A few months ago during the North American Star League finals, the NASL announced that it had partnered up with S2 Games to feature the popular MOBA title Heroes of Newerth during season 2. Today some specific details were revealed.

First off, season 2 of the NASL will feature eight HoN teams. During the first week of the competition (October 5th) the eight teams will face off in showmatches with $1,000 on the line. After these showmatches the format will shift to a round-robin tournament. The top four teams from the round-robin portion will be invited to play live at the NASL Season 2 Finals (December 2nd-4th). All of the NASL’s HoN coverage will be done by Nick “BreakyCPK” Caras and Phil “The_Thrill” Haller. Much like the StarCraft II broadcasts, there will also be guest HoN commentators.

S2 Games CEO and co-founder Marc DeForest commented on the partnership saying, “HoN is a very competitive game by nature, and there is no better way to up the ante within the eSports community then by joining the North American Star League. The selected teams are compiled of some of the top players in the world and we can’t wait to see what they do when pitted against each other.”

Russell Pfister, North American Star League CEO, also chimed in stating “We are excited to strengthen our broadcast reach to include a title as compelling as Heroes of Newerth, and to be working with S2 Games, an organization as committed as we are to foster the growth of eSports.”

Unfortunately the NASL is keeping some of the details under wraps for now. Once the participating teams are announced, expect to see a post will the rest of the information.

The Devil Plays Protoss: Saving LAN

by Jacqueline Geller

Any opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of compLexity Gaming or its parent company.

LAN Center.

Before you look at the article title and think to yourself “not another whiny article about the lack of StarCraft2 LAN support,” let me assure you that this article is not about the lack of much needed SC2 LAN support. This article is about supporting a different type of LAN, specifically the LAN center. Gaming centers, as they are more commonly called these days, are necessary for the growth of eSports but are often under supported and required to close. Although gaming centers may seem like a frivolous waste of money, over the last year, I have become a real fan of supporting local gaming centers.

I love the social aspect of being involved with the gaming community. I love playing League of Legends with my friends after dinner. I love following dozens of pro gamers on Twitter. I love attending live competitive gaming events. As much as gaming is stereotypically viewed as a solitary activity, anyone involved with the eSports community will tell you that the community is one of the best aspects of being an involved gamer. Sure, it is entirely possible to be an anti-social gamer, playing Fable 3 alone in your basement, but if you play CoD with your brother or raiding in WoW, you’re a social gamer to some degree. Even the simple act of laddering in SC2 requires other people.

Despite being a gamer for years, I had never paid to play at a gaming center. I didn’t see the point in paying $4-$6 per hour to play video games when I had a perfectly good computer at home. What was the point? It seemed like a money sink, and I like to save my money. I could play WoW with my friends online, or when I did want to play in person, someone usually had a spare computer or a decent laptop. What would be the point in going to a gaming center?

It wasn’t until I got involved with the local SC2 community in January that I started to go to gaming centers. At the time, my city had one, Absolute Power, which was in the far corner of the city. It was small and crowded, but it allowed the community to host meet ups and tournaments with minimal effort. Friends could meet up to game before GSL finals, and gamers could attend tournaments without the hassle of having to drag their PC with them to a gymnasium. More events, such as coaching sessions, were hosted at the gaming center, and our community grew. I simply cannot stress how much having a gaming center was crucial to the development of our local SC2 community.

When Absolute Power closed its doors at the start of June, the community was at a standstill. Tournaments could not be hosted, and meet ups were next to impossible. Who has room for dozens of computers in their living room? Aside from Evil Genuises, of course. Thankfully, a great new gaming center was opening up soon, and local gaming life would be able to return to normal.

OverKlocked Gaming Center. Courtesy of OK

OverKlocked Gaming (OK) opened its doors in Edmonton in July. The location is great: in the middle of the city and a mere 10 minute drive not even from my apartment. Not only is the location itself ideal, the center itself is stunning. The equipment is top notch and plentiful, and the space is roomy. Since it’s opening, it has become a home to my gaming group and other local gamers. The fighting community has moved its weekly fight nights to OK, and the centre is surprisingly busy each weekend I’ve been there. During MLG weekend, we took over the big screen TVs to watch games together on the Friday night. OK’s owner, Tim “Mystery” Cooper, is friendly, helpful and supportive. The staff is great, and everyone feels more than welcome hanging out there on a Saturday night.

As much as I dislike paying to game, especially on my current budget, I have been more than happy to pay for time at OK. I love that it’s become a home for the local community, and having a gaming center is crucial for the growth of a good local competitive gaming community. Thanks to both Absolute Power and OverKlocked, Edmonton has been able to develop a truly epic local SC2 community, and thanks to OK, we will be able to continue to grow and expand.

