.

The event itself is being streamed live.  If you’re interested in the tournament, since its a uncommon chance to see some HuK Progaming play, you can check it out right now.  ESL is providing a free live stream for anyone that wants to watch it live.  As a bonus, its co-commentated by day9, himself.  Enjoy the stream.

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MLG News: Dallas Passes For Starcraft 2 Go On Sale Today  | read this item

In the off chance that you don’t find yourself in the DC area next weekend, you still have a chance to get in on some pro-level Starcraft 2 play next month.  The passes for the MLG Dallas event went on sale today for participants in the Starcraft 2 Tournament.  The passes themselves run $60 USD and admit a single player to participate in the events at the Dallas competition.

If you happen to be in the Dallas area that weekend you can get in on the action as a spectator.  There are plenty of events planned just for spectators as well as the chance to check out all the gaming live.  So, if you happen to end up in Texas November 5th through 7th, be sure to check out this event if you can.

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GomTV GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament Season 2 Preliminaries Begin Tomorrow  | read this item

Over the course of September, we had a look at what the best of the world can bring to Starcraft 2.  Epic games, awesome comebacks, and incredible dominations were all the for us all to enjoy.  From the preliminaries to the grand finals, millions around the world tuned into the biggest Starcraft 2 Tournament to be held.  Well, beginning tomorrow it gets even bigger with the beginning of GomTV GSL Season 2.

The participant list has become increasing more epic and competitive.  Old-school Starcraft 1 champions are transitioning into Starcraft 2 to have a chance at the huge grand prize.  We’ll get to see fan favorites from Season 1 coming back, including IdrA, TheLittleOne, HopeTorture, and the grand champion himself, Fruit Dealer.  In addition, we’ll see many names from Starcraft’s past glories including, Nada, July, Moon, and old-school pro legend Boxer.

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Blizzard Developer Blog Takes A Look At Balancing  | read this item

When it comes to competitive gaming on any level, it seems that there are always imbalances in one way or another.  Well, Blizzard Lead Developer Dustin Browder is still concerned about how Starcraft 2 Zerg players are faring in the Ladder.  This should come as a sigh of relief to many Zerg players that felt the changes brought in Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 didn’t do quite enough to bring them up to the level of the Terran and Protoss.

Browder’s concern deals with the very early rushes that still plague the Zerg.  In particular, the Reaper Rush still shows a great deal of ability of knocking out a Zerg player before they have a shot at getting setup.  Well, it looks like in the next patch we may see a severe nerfing for Reaper rushes.

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Starcraft 2 Zerg Strategy - Baneling Guide  | read this item

Everyone loves explosions.  This is especially true when its your opponents that is exploding.  While Starcraft 2 Zerg lack the certain overkill flair of a Tactical Nuke, they have their own impressive explosions in the form of Zerg Banelings.  These little mutated Zerglings ram head first into their target and in the blink of an eye, their target is suddenly missing a huge amount of health.  Granted, the Baneling doesn’t survive the fun, but its still a ton of fun to watch.

Papp has given us several awesome guides on utilizing Zerg units to their full potential.  His Baneling guide is no different.  He goes through and explains how to best utilize a Baneling group and goes over the advanced tactics involved in using them with other units.  Everything from a Mass Baneling steam-roller, to the Overlord Bomber, its all here.  Enjoy this awesome guide from Papp.  Also remember to check out our awesome Guide Forums for even more great Starcraft 2 Strategies.

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Blizzard Makes Some Changes to the 1v1 Map Pool  | read this item

In the world of competitive gaming, the term “different, but equal” may never be true.  This is also true in the case of the maps that Blizzard has created for the 1v1 map pool.  Some maps favor one race’s style while another map favors another race.  Sometimes the differences are even bigger than others.  This, of course, prompts Blizzard to make changes in the hopes of creating a more balanced playing field for any matchup it sets up for the Starcraft 2 ladders.

Some of the changes they’re implementing are replacing two maps in the Starcraft 2 1v1 ladder map pool.  Desert Oasis which notoriously favored Zerg play.  As well as Kulas Ravine which did the complete opposite for Zerg players.  These two maps are being replaced by Jungle Basin and Shakuras Plateau.  This will hopefully smooth out some of the challenges that appear simply because of map selection.

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Starcraft Protoss Build Strategy - Korean 4-Gate All-In  | read this item

If you keep tabs on the international Starcraft 2 Tournaments such as the GSL Tournament, then you know that different styles of gameplay emerge in different sort of ways in different regions.  On top of that, Korea is known as the holy ground of Starcraft gameplay.  Most of the top progamers in the world are Korea and their media is in love with them.  Tournaments, TV shows, even TV channels are devoted to Starcraft.  Well, that’s what makes their strategies so interesting.

This version of the more standard 4-gate rush is even more risky and requires even more commitment.  However, it does still maintain a certain level of recoverability in that you aren’t forced to surrender in a failed attempt as with many other all-in strategies.  However, it is still a risky play, but let’s take a look at the build.

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Blizzard Bans 5000 Starcraft 2 Accounts for Cheating  | read this item

When it comes to Account Administration, Blizzard does things in bulk.  This is certainly reflected when they announced that 5000 Starcraft 2 accounts were banned for using cheats and hacks.  The announcement came down about three weeks after they sent out a warning concerning the use of hacks and cheats.  Pretty much everyone got the warning about incoming bans in plenty of time to stop.  It seems that at least 5000 players didn’t heed the message.

This action comes after weeks of player complaints concerning the state of cheating within Starcraft 2.  The Battlenet forums usually have a post or two a day concerning a player that is aggravated about playing against a cheater or a hacker.  Now, it seems, there are 5000 fewer players to worry about.  This shouldn’t effect the vast majority of the player base as there are over three million Starcraft 2 players worldwide already.  Still good news from Blizzard concerning this hot topic.

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MLG News: Official Washington DC Player List Released  | read this item

Now, that we’re in a lull between GSL seasons, its the perfect time to catch up on whats going on in other competitions around the world.  Today, we’re going to be looking at some info for the next big MLG Starcraft 2 Event.  We’re just a couple weeks out from MLG’s Washington DC Championship competition.  Some big and familiar names are set on the list, especially for those that have been following Starcraft 2 Tournaments thus far.

A couple of the names stand out, of course.  LiquidHuk (that is HuK in TeamLiquid form) and Kiwikaki were the top two finishers in the Raleigh competition earlier this year.  In addition to those two, Idra is going to be coming all the way from Korea to participate and is looking to prove his stuff again after getting knocked out early in GSL Season 1.  Now, let’s take a look at the list.

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Blizzard Releases BlizzCon 2010 Event Schedule  | read this item

Well, we’re just a few short weeks away from Blizzard’s biggest event of the year.  The Blizzard Entertainment BlizzCon 2010 begins October 22nd and they’ve made the schedule of panels and events available for you all to peruse.  There are a total of five panels dedicated to all things Starcraft 2.  Everything from story to art to gameplay is covered over the course of the weekend.  In addition, there’s also the BlizzCon Starcraft 2 Invitational tournament.

If you’re attending BlizzCon in person, we’ll give you a bit of a low down on what to expect from the panels.  If you’re not so fortunate and have to rely on the DirecTV live stream, we’ll let you know which channel all the Starcraft 2 action is.  Even if you are stuck with the live stream, the production values have risen considerably from last year as each area of the convention has their own dedicated video stream.  So, there’s never a moment where you don’t get to watch what you want live.

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Blizzard Implements New Battle.net RealID Privacy Options  | read this item

The way that players identify themselves in Starcraft 2 has changed a bit from the beta phases of the game. A lot of the changes were prompted by the advent of Battlenet 2.0, Blizzard’s one-stop social stop for all things Blizzard. The system is integrated in all aspect of Blizzard gaming. From World of Warcraft to Starcraft 2 to eventually Diablo.

