SK Gaming on MaDFroG Departure

January 13th, 2011

Earlier today, ESFI World talked with SK Gaming’s managing director Alexander Muller about the recent news regarding former WarCraft 3 star and current StarCraft 2 player Fredrik “MaDFroG” Johansson’s departure from the team. In the original announcement released by SK Gaming, not many details were given regarding the circumstances behind the team’s decision not to renew MaDFroG’s contract. Muller pinned down most of the issue to SK Gaming simply not wanting to pay Johansson’s asking price.

 

“Fredrik needs more budget than we are willing to pay for one StarCraft 2 player at the moment,” explained Muller. “He is a great guy and player and we had a good time to check where he and SK are in terms of StarCraft 2.” He continues, “But for him to do what he wants, probably moving to Korea and all, we would have to invest way more than what we think [an organization] should in StarCraft 2 these days.”

 

Read the full article at ESFI World.

 

ROI from eSports Sponsorships?

January 12th, 2011

On January 11, 2011, the founder of HangWith.me Jason Tugman posted a video on YouTube all about the business side of gaming as a sponsor. Tugman talks about how eSports tournaments, such as SCReddit, are great ways for small businesses with gamers as target markets to become known in the community. HangWith.me was one of SCReddit’s sponsors for their invitational tournament that was held January 8th and 9th of this year.

The main idea of the video is that sponsors and gaming organizations have the potential to acquire a staggering increase in brand recognition. Tugman himself found that his Return on Investments was so great that it made his sponsorship of SCReddit worthwhile despite the investment costs. Through the use of ads and commentator shout outs at the beginning of each match, the sponsors would get several visits and even registrations on their websites. Even with just a HangWith.me banner on theSCReddit website, Tugman was receiving a huge amount of visits just to see what his site had to offer. Tugman’s overall view is that investing in tournaments, gaming sites, or a gaming team is a great way for small businesses related to gaming to get their names out into the community and to explore the demographic for future expansion.

 

 

To visit Tugman’s website go here.
To visit SCReddit go here.

New ESEA Invite Division Policy

January 12th, 2011

On Monday, ESEA announced a new policy for the ESEA Invite divisions that should greatly enhance the professionalism and security of the league.

In what will require a $100/player deposit by each team with a title sponsor or organization, funds for travel to the ESEA LAN Playoffs and Finals will be secured. The deposit will be refunded for teams that do not make the playoffs, and will not be expected from teams who play independently of any organization or primary sponsor.

Below is the official announcement by ESEA:

 

Each season since we started the ESEA League, we’ve worked tirelessly to simplify and improve the process of competitive gaming while also trying to advance what teams and players should come to expect from a gaming company. Having made significant strides in those areas, we now feel we can begin to focus our efforts on further stabilizing, and in turn legitimizing, Invite divisions, teams, players, and the organizations that support them.

To that end we’re pleased to announce our first initiative which will be to require any Invite team that has a title sponsor (team name or tag) to pay a $100.00 deposit per player at the start of each season. The money will go towards travel expenses for teams that qualify for LAN playoffs and will be fully refunded for teams that are eliminated from playoff contention.

While the initial amount might not seem like a lot of money, it’s a step in the right direction and will be built upon during future seasons to help eliminate instances of players representing organizations for the entirety of a regular season, based on the promise of travel funding, only to be left out to dry with days left to book airline tickets and hotels at inflated prices.

 

CompLexity Gaming fully supports this change and provided this statement to ESEA:

 

compLexity is happy to support this new initiative. The player / team dynamic is an important relationship, and it is critical that players and teams uphold their commitments to one another.

 

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

HoN Super Series Announced

January 12th, 2011

In an announcement by my-liga.com, the Super Series for Heroes of Newearth has been launched. The international event promises over 10,000 euros in prizes (cash and hardware).

The HoN Super Series is sponsored by my-liga.de, in cooperation with S2 Games, Kaspersky Lab, Mad Catz, Raptor Gaming, and PNY Technologies. The event will also be cast and covered by HoNcast.com and Fragster.de.

Prize Pool:

– 2.500 € Cash
– 10x Cyborg Mouse, R.A.T. 7 (70 €)
– 10x Cyborg V3 Mouse-Pad V. 3 (20 €)
– 5x Raptor Gaming H3 USB – Headset – 7.1-Kanal (75 €)
– 5x Raptor Gaming K3 Keyboard
– 5x Raptor Gaming LK1
– 5x Kaspersky Internet Security 2011
– 10x PNY Technologies DDR 3 RAM

The event is open for registration to anyone that would like to participate. Results from the Super Series will determine placement in the HoN leagues which currently includes an Amateur and Premier division.