If you live near a gaming center, grab your friends and get out to support it! Not only do these centers provide a great place for like minded gamer individuals to meet and hang out, they provide places for eSports events to happen. Ever been to a Bring Your Own Computer LAN tournament? They are tons of fun but not convenient whatsoever. It is also difficult to host them more than every handful of months, but it’s simple to host tournaments on a regular basis at gaming centers. Attend a tournament at a gaming center or better yet, talk with a gaming center’s owner about hosting your own tournament. I’m sure the owner would be more than happy to help you out!

Paying to game at a gaming center may seem silly, but having pro-eSports businesses is important if we want the industry to grow. It is especially important to have pro-eSports businesses that are easily able to host and run their own tournaments. Take a look in your local yellow pages and find a nearby gaming center to support. It could be the start of something great.

GL HF,
Jacq

About the Author – Jacqueline Geller

After years of playing World of Warcraft, a friend introduced Jacqueline to Starcraft early last year. Jacqueline’s relationship with Starcraft started out slowly: a handful of casual dates, a little bit of flirting but nothing serious. She took her relationship with the game to the next level after BlizzCon 2010 where she experienced eSports magic first-hand and realized that Starcraft was the one. Despite being a mediocre player, she has been clambering the ladder at a glacial pace and has spent more time watching Starcraft online than she’d like to admit. In March, Jacqueline made the leap from eSports fan to eSports professional when she was hired by the Handsome Nerd as their Art Director, combining her design skills with her love of Starcraft. Since its start in April, Jacqueline has been a contributing writer for the North American Star League, writing coverage for Division 1. Offline, Jacqueline is a bookworm, a runner, a freeride snowboarder and has a Human Ecology degree with a Clothing and Textiles major.

View Jacqueline’s profile here.
Visit @jacquelinesg on Twitter

Today Major League Gaming announced the viewer numbers from their recent Raleigh event. Breaking previous MLG records, MLG Raleigh pulled “an all-time high 138,000 peak concurrent online stream viewers.” These viewers spanned 173 countries and consumed more than 3 million hours of video throughout the weekend.

What makes this all that much more amazing is that MLG was able to provide uninterrupted, 720p HD footage all weekend while Hurricane Irene was ravaging the East coast.

Major League Gaming CEO Sundance DiGiovanni said:

The 2011 Pro Circuit season is proving to be our most successful to date with record breaking online viewer numbers for the past three competitions held in Raleigh, Anaheim and Columbus. Our goal this year was to expand our global footprint and we have succeeded by reaching millions of new fans around the world. Viewers can expect more high-quality streaming of our upcoming events in Orlando and Providence.

With Sundance’s promise for more high-quality streams and the addition of games like League of Legends (seen in Raleigh), there really isn’t anywhere to go but up. Expect to see more viewer records broken when MLG Orlando rolls around, October 14-16.

Today, the developers over at CSPromod released CSPromod Beta 1.07. This has been a long awaited update to the source modification that gave players a CS 1.6 feel. This update focused mainly on bug squashing and weapon tweaking to get it as close to 1.6 as they can. In hopes that the Promod community will restart with the release, the developers are looking for community contribution for submitting bugs and crashlogs to help make the game more stable, and fun.

Changelog Excerpt

• Added better blood goosh particles
• Refactored MP5’s recoil
• Refactored Famas’ burst fire mode recoil
• Tweaked grenade throw position and velocity to be exactly like CS 1.6
• Tweaked all rifles’ accuracy to be equivalent to CS 1.6
• Tweaked Deagle’s accuracy
• Tweaked AWP/Scout quickscoping
• Tweaked crosshair cooldown rate
• Tweaked crosshair sizes (cl_crosshair_size is now independent of cl_crosshair_advanced_scale)
• Tweaked HE grenade damages
• Tweaked tagging (player velocity reduction on getting hit)
• Tweaked weapon drop trajectory to mimic 1.6
• Tweaked air acceleration slightly
• Tweaked footsteps while scoping with the AWP/Scout
• Tweaked the FOV to remain equivalent across all resolutions; removing unfair advantages for wide-screen users
• Updated maximum wall penetration distance from 128 to 768 units to match CS 1.6

For the complete changelog, click here.

For the official CSPromod website, click here.

For a link to the Download page, click here.

Today in a surprising announcement, especially considering MLG Raleigh was just last weekend, Major League Gaming revealed two of the Korean StarCraft II players who will be participating in MLG Orlando as part of the League Exchange Program. The two guest players are none other than MLG Raleigh champion StarTaleBomber and “The Emperior” SlayerS_BoxeR.