One of the bigger changes has come with the partnership between Facebook and Blizzard that has given us the RealID system integrated into the lastest BattleNet system. The identification system that has become available has allowed players to find each other across all Blizzard games. The system, however, didn’t allow for much privacy. There was no way to become invisible to the system or to other players. On top of that, you basically had to be a part of Facebook at that point.

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Starcraft Zerg Strategy - Zerg Anti-Stalker Guide  | read this item

When it comes to Protoss opponents, the Stalker can be quite the handful to deal with.  The unit is armored, shoots fair-far, and even has the ability to Blink forward.  This can be quite the challenge to deal with, especially for Starcraft 2 Zerg players.  Stalkers do quite well against most any unit type.  What they can’t deal with head-to-head, they’ll just kite till their enemy is dead.

Well, from our guide forums, Papp has come up with a guide to help deal with Stalker well with two of a Zerg player’s main types of units.  First, he explains how to use Zerglings to your advantage by using higher battle strategies.  Then, he gets into how to deal with Stalkers with Hydralisks.  Also, how to use both at the same time for the best results.  Quite the excellent guide to check out.

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EuroCup 512-player Starcraft 2 Tournament October 9th  | read this item

Normally, when we see Starcraft 2 tournaments posted, they’re usually restricted to the North American Battlenet servers. This is especially true for tournaments of this scope. However, this one is special. This upcoming Starcraft 2 Tournament is for the Europeans.

This is the Zowie Gear EuroCup. A 512-player tournament for European players. Starting next saturday at 5pm CET, this is a single-elimination BO1/Bo3 split tournament. In addition, there are some prizes. Second and Third place are getting hooked up with some Mousepads while first place gets a Headset, a mousepad, and a gaming contract with Playzone.

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GomTV GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament Grand Championship Final Results  | read this item

*Spoiler Warning: Results are revealed in this story*

Its been a long month getting here. We’re finally going to take a look at the GomTV GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament Finals for Season 1. The original pool of players numbered in the thousands. Among them are the best Starcraft 2 players in the world. There is, of course, a good reason for the incredible level of competition.

The prize pool for this tournament is the largest of any Starcraft 2 Tournament in the world. The total prize pool is $170,000 for the top players in the tournament. Both of these players have won $27,500 for making it this far. The winner of the tournament will recieve $85,000.

For the next couple weeks there won’t be much GSL Tournament news as we still have a couple weeks till season 2’s preliminaries start.  You can expect to see the same awesome coverage you’ve seen these past couple weeks along with coverage of all the biggest and best pro-gaming tournaments from around the world.

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Starcraft Zerg Strategy - Zerg Vs Zerg  | read this item

Following his look at taking out Terran air units, one of our forum go’ers set out to make another guide to help out Zerg players.  Papp’s last guide has helped new Zerg players take out Terran players with even greater ease.  So a huge thanks to Papp for giving us another great look at utilizing Starcraft 2 Zerg forces. Now, Papp takes on other Zerg players.  Nothing is imbalanced in a mirror match, but there are still counters to use and tactics to employ.  He takes a look at how best to deal with all the threats that the Zerg bring to the table.

Papp takes us through the various stages of a standard Zerg build and identifies the threats you’ll face as a Zerg player yourself.  Anything from Zerglings to Mutalisks, Papp has you covered.  He sets you up to get the counters in place so that you don’t lose in a mirror match.

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Starcraft Terran Strategy - 1/1/1 Opener Build   | read this item

A problem that many players run into when deploying their Starcraft 2 build is running into a hard counter. You may be pushing out Marines and Marauders when you suddenly run into a sea of Psionic Storms. This Terran build is meant to counter that pigeon-holing.

This build makes it so you have access to nearly every unit available in the early game. The exception being the third tier units such as Terran Thors and Battlecruisers. Within the opener, you’ll have a Barracks, a Factory, and a Starport.

A few thing to note about this build. The versatility does come at a cost. You lose a bit a defense versus early rushes. You’ll be spending more resources establishing the buildings and less on an early army. This makes scouting key. Identify early rushes and move away from this build if necessary.

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GomTV GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO4 Results Day 2  | read this item

*Spoiler Warning: Results will be revealed in this story*

Following up some pretty epic matches between NEXLiveForever and a Fruit Dealer, we’re going to be looking at the games between oGsEnsnare and HopeTorture. This is the last day of the semi-final rounds for the first season of GomTV’s GSL Starcraft 2 tournament.

Just a reminder that there will be no GSL games tomorrow, but we’ll be bringing you a recap of the complete GSL bracket for this season. The finals will be played Saturday and we’ll be bringing you the recap that morning following the live matchup.

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Starcraft Zerg Strategy - 6-pool All-in Rush  | read this item

This is probably one of the cheesiest Starcraft 2 builds that the SC2 Zerg are capable of.  It is also one of the riskiest.  You either win or lose as it takes every bit of resource from your economy and places it in the attack.  If you lose, it is extreme difficult to comeback.  The Starcraft 2 Zerg 6 pool build requires a few things to go right in order to have a shot at winning.

First, there is no scouting with this build, so it becomes most effective in a 2-player map.  Your Zerg Overlord will not clear the space between bases in time to scout and you need all your drones gathering minerals non-stop till the rush attack.  In a 4+ player map, you will need to rely on a bit of luck as each time your send your rush against the wrong starting point means that it is more and more likely the forces you’ll face will defeat you.

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GomTV GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO4 Day 1  | read this item

*Spoiler Warning: Results will be revealed in this story*

Today marks the first day of the semi-finals of the Starcraft 2 GSL tournament. Yesterday, the number of remaining participants in this GomTV GSL competition widdled down eight to four.

Now that we’re into the RO4 matches, the Starcraft 2 tournament format transition from a “Best of 3″ set to a “Best of 5″ set. Meaning, players must now win 3 games to move on to the finals instead of just 2. This gives players more time to adapt to their opponents strategy as well as making cheese strats a definite possibility as losing an all-in manuver wouldn’t result in falling into a must win situation.

The Prize Pool for this round of GomTV’s GSL Starcraft 2 tournament is also significantly higher than the RO8 prizes. By even making it this far, each player has earned approximately $8600. By winning their matches today and tomorrow, they win $25,700 guaranteed. They also have a shot at winning the $85,000 grand prize.

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Starcraft Zerg Strategy - Fast Roaches Versus Terran  | read this item

This build has developed into a standard opening build versus Starcraft 2 Terran players.  The Fast Roach build takes advantage of the Roach armor as a counter to an early Marine buildup.  The build proves effective against most early Terran strategies with only a couple exceptions.

An early bio rush or an early push to Starport tech is an effective counter for this build.  You should always be sure to scout and to identify these potential threats.  You can identify an early bio push by scouting and seeing proxy barracks or potentially from multiple racks in their base with no tech lab or with multiple reactors.  You can identify a push to Starport if you scout a racks and factory without addons.

If either of those builds show up during scouting, you may want to opt for a different build.  If neither build is apparent then continue pushing into fast Zerg Roaches with this build.

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GomTV GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO8 Part 2  | read this item

Earlier today, we brought you the latest results from the first half of today’s matches.  Now, we’re going to look at the final matches of the GomTV GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament RO8.  We’ll be going over the fights between sSKS and HopeTorture.  Following that, the report for the match between oGsEnsnare and HongUnPrime.  Serious epic matches as the prize pool continues to grow.

