The StarCraft II War Chest is here, with new skins and a brand-new community tournament! In addition to granting you access to a bounty of goodies—like new skins, sprays, emojis, and more—War Chest 6 allows you to lend some crucial support to War Chest Team League, an upcoming community tournament we’re bringing you in partnership with Wardi. Read on to find out what’s coming, how War Chest works, and details on what you can unlock. Is this your first War Chest? Check out the full explainer at the bottom of the post.

SUPPORT COMMUNITY-RUN
STARCRAFT II ESPORTS

Our goal for War Chest 6 is to make War Chest Team League a success. To that end, we’re committing the first USD $150,000 of the proceeds (less taxes) to prizing and tournament operations for the event. We’ll have full details about the tournament in another upcoming post, but in short, we’re selecting 9 prominent StarCraft II commentators to draft teams of four players each, who will then duke it out in an action-packed c...

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GENERAL

• The War Chest 6 has been added in preparation for its global launch on June 11, PDT.
  • Play StarCraft II to unlock XP for the War Chest and gain access to over 100 new items including army-wide skins, sprays, emoticons, exclusive portraits, and a Co-op XP boost.
  • Purchasing the War Chest Complete Bundle grants you a special random race Broken World banner in StarCraft II, plus a Tal’darim Probe Pet in Diablo III, a Hearthstone Classic Card Pack, and a Heroes of the Storm rare Loot Chest. In addition, purchasing any War Chest Skin Bundle will grant you an immediate access to Ranked play.
  • Also, throughout the duration of the War Chest 6, players will be able to unlock free rewards, including classic StarCraft: Remastered skins for Command Center, Hatchery, and Nexus, with no additional purchase necessary.
• 2020 Ladder Season 2 has started with Patch 4.12.0. Learn more about the Season 2 Ladder maps in our blog.

VERSUS BALANCE UPDATE

• Terran
  • Widow Mine ...

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*NOTE: Upon further consideration, we’ll be swapping out Purity and Industry for Eternal Empire in the upcoming 2020 Ladder Season 2 map pool.

2020 Ladder Season 2 brings new 1v1 and Team maps to ladder!

These maps will be available for playtesting or exploration in the Custom Games section of Multiplayer today. Below are some descriptions from the creators of the maps. Please click on the images to see the detailed views.

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Marras: “Deathaura features the new Acceleration Zone Generators that increase the movement speed of units. These zones are situated on the three bridges in the middle. The most forward bases have two rich gas geysers. 14 blue bases in total, of which the forward ones have two rich vespene geysers. The Acceleration Zone Generators are situated on the bridges in the middle. The scouting path goes through these in a zigzag shape. There is also plenty of airspace.”

themusic246: “Choose between an open third and safer fourth, or safer third and open fourth....

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Greetings StarCraft fans,

Last month, we put together our thoughts on the current state of the game and proposed some changes we’ve been considering for the next balance patch. In addition, we tried something a bit different and sponsored WardiTV’s Balance Test Mod Invitational to help gather additional feedback and observe the proposed changes in a professional setting. Today, we’d like to share which changes will make it to live in a future patch, which was based both on your feedback and what we saw from the BTM Invitational. Specifically, we’ll address the two major pieces of feedback we’ve received regarding the patch, which includes:

• For each individual Zerg change, how much ZvT would be impacted relative to the targeted matchup of ZvP.
• The usability and effectiveness of the new Battery Overcharge ability.

Let’s go over a few key changes and whether we’ll be keeping them as is or making alterations.

Queens

Previously Proposed Change:

• Anti-air weapon range decreased ...

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Update on May 6, 2020

• Fixed an issue where burrowed Widow Mines were always revealed before an Armory was built.
• Fixed an issue where an overcharged Shield Battery would only restore 3 shields per point of energy instead of the intended 6.
• Baneling’s anti structure damage will no longer be affected by armor.

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Update on April 30, 2020

• Fixed an issue where multiple Shield Batteries could target the same unit.
• A range indicator for the Battery Overcharge ability will now always display when a Nexus is selected.