For more information on joining the event, click here.

MaDFroG and SK Gaming Part Ways

January 12th, 2011

In an announcement made this morning by SK Gaming via their website, the organization has released Fredrik “MaDFroG” Johansson from their SC2 roster, only days after announcing the addition of both Jimmy “jimpo” Wölfinger and Hun “inuh” Park.

Johansson, who current plays as a Zerg, has yet to find his feet in the Starcraft II realm after transferring to the game following an impressive career in Warcraft 3.

Timothy Ellersiek, the head of team and player management at SK Gaming, had this to say regarding the announcement:

 

Unfortunately, we have to part ways with Fredrik, due to some circumstances which won’t allow a fertile fundament for both parties to work on in 2011. We had a blast having the legendary MaDFroG back on board for the last six months, but as things have turned out, we won’t be able to prolong Fredrik’s contract for this New Year. We want to thank MaDFroG for his efforts and achievements as being our first SC2 player we adopted into our roster and wish him all the best for his SC2 future.

 

The move leaves SK Gaming’s SC2 roster with only their latest 2 pickups.

 SK Gaming StarCraft 2

Jimmy “jimpo” Wölfinger
Hun “inuh” Park

GOMtv house for foreign players

January 11th, 2011

GOMtv is doing everything possible to encourage foreign players to come compete in the GSL. GOMtv has announced that they will be making a house available for players to stay in while they are in Korea.

The decision behind this was seeing all the current foreign players coming over to compete and having trouble finding somewhere to stay. The house will be able to hold 8-10 people

 

If you wish to stay at the team house, you need to send a) copy of your passport b) your ladder ranking to [email protected]. People with the highest ladder ranking will be accepted to the house. Make sure you send them after the registration begins(Jan 17th 00:00). If you send them before appointed date and time it will not be accepted.

Source: ESFI World

Alchemists Announce New Roster

January 11th, 2011

Just a week ago Team Never Ending Brotherhood had annouced that three of their players had decided to retire from Counter Strike, and a statement was issued by Kenneth “REASTEN” Kristiansen that it was officially over for him and his fellow teammates, Kristian “KORN” Hokland, and Anders “bjERKE” Bjerke.

“KORN and bjERKE decided to quit CS, then I left the team,” Kristiansen stated in an interview with HLTV.org.

However, just a week later Team Never Ending Brotherhood has decided to return to play Counter Strike once more under their new name; Alchemists Unleashed. Hokland even decided to revoke his early retirement, and has returned to play with Alchemists. With the new team, the Norweigan Alchemists Unleashed have brought in a new face, Swedish-based Andreas “moddii” Fridh.

Fridh was last seen with SK Gaming playing as a stand in for the bulk of 2010, and went to several events with them, including DreamHack Winter 2010, World E-Sports Masters, World Cyber Games 2010, and the Intel Extreme Masters European Championship. Many have speculated that Fridh would stay on with SK to become a permanent member of the team after so many events with them, but he was removed from the SK Gaming roster after the recent shake up between SK Gaming and Fnatic.

Alchemists’ Team Manager, Glenn “gkarlseN” Karlsen, gave a statement about the new team:

 

We are happy to introduce our new Counter-Strike 1.6 team. This time it fell on a lighter mix of players, and we believe this composition has what it takes to places to themselves on an international level.

 

Alechemists Unleashed

Gunnar “zEn” Eng
Karl William “kalle” Haraldsen
Tommy “tacky “Mosgaard
Kristian “KORN” Hokland
Andreas “moddii” Fridh

Team Alchemists Unleashed will have their debut in the newly annouced World Gaming Festival, and the 4Kings Lan Event in March.

Image courtesy of MYM

Patch 1.20 Released

January 11th, 2011

Blizzard has officially released Patch 1.20 as it went live on Battle.net servers all around the world, starting with SEA servers and eventually moving along to Europe and North America.

Blizzard has also confirmed that the ladder will not be reset, as was the rumor prior to the patch. It has also been announced that Shakuras Plateau is back in the ladder map pool.

The official patch notes are below:

General

* Battle.net Chat Channels have been added! Players can now join others in both public and private channels.
– Added in-game chat bar command to whisper to other players. Using the “/w” command will open up a list of available friends, party members, chat channels, and other players within your current game.
– Added Battle.net option to auto-join previous private channels.
– Added Battle.net option to prevent chat channel text from appearing in in-game chat display.
* A new Master League has been added! This league now represents the highest tier of players.
* Customizable Hotkey Support has been added.
* Stalemate Detection has been added. This will end the game in a tie for all remaining players if n- players have income, production, or destroyed structures for three consecutive minutes. A countdown timer will now appear when the game detects this scenario.
* An Extreme graphics option is now available. Players can now configure screen space ambient occlusion.

