Blizzard will host a tournament for the 15-year-old ‘Warcraft III’ 


Out of nowhere, Blizzard introduced a public test realm (PTR) last fall for its 15-year-old game Warcraft III. PC fans of its current best-sellers like Overwatch play on PTRs to try out new features before they're released to everyone, so creating one for an old title clearly implies greater plans. Today, as was rumored, we know what those are: A new gameplay patch and a tournament at the end of February featuring top players from the game's heydey to the present.

Blizzard will host 'the first Warcraft III Invitational' at their Irvine HQ on February 27th and 28th, with Twitch streams hosted by two casters from Back2Warcraft, the site and community helping to keep the game's competitive scene alive. The exhibition's matches will include Free-for-All, 4v4 and other competitions -- one hopes that it might include some old-school Defense of the Ancients, the map mod that inspired the MOBA genre. Attendees include players old and new, like Grubby, Lyn, MaDFroG, Happy and others.

While a new patch for a 15-year-old game sounds impressive (and it is), Blizzard has been quietly updating the game annually for awhile. Still, patch 1.29 will bring some long-awaited changes like widescreen support to prevent screen-stretching and hero tweaks, as well as new features like support for 24-player game lobbies. The patch goes live on the PTR first (details here).

Why would Blizzard want to breathe new life into an old game? They already remastered StarCraft last year, which was originally launched in 1998 , so it's possible that a renovated version of Warcraft III is on the way. Blizzard could be spotlighting a community that's long toiled by themselves to keep the game's competitive scene alive, with the tournament and new patch as a thank-you gesture. Or the studio could be shoring up the old title in hopes of elevating it to eSports material, given how long the original StarCraft scene has endured. Whatever the case, the attention can only mean good news for fans of Warcraft III.

Source: Battle.net forums

via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2oqkKmV"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more