After all of the Team Liquid Open qualifications, the time for PokerStrategy.com’s TSL3 has come about! TSL3 is a huge StarCraft 2 tournament with a whopping $34,500 prize pool, with first prize being $15,000. The brackets were posted earlier today on Team Liquid and features compLexity’s very own coL.CrunCher. CrunCher will definitely be up against some of the top StarCraft 2 players, so wish him luck! Here is the bracket:

Here is the current prize pool distribution for this event:

For more information and the brackets, click here
For the TSL3 FAQ, click here

ESFI sat down with Sean “Day[9]” Plott during IEM5 for an interview regarding his various esports ventures as well as his thoughts about some of the latest news in the SC2 scene.

Below is an excerpt from the interview:

Are we ever going to see you play professional StarCraft again?

Well, I play a lot and I like playing. But casting I think I can do more with than I can as a player. Also, I get a chance to watch all the players that I love to watch and see them play against each other, which is really cool. I don’t really have that much of an opinion of it. A lot of it is if I tried to become a player, I would have to devote so much time to it that would eat into a lot of my other things. I couldn’t both be a player at a competitive level in the way I’d want and a caster, and also be an interesting person at the same time.

What’s your opinion on the NASL?

I think it’s great. The crew that’s putting it together are really trying to make something huge happen in North America and that can only be good, even if it completely crashes. That’s great that there are people that are willing to put that much money and that much effort into it. If it does really well, then we have another huge league that people can enter into, so it can only be a good thing.

In a previous interview, you mentioned you are entirely booked for the near future. Which other events do you have planned?

The biggest activity is a Masters degree in fine arts from the University of Southern California which I’m trying to finish. That’s one of those events I can’t skip on (laughs). So once I graduate, there’s some other fun things that are coming down the pipeline. They have to be announced first by the organizers as of course, I am but a lowly caster.

ESFI

Read the entire interview at ESFI by clicking here.

The latest patch to CSProMod has been released on the CSP website. Version 1.06 features several major bug fixes that were embedded in the 1.05 release, as well as various map changes and tweaks. In order to install the 1.06 patch, version 1.05 must be installed first.

The changelog can be found below:

General

• Cheat-flagged mat_diffuse, mat_crosshair_explorer, mat_showlowresimage, mat_drawtexture and mat_showlightmappage
• Made the T player model as thick as the CT one
• Tweaked the T player model head to be more square-like
• Tweaked grenade gravity and origin to fix grenades flying too high
• Tweaked AK-47 and M4A1 accuracy
• Tweaked Glock 18 rate of fire
• Tweaked pistol crosshair expansion (WIP)

Mapping

csp_dust2

• Added 1.6-style arches
• Added the missing spam spot at the B bombsite
• Added a playerclip on top of the catwalk double crates
• Added playerclips in front of the mid windows
• Fixed a few graphical glitches
• Fixed the T spawn wall height to allow middle peek to match 1.6
• Fixed the T spawn displacement that allowed you to jump on top of the crates and peek cat from this spot
• Fixed the long A displacement that allowed you to jump directly on top of the crate without any boost
• Fixed the A bombsite crate size (the one in the corner) to match 1.6
• Fixed not being able to plant on top of the A bombsite crates
• Fixed the B displacement that allowed you to jump directly on top of the small wall
• Tweaked the B window to only have a partial view of the B tunnels entry
• Tweaked long A door and added a player clip in front of it so it doesn’t get in the way of players anymore
• Tweaked B tunnels lighting to make them a bit brighter

csp_lite

• Added 20 spawns on each team for public servers
• Fixed 3D skybox model error

csp_train

• Added 20 spawns on each team for public servers

Bug Fixes

• Fixed engine network bugs caused by alt-tab and similar actions (invisible or out-of-place players, swapped player models, …)
• Fixed mp_restartgame not working during freezetime
• Fixed in-air multi-ducking prohibition kicking in on ladders
• Fixed issue where players would spawn in the middle of a map
• Fixed possible net settings related crashes
• Fixed out-of-the-box VALVe SDK physics crashes
• Fixed player occupying the last slot in the server not showing up on the scoreboard
• Fixed some typos in the main localization template (English)
• Fixed in-game name being reset to Steam Friend name (and added “setname” ConCommand)
• Fixed 7.1 surround sound option

Tweaks/Minor Changes

• Added scrim/lo3 config files
• Defaulted g_ragdoll_maxcount to 32
• Improved some proportionality handling with screen panels
• Optimized a small portion of the net_graph code
• Tweaked scoreboard background colors and fixed an overlapping pixel line at last CT or Spectator player
• Updated server config file

The latest version can be downloaded by clicking here.

Today, March 3rd 2011, Blizzard Entertainment turns 20 years old! A company that started with just three guys and 20 years later now has offices all over the world with millions of gamers enjoying their games in 12 different languages.

In 1991, three guys fresh out of UCLA decided to start their own game company. Their goal: make cool games and have fun doing so. Twenty years later, the company has become a world-renowned game developer and publisher, with offices across the globe and millions of players enjoying its games in more than a dozen languages.

In 2011, Blizzard Entertainment marks its 20th anniversary. Over the course of the year, we’ll be celebrating two decades worth of games along with you, the community of players who made it all possible through your passion, enthusiasm, and support. Join us for a stroll down memory lane on this anniversary site: revisit the history of our games; participate in our global community contest; check out the photo gallery to witness how our epic hairstyles have evolved over the years; and much, much more.

We hope you enjoy this look back at the past 20 years of Blizzard Entertainment, and we look forward to bringing you even more epic entertainment experiences in the 20 years to come.

blizzard.com

The application deadlines for North American Starleague (NASL) have been released. All teams that were invited to the league have already or will shortly be receiving a contract for the players to sign. The official deadline for contracts given to invited teams is March 10, 2011.

NASL will also be accepting public applications for the league, and have a two step application process. All deadlines for the application process are as follows:

• Team & Player Contracts (direct approach) due: MARCH 10th, 2011 11:59 p.m. PST
• Player Applications (public) due: MARCH 11th, 2011 11:59 p.m. PST
• Player Videos (direct approach) due: MARCH 13th, 2011 11:59 p.m. PST
• Team & Player Contracts (from public application) due: MARCH 16th, 2011 11:59 p.m. PST
• Players notified of acceptance/rejection: MARCH 18th, 2011 11:59 p.m. PST
• $250 security deposit per player due: MARCH 20th, 2011 11:59 p.m. PST
• Public Announcement of Players Begins
• March 22nd, 5 players announced per day.

[NASL] Deadlines and Process

For information about submitting a public application or to see the entire news post, check out this link