All the players involve continue to show off the extremely high level of play that they’re famous for.  However, only one person walks away with first prize.  Continue to keep an eye here as we keep you up to date on the matches all the way into the finals this saturday.  You’ll get complete coverage all the way till the $85,000 grand prize is awarded.

*Spoiler Warning: Match Results are revealed in this story*

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Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1.1 Goes Live Tomorrow And Fixes Some Bugs  | read this item

Earlier last week, Blizzard deployed Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1.  The patch results in quite a few balance issues being address as well and adding some minor functionality across the board.  Improvements were seen in the editor, the replays, the interface, and even the addition of a stopwatch to help keep time.  All of these were pushed out to make Starcraft 2 a more enjoyable experience for all.

However, despite all the good intentions, bugs always seem to fall through the cracks.  The biggest of which was the Ultralisk building cleave bug.  The bug caused a large amount of negative backlash over the Starcraft 2 patch and Blizzard set up to take care of those issues as quickly as possible.  The results of their efforts can been seen in Starcraft 2 patch 1.1.1, a bug fix patch that takes care of some glaring issues as well as taking care of a couple older gameplay issues, including mineral boosting.

The news came down via the South-East Asia Battlenet blog, the first region to see the patch as it was deployed early this morning.  The North American server should see it deployed tomorrow morning during some brief downtime.

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GomTV GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO8 Results Part 1  | read this item

We’re moving into the last of the rounds in this season of GomTV’s GSL tournament. Today we look at the round of 8 matches in this Starcraft 2 Tournament. The matches were played early this morning and we’re bringing you a recap of the fights.

Some hard hits and failed strategies. Players are even harder pressed to not give up as the cash prize pool keeps increase. Moving into the thousands of dollars for winning these matches. Even more reason to say “Never Give Up”.

*Spoiler Warning: Results will be revealed in this story*

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Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm not getting BlizzCon 2010 showing  | read this item

Every year Blizzard tries to show off everything that they have cooking in development at their annual convention.  This year however, one of the biggest titles Blizzard has brewing isn’t going to see much of BlizzCon 2010.  As part of an interview with PC Gamer, the lead designer of Starcraft II, Chris Sigaty, confirmed that Heart of the Swarm would only see lore panel coverage.  Even then, it will mostly cover the transition from Wings of Liberty to Heart of the Swarm.

Normally, BlizzCon is a showcase of everything Blizzard wants to show off.  As such, this indicates that Heart of the Swarm doesn’t have much ready to show as of yet.  Since this is Blizzard once-a-year showcase, you can expect most of what Heart of the Swarm has to offer to be revealed via Press Releases and community posts.

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GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO16 Results Day 2 Part 2  | read this item

Earlier we brought you the results for the first two matchs at today’s GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament matches. Some excellent play from all players involved and the second half doesn’t disappoint. As the final matches of the RO16 set are played, we see some nice stratgies and counters. The final 8 are decided by the time you read the story, and a great final 8 it is.

Look for the final 8 coverage over the next couple days leading into the final rounds of the GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament. The RO8 matches will be played tomorrow with the RO4 matches being played on wednesday and thursday. Expect full reports of the results on all those days. Enjoy our coverage of the GSL Tournament.

*Spoiler Warning: This story reveals the winners of today’s GomTV GSL matches*

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GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO16 Results Day 2 Part 1  | read this item

Earlier today, GomTV presented us with more tournament action. Now, we look at the second day of RO16 competition. Following some upsets in RO32, the tournament is setup with only Korean players remaining in the matches. Some matches that are featured are oGsHyperdub who defeated TLO in the previous round. In addition, the second of only two remaining Zerg players competes for his chance to move forward.

There are some impressive defenses and some matches to prove to be quite different in terms of skill. There are some impressive games again today as the average skill of the participants continues to increase as the Starcraft 2 tournament continues through the rounds.

*Spoiler Warning: This story reveals the winners of today’s GomTV GSL matches*

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Blizzard Lead Producer talks about Starcraft 2 Patch 1.2  | read this item

Everyone knows that there are going to be more and more patches.  Things will need to be tweaked or things will need to be added.  Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 landed last tuesday for the North America servers and the community is already abuzz about what might come in Patch 1.2.  We here are Starcrafting are going to make sure you have the latest info about the upcoming Starcraft 2 Patch 1.2 as more information is revealed.

One of the first real tidbits of information came down from Starcraft 2’s Lead Producer, Chris Sigaty.  He talked about how the changes with Patch 1.1 affected the game and what they’re looking at going forward.  He also gives us a look at what sort of patch it is going to be.   Along with some details on what it is going to include.

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Check out our Starcraft 2 Strategy Guide Forum  | read this item

We all sometimes need a little help.  There may be some hard to beat strategy that we keep on losing to in Starcraft 2.  Maybe we just need a little extra advice about how to take our game to the next level.  Or maybe you just want to think outside of the box and come up with something completely new that no one has ever seen.

Come and check out our Starcraft 2 Strategy Guide forum.  Ask for some help with any aspect of the game.  We have an extremely knowledgeable group of players that are eager to help.  Or maybe you’d like to contribute and get some recognition for being a great help to the Starcraft 2 Community.  You can even write up some guides and strategies of your own.

Check out our Strategy Guide forum today!

Starcraft Protoss Strategy - Countering Reaper Rush  | read this item

In Starcraft 2 Gameplay, each race has their own best rush tactic.  For the Terran, its the Reaper Rush.  This is an aggressive strategy that is designed to sacrifice your macro economy buildup in order to hit the harvesters of your opponent hard and fast.  This has been a very successful rush strategy in the past against Protoss, as your units a more expensive to build and your counters require a bit of teching.

Without proper defenses, the Terran Reapers will hit your harvester and achieve kills in one or two shots.  As a SC2 Protoss player, you’ll need to make sure you get the right units in place so that you don’t lose all of your Probes.  So, let’s take a look at what you need to do to take care of a Reaper Rush.

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Starcraft Terran Strategy - Beating Ultralisks  | read this item

The SC2 Zerg are the masters of creating the ultimate beast.  The Zerg Ultralisk is no exception.  It is the biggest, baddest melee unit that can be produce in Starcraft 2.  Its big, fast and can crush anything it gets close enough to hit.  The other races have learned not to try to fight this beast toe-to-toe.  Instead, they utilize their big guns to take it out from a distance.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the Starcraft 2 strategy countermeasures for when your SC2 Zerg opponent opts to bring in the Ultralisk.  Also, how you can avoid taking the devastating damage it can deal out against your units.  The key is making sure you can hit it without it getting close enough to hit you.  And you can do it with the right SC2 Terran units.

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HuK is joining Team Liquid for Upcoming GSL Starcraft 2 Tournaments  | read this item

The pro gaming community is always in a state of flux.  Players leaves, players join.  This is especially true with new games such as Starcraft 2.  Teams are always on the look out for new minds that can prove their stuff with the new games.  HuK in particular has proven his stuff.  A win in MLG’s Raleigh Starcraft 2 Tournament definitely put him on the radar if he wasn’t already there.  Its no surprise that he’s been picked up.

Team Liquid announced today that they have picked up HuK to represent them in Korea.  HuK is going to be set up in the Liquid-oGs house in Korea and is one of the few that they have sent out long term to compete.  You can look for him in the upcoming GomTV GSL Starcraft 2 Tournaments coming up in a few months.

Starcraft 2 Achievement Hunting: FFA Achievements  | read this item

Over the past week, Nghtmr9999 has been bringing us awesome guides on how to complete Starcraft 2 Achievements.  He’s brought us a guide to completing the Outmatched Achievements as we as a quick guide to getting the Zergling Rush Achievement.  The guides are easy to follow and will help anyone that’s at a loss and can’t stand not having an achievement.

