Local Starcrafting – PolarfluKe: Love Is In The Aiur & ESZ 2011

PolarfluKe: Love Is In The Aiur

The February PolarfluKe tournament is here, I proudly present to you the second PolarfluKe tournament of 2011, Love Is In The Aiur! The registrations are open and the date is set! This hotly anticipated tournament is set to run on the first weekend of February and well, as all those before it, it’s going to be great fun! As we know though, fun isn’t everything. The guys and girls from PolarfluKe are working hard at getting sponsorship organized for the event and will reveal further details soon. There will, once again, be a video stream and commentary for the entire weekend so even if you don’t fancy playing you can still just hang around, watch a few games and just have a good time.

Register For Polarfluke: Love Is In The Aiur – PolarfluKe

You can read more about and register for PolarfluKe: Love Is In The Aiur over at the PolarfluKe website, which I have linked for you below. Be there!

Pf: Love Is In The Aiur – PolarfluKe

Electronic Sports Zone 2011 Season

In some local news, the guys from over at Electronic Sports Zone have officially announced their 2011 Season. According to their website, the five main games hosted will be the following:

Call of Duty 4 (PC) [5v5]
Heroes of Newerth (PC) [5v5]
Quake Live (PC) [1v1]
Counter-Strike 1.6 (PC) [5v5]
StarCraft II (PC) [1v1]

Yes indeed, Starcraft II absolutely had to be there! They let us know that this list of games will definitely be being played, regardless of number of teams participating. Next, we have a list of games that could be played, depending on community interest.

Call of Duty: Black Ops (PC) [5v5]
FIFA 11 (PS3) [1v1]
Guitar Hero (Xbox360) [1v1]
Team Fortress 2 (PC) [6v6]

The 2011 ESZ season will consist of 3 legs of 7 weeks each. There will be a Premier Division and an Amateur division with a possibility of extra divisions. Divisions will consist of 8 teams, meaning each team will play 7 matches, that’s 1 match per week. The top half and bottom half of each division will have playoffs for the next leg.

In the more interesting part of this announcement, to me at least, ESZ has also said that players will be interviewed on ESZ-TV before the event and between their matches. Also, the entire event will be streamed on ESZ-TV and will be recorded and included in New Age Gaming Magazine’s DVDs. Lastly each leg of the league will be followed by a LAN event with only the top 4 in the premier division being invited to the LAN event and the prizes for some of these events will include trips to events such as ESWC, Dreamhack and Kode5. ESZ have said that currently Dreamhack Winter is confirmed and that they are still negotiating with sponsors for other international events.

Things are still being finalized but it does look like 2011 is definitely set to be a big year for eSports in South Africa! Bring it on! You can read all about the 2011 Season of ESZ in the links provided below, enjoy!

// League // ESZ 2011 Season // – ESZ

// ESZ News // Online Reg & Hosting // Registration & Bracket System – ESZ

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Happy Starcrafting – Power Overwhelming

Next Round Of J!NX Competition

The first round of the J!NX War Reporter Contest is over and the winners have been announced! With the first round down we have now been presented with the theme of our second round. So if you’ve got a clever idea for the new theme “Power Overwhelming” you had better get cracking on it! See the official post and entry page below!

J!NX War Reporter Contest: winners and new theme
J!NX War Reporter Contest: Entry Page

Merz takes Craft Cup #7

The Terran player Merz faced off against another Terran player Fuzer in the finals of this past Friday’s Craft Cup #7. Fuzer was apparently no match for Merz and lost with a score of 0 to 3.

Craft Cup Official Site

Naama Wins Viking Cup #12

The Terran player Naama took the Zerg lalush down in the finals of the 12th Viking Cup this past week with a comfortable 3 to 1. 

Terran dominates yet another edition of the Viking Cup

SjoW Takes HuK Down To Become New KOTH

After 3 weeks on top HuK has finally been dethroned by none other than the Terran SjoW. He managed to make it look easy with by racking up a score of 4 to 0 against the Protoss player. Below you can find a full interview with SjoW along with VOD’s of the games.

NVIDIA GosuGamers KOTH #3: Winner Interview
NVIDIA GosuGamers KOTH: HuK vs. SjoW – VODs

SK Gaming – Starcraft II Champions Trophy

SK Gaming is bringing us the ‘Champions Trophy’ in Starcraft II, a monthly tournament series with both cash and hardware prizes. The very first event is scheduled for Saturday, 2nd of October, 14:00 CET, and will feature 16 players chosen from the list of sign ups. With only 16 slots this is obviously a slightly more exclusive event but it sounds good nonetheless. You can read more about all of that below!

