MLG Winter Championship is Underway

If you've kept up with Major League Gaming during seasons past, you know that each event culminates in a weekend-long championship tournament . . . and the first season of 2013 is no exception. The 2013 MLG Winter Championship will put the pros through their paces as the first premier eSports event to feature StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm following the game's epic launch. Load into your Medivacs, ignite the afterburners, and get ready to be abducted to the Dallas Convention Center, as the tournament swarms Dallas, Texas from Friday, March 15, through Sunday, March 17.

If you haven't followed the story over the past five weeks, 56 pro StarCraft II players from around the world were invited to compete against each other during the Winter Season Showdowns. The 28 players who managed to earn seats at this weekend's event by toppling their Showdown opponents will be joined by Lee 'Life' Seung Hyun, Lee 'Leenock' Dong Nyoung, Choi 'Bomber' Ji Sung, and Lee 'Flash' Young Ho, who were invited based on their performances at MLG events in 2012. Over the course of the weekend, these 32 competitors will clamber for their share of the $75,000 prize pool and the glory that comes with being the first MLG Champion of the year.

The show kicks off at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, March 15 and the Winter Championship is sporting a stellar lineup of shoutcasters prepared to cover every single match across two live streams dedicated to StarCraft II. Tune in to the free high-definition broadcast on the official MLG website, or MLG's Twitch.tv stream, to join Sean 'Day[9]' Plott, Mike 'Husky' Lamond, Marcus 'djWHEAT' Graham, John 'TotalBiscuit' Bain, Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson, Nick 'Axslav' Ranish, Alex 'Axeltoss' Rodriguez, Anna Prosser Robinson, and thousands of live spectators for the coming tempest of professional Heart of the Swarm play. Whether you attend the tournament in Dallas, watch with friends at a local BarCraft, or enjoy it from the comfort of home, MLG's 2013 Winter Championship will certainly be an event for the ages.

New Wallpapers: Kerrigan and Reaper

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is here, and we’ve got new desktop wallpaper images for you. This week, we're featuring a new Kerrigan image and a new Reaper image in our StarCraft II Media section. You can check them out, download them in multiple resolutions, and turn your desktop into a StarCraft masterpiece. Enjoy!

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is live! You can purchase the game digitally on Battle.net today. 

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Patch Notes

Updated: March 13, 2013 at 9:00 a.m.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is Now Live!

Players who have purchased the Heart of the Swarm expansion now have access to all of its content.

• Continue the epic single-player campaign and story.
  • Command the Zerg Swarm in 20 brand-new missions across seven dramatic story arcs.
  • Conquer foes and evolve your brood in seven Evolution Mission skirmishes.
  • Explore dangerous new worlds with 14 additional tilesets.
  • Relive every exciting moment by unlocking the Master Archives. After completing the Heart of the Swarm campaign, you can use the Master Archives to jump directly into any mission or replay any cinematic.
• Experience the enhanced multiplayer game.
  • Seven new units have been added across the Terran, Protoss, and Zerg races.
  • Intriguing upgrades and abilities have been retrofitted to a number of existing Wings of Liberty units.
  • There are 26 new multiplayer maps of all sizes to wage war on!
• Experience a completely revamped physics system.
  • Death animations have been updated to take advantage of advanced physics effects.
  • After being killed, units can fall off cliff edges, slide down ramps, glide across ice, and more.
  • Many physics-triggered sounds have been paired with these new visual effects.
• Level up with the new Leveling System.
  • Completing Heart of the Swarm matches now grants XP.
  • Level up to unlock new skins, animations, race specific portraits, and decals.
• Control AI partners using the “AI Communication” system.
  • Players can now work closely and strategize with their AI partners.
  • You can issue specific commands to AI teammates, such as where to attack, defend, scout, and expand.

Heart of the Swarm includes all of the awesome new features recently added in Patch 2.0.4, including the updated user interface, clans and groups, new replay features, unranked play, global play, language selection, and much more!