This time around, Nghtmr9999 is giving us some solid advice on how to complete the FFA achievement set against the AI.  With this guide you’ll be able to complete 4 achievements at once and on top of that unlock a new portrait, Orlan.

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GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO16 Results Day 1 Part 2  | read this item

Earlier today we brought you the recap of the first two matches of the GSL RO16 Tournament.  Some excellent play from all involved.  Now, we’re going to take a look at the rest of the results for the day.  Again, some great play from everyone involved including excellent examples of both micro and macro based Starcraft 2 gameplay.

Remember, this news post will contain the full recap of each match as well as reveal the winner of each match.  If you plan on watching the VoDs and don’t wish to have the games spoiled, skip over this newspost for the time being.  We’ll be bringing you more RO16 with the results of day 2 on monday.

*Spoiler Warning: Match results will be revealed in this story*

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GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO16 Results Day 1 Part 1  | read this item

The first games of the next round of the GomTV GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament have just been played. And Starcrafting is bringing you the earliest results on the first of the RO16 matches being played live from Seoul, Korea. Congratulations to all the players that made it this far. Definitely a show of how high-level all of these players are.

For those that haven’t seen the matches and are planning to watch via VoDs or other means, you should definitely turn away now. This is a complete results writeup on how the tournament is progressing. Be sure to check in every event morning for the latest in results from the GomTV GSL Season 1 final rounds.

*Spoiler Warning: Match Results will be revealed in this story*

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Starcraft Protoss Strategy - Beating Colossus  | read this item

The giant robot monsters of the Starcraft 2 Protoss army.  The Protoss Colossus is a force to be reckoned with.  It is the ultimate in ground superiority.  If you show a largely ground based army, you will most likely see a Colossus down the line to counter your forces.  Added in with the Extended Thermal Lance ability, they can likely take you down without suffering many losses.

As a Protoss player, you can of course bring out your own Colossus, but there are much better ways of dealing with the threat.  Let’s take a look at some of these in our latest look into how to defeat units.

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Bugs in Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1: Zerg Ultralisks shouldn't do that  | read this item

As with any piece of software, some unintended changes slip through the testing process.  Some of these changes, such as the Zerg Ultralisk building cleave bug, are quite a glaring and game-altering bug.  The list that follows are a few bugs that have shown up in Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 and have been confirmed by Blizzard to be bugs.

Hopefully, Blizzard will be able to clear out as many these bugs as possible.  They haven’t confirmed when a fix patch will be deployed or if they’ll be waiting for the next major patch.  As for now, they’re here, but don’t get use to them.  Eventually, they’ll be gone.

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GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament Final 16  | read this item

Over the last week or so, the GSL tournament has been playing through its RO32 Games.  The Starcraft 2 Tournament has seen some incredible games and incredible upsets.  If you haven’t had a chance to check them out, you should definitely find a way to check them out.  Especially TLO’s first match.

Now that the RO32 of the Starcraft 2 Tournament is over,  the schedule for RO16 is in the process of being finalized.  The first sets of games are set to be played on Friday, September 24th starting at 6pm KST (5am EDT).  If you’re interested in checking them out, be sure to wake up early to catch the live tournament streaming SC2 matches.  Alternatively you can order the GomTV premium package and watch the videos via VODs (Video On-Demand).

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Battle.net Region-Lock Semi-lifted for SEA region  | read this item

Earlier this week, Blizzard announced a somewhat surprising change in the works for SEA (South East Asia) clients.  The ability to connect into the NA (North America) Battlenet servers at-will.  This means that anyone holding a SEA client will have access to either set of servers anytime they wish.  All of this will be included with the client patch 1.1 which is due Thursday for those regions.

The change seems to be specfic to the English SEA versions of Starcraft 2.  Its not clear whether other language versions in SEA will have the same options.  For now, this is the only Region-lock that has been lifted.  Although, it may be a sign that Blizzard may be rethinking their plans concerning how Battle.net is divided up.

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Starcraft 2 Achievement Hunting: Zergling Rush  | read this item

Earlier this week, Nghtmr9999 gave us a guide to completing the Starcraft 2 Outmatched Achievement.  It outlined exactly how to get a complete set of achievements with SC2.  Today, he’s looking at another achievement for us, the Zergling Rush.

In classic Starcraft, the Zergling Rush reached meme status as one of the most powerful rushes in the game.  Accompanied by a ‘kekekeke’, of course.  This was so popular that Blizzard’s development team included a homage to the strategy by giving us a Starcraft 2 Achievement called “Zergling Rush”.  Thanks to Nghtmr9999, we can now get it done with ease.

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Starcraft Terran Strategy - Beating Ghosts  | read this item

They are the elite of covert ops within the Confederacy.  The Starcraft 2 Ghost is a master of stealth and quick kills.  Ever since the original Starcraft, they’ve been a feared unit.  Able to cloak and move about freely.  If that wasn’t bad enough, they command the single most devastating attack in Starcraft 2.  The Tactical Nuke.

Sure, the nuke gives you quite a while to either kill the Ghost or move your units, but if you’re caught unprepared, you’ll be unable to stop a cloaked Ghost from laying waste to all of your building.  Now, let’s take a look at how you can defend against this silent killer.  To make sure the nuke never find their targets.

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Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 Now Live  | read this item

Early yesterday, Blizzard deployed the latest patch to the North America servers. Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 went live with a lot of balance changes. Most were discussed here the past few days, others were hadn’t heard the details on. Still all of them have been offered up by Blizzard in their official Patch 1.1 notes.

The major changes are primarily to balance, mostly to Terran units.  However, both Protoss and Zerg units have been adjusted as well.  As with any changes to Starcraft 2 Gameplay, the adjustments to high-level strategy will take a short while to adjust.

We’ll keep you informed about anymore changes to Starcraft 2 and Bnet as they become available.

From Blizzard:

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Starcraft Zerg Strategy - How to Beat Terran Air Units  | read this item

The switch to air units in the mid to late game can be a very powerful one.  This is especially true when the switch is built to counter.  Starcraft 2 Zerg air units have some excellent counters to their Terran counterparts.  Even more so when the units are properly utilized and micro’d.

Forum-goer Papp, wrote us a very detailed writeup about how to use your zerg units to counter terran air forces.  The strategies go into detail about how each unit is utilized.  Also, how each Starcraft 2 Terran air unit can be effectively countered.  A great writeup that can be a great help if you’re at a loss on how to deal with a Terran air force.

Check out the full guide on how to beat Starcraft 2 Terran Air Units

Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 Goes Live Today  | read this item

You may have noticed that the Battlenet servers are down today.  This is due to the newest patch for Starcraft 2 being released and put up on the live servers.  A little forewarning was given to us about the Starcraft 2 patch coming today.  So, its no surprise that we’re going without our awesome multiplayer action for a few hours.

The downtime is scheduled to run till around 2pm EDT (11am PDT).  See you guys on the far side of the downtime for some awesome new strats for the new Starcraft 2 balancing patch.  Be sure to check up on all the details on this SC2 patch.

Stylish Starcraft 2 T-Shirts Available  | read this item

Blizzard loves to create tie-in products for all of their games.  Most especially is their love affair with clothing.  Even going beyond that with shirts.  Now, the designers over at J!NX have come out with a full line of Starcraft 2 Shirts.  So, now you can support your favorite Starcraft 2 race.  Show your pride with a Terran, Protoss, Zerg, or SC2 logo shirt.

The design are very clear, and not very subtle.  If you want to show your race pride and your love for Starcraft 2, you’re going to be doing it in bold fashion.  The logos fill a large portion of the front of each shirt, with a small Blizzard logo in the back.  Just be sure to grab them up from J!NX whenever you want to plaster a logo design across your chest.