Additional Improvements and Changes

* Several help dialogue and tech tree improvements have been made:
– In-game help is now available in Battle.net.
– The help dialog’s tech tree has been improved.
– Unit information in the help dialog now displays abilities and upgrades.
* Several Save/Replay File dialogue improvements have been made:
– Added ability to sort replays and saved games by name and date.
– Added ability to rightoclick and rename a replay or saved game from within the game interface.
– Added a new tab for auto-saved games and unsaved replays.
– Added an option to permanently save all replays. Checking this option will mark all unsaved replays as being saved.
– Added visibility for where replays and saved games are being saved to.
– Added a “Show in Folder” button which will open the location where a replay or saved game is stored on your computer.
* Camera following behavior for observers and replays has been improved.
* The System Alert panel has been moved to the top of the screen and the duration of most system alerts has been reduced.
* Mouse buttons can now be bound to the Push-To-Talk hotkey.
* A hotkey indicator option has been added to show the primary hotkey on top of command buttons.
* When selecting a Vespene geyser, the number of current harvesters will be displayed in the inf- panel.
* Added an option to disable any error sounds. The Response Sounds checkbox now controls whether unitospecific audi- is used for error sounds instead of a generic buzz.
* Added Game UI layout per-map overrides. Map makers can now use custom UI layout files to create new UI or override existing game UI.
* Added a toggle button to the in-game replay panel to Show or Hide the timeline/duration information.
* Added hotkey to Pause/Resume game for both single player and multiplayer (Pause/Break key).

Balance

* GENERAL
– Players can n- longer block off ramps with tw- 2×2 buildings.

* PROTOSS
– Hallucination research time decreased from 110 to 80.
– Observer
+ Cost decreased from 50/100 to 25/75.
– Phoenix
+ Build time decreased from 45 to 35.
– Void Ray
+ Now deals 20% more damage to massive targets.
+ Flux Vanes speed upgrade removed.

* TERRAN
– SCV
+ Repairing SCVs now assume the same threat priority as the unit they’re repairing.
+ SCV construction movement has been made more consistent.

StarCraft II Editor Improvements

* Map locale management has been added.
* Further editor tips and hints have been added.
* New trigger functions, actions, and events have been added:
– New trigger functions:
+ Verify Bank – used to verify that a bank’s signature is intact.
– New trigger actions:
+ Bank Option – used to change options for banks including adding a signature.
+ Remove Inventory Item – used to instantly remove a requested item from an inventory.
+ Set Visibility Type Of Text Tag – used to control whether fog or black mask hides the tag.
– New trigger events:
+ Mouse Moved – sent in response to the mouse being moved in the game world.
* New unit properties have been added:
– Carried Minerals, Carried Vespene, Carried Terrazine, and Carried Custom Resource.
– Bounty (XP) – used to grant experience when a unit is killed.
* New Effect Used event property has been added: Life, Shields, and Energy changed.
* Copy/paste support has been added to the upgrade editor.
* Behaviors can now be replaced by either the shortest duration (the original method) or by farthest distance.
* Behavior abilities can now properly charge the player using the ability instead of always charging the owner.
* Right clicking an item in an inventory will now have the icon appear immediately next to the cursor.
* Font Style Files can now be added to Mods and Maps using the FontStyleFileArray field in GameUIData. Existing styles can have their individual attributes overridden or entirely new styles can be added.
* UI Layout files can now be added to Mods and Maps using the CustomLayoutFileArray filed in GameUIData. Most existing frames can be modified or overridden and entirely new templates can be added which can be created from the Dialog system within the Editor.
* Attributes and values can now be hidden in the game lobby and can be configured through Game Variants.
* The mouse wheel now scrolls the control under the cursor.
* Copied doodads now retain their height offset.
* Attribute and Veterancy behaviors now normalize vitals when new levels are applied.
* Mouse clicks & highlights are now allowed while in relative camera mode.
* Edit boxes are now available for trigger dialogs.
* The game will now properly find custom imported files within mods.
* Maps can now depend on even more mods.
* Dialog Items can now be hooked up from already existing frames within a created Panel.
* Change Focus commands are now available in the Trigger module View menu for switching input focus directly to different areas.
* The water editor layout has been improved.
* Effect offsets can now optionally contain a Z component.
* Added a new type of Dialog Item called Panel. Panels are containers for other dialog items to help with grouping and hierarchy.
* Added new UI to insert text tags for data references, unit info, and hotkeys.
* Added an effect range to the effect ability to restrict how far away the effect can be placed. This will allow effects to behave like the Stalker Blink effect.
* Added a behavior flag to suppress fidgeting.
* Added a new stalemate melee option to determine whether the stalemate detection checking is enforced.
* Added a new “Creator” player to effects. It will be set to the player issuing an order if available.
* Added a new type of item that can use an effect ability.
* Added a validator that checks to see if a unit can path to a point.
* Added a validator that checks if there is a cliff between tw- points.
* Added MinimapRenderPriority to CActorUnit and MinimapRenderPriorityList to CActorGlobalConfig. This allows custom map makers to define the render priorities of units on the minimap.
* Added a Locale sub-menu in the Mod menu for changing the active text locale for the current document.
* Added a Mod Inf- dialog in the Mod menu for more easily changing mod name and description text.
* Added a Modify Locales dialog (als- in Locale sub-menu) for adding or removing text locales.
* Added an Editor Tips dialog in the Help menu (and optionally on start up) with tips for using the editor effectively.