If you have any issues or concerns, we’re here to help:

• Patch Troubleshooting
• Installation Troubleshooting
• Connection Troubleshooting
• Known Issues List

Good luck and have fun!

STARCRAFT II PATCH 2.0.6

BUG FIXES

• General

• Fixed a crash that could occasionally occur while playing the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
   

Previous Patch Notes:

• StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Patch 2.0.5
• StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Patch 2.0.4

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Now Live!

Kerrigan has returned, and her brood has begun creeping planet earth. In the wake of a massive midnight launch event spanning thousands of stores across five continents, the global zerg invasion has commenced. Players around the world are now streaming back into the Koprulu sector to start the epic new chapter in the saga of StarCraft II. Check out the press release for all the details, and prepare to join the Swarm.

Heart of the Swarm League Percentages

Those of you with a penchant for StarCraft II multiplayer may be interested to find that we'll be making a few changes to player distribution among the lower leagues in Heart of the Swarm. Throughout the Wings of Liberty era, you may have become familiar with league percentages that looked like this:

While it appears to display an equal distribution of skill level across the board, we found that the current system brought about scenarios in which Bronze encompassed a skill range that was too broad to be meaningful, while Gold was too narrow. As a result, the lowest ranked players in Bronze often tended to be far removed from the skill level of those at the top, or even the middle of the league. As such, we're going to alter the population percentages for Bronze, Silver, and Gold leagues in order to equalize these skill gaps, and help each feel more meaningful.

The following changes to the league percentage system will take effect immediately once Heart of the Swarm launches on March 12:

By trimming Bronze league down to 8%, we're hoping to establish it as a space for newer players who are still exploring the game's ins and outs. Following this change, Bronze players who begin to steadily improve should find it much easier to be promoted into Silver, which we feel should be an area for those who are starting to develop a foundation of understanding for the game. Additionally, we're expanding Gold to represent 32% of our players in order to satisfy our goals for making the league more inclusive, as well as help it better represent the range of skill that players expect it should. Finally, it is important to note that Platinum through Grand Master will be unaffected by these changes, and will retain their league percentages established in Wings of Liberty.

We're looking forward to watching how these league percentage changes will alter the landscape of ranked play, and hope they will make for a more satisfying ladder experience. Feel free to provide your thoughts in the comments section below, and don't forget to play through your placement matches on launch day! As always, good luck and have fun.

Barcraft: March Hot(S)ness

Are you interested in joining other eSports enthusiasts to watch a live stream of professional StarCraft II action? If you happen to be in Paris, France, head over to Meltdown any day of the week. Otherwise, check out the following list to see if there's an event being organized in your area.

We know more and more BarCrafts are happening, and we'd love to add them to this list. If you know of a StarCraft viewing event that isn't listed here, please email the following information to tourneyinfo@blizzard.com:
Event Date
Event Page (Reddit, Facebook, etc.)
Location (City, State, Country)
Venue Name
Stream
Time

An event page is required for us to list a BarCraft here. Multiple-day events will be listed as one BarCraft, see event pages for details. Event pages will always be more accurate than this list, so be sure to check them for updates and more details.