Starcraft Terran Strategy - Beating Banshees  | read this item

These units are a quick air-to-ground attack vehicle.  The Banshee are the Starcraft 2 Terran answer to all things that can’t fly.  In addition to being able to deal a lot of damage to anything on the ground, they are also capable of cloaking.  The researched Cloaking Field enables the Banshee to provide unbeatable harass against opponents that haven’t prepared for them.

The first time you’ll see a Banshee in a game is when they go after your mineral line for some early harass.  This may signal a shift to an Air build or may just be a means of providing harass to limit your army size against a ground force.  This is dependant on how many Starports the player produces.  In cases where the game continues for quite a while after Banshee harass, it is likely that the player will produce Battlecruisers from those same Starports.

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Starcraft Protoss Strategy - Beating Archons  | read this item

This Starcraft 2 unit is the ultimate in Protoss physical forms.  A being of pure energy that can shot psionic bolts from its hands.  The Archon is a heavy damage dealer that has the ability to damage both air and ground units.  While it can dish out a lot of damage, it is quite frail, especially when it loses its shields.

The Archon is created when two Templar units merge together.  This can be either Dark or High Templars.  Most likely, you’ll see these appear in the middle of combat when a High Templar expends all of its energy or when detector abilities negate a Dark Templar cloak.  Lacking abilities from either unit, its sole purpose is to dish out a lot of base damage.  So, what’s the fastest way to knock it?

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GSL News: Starcraft 2 Season 2 Registration Update  | read this item

For those of you that are interested, we have some updated dates for the GSL season 2 registration.  Last week, it was announced that the GomTV Starcraft 2 League would be entering a second season.  We also gave you an idea of when the important registration dates would occur.  Now, we have the confirmed dates set for the GSL registration and preliminaries.  We’ll bring you tournament dates as they’re available.

GSL: GomTV Starcraft League Season 2 dates:

Registration : Sept. 25th ~ Oct. 3rd
Offline Preliminaries : Oct. 9th ~ Oct. 10th

Are any of you planning to watch or tryout for GSL season 2?

Starcraft 2 Achievement Hunting: Outmatched  | read this item

Achievements are one of the more addictive aspects.  There always seems to be that one more task to complete.  That one last achievement to highlight in a sea of completes.  Well, we’re here to help you with all of your achievement hunting needs here at Starcrafting.

Nghtmr9999 brings you a short walkthrough on how to get your Outmatched achievements completed.  Covered in this achievement guide are how to handle defeating anywhere from 2 to 4 computer players of varying difficulty.  By following this guide you’ll get the entire achievement set completed.

Check out the complete outmatched achievement guide >

Starcraft 2 Diamond League Tournament 32-player Invitational Tonight  | read this item

The once huge 128-player bracket has now been reduced to 32 players invited to compete tonight.  This Starcraft 2 Diamond tournament is set for tonight at 7pm EST (GMT -5).  Be sure to tune in live on the Starcrafting live stream.  Hosted live by me, Roshinko.

The original 128-player bracket was formed as a way to determine that a higher-caliber of diamond player would get invited to compete in this invitational.  Now, you get to tune in live tonight as players compete to bragging rights around the Starcraft 2 community.

Check out all the tournament details

Starcraft Zerg Strategy - Beating Phoenixes   | read this item

This unit is the Protoss quick attack ship.  It moves in quick and hits light, but its biggest advantage is being able to run and shoot at the same time.  This can quickly pick off retreating units, or allow the Phoenix to retreat while still causing damage.

Of course, the Phoenix is only capable of shooting down aerial units.  So, ground forces are mostly immune to its attacks.  However, the Phoenix does have one more ability of use, the Graviton Beam.  This ability lifts ground forces off of the ground and places them in the attack area of anti-air units.  While this ability is channeling, the lifted unit is left unable to attack.  So, how does the zerg deal with these units?

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Saturday Night Starcrafting Results From September 18th  | read this item

Last night, Psylence gave us a great (if delayed) commentary on his weekly Starcraft 2 tournament series.  Along with his usual co-host ZomgTossRush.  Plenty of heavy action in all the games.  Be sure to tune in next week for yet another Saturday Night Starcrafting weekly Starcraft 2 Tournament.

Here’s a quick list of the top players from this week.

1st Place: RuFF

2nd Place: Complete

Runnerups:  Tairen and BigBadBeaver

Check out the full details and the full bracket here

Starcraft 2 SEA/ANZ Regional Invitiational Results  | read this item

Last week, a regional invitational was ran for the South-East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand areas.  Yesterday, the results of the international competition were posted on the Blizzard community blog. Congratulations to all the participants for being invited.

The compeition ran from September 10th till September 12th. It was organized into a 16-player double elimination bracket. The grand champion ended up being a player the placed in the lower bracket after 2 rounds of play. That just shows you that you should never give up.

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Saturday Night Starcrafting 64-player Tournament Tonight  | read this item

Psylence is at it again.  He’s bringing us yet another great saturday night tournament streamed live.  Each and every week, we’re presented better and better tournaments with some of the best players in the Starcraft 2 Community.  All this on an ever increasing scale.

This week, a 64-player tournament is brought to you live via his Starcraft 2 streaming channel.  Be sure to tune in live tonight at 5pm CST (6pm EST, 11pm GMT) for some of the best Starcraft 2 matches around.  Learn the tricks of all the top diamond players and even learn how to increase your own rating.

Find out all the awesome details >>

Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 is Coming This Week  | read this item

This balancing patch has been anticipated for a few weeks now, ever since Blizzard gave up a blog post about it.  Now, the waiting is over.  Blizzard updated their community blog with a news post stating that the new patch will be rolled out this tuesday a nominal Bnet downtime.

In the patch are several balance points for all three races.  A nerf to sight of dead units, taking Reaper rushes down a notch, lessing the impact of proxy gateways, adjust damage numbers for Siege Tanks and Battlecruisers, and a change to how Ultralisks will operate.  Following the downtime, you can start getting your new strategies ready and adjusted.

Downtime for the patch is scheduled on Tuesday September 21st from 8am till 2pm EST.

Starcraft Terran Strategy - Beating Mutalisks  | read this item

These are by far the most common of the Zerg aerial units.  When they are finally produced, Zerg Mutalisks are most likely to be massed over and over.  They move fast, hit air and ground, and are easy to produce.  En masse, they can spell trouble for most units.

The Terran do have a few tools that can hit Mutalisks.  The issue becomes that the Zerg players normally masses this unit and will take a bit of time to get them all down.  That means more losses for you while you take them out.  However, Terran have probably the most perfect weapon when it comes to dealing with them.

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Saturday Night Starcrafting: 64-player Starcraft 2 Tournament September 18  | read this item

Presented By http://www.starcrafting.com
64 Person Tournament
US Servers

Semi Finals BO3
Finals BO5

WHEN

September 18th/2010
Check in 5:00pm CST via bnet (Psylence.773)
NOTE: If you do not check in you will be replaced!
Tournament start 5:30pm CST
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Starcraft Zerg Strategy - Beating Zealots  | read this item

These units are the most basic unit in the Starcraft 2 Protoss army.  They hit hard and are tougher than your average first tier unit.  The costs to bring them to the battlefield is slightly higher than other tier 1 units, but the power they bring shouldn’t be under estimated.

As a Zerg player, you’ll find that these units will annihilate your Zerglings in one-on-one combat.  Unless you mass your zerglings and are willing to take some losses, you’ll need to move beyond them fast to get to the units that will be more effective against your opponent in the early game.  There is, of course, the possibility of a classic zergling rush, but you’d need to pull a 6-pool rush on a smaller map to hope to get into the mineral line before Zealots start hitting the field.