Starcraft II ‘Champions Trophy’ 2nd of October – SK Gaming

IEM American At ComicCon New York

In just under two weeks, on the 8th of October, the American Championships for IEM will take place at the ComicCon Expo in New York. ESL have released the official groups for the event and the top two from each group will move through to a single elimination bracket. See the groups and read more about the event below!

Group A
MurDeR
HuK
drewbie
suggy

Group B
qxc
CauthonLuck
KiWiKaKi
Fenix

Apparently there will also be a live stream by ESL TV all weekend!

SC2 Groups set for NY ComicCon IEM – TeamLiquid 

Recent (1.1) Replay Packs

StarCraft II CraftCup #7 Replaypack
StarCraft II Viking Cup #12 Replaypack
StarCraft II Go4SC2 Cup #40 Replaypack

Player And Clan News

As usual there is no shortage of drama in the international Starcraft II Community. There are transfers, rants and interviews. Read about everything that’s been happening right here!

Idra Talks About Patch 1.1

The Zerg Starcraft II Pro IdrA shared his feelings on the state of Starcraft II before and after Patch 1.1. He mentions how he thinks the patch won’t change enough in terms of balance and that Blizzard are overlooking too many obvious problems. See the full interview below.

IdrA Speaks On: Patch 1.1 – MyEG

 HuK To Liquid – HuK To Korea

The highly successful big name Protoss player HuK has left the clan of Millenium and moved to Liquid. Not just for any reason though, he is also, like so many others, making the move to Korea to pursue his Starcraft II Pro Gaming Carreer. There is obviously a lot to be learnt there for Starcraft II players or any gamers for that matter. That much is evident after seeing all the foreigners being knocked out of the GS2L. You can read an interview with HuK about the matter and see the full details below or over at TeamLiquid.

HuK to Liquid – TeamLiquid

Fruitseller Drama

Cool, (aka Fruiseller, aka Fruitdealer) has been causing quite a stir. He was caught totally out of character, totally uncool, recently when asked about Starcraft II’s first balance patch, 1.1. He said quite a few incredibly hateful things and seemed on the verge of a breakdown. Luckily, a couple of hours later he changed his tune and said that he was alright with the new changes and was definitely coping. You should all do yourselves the favour of reading the translated quotes in the link below. Enjoy!

 Fruitdealer not sold on new patch – SK Gaming

Fruitdealer happier with 1.1.0 Idra not so much – SK Gaming

More Transfers via MyM

There were, obviously, a lot more transfers and players recruited over the past week and MyM has us totally covered with their latest summary post. You can read more about all the slightly less ‘famous’ transfers below.  

A Couple More Transfers

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Happy Starcrafting: Chrono Tank Devil Matchmaking!

Chrono Triggercraft?

Apparently, now that using 2D sprites in Starcraft II is a reality, people are getting all sorts of creative with the Galaxy Editor. Just a day or two ago Mappiato showed of a Chrono Trigger concept that he did. Yes, this was entirely done in the Starcraft II Galaxy Editor. It really is impressive. See the makers quote below along with the video!

This is a really rough proof of concept for creating a 2d rpg in SC2. It currently only contains terrain and a few animated sprites. The sprites were done with text tags and the terrain was done with custom decals.

 

I can’t wait to see what else the amazing mappers out there manage to do with the editor!

PandaTank Wins Demolition Expedition

The Demolition Expedition is over and PandaTank managed to win it! Well done to him for making it all the way to the finals and taking miNt-Stripe out quite convincinly with a score of 3 to 0. A few fan favourites were knocked out in the earlier rounds. (Shase, Dreamer and ANGRYAFRICAN) The tournament ran pretty smoothly on it’s extremely tight, yet at the same time slack, schedule. The top 3 are walking away with some pretty impressive prizes and you can read them over at the Fugen Starcraft II site.

I’ve been told that we will be seeing more from these guys in the months to come. My only suggestions is that they try to involve the community a little more in their next tournament. Try get a bit of input. See what works, what doesn’t and what people would prefer. Oh, and most importantly, one last thing I think they should do differently. Don’t use Quakenet. An international IRC server for a local competition aimed at the local scene? Bad idea.