With Bomber defending his title and BoxeR hungry to get his own, eSports fans are guaranteed to witness some amazing games. Unfortunately MLG Orlando is still a little ways off, it runs from October 14th though the 16th. In the mean time, keep an eye out for more MLG posts. The organization still has two more Korean invites to announce.

Jersey Gate 2011

by Jason Bass

Before I get started I think a little introduction is due. I am Jason Bass and I am Co-Owner of complexity gaming with Jason Lake. I typically stay behind the scenes and deal with our sponsors and finances as well as players from time to time.

It is very rare that I write an article anymore. I used to write quite frequently when I was with GotFrag many years ago but in the past 5 years, I really have not done a lot of writing. When you are in a position like mine there is a risk of sharing your opinion publicly. You risk the relationships you have in the industry and you risk upsetting the people that you are talking about. So it is very rare that I share my opinion publicly but I feel like this is such an important issue that it is necessary for me to voice my opinion on the topic. I woke up very early this morning with this whole MLG Jersey issue on my mind. As of last night it appears to be a non-issue for at least the rest of the 2011 season but it seems pretty clear that MLG does have the intention of making this a point in 2012. Now, we could debate whether or not this was a mistake that was not supposed to be sent out or if it was a decision that was made and MLG didn’t like the feedback they got so they have backed off, but honestly that really is not important to what I plan to cover today.

The real important thing is why does MLG feel the need to hide the sponsors of the team?

The easy answer is some of the MLG League sponsors are complaining about seeing competitive brands. Most of the MLG sponsors have been around the sponsorship block and know how this works in sports and almost everywhere else for that matter. How many times do you watch an NFL game and see that this game is brought to you by Pepsi and then they go to commercial and you see Coca Cola ads? It happens all the time. It is the nature of the beast. The reason it happens all of the time is because there are several entities that need to cover their costs. In the NFL example, you would have the team looking for sponsors, NFL selling game sponsors and then the network selling TV ads to cover their costs. These sales efforts will rarely line up without running competing brands. Obviously, I am simplifying the NFL process but hopefully you get the point. The sooner companies realize this, the better off we all are.

MLG’s New Regulation Jersey

It is my opinion that the most important thing that MLG and their sponsors need to realize is that there is a symbiotic relationship that goes on between the teams and the league. In other words, we need each other. If my team does not have a league to play in then I have no fans. On the flip side, if the major teams did not send their stars to MLG then their viewership would drop off significantly because you would have lost all of the big player names and the fans would lose interest. No one wins if this were to happen. It is bad for eSports in general and I hope that something like this never does happen.

MLG and their sponsors also need to start to respect and understand how teams make their money. We make our money in very similar ways to the league. We have companies that believe in what we do and they make sending the players to the events possible. Any league that forgets that and simply says we are going to remove the biggest viewership opportunity your brand and your sponsors brands have (wearing our jerseys on the main stage), is threatening every teams ability to provide value to their sponsors. This in turn threatens our entire business model and very existence. In the MLG email, it stated to please keep in mind this is ONLY for the stage, everywhere else in the venue is fine to wear our jersey. The problem with this, and MLG knows this, is if every single person that walks in and out of the venue over the course of a weekend sees our jersey then, if we are lucky, 20,000 people will see it. One time on the stage and 150,000 people and growing will see it on the stream. The stage is the biggest value proposition for teams to send their players to MLG. So, I would hope that MLG would keep that in mind.

The next question is what do the sponsors of MLG really lose by sharing a fraction of the screen time with competing brands?

DRG on stage. Courtesy of zemotion

In my opinion they lose nothing. If MLG is doing the stream right, their sponsors will be on the overlays, bumpers, scoreboards and advertisements. The MLG sponsors will, and should, get the vast majority of the branding time on the streams. Sharing that time with some jerseys should not, in any way, threaten them or the investment they are making in MLG. MLG has been producing increasing numbers event after event. The value their partners are getting is growing each event, but so is the value that the teams’ partners get. This is important for the teams and we cannot simply say “ok we will accept a microscopic partner brand on the lower half of the back of our jersey.” That cannot work and will not work for the teams that pay for the stars to come to these events.

If any league destroys the team business model, it threatens everything that is being built here. Sure there will be some players that can go out on their own and obtain the support they need to attend events, but that field of stars will vastly diminish. Businesses should always strive to stick with their core competency (ie. what it is they are best at). For a league, it should be running the league and the broadcast. A player should be able to focus on playing, and a team will focus on taking care of their partners so that the players can focus on playing and the league can focus on making the event happen and not having to worry about whether the 20 best players in the world are going to show up. When companies try to be everything to everyone they end up doing nothing well. They have to focus on what they are best at and in turn be the best at that. Having to divert your attention in too many directions is a recipe for failure. This makes our world go around. We need each other and should be working together and not against each other.