Lets take a look at your best option in the early game:

Roaches are your best shot at zealots.  In a fast-roach build, you’ll be able to do some minor kiting, especially if you work towards the speed movement upgrade.  In the cases where your speed isn’t enough, the roaches are armored, so you’ll be able to take a bit more punishment while you focus down the Zealots.  While slow roaches can take zealots well enough, fast roaches are, well, faster.  That makes microing more difficult on your opponent and easier on you.

What is your favorite units to take on Zealots in the early game in Starcraft 2?

This 13-Year Old is Way Awesome at Starcraft 2  | read this item

If you don’t want spoilers of today’s competition or if you haven’t seen today’s matches of the GSL tournament, you may want to skip the rest of this new post.  Or, if you don’t care, continue reading.

The GSL tournament has moved into its 32-player bracket this week.  Still holding on with the competition is 13-year old Seong Ju Cho (MaruPrime).  Its amazing to see someone so young being so successful in the spotlight of arguably the biggest Starcraft 2 tournament in the world right now.  Given a tournament championship, MaruPrime might get quite the fan base growing in South Korea. Continue Reading

Kotick Hints at Using the Starcraft 2 Engine for Movies  | read this item

There is always a bit of buzz around the internet concerning films based on video game franchises.  A lot of times it devolves into nonsensical arguing with one side thinking Hollywood is too withdrawl from the mindset of gamers and the other being so faithful to their favorite games that anything produced tied to them would be nothing less than awesome.  Needless to say, films based on video games don’t have such a great track record in history.  Very few receive critical praise or any sort of real commercial success.

Bobby Kotick, of Activision-Blizzard fame, has speculated on a plan where development studios could possibly produce their own films based on their own franchises.  The speech comes from Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference in Newport Beach, CA.  Where Kotick outlined how it could be done and even that it would be quite popular with gamers all around.

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Death by Proxy: Is the Risk Worth the Reward?  | read this item

In lower-level play of the Blizzard ladder, the rush is king. Most Starcraft 2 games feature some type of highly agressive play. Sometimes it sending those first few units out before your opponent has the means to kill them. Sometimes its teching to the top for that one dominant unit at the expensive of a viable defense. And sometimes, its setting up a forward base deep on your opponents side of the map to serve as a striking point. This is the proxy.

There’s a great risk in committing so many resources so far away from the defenses of your main base in a Starcraft 2 Ladder game. For a short time, you may be tying up resources to build that barracks or that gateway. This leaves less resources from which to build an army. On the other hand, if you’re able to get an army ready that is able to beat the early frailty of your opponent’s defenses, you may fine their mineral line to be an easy target for you, crippling the very back bone of their build.

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More MLG Passes for SC2 in Washington DC Tonight  | read this item

If you missed the first round of pass sales, then you’re in luck.  Another batch of player passes will go on sale tonight at 7pm EST.  The passes are for the Starcraft 2 event at MLG Washington DC.  The Washington competition is the MLG National Championship event.  Hosting the best players from around the country.

MLG’s Washington D.C. competition runs from October 15th-17th.  So, if you’re in the nation’s capital that weekend, be sure to get your passes and participate.  You can expect the compeition to be a little heavier than most tournaments since this is the Nation Championship event for Major League Gaming.  As such, theres a hefty cash prize and even a nice title for those that earn it.

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GSL News: Final Matchups for RO32 Posted Along With Maps  | read this item

Late last night (or sometime during the afternoon in Korea) the final matchup schedule for the next round of GSL was posted.  Included in the list is the map pool that will be used in each match.  Each of the matchups will feature three set maps.  The third only necessary if both players win one game each forcing a third game to finish off the best of three competition.

The schedule posted is an updated list that was nearly finalized early this week.  The adjustments include having all 32 participants matched up.  Also, the TLO rescheduling is included.  He will be playing on Monday.  We’ll be keeping you up to date with the results day-by-day.

Here’s is the final matchup and map pools.

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GSL News: TLO has the Chicken Pox, Match rescheduled  | read this item

Its always bad when you get sick, its even worse when its during a huge tournament. GSL is reporting that TLO has come down with the Chicken Pox and won’t be able to play his game as scheduled. Not to worry though, we’re sure TLO will be back in fight fashion in no time. The only uncertainty is if he’ll be 100% for when he does play.

The match between Dario Wunsch (TheLittleOne) and Yoo Jong Kim (oGsHyperdub) was suppose to be played on Friday. However, the GSL crew has rescheduled his match for early next week. The schedule hasn’t been updated yet, but will be in short order. As soon as TLO is in better health. Chickenpox is highly contagious to anyone not already immune and the disease tends to have stronger symptoms the later in life its contracted. So, TLO will be out of the spotlight for a short bit while he recovers.

Starcraft Protoss Strategy - Beating Marauders  | read this item

There are no doubts that this unit hits hard. The Marauder is the Terran answer to all things armored. That means it will beat up Stalkers, Immortals, and Colossus pretty well. In addition to that, its Concussive Shells upgrade slows down non-massive targets by 50% and when massed will slow down the majority of their opponent’s army. This makes their targets much easier to micro against and even prevent a fleeing foe from getting away. However, it does have its disadvantages.

Marauders cannot attack aerial units. While they may be devastating to armored ground units, they lose their usefulness when their opponent transitions to an air build. You can use this to your advantage to take them out.

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GSL Enters RO32 Play Tomorrow  | read this item

The GomTV Starcrafting League has finished up its week of RO64 play and is moving on to the next round.  Being a South Korean tournament the majority of the players are natives of the country.  However, there are some international players still holding their own against some of the best players from the most hardcore Starcraft country in the world.

Particularly of note is IdRa, who is still going strong.  His match is first up and is being played September 15th at 6pm KST (+9 GMT).  That’s 5am EST if you’re watching live.

We’re still waiting on the final schedule to be set.  As of now there are only 24 players scheduled to play for the RO32 games.  We’ll keep you posted on how this progresses for the rest of the tournament.

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Cheating in Starcraft 2 - PSA from Blizzard  | read this item

We haven’t gotten a news post from Blizzard about some huge number of accounts being banned to show their efforts with combating cheating in Starcraft 2.  Seems that might change in the future as Blizzard post a short Public Service Announcement concerning the nature of what they consider cheating.  Specifically, they pointed the criteria they would be using going forward to identify exploiters and hackers.

In a blog posted just a few minutes ago, they gave us their definition of cheating in Starcraft 2.  They also let us know maybe a be less than subtly that bans and suspensions would be coming down the pipes very soon.  So, if you’ve fallen to the darkside of gameplay and don’t play fair, this is probably a good chance to repent and get rid of all those hacks.

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Starcraft Protoss Strategy - Beating Corruptors  | read this item

These units are the core of an advanced Zerg anti-air army.  Their acid causes a significant debuff making their targets take addition damage.  They’ll lay waste to Void Rays, Phoenixes, Carriers, and even Motherships if not handled.  Luckily, they do have a few disadvantages you can use in order to beat them.

The biggest disadvantage is that the Zerg Corruptor is only capable of dealing air-to-air damage.  This makes the unit particularly vulnerable to ground based units that are capable of dealing damage to air units.  Let’s take a look at what the Protoss can dish out to counter a group of Corruptors.

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Looking at the Protoss Starcraft 2 Tech Tree  | read this item

Nearly every unit in Starcraft 2 has a different set of requirements to utilize it effectively in combat.  Knowing your Protoss Tech Tree can help you get your best units on the field as soon as possible.  Today we’re going to take a look at the the requries for all the buildings and in the Protoss player’s arsenal.