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First and foremost, we hope everyone is staying safe in these unprecedented times. While we’ve been hunkered down and large-scale live events have been temporarily halted, we’ve been very fortunate that the community's content creators have stepped up to provide us with a seemingly endless amount of StarCraft. We're always thankful for your passion and creativity. With that said, we wanted to take the time to provide an update on our current thoughts about the state...

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Pop quiz, hotshot: are the setting and story of StarCraft part of the military sci-fi, space opera, or sci-fi horror genres? If you answered, “All three!” then congratulations—you really know your science fiction subgenres. There’s a lot going on in the StarCraft universe, and it’s not always easy to keep it all straight. If you’re looking for a refresher—or just a simple way to explain StarCraft’s story to your friends—this blog has you covered.

Part 1: The Distant Past

Eons ago, the xel’naga arrived in our galaxy and kindled life on countless worlds throughout the Milky Way. Their goal: wait for two species to achieve what the xel’naga called “purity of essence” and “purity of form,” and help them ascend into a new form of life which would take the xel’naga’s place, thus restarting the cycle.

The xel’naga called this the Infinite Cycle. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a bit of a misnomer.

Amon, one of the xel’naga, resolved to break the cycle and remake the universe accord...

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With so many around the world staying safe indoors right now, we wanted to make it a little easier for everyone to connect with each other through StarCraft II. So reach out to your friends on Battle.net to join forces and triumph over the battlefield: from Friday March 20 PT through Thursday April 2 PT, we are lifting the free-play level cap on all Co-op Commanders. We’ll also be enabling 100% Co-op bonus XP through Thursday, April 16 PT. With every Commander, every unit, and every ability now open to everyone, the Koprulu Sector is here for you and your friends to come together and stand against those who would oppose you.

Additionally, as always, everyone is welcome to experience the free StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty single-player campaign. Whether you’re looking to explore the StarCraft II universe for the first time or just want to relive this thrilling chapter, immerse yourself in a story of sacrifice, betrayal, and courage among the stars.

And if you’d like more StarCraft ...

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Maps

• Ever Dream LE
  • Battlecruiser
    • Fixed an issue that caused the Battlecruiser’s Tactical Jump ability to incorrectly go on cooldown when it tries to Tactical Jump to a location with air pathing blockers. The Battlecruiser will now try its best to teleport to a location near the air pathing blockers, and the game will display a red error text if there is not enough room.
  • Reduced the size of the doodads at certain starting locations to improve the pathing for workers when they are gathering resources.
  • Fixed the color of certain plant doodads to be more consistent with other plant doodads.
  • Fixed the cliff type of some cliffs near the natural base.
  • Fixed the height of certain trim doodads to prevent visual distortions with other nearby doodads.
• Golden Wall LE
  • Fixed the location of rocks on certain ramps so that units can path properly.
  • Fixed the pathing on the main ramp to allow Siege Tanks to path properly when there is a standard wall off.
  • Upd...

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On the ancient jungle world Zerus, slavering predators wage eternal war, striving to climb the universe’s bloodiest evolutionary ladder. This is also a great way to visualize the 14th TLnet Map Contest, wherein 163 of the StarCraft II mapmaking community’s bravest submissions were viciously winnowed down to 16. When the mist of combat settled, one submission had emerged above all others: Blackburn, an inventive and action-packed Rush map created by Alexander “Insidious” Hallmann. We reached out to Hallmann, an experienced submitter but first-time finalist, to chronicle the origin story of his 1st-place map.

Pay heed: Many TLnet Map Contest finalist submissions wind up on the official StarCraft II in-game ladder. The StarCraft II dev team’s finest map connoisseurs will be turning a critical eye to these creations in the weeks to come, and you can bet that Blackburn will warrant serious consideration.

Q&A: Insidious, creator of Blackburn

• Congrats on your win! We’d love to learn...

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Versus

• Adjusted the threshold at which mineral nodes visual change as they get mined over the course of the game. As a result, the starting 900-value mineral nodes should look more visually distinct from the starting 1800-value mineral nodes.
• Removed the “stop” and “attack” buttons from the Pylon’s command card in the hotkey menu.
• Fixed an issue where the Neosteel Armor upgrade was not affecting Refineries built on rich vespene geysers.