BarCrafts
Date	Venue	City	Country/State	Stream	Time
March 5	Meltdown	Paris	France	IEM World Championship	5:00 p.m. CET
March 9	Oliver Twist Pub	Zurich	Switzerland	GSL Code S Final	9:00 a.m. CET
March 9	Le Bourg	Lausanne	Switzerland	GSL Code S Final	10:00 a.m. CET
March 9	Varsity Bar	Perth	Australia	GSL Code S Final	4:00 p.m. AWST
March 9	Ichikawa Building	Tokyo	Japan	GSL Code S Final	5:00 p.m. JST
March 9	The Exchange Hotel	Melbourne	Australia	GSL Code S Final	6:00 p.m. AEST
March 9	The Paragon Hotel	Sydney	Australia	GSL Code S Final	6:00 p.m. AEST
March 9	Hotel Metropolitan	Adelaide	Australia	GSL Code S Final	6:30 p.m.  ACST
March 9	Outzone Gaming Centre	Tasmania	Australia	GSL Code S Final	7:00 p.m. AEST
March 9	Meltdown	Berlin	Germany	IEM World Championship	12:00 p.m. CET
March 9	Spazio Polaresco	Bergamo	Italy	IEM World Championship	2:00 p.m. CET
March 9	Interface	Berlin	Germany	IEM World Championship	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	Clutch	Arvada	Colorado	HotS Launch Event	3:00 p.m. MDT
March 11	Hospoda Selská	Brno	Czech Republic	HotS Launch Event	5:00 p.m. UTC
March 11	Assembly House	London	United Kingdom	HotS Launch Event	5:00 p.m. UTC
March 11	Meltdown	Berlin	Germany	HotS Launch Event	6:00 p.m. CET
March 11	Kyoto Lounge	Manchester	United Kingdom	HotS Launch Event	6:00 p.m. UTC
March 11	Overklocked Gaming and Computers	Edmonton, Alberta	Canada	HotS Launch Event	6:00 p.m. MDT
March 11	KV77	Prague	Czech Republic	HotS Launch Event	6:30 p.m. UTC
March 11	Café and Bar Zuhause	Aachen	Germany	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	Coellner Bar	Cologne	Germany	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	Kö - Cafe Könnteman	Leipzig	Germany	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	La Maison Hantée	Marseille	France	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	Bar Sehnsucht	Munich	Germany	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	Windsor Lounge Bar	Geneva	Switzerland	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	The Scotsman	Oslo	Norway	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	Restaurang Vasastan	Vasastan	Sweden	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	KSET	Zagreb	Croatia	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CET
March 11	Marca Sports Bar	Madrid	Spain	HotS Launch Event	7:30 p.m. CET
March 11	Fire Club	Bucharest	Romania	HotS Launch Event	7:30 p.m. EET
March 11	Dizzengof Center	Tel Aviv	Israel	HotS Launch Event	10:00 p.m. CET
March 12	Hooters	San Jose	Costa Rica	HotS Launch Event	7:00 p.m. CDT
March 15	Buffalo Wild Wings – ONOG	Lake Forest	California	MLG Winter Championship	2:00 p.m. PDT
March 16	Manhattan Proper – ONOG	New York	New York	MLG Winter Championship	2:00 p.m. EDT
March 16	Public Bar – ONOG	Tenleytown	Washington D.C.	MLG Winter Championship	2:00 p.m. EDT
March 16	Patrick’s Restaurant and Sports Bar	St. Louis	Missouri	MLG Winter Championship	7:00 p.m. CDT
March 17	Buffalo Wild Wings	Lake Forest	California	MLG Winter Championship	12:00 p.m. PDT
March 17	Randy Jones All American Sports Grill	San Diego	California	MLG Winter Championship	12:00 p.m. PDT
March 17	New Hope Cinema Grill – ONOG	New Hope	Minnesota	MLG Winter Championship	1:00 p.m. CDT
March 17	Buffalo Wild Wings	Lincoln	Nebraska	MLG Winter Championship	4:00 p.m.
March 17	B1 Bar Stream	Montreal	Canada	MLG Winter Championship	5:00 p.m. EDT
March 17	Loki Lounge	Toronto, Ontario	Canada	MLG Winter Championship	1:00 p.m. EDT
March 17	Trotters Bar	Colchester, Essex	United Kingdom	MLG Winter Championship	4:00 p.m. UTC
March 17	Pinokio Club	Szczecin	Poland	MLG Winter Championship	4:00 p.m. CET
March 17	Deez Bar	Derby	United Kingdom	MLG Winter Championship	5:00 p.m. UTC
March 17	HAL16	Utrecht	Netherlands	MLG Winter Championship	6:00 p.m. CET

You can also check iBarcraft and TeamLiquid for even more events. We want to make sure that everyone having an event is featured here, so don’t forget to encourage your local organizer to send their event information totourneyinfo@blizzard.com so they can appear on this list!