The Nexus

Every race starts with a base.  In the Protoss case, it is the Nexus.  The first is always provided to the player along with a handful of Probes to start their harvesting process.    The Nexus serves at the core requirement of every building that can be built with the exception of an Assimilator and a Pylon.  From the Nexus, Probes and Motherships are produced and the Gateway and Forge buildings become unlocked.  In addition, the Nexus has the ability to “Chrono-boost” any production building, reducing its build/research time.

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Starcraft Zerg Strategy - Beating Vikings  | read this item

In a game that switches that switches often between air and ground, this unit is the ultimate in versatility.  It may lack the ability to control both air and ground at the same time, but in the hands of a good micro-er, this deficiency should be hardly noticed.  Its cheap and easy to control, which makes them a problem when you’re facing them en masse.

A lot of Zerg strategy revolves around the ground game.  With the exception of the Hydralisks, its hard to counter air of any sizable force until the later game.  Corrupters are excellent, but take a bit of teching to reach.  So, lets take a look at how you can deal with a huge group of Vikings coming at you quickly and in big numbers.

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Blizzard Open to Making a Starcraft Movie  | read this item

Even though the Warcraft movie is still in the story phase of production, Blizzard isn’t afraid of continuing to look at opportunities within Hollywood.  They have even made the point of saying that they would say yes to James Cameron (of Avatar, Terminator, and even Titanic fame) if he showed interest in producing a film adaptation of the Starcraft universe.  Following the highly successful sci-fi epic “Avatar”, it makes sense that Blizzard would show interest in leveraging some of that cinema love.

If you’re looking for a top end sci-fi director for your big project, then James Cameron is going to be one of the top names on that list.  In addition to making excellent films for over 25 years, he is currently has a few of the top grossing movies of all time.  Namely, Avatar and Titanic.

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Starcraft Terran Strategy - Beating Dark Templar  | read this item

If you’ve ever faced a Protoss player into the mid to late game, you may had a time where your harvesting SCVs are suddenly exploding.  Despite the urge to blame poor design standards at the command center, they may actually be falling victim to Dark Templar.  These units are the Protoss nearest comparable unit to the Ghost.  While lacking the ability to call a nuclear strike, they will do just as well in wrecking havoc with your economy.

The Dark Templar is a small 3rd tier melee unit deployed via Gateways (or Warpgates).  In addition to a devastating melee attack, they’re equipped with a permanent cloak.  In their non-upgraded form, they are capable of killing a harvester of any race in a single hit.  The downside to this high-end damage is lower health and shielding.  This makes the unit very fragile when their cloak is nullified. Continue Reading

Starcrafting Diamond League Final 32 Tournament This Sunday  | read this item

There were originally 128 players.  Over the past week, they’ve battled for their chance at the top spot.  Now, this sunday they’ll face off in a Starcraft 2 Tournament till only one is left standing.

The tournament is set to be broadcast live sunday night starting at 7pm EST.  Games will be played one at a time until we’re left with only our champion.  Be sure to check it out for some great tournament action with great commentary all around.  Find out who will be left after all the others have lost.

Be sure to check out the forums for all the details on this Starcraft 2 Event >

GSL Season Preliminary Registration Opens Next Week  | read this item

For those of you that have been catching the games live this past week or so, it looks like the GSL was a pretty good success so far. Enough so that registration for the next season of the GomTV Starcraft 2 League is set to start registration late next week. So, starting September 25, 2010 and until October 3, 2010 you can try to get your foot in the door over at GSL.

If you are interested in signing up, GomTV posted up some useful information in a news release earlier in the weekend. The registration is set to run from September 25th till October 3rd, with the preliminaries being played on October 9th and 10. For those of you that get in or want to keep an eye on the outcomes, the Starcraft 2 open season runs form October 18th till November 13th. Continue Reading

Blizzard Gives Us a List of the Top 200 Players in North America  | read this item

On thing that everyone is interested in when it comes to Starcraft 2 multiplayer is “who is the best?”.  Well, Blizzard was kind enough to give us the list of the top 200 players on the North America servers.  No details have been given about if they’re going to provide lists for the other regions, but this list is set to be updated regularly by Blizzard until they find a solid use for it.  All signs point to a rather high profile tournament featuring at least some of these top names.

Some names you might recognize as regulars in our tournaments.  So make sure you say hi and congratulate them on the awesome job that they do complete destroying their opponents. Continue Reading

Blizzard Announces their Blizzcon 2010 Contests  | read this item

Blizzard is rolling out one of their cornerstones of Blizzcon, the community contests.  This year, we have some rather nice prizes for the winners of the Music, Movie, and Fan Art contests.  In all, there are over $25,000 in prizes this year.  Quite the haul for any aspiring artist.  Let’s have a look at some of the prizes for the coming contests for Blizzcon 2010.

First the prize list for the Fan Art contest:

• First Place:  Wacom Cintiq 21UX and one BlizzCon Virtual Ticket to watch the event live online
• Second Place:  NVIDIA video card, one copy of Adobe Photoshop CS5, and one BlizzCon Virtual Ticket to watch the event live online
• Third Place:  One copy of Adobe Photoshop CS5 and one BlizzCon Virtual Ticket to watch the event live online

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Blizzard Takes a Look Forward To Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1  | read this item

There are certainly some big changes coming in short-term from Blizzard.  They recently went over some of the balance changes they are looking to implement into their latest Starcraft 2 Patch.  The main goal as always is to make the game more fair for all players and these changes are designed to do just that.  Now, lets take a look at whats coming up in Patch 1.1.

First, a change that will affect how players of all races deal with combat across ledges.  Blizzard is looking to implement a change in how vision is handled when a unit is destroyed.  Coming in the next Starcraft 2 Patch, unit will no longer provide vision a few seconds after they are destroyed.  Most notably, this will prevent players from having vision on an area when they have no units alive that would be able to provide it.  Such as, having vision on the high ground when all of your air units are destroyed.  This will effectively shorten the window that vision is provided to units on the low ground. Continue Reading

Starcraft 2 Custom Map Upload Space Increased  | read this item

Over the past few days, Blizzard has asked for feedback when it comes to the new Battle.net 2.0.  Among that feedback, mapmakers voiced concerns about the limits placed on storage space for their custom maps.  Feeling that the space alloted restricted their ability to create a wide variety of custom maps, the mapmakers let Blizzard know how they could help alleviate some of the pressure they felt having to choose between when ideas they wanted to put into published maps.

Based on feedback concerning the Custom Map system for Starcraft 2, Blizzard has increased the space available for each player on Battle.net.  This includes an increase to 10 custom map slots and 50 megabytes of online storage for each player.  Now, mapmaker will be able to include a wider variety of maps in their portfolio.

Blizzcon 2010 In-game Items For Starcraft 2  | read this item

Every year at Blizzcon, Blizzard include some sort of Murloc based bonus that players could redeem to get the very own muloc pet.  It all started out with Murky struting around with a little dance and a top-hat.  The image was reminiscent of the old Michigan J. Frog cartoons and even featured the same type of dance routine.  The World of Warcraft in-game pet was so well received, that Blizzard began to include a different murloc-based in-game item in the gift bags of everyone that attended Blizzcon.  This year is no different and it has moved beyond just World of Warcraft.

For those attending Blizzcon this year (and likely those purchasing the DirecTV live stream), will receive their Murloc bonuses.  The bonus code allows for a couple of different in-game perks for players.  First, the traditional non-combat pet for World of Warcraft.  This year, the murloc will be decked out in a Deathwing costume to celebrate the upcoming Cataclysm expansion pack for the MMO.  In addition to that, Starcraft 2 players are also getting some in-game love.

