If you’re an avid fan of StarCraft II, chances are you’ve seen the name Athene or AtheneWins pop up on your favorite site every now and then. For those of you who may not be familiar with this particular community figure, just take a minute and poke around his Youtube channel. Chances are you’ll find something funny.

The thing about Athene is that nobody in the StarCraft II community knows quite what to make of him. He’s sort of like a pro wrestler that is supposed to be the “bad guy,” yet all the fans love him for one reason or another. He is notorious for his cocky attitude, hilarious personality and the aura of mystery that surrounds him.

Today, CompLexity’s own AskJoshy was able to arrange an interview with the illusive Athene and pick his brain about topics such as MLG Dallas, his goals for SC2, and if he has any plans to join a professional team.

AskJoshy’s Youtube

Today Ultimax Gaming (UMX) is proud to announce their new American 1.6 team, the former Ruins squad. The guys will be joining up with one of the strongest Asian teams in UMX.TW.

The team will be moving to California to train and practice year round. The team will compete at both domestic and international events, with the hope of bringing a championship back home to the United States.

We’re all very excited and have put off school, work and our personal lives for a year to live and train together. As UMX.US we intend to make the most of this dream each and every single day. Special thank you to Tony ‘xaN’ Lo for all of his help,

 

Dustin “dizzaman” Dilyerd

UMX Gaming 2011 Roster

•  Dustin “dizzaman” Dilyerd
•  Ric “iNERTiA” Bundy
•  Ricky “sLip” Cohen
•  Kyle “flowsicK” Mendez
•  Chris “TRULS” Navratil

Former CompLexity star Cory “tr1p” Dodd was interviewed by ESEANews recently. In the interview, tr1p discusses what he’s been since he retired from gaming, as well as jumping naked into a pool post-CGI Invitational. The interview is a must read for everyone that remembers Cory and the dedication to the teams he was a part of.

Below is an excerpt from the interview:

What were your biggest disappointments in gaming?

My biggest low’s in gaming were probably CPL winter 2006? My team coL had a very rough month by placing very low in multiple tournaments throughout the fall after our CPL summer win. We just didn’t want to win as bad as we normally did… it was like we were burned or something. Throughout that whole CPL there was so much talk of Source being the next thing and 1.6 was dead that it was just a very awkward feeling knowing this was probably it for 1.6 I had a few conversations with Jason Lake really questioning if this was the best thing for gaming by playing CSS for DirecTV. I truely felt like I was selling out for some pay day which I knew deep down wouldn’t last.

What were the most memorable victories you’ve had?

I guess my best victories would basically be my favorite moments since I am such a competitive person ;). I guess I can say a few matches that really stick out. I think it was winter CPL 2004 when United 5 beat team3D on cpl mill to eventually be the best American placing team from out of no where. Then there was mouz on inferno with coL as we had such a great run at that CPL event as like a 50th seed or something. I of course have to say Lunatic Hi on train at ESWC 2006 as it was I guess my legacy moment. My final most memorable moment would have to be winning the CGS with the EG guys as it was on the biggest stage ever… Live TV. Shoutout to all the Chimera Crew great times! Love you DKT!

Read the full interview by clicking here.

Today, Blizzard announced via a post on the Korean Blizzard community forum, that it is planning to add the popular “GSL maps” to the StarCraft II Ladder map pool. These maps, which were made specifically for, and are prominently featured in the Global StarCraft II League, include Crevasse, Tal’Darim Altar and Terminus RE. Professional StarCraft II players have been overwhelmingly in favor of playing on these new maps because they tend to promote “macro-oriented” games (due to their size and the amount of defendable expansions available).

For those who can’t read Korean, here is a short translation of Blizzard’s post:

We’re going to maintain the number of ladder maps to 9 with 3 macro-oriented, 3 aggressive and 3 normal maps, so that a player can thumb down based on the player’s preference. GSL maps(soon) are macro-oriented.

More information about this possible change can be found by clicking here.

In the fifth episode of “Mind of the Gamer,” the show that has professional gamers explain their replay and describe what they were thinking during the match, Adrian “Kawaiirice” Lok-Yin Kwong showcases his Terran play.

AskJoshy’s Youtube

The World Cyber Games has announced that League of Legends, for the second year, will be played at WCG, however this year the game will be featured as an official title. Last year, the game was simply a promotional title, but due to popularity and demand, tournament officials have brought it back.

Also, WCG has decided to bring back WoW, which comes as a surprise to the community, who assumed that Blizzcon would be the only WoW event this year. Rounding out the list of games are staples such as Counter-Strike 1.6, FIFA 11 as well as WC3:FT.

This makes the list of official games:

Fighting
Tekken 6 (Namco Bandai Games)

FPS
Counter-Strike 1.6 (Valve)
Crossfire (Neowiz Games/Smilegate)
Special Force (Dragonfly)

MMORPG
World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™ (Blizzard Entertainment)

RTS
League of Legends (Riot Games)
StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty™ (Blizzard Entertainment)
Warcraft® III: The Frozen Throne™ (Blizzard Entertainment)

Sports
FIFA 11 (Electronic Arts)

For more information about the official WCG games, click here.

GomTV just announced that they have invited a new caster to their staff crew, Erik “doa” Lonnquist.  You can find some of his casts on his youtube channel, DoaStarcraft.  Erik will be exclusively casting code A matches with Kellymilkies.  His casting journey with GomTV will start on March 7, 2011, and we wish him luck on this amazing opportunity.  You can follow him on Twitter as well by clicking here.

A new commentator, Erik “doa” Lonnquist will be joining us today! Erik will be commentating with Kelly for Code A matches. Erik has live commentated matches involving many of the top North American players such as Drewbie, dde, and Fenix. He has also casted live matches featuring some top EU server players such as HayprO, Sjow, and Bly. Some of the events Erik has worked for include US Craft Cup, Alert Open Cup, Prototype Cup, and tQ Open series. Don’t forget to tune in at 6:10PM KST (+9 GMT) today to see the new casting duo in action. Thank you.

GomTV

For more information about Erik “doa” Lonnquist, you can find his short biography by clicking here.

Just the other day Major League Gaming(MLG) announced their new partnership with Sony Ericsson. This new partnership makes the Xperia™ PLAY the official mobile handset of Major League Gaming.

To showcase the extensive capabilities of Xperia™ PLAY, each MLG Pro Circuit event will feature demonstrations, game challenges and giveaways, kicking off at the season opener on April 1 in Dallas. Sony Ericsson will also sponsor MLG Pro Player Dave “Walshy” Walsh and MLG Coach Andy “JT Bravo” Dudynsky for the 2011 Season. Later this year, Sony Ericsson will also sponsor a new video segment on MLG.tv highlighting must-have apps and games.

Major League Gaming

More information about the partnership can be found by clicking here.

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.