I have always respected the way Sundance and MLG have organically grown and have always listened to the community to make their event better. Doing this is far superior to simply throwing money at something and saying my way or the highway. Over the years, many leagues have taken this approach and none of those leagues are still around today. The CPL and CGS are classic eSports examples of what happens when you don’t listen to the community you are trying to capture. Each of them had significant flaws but this was the root cause of both of their demises. Once you lose the respect and adoration of the fans, the league will crumble and everything you have worked for will fall apart.

The point of this article is to hopefully open a constructive dialog amongst the community, the teams and MLG. Many times people run their business and don’t necessarily understand all of the ramifications a decision can make on others. It is my hope that this article can set the stage and illustrate those ramifications. MLG is not an evil empire and I believe that they have the fans’ and players’ best interests at heart as we all do and I am hopeful that we can all come together and have a productive conversation and find a resolution that makes everyone happy.

Before the StarCraft II, Halo, Cross Counter, and MOBA teams, compLexity Gaming was the premier North American Counter-Strike origination. To this day the big boss man Jason Lake often brings up how important Counter-Strike was to the eSports movement.

A few weeks ago word got out that Valve is working on the next generation of Counter-Stike, dubbed Counter-Stike: Global Offensive. Offering gamers the same classic gameplay with a fresh coat of paint along with a few new toys, hopes are high that CSGO will help reenforce the current eSports boom. However, some gamers are skeptical. In hopes of stifling these skeptics, Valve has released a new trailer showing off some CSGO gameplay.

After checking out the trailer below, leave a comment letting up know what you think. Will CSGO play an important role in eSports like it’s predecessors? What do you guys think about the new toys like the Molotov Cocktails and noise grenades? Good think gamers don’t have to wait too long seeing how CSGO is slated to arrive on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in early 2012.

Today Wellplayed.org released it’s latest project, a short documentary titled StarCraft II: Year One. This retrospective film takes a look at the growth of StarCraft II “from the perspective of progamers and eSports personalities.”

StarCraft II: Year One features interviews with Jinro, Naniwa, QXC, Spanishiwa, Husky, Mr. Bitter, Kiwikaki, Slush and compLexity’s own Stalife.

Clocking in at just over 35 minutes, you really have no excuse for not watching this amazing look at “the thoughts, memories, and motivations of nine of StarCraft II’s most storied personalities.”

DEVASTATION, one of the world’s largest and most respected gaming events is now selling tickets for their upcoming event in Pheonix, Arizona at the at the Phoenix Convention Center. DEVASTATION 2011 will take place from Thursday, October 6th – Sunday, October 9th.

DEVASTATION offers a host of Interactive Entertainment and related programming, including professional-level video game tournaments, casual gaming areas, Cosplay and Costuming events, non-gaming and athletic competitions, exclusive product announcements and public demonstrations, artist and press tables, guest appearances, community events, convention and exhibitor displays, charity fundraisers and the definitive eSports Live Broadcast in the world.

Order tickets to DEVASATION by clicking here.

The Devil Plays Protoss: BarCraft

By Jacqueline Geller

Any opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of compLexity Gaming or its parent company.

In Day9 pre-daily #232, Sean “Day9” Plott talks about making eSports happen. One of the biggest messages that Sean drives home during this “state of the daily” address is that eSports isn’t going to happen with the efforts of one person, but with the efforts of every person. In order to grow SC2 as an eSport or eSports in general, every individual of the community must do their part to spread the word and make eSports happen in North America.

Whether he saw Sean’s “state of the daily” address or not, Glen Bowers is one individual who has helped eSports happen in North America. This Chao Bistro patron in Seattle approached the bar’s owner with a unique suggestion: stream professional SC2 matches in the bar instead of baseball and other traditional sports. When Chao Bistro’s owner, Hyung Chung, agreed to play SC2, I doubt he even considered that this was one step in starting an international phenomena. Much to everyone’s excitement, BarCraft is becoming a worldwide event. There were over 25 venues in three countries showing SC2 this past weekend for MLG Raleigh, and it was epic. What started as a great event at a Seattle bar has is becoming an international eSports trend. Glen and Hyung, thank you for starting the epicness that is BarCraft.