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Starcraft Zerg Strategy - Beating Marines  | read this item

They are the swarm of the Terran forces and one-third of one of the deadly “MMM ball”.  These are the marines, and boy are they nasty.  They hit everything no matter if its in the air, on the land, or even below the surface (assuming they had some sort of detector nearby).  They good at everything and the top players know it.  So, how do you take them out when you’re rolling out with the Zerg horde?  Well, there are a few options that we’re going to take a look at.

First, the roaches.  These are your version of their Marauder.  They’re simple, easy to build, armored, and ranged.  If you want to put a few extra resourced into the research they’ll even burrow for you.  However, their greatest advantage over the marine is their armor.  The carapace on a roach is thick enough to take quite a bit of punishment from the bullet storm coming their way.  They may not be invincible, but head-to-head, the roach will be able to take much more of a punishment.  Just remember that they do have a shorter range than the marine, so you may have to work a bit hard at microing. Continue Reading

Matchmaking and Ladder Improvements on Battle.net  | read this item

Since the launch of Starcraft 2, Blizzard has been hard at work improving the overall player experience when it comes to their game.  One such aspect is the Matchmaking and Ladder system that makes up the multiplayer experience.  Based on user feedback and their own internal testing, the programming team has made some improvements to how the system matches up players and teams based on their relative skill.  A few key points have been address to help make sure you don’t out-class or under-class your opponents to any great degree.

First, they addressed the matching of teams still in placement matches.  The overall matching process has been improved so that newly created teams are matched as evenly as possible during the placement matches.  An issue had been pointed out that during early placement, the skill gap was far too great and the gap wasn’t closing as quickly as was needed.  This has since been modified and should improve the matching of players, especially teams that would end up in Silver or Bronze leagues. Continue Reading

Free Name Change in Starcraft 2  | read this item

Blizzard has been fairly good about this type of change in the past.  Specifically, in an instance where a player is receiving a less than stellar gameplay experience.  This has been seen in the form of free server/faction transfers in World of Warcraft.  This time, they’re setting up to offer the same type of service into Starcraft 2.  It can probably be expected that the system will function in much the same way.

In their Starcraft 2 Community blog,  Blizzard announced that they are about to offer a one-time free name change to players.  This has come about with a plethora of customers ending up with character names they may not have intended on using.  Mostly due to the semi-confusing nature of the profile creation wizard.  Blizzard even went so far as to make note that players were becoming confused when entering their information and ended up with their own name being used as their character name.  Of course, this has prompted the coming services to Battle.net. Continue Reading

Starcraft 2 Tournament Tonight (64 player)  | read this item

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen quite an increase in activity with our series of Starcraft 2 tournaments.  The most major of these is Psylence’s Saturday Night Starcrafting series.  This began as a simple 16-player tournament to just have some fun with members of the Starcrafting community.  Since then, it has exploded.  Not only has the size of the bracket increased, the overall skill of the players has increase.  Now, Psylence is pulling in some of the top players currently running on the North American servers.

Every Saturday Night he broadcasts live on his streaming video channel.  Hundreds of fans and Starcraft 2 enthusiasts tune in every single week.  Be sure to check out his live feed tonight as he brings in 64 of North America’s top rated players in a 1-on-1 challenge to the top.

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Burning Tide - Blizzard Official Custom Map  | read this item

Blizzard recently announced the addition of a new custom map to their list of official maps.  The 3v3 map called Burning Tide is the first official Starcraft 2 custom map  from the game’s creators.  This is a change from the company’s other offerings to the multiplayer map scene which have featured traditional resource gathering and army warfare present since the original Starcraft.

The map itself is based heavily on one of the campaign missions from Wings of Liberty, called “The Devil’s Playground”.  Much like the campaign map, the player is matched in a resource war.  The goal of the map being less about domination with armed forces as the ability to run a solid economy.  This focus on macroing so far beyond its little brother “microing” brings a change of pace towards how the game is played. Continue Reading

Micro and Macro - Improving your Starcraft 2 Gameplay  | read this item

Ever heard the term “Micro” or “Macro” used in Starcraft 2 live tournaments, Youtube videos, or forums/websites, and had no idea what it is all about?  Well, Blizzard recently wrote a very useful, even strategic, article on the difference and importance of micro and macro Starcraft 2 gameplay approaches that are key to becoming successful in Starcraft 2 competitive gameplay.  I’ve quoted the entire article below and highly recommend everybody read through this, especially if you are unfamiliar with what exactly “micro” and “macro” mean.

Your ability to execute macro and micro within a match can be the difference between a crushing defeat and a glorious victory on the battlefields of the Koprulu sector.

Let’s take a look at the broader definition of macro:

*     Macro – Short for macromanagement.

*     Macromanagement – A strategy that focuses on the “big picture” and typically refers to the simultaneous supervision of structure production, mineral/gas/supply counts, and general unit position. Continue Reading

Tournament Sunday (32 player)  | read this item

Hosted by our own Tim: http://www.justin.tv/Starcrafting

This will be a 32-person single elimination tournament.  First round will be played on Saturday starting at 7pm EST.  Second round till the finals will be played on Sunday starting at 7pm EST.

UPDATE:  Saturday one has been cancelled, but this will occur on SUNDAY!

This is an open signup tournament that is broadcasted in live HD video while its being played.  If you have a fast computer and internet connection, you can watch the entire tournament happen live at http://justin.tv/Starcrafting

Signup here with your Blizz ID. (NAME.123)

Starcraft 2 Tournament Winner for 06/01/10 is Antimage !  | read this item

Our first tournament on Starcrafting.com was a fun success!  Here are some of the highlights, courtesy of Aross.

Game 1 Chease v goswser (Winner: Chease)
“Was interesting and fast at the run..quick death and still tech to banshee which was the win for the match”
http://starcrafting.com/replays/sc2r…php?key=LbP2aw

Game 2 Corinthos v Recent (Winner: Recent)
“Was matter of a warp in ftw .. toss had a advatage to warp in troops and almost didn’t make it due to not having zealots”
http://starcrafting.com/replays/sc2r…php?key=mBWloS

Game 3 evoke v iggnite (Winner: Evoke)
“Was a interesting battle as red held off a early rush with just a simple cannon and zealot on hold and with a hallucinations of a collisos army just won the battle”
http://starcrafting.com/replays/sc2r…php?key=YVNqG1

Game 4 Dukke v Wolf (Winner: Dukke)
“Was a battle of the micro managing but some had bigger troops but with not knoing held off and in the the void rays sent to the base pushed him Continue Reading

Starcraft 2 Tournament Tonight (06/01/10) @ 6pm CST  | read this item

When: Tuesday, June 1st @ 6:00pm CST (11:00pm GMT)
Where: Signup here and Watch it live @ http://www.justin.tv/starcrafting
What: 16 (or 32)-player single-round single-elimation tournament

Simply signup here with your bnet e-mail and your ingame name here.

The tournament is single-round elimination with the championship round being fought as best of 3.

Map pool is going to be decided by Tim.

There are no race or strat restrictions. Bug exploits are not tolerated and are grounds for immediate disqualification.

News / Strategy Writers Wanted  | read this item

We are in the middle of beefing up the website’s content with strategy guides for Starcraft 2.  If you are interested in helping, please see this forum thread!

Welcome to our new Starcraft 2 Community Site  | read this item

Welcome to the new Starcraft 2 community website!

This website is all about Starcraft 2, ranging from strategy discussions, to video sharing, to replay uploading and hosting.

Since we are really new please feel free to help by posting guides here!

Have a great Youtube video of SC2 you’d like to share? Add it to our Youtube SC2 Library here!

Need a quick and easy Starcraft 2 Replay upload/download system? Use this one!