It’s over now though and I guess everyone is, regardless of any issues, pretty keen for another one. I might also upload a few of the games to YouTube, I am still considering if it’s worth it or not. Stay tuned here or over at the Fugen Starcraft II site for more on all of that.

Visit the Fugen Starcraft II site in the link below for replays, results and more:

Fugen Starcraft II

Blizzard Has A Look At Heaven’s Devils

Blizzard has decided to have a rather in-depth look at the latest Starcraft themed novel, Heaven’s Devils. In their post they tell us that all in all, StarCraft II: Heaven’s Devils is set to show us some defining moments in the stories of major characters in a world that was still free of the Zerg threat. Exciting! I have yet to read it myself and I have posted about Heaven’s Devils before but well, I just thought a few of you might not be totally hooked on the Starcraft lore just yet. You can find the official post below. Enjoy!

Galaxy Archives – StarCraft II: Heaven’s Devils

Matchmaking and Ladder Improvements

Yes, apparently they are coming! As part of Blizzard’s continuing efforts to ensure fair matches and an enjoyable ladder system, they have ‘identified’ and recently addressed three notable issues through hotfixes. I, for one, had no clue that this had happened, but it’s good to hear it nonetheless! It’s also pretty impressive that they can change these things on the fly. But here they are, below you can find the improvements and changes made for team matchmaking and placement for said teams. You can also see the official post here. Enjoy!

Improved Matchmaking for Teams
While the matchmaking system as a whole is looking very strong, one area we identified for improvement was matchmaking for arranged teams that were still in placement matches. We found these first few matches for arranged teams were giving them an unfair advantage against their opponents. Since so many new arranged teams were being created every day, this was resulting in a noticeable amount of imbalanced matches for team games. The corrections we’ve made should show an improvement for many team players, especially in the sub-Gold leagues.

Improved Placement for Teams
Another related issue we’ve received feedback on and experienced firsthand is the difficulty of placing in a high league while in an arranged team. We made two changes that should improve the experience. 1) The improved matchmaking mentioned above will help teams find opponents of similar skill sooner and, as a result, help to more quickly place teams in the league in which they belong. 2) We also found we were being too conservative in how teams were being placed in leagues and have made some adjustments to allow teams to be more easily placed in higher leagues. 3v3 random and arranged teams will likely notice this change the most.

Team Matchmaking Improvements
We found conditions where the matchmaking system was forcing certain teams and players to wait longer than needed for team matches. Those conditions have been addressed and the wait times should be reduced without affecting the quality of the matchmaking.

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PolarfluKe: Heaven’s Devils – Bracket Stage Videos

As promised I have the rest of the games from the PolarfluKe: Heaven’s Devils up on YouTube! You can now find all the games from the bracket stages all the way through to the finals below! There’s also a handy little picture to show which games I watched and uploaded. Enjoy! You can also find the group stage videos here.

I know, sloppy. I was lazy

PolarfluKe: Heaven’s Devils Bracket Games

Heaven’s Devils – zdrAg vs McNoob – Game 1

Heaven’s Devils – zdrAg vs McNoob – Game 2 – Part 1

Heaven’s Devils – zdrAg vs McNoob – Game 2 – Part 2

Heaven’s Devils – Kreeflewer vs Spinks – Game 1

Heaven’s Devils – Kreeflewer vs Spinks – Game 2 – Part 1

Heaven’s Devils – Kreeflewer vs Spinks – Game 2 – Part 2

Heaven’s Devils – ANGRYAFRICAN vs Numb – Game 1

Heaven’s Devils – ANGRYAFRICAN vs Numb – Game 2 – Part 1

Heaven’s Devils – ANGRYAFRICAN vs Numb – Game 2 – Part 2

Heaven’s Devils – Shase vs Spinks – Game 1

Heaven’s Devils – Shase vs Spinks – Game 2

Finals

Heaven’s Devils – Finals – Shase vs ANGRYAFRICAN – Game 1

Heaven’s Devils – Finals – Shase vs ANGRYAFRICAN – Game 2

Heaven’s Devils – Finals – Shase vs ANGRYAFRICAN – Game 4

Heaven’s Devils – Finals – Shase vs ANGRYAFRICAN – Game 5 – Part 2

Heaven’s Devils – Finals – Shase vs ANGRYAFRICAN – Game 5 – Part 1

Group Stage Videos

Heaven’s Devils – ANGRYAFRICAN Wins! – Group Stage Videos!