Maps

• General
  • Updated tournament logo position and orientation on all 1v1 maps and prevented foliage from appearing over them as well.
• Arctic Dream LE
  • Fixed an issue where units could be hidden by certain doodads.
• Ephemeron LE
  • Fixed an issue where a critter had a custom name on the map.
• Everdream LE
  • Increased the size of the Reaper ramp.
  • Repositioned the location of the Overlord scout platform near the natural.
  • Adjusted the terrain and pathing near third base to make it less open.
  • Adjusted terrain and...

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2020 Ladder Season 1 brings new 1v1 and Team maps to ladder!

These maps will be available for playtesting or exploration in the Custom Games section of Multiplayer today. Below are some descriptions from the creators of the maps. Please click on the images to see the detailed views.

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Marras: “The map has 16 blue bases, two of which have a single Rich Vespene Geyser. The average rush distance is 37 seconds. There are rocks in the middle path and on the ramp leading into the low ground third. Line of sight blockers are situated in the 11 & 5 o’clock positions on the outer path of the map, in the high ground areas near the outer path, and in to the direct middle. Lastly, main bases not directly in the corner.”

Superouman: “This map’s structure is very unique. A wall divides the map in two very distinct halves. The bottom half of the is inaccessible at the beginning of the game. There are three ways to get to the bottom part: mine the middle reduced minerals, mine the gold base, ...

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

(Terrible pun. Sorry.)

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

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

• Will Joona "Serral" Sotala, the Finnish Zerg who dominated ...

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GENERAL

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

CO-OP MISSIONS BALANCE UPDATE

• Abathur
  • The Bloated Bile Ducts upgrade now increases impact size by 200%, up from 100%.
  • The Potent Bile upgrade now increases...

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

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

WardiTV Team Liquid Map Contest Tournament #6

If you ask us, this crop of creations is especially gorgeous. It would be difficult to pick favorites without seeing them in action. Luckily, from February 1...

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

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO STARCRAFT II ESPORTS?

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

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

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

To replace WCS, we are excited to announce the new ESL Pro Tour StarCraft II and DreamHack SC2 Masters. The two will combi...

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GENERAL

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

CO-OP MISSIONS

General

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

Commanders

• Mengsk
  • Base Imperial Mandate generation increased from 17 over 240 seconds to 40 every 240 seconds.
  • Imperial Support now increases Imperial Mandate generation by 1 point every 240 seconds, up from 120 seconds.
  • Royal Guards now generate twice the a...

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

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Lurker

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

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

Nydus Worm

• Removed the Propulsive Perist...

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Your Emperor calls on you to serve

Arcturus Mengsk is asking every able-bodied citizen to commit themselves completely to the defense of all we hold dear. For some time, our beautiful worlds have been under attack from enemies at all sides: the zerg vermin that want to consume us; the invading protoss who serve their own ...

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The Global Finals are here!

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

BlizzCon Schedule

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

Streams

As always, English-language coverage will be available on our official Twitch channel, brought to you by our English broadcast team.

Hosts:

• Desk: James "Kaelaris" Carrol
• Stage: Sue "Smix" Lee

Commentators:

• Jared "PiG" Krensel
• Leigh "Maynarde" Mandalov
• Kevin "RotterdaM" van der Kooi
• Daniel "Artosis" Stemkoski
• Nicolas "Tasteless" Plott
• Nathaniel Lawrence "Nathanias" Fabrikant

Streams 

Language	Stream
English	Blizzard
German	Take...

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

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Adjustments to Old Changes:

• Reverted: Viking health increased from 135 to 150.

Based on feedback, we’d like to pull this change back for now due to concerns surrounding the Viking’s subsequent increased power in TvT as well as its increased strength in earlier parts of the game. If the Viking has any deficiencies, we believe they exist later on when end-game units and area-of-effect abilities start coming into play. Thus, if necessary, we’d like to instead tackle the Viking’s strength in late-game with alterations to end-game units from other races—such as Tempests—rather t...

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