I was fortunate enough to attend not one, but two BarCraft events for MLG Raleigh this weekend in my city. None of these events were organized by international SC2 community icons or wealthy business owners. The men who organized the events are simply SC2 fans who are passionate about competitive gaming and saw what Glen Bowers organized in Seattle and thought “why not Edmonton?”

The first of the two events was organized by Jeff “OldManTekh” Siegel at a Downtown restaurant, Oodle Noodle, which streamed games the entire three days of MLG weekend. NoodleCraft started during MLG Anaheim and was popular enough to be brought back for MLG Raleigh. The owner, Sam Fakhreddine, is a nerd himself and sees the value in promoting competitive gaming. The food at Oodle Noodle is incredible, at it was great to have a casual place to stop by and watch SC2 during dinners. If you ever are in Edmonton, stop by Oodle Noodle for a bite to eat. The Tokyo Glaze and the Bombay Famous are exceptional menu choices. The best part of this event was that people just stopping by to grab a bite to eat were exposed to SC2 and eSports for the first time. It was neat to see people experiencing completive gaming for the first time.

The second Edmonton BarCraft event was organized by Chris “Sonik” Atkey at a Downtown bar, the Rouge Lounge and Rosebowl. I spoke with the bar’s owner, Sam Moukhaiber, about an hour or two into the event. When I arrived right at the event’s start at 1:00pm, the crowd wasn’t impressive. Talking with Sam, I could tell he was hesitant about hosting a second BarCraft events, but I was optimistic that the event would have a good turnout. Much to my surprise, the turnout at our MLG Championship Sunday was not simply good, it was incredible. By the lower bracket finals, the bar was packed. I knew there would be a nice turnout, but I was in shock. SC2 fans spilled out the reserved section, seating was in high demand, and it was standing room only. Stunned by the amazing response to his first SC2 event, not only did Sam agree to host a second BarCraft event for MLG Orlando, he has promised us the entire bar next time.

If you’re interested in checking out the Edmonton MLG weekend shenanigans, I filmed the action and put it up on YouTube. Best of all, a local newspaper, the Edmonton Journal wrote a piece on our Championship Sunday event which appeared on the third page of a newspaper. This morning, over 115 000 Edmontonians who read the Journal opened their newspaper to BarCraft, SC2 and eSports. I hope this mainstream media attention will help to bring closet nerds out to future BarCraft events.

Barcraft.

Considering hosting a BarCraft event in your city? Well, thankfully, you’re a member of a phenomenal international community, and support is just one TL thread away. The SC2 community is not all sunshine, rainbows and happiness (see: /r/starcraft), but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the SC2 community offers unconditional support for projects that further the game that we love unconditionally. XiFan “Primadog” Hong has become a champion of BarCraft events, providing support, networking and information for BarCraft organizers and attendees. If you are considering planning a BarCraft event in your area or have put the wheels of BarCraft in motion, PM Primadog on TL or post on /r/barcraft, and you will be provided with support as well as a way to get the word of your event sent out. As the TL BarCraft Summary Tread says, “If you organize it, they will come!”

To further eSports you do not have to be one of the pillars on the State of the Game. You do not have to be Grand Masters League player with 5000 daily stream viewers. You do not have to be wealthy or own your own business. You do not need to live in Silicon Valley, work 9-5 at Justin.tv or post on TL three times a day. You simply have to be willing to put in a little bit of work and spread the word! There are members of the community who will be there to help you with networking, support and promotion. Organize your own BarCraft event for MLG Orlando in October, and I think you may be surprised with the results. If we can have successful SC2 events in Edmonton, AB, Canada, any major city in North America can have successful SC2 events.

As Sean “Day9” Plott said, it will not be one person but the entire community who makes North American eSports happen in 2011: “Stop asking for permission, just f’ing do it!”

About the Author – Jacqueline Geller

After years of playing World of Warcraft, a friend introduced Jacqueline to Starcraft early last year. Jacqueline’s relationship with Starcraft started out slowly: a handful of casual dates, a little bit of flirting but nothing serious. She took her relationship with the game to the next level after BlizzCon 2010 where she experienced eSports magic first-hand and realized that Starcraft was the one. Despite being a mediocre player, she has been clambering the ladder at a glacial pace and has spent more time watching Starcraft online than she’d like to admit. In March, Jacqueline made the leap from eSports fan to eSports professional when she was hired by the Handsome Nerd as their Art Director, combining her design skills with her love of Starcraft. Since its start in April, Jacqueline has been a contributing writer for the North American Star League, writing coverage for Division 1. Offline, Jacqueline is a bookworm, a runner, a freeride snowboarder and has a Human Ecology degree with a Clothing and Textiles major.

View Jacqueline’s profile here.
Visit @jacquelinesg on Twitter