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Happy Starcrafting: Local Edition

There has been quite a lot going on in the local Starcraft II scene and I am going to try cover a bit of it right here! At the time of typing this post I am actually busy uploading a couple of the PolarfluKe: Heaven’s Devils videos to the Tales of Lumin YouTube channel and you should be able to see them shortly! So let’s see what’s been happening!

PolarfluKe: Heaven’s Devils! Yes, it’s here! We have completed the first play day and got the group stages out of the way. That leaves us with these 32 players that have fought their way into the brackets of this most anticipated of tournaments. The next round of games, as pictured above, will be starting at 3PM tomorrow! Be there!

A quick thanks to the guys over at PolarfluKe (fluKe, alcardu and bLuuMz) for running this all so smoothly! We all obviously better thank the guys from over at MyGaming.co.za and Electronic Sport Zone for their sponsorship of the tournament, thanks! 😀

I spoke to a few horses around the local watering hole and got a few predictions for the tournament, see them below.

Sillicur:
1. ANGRYAFRICANAA 2. Kreeflewer 3. Shase

mii:  
1.Shase 2. ANGRYAFRICAN 3. Kreeflewer

Demolisher:
1. Shase 2. Numb 3. Sillicur

Shase:
1. ANGRYAFRICAN 2. Kreeflewer 3. Dreamer

Skillbill:
1. Shase 2. ANGRYAFRICAN 3. Dreamer

Russ
1. Kreeflewer 2. Stripe 3. KreefLewer/Stripe

If you want your predictions up here, drop me a comment here. On a side note, there will be a couple of streams up tomorrow, namely Mitarn and Bravado Starcraft II. Between the two of those you will definitely get you fix of coverage. More on that tomorrow, though!

PolarfluKe: Factions should not be forgotten about! This league is still running and just as important as Heaven’s Devils. I think we have had a large chunk of the games finished already but something tells me we won’t have them all done by tomorrow. (The apparent last day of this week’s play) I guess time will tell. The idea  behind PolarfluKe: Factions is really great and I hope the interest stays and the guys keep playing and practicing to do well in it! 😀

Be sure to check over at PolarfluKe for more information on that.

A new local Starcraft II Site has popped up and they have a nice looking tournament lined up for us! Demolition Expedition is set to rock our worlds! I have yet to find out more about the website, those that run it and the tournament they have set up, but I will keep you all well-informed as I find out what I want to find out about those we currently know nothing about. If that makes sense!

What we know thus far is that the tournament has 32 slots and is set to have sponsored prizes up for grabs! We will apparently be hearing more about that in the coming days. Fugen’s Demolition Expedition is currently open for registration. All players who are accepted into the tournament will be contacted on the 9th of September to confirm their positions in the event. Check back here or over at their site for more!

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A Little Help From Your Friends

Hi Everyone!

I recently entered a competition over on the ASUSza Fanpage over on Facebook. This competition involves very little, actually. People submit photos of themselves and the one that accumulates the most ‘likes’ over the next few weeks wins!

Here’s where you guys come in!

Two easy steps!

1. ‘Like’ the ASUSza Page on Facebook.
2. ‘Like’ this photo of me.

It’s as simple as that and will take no longer than 1 minute to do.

You can un-like the ASUSza page afterwards and your ‘like’ will still count towards my photo but I don’t really see the need. The ASUS guys here in South Africa are really cool and obviously do a lot for our gaming scene, so show some support!

Thank you! Leave a comment here if you did like the photo and I’ll give everyone that does it a shout out on my show, Starcraft Pulse, once the competition is over. It might be difficult if  a lot of you do it but I will make a plan!

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bvd’Shase is The Fist!

The Fist has concluded and bvd’Shase walks away with the title! I want to say it was a long night of games but I would be lying if I did. It’s now just past 8pm and we are already done. All the players were on-time and quick to get into and play their games. It was a pleasure. The finals saw McNoob pitted against Shase and it seems like McNoob’s cheese was not strong enough to make a dent in Shase’s Protoss defences. Shase won with a convincing 3-0. You can find the full results and the replays of the finals below. I will try get the rest of the replays up as soon as the players send them! If any of the players are reading this send them to talesoflumin@gmail.com, now!

The Fist – Finals – bvd’Shase (P) vs McNoob (T) – Best of 5

 

Hall of Fame

 bvd’Shase 3-0 McNoob (Terran) – August 15 – (Replays) (Full Results)
The next challenge is coming soon.

Weekly fights take place in the arena with all the gangs pitting their best fighters against one another. Many locals spend what little money they have betting on their favorites to win, only to lose it all in a heartbeat to the ever unpredictable arena. The victors in the Fist Arena are hailed as champions by the locals, famous, till the day their title is stripped by the next challenger.

Above is the new, retail Hall of Fame. The old one and the dedicated Fist page is set to be up soon again. Thanks to all the players that participated and all the people that supported them! We had a lot of listeners on the stream tonight, thanks for that too! Stay tuned for more from The Fist and any other upcoming competitions.

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The Fist – A New Beginning

The Fist is back for a new beginning. This week we will be inviting 8 players to compete for the very first Fist in retail Starcraft II. The Fist is going to be slightly more exclusive from now on. There will be ample opportunity to get into The Fist in the future and everyone will be aware of it when it counts. Although, You should play like it always counts. That said, below is a list of this weeks invitees. We will be confirming with each and every one of them if they are up to the task of competing this weekend. If any cannot make it we will select new players to take their place. Sadly, there are no prizes to be had just yet. That will have to do for now!

The Challenger List

V|Alcardu (P) – Confirmed
Sillicur (Z) – Confirmed
bvd’Shase (T) – Confirmed
miNt-avokodo (T) – Confirmed
miNt-Rubilac (P) – Confirmed
Infinity (P) – Confirmed
McNoob (T) – Confirmed
bvd`zdrAg (P) – Confirmed

A pretty impressive list, to be sure! Full details for The Fist can be found below. I will be updating this over the next couple of days. The rules to be used are the standard ones we always use. Observers will be allowed if they don’t hinder the games in any way.

Click to listen to the Audio Cast!

Start Time: 6pm, Sunday 15th of August
Format: Best of 3, Single Elimination with Best of 5 Finals.
Map Selection: First map is locked – Metalopolis – Loser picks next map.
Brackets: To be uploaded soon. The pairings are to be totally random and the list above is in no specific order.

Map List:
Blistering Sands
Desert Oasis
Scrap Station
Steppes of War
Xel’Naga Caverns
Kulas Ravine
Lost Temple
Metalopolis
Delta Quadrant

IRC Server:
Server: random.shadowfire.org
Port: 6667
Channel: #fist #starcraft2

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Go Time! miNt-Avokodo Wins!

The Go Time Tournament is over with the Terran player miNt-Avokodo as the victor! Avokodo managed to power his way through his opponents to face bvd’Shase in the finals in a best of 5. Shase, the usually Terran player, opted to play Zerg in this tournament. It didn’t end well. Avokodo won the finals with a score of 3-0.

In the rest of the tournament we saw a relatively unknown player Smiley take down V|Alcardu in the first round and then procceed to take down ex_eternity in the second. Some interesting developments for this first Starcraft II retail Tourament in South Africa! See the full brackets above and the replay pack of the finals below.

Go Time Finals – bvd’Shase (Z) vs miNt-Avokodo (T)

Thanks to all the players that participated for being on time and co-operative and thanks to Jonathan ‘ZeeOne’ Attwell from 4pooled.com for co-casting the event with me, great fun! Check back here soon for more local tournaments and results!

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Go Time!

On Tuesday, 27 July when you have your fresh copy of Starcraft II in your hand, you’re gonna want something to do, someone to play against. This one’s for you! See the details of this day one tournament below. Be there, leave your mark and get some prime practice in! It’s Go Time!

Details:

Start Time: 7pm Tuesday, 27 July.
Sign-ups: On the day. 6:30pm Tuesday, 27 July. Speak to shadowthief or ZeeOne.
Format: Best of 3, Single Elimination with Best of 5 Finals. Should we have too many entries the first round sadly have to be will be best of 1.
Map Selection: First map chosen via elimination. Loser picks next map.
Brackets: To be uploaded on the day.

Map List:
TBA

IRC Server:
Server: random.shadowfire.org
Port: 6667
Channel: #starcraft2

Sven ‘shadowthief’ Paulsen and Jonathan ‘ZeeOne’ Attwell will be casting all the games live via The 4Pooled Audio Cast.

If you’d like a full size banner for Go Time, get it here.

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