Bug Fixes

* Gameplay
– General
+ All diagonal ramps are now the same with regards to unbuildable locations at the bottom of the ramps.
+ Critter health bars are now hidden unless highlighted or selected (if status bars are set to show when units are selected).
+ Orders can n- longer be canceled by clicking on the inf- panel in challenges before the challenge begins.
+ Text tags are now paused when the game is paused.
+ Autocast state for abilities will now reset to the default state when unit ownership is permanently changed.
+ Autocast repair will now charge the player requesting autocast functionality.
+ Repair will now clear its autocast state if the owning player leaves the game.
+ Harvest orders n- longer end if an order is queued while waiting to return cargo.
+ Harvesting units n- longer avoid enemy units.
+ Hold position units n- longer automatically move out of the way when placing a building.
+ Enemy units n- longer show passive buttons in the command card.
+ Missiles are n- longer affected by Vortex.
+ Actors with a large number of create events n- longer crash the map.
+ Fixed an issue where cliff jumping units were able to traverse unpathable terrain.
+ Fixed an issue with units trying to get out of the way s- buildings can be constructed.
+ Fixed an issue with harvesting units bypassing force fields.
+ Fixed an issue where melee units were unable to attack a colossus when it was on a cliff.
+ Fixed an issue where larva would not wander around.
+ Fixed an issues where loading a saved Challenge could improperly overwrite the best score.
+ Fixed an issue with animation stutters when flying units are separating.
+ Fixed an issue where units could push opposing units when they shouldn’t have been able to.
+ Added “Detector” text to the inf- panel for units which can detect cloaked or burrowed units.
+ Added combat reveal tinting to help show that combat reveal units cannot be hit.
– Protoss
+ Protoss structures can n- longer be powered without a power source if constructed while powered by a Warp Prism under the effects of Neural Parasite.
+ Mass Recall can n- longer target larva or eggs.
+ Fixed an issue where units that were picked up by a Graviton Beam would still block pathing on the ground.
+ Fixed an issue where a Zealot could burn its Charge cooldown without actually moving.
– Terran
+ Changed the position of the Select Builder button on Terran buildings, and changed the hotkey to Q.
+ SCVs can n- longer continue construction on a building from inside an adjacent bunker.
+ Fixed nuke dot not being visible all the time.
+ Fixed an issue where you could see an enemy MULE drop pod in some cases where you didn’t have vision of the target location.
+ Fixed an issue where a Medivac would be able to continue healing a unit that was stuck in a Graviton Beam if the Medivac had started healing the unit before it was picked up by the Graviton Beam.
+ Fixed an issue where a Thor would continue to channel 250mm Strike Cannons on an uplifted Terran building if it lifted off at just the right time.
+ Fixed an issue where a Thor could get stuck channeling if a player queued up multiple targets for 250mm Strike Cannons.
+ Fixed an issue where SCVs could continue repairing at a short range even though the structure they were repairing was blocked by Force Fields.
– Zerg
+ Creep will now spread evenly in all directions.
+ The Burrow and Cancel Neural Parasite buttons have been moved on the command card.
+ Fixed an issue with Ultralisk unable to attack a row of sensor towers.

* StarCraft II Editor
– The “For Each Real” and “For Each Integer” actions will now correctly execute once when the starting and ending bounds are equal while the increment is als- zero.
– Items dropped from an inventory will now use their default height when dropped.
– The View Script command will now view library scripts if the library list has focus.
– Carried and equipped item behaviors and weapons are now restored properly when a unit is revived.
– Publish dialog now updates storage information after removing a published file in the Managed Published window.
– Dropdowns now correctly select items as you type using partial matching.
– Standard dependencies can n- longer be modified in the Dependencies dialog (only added or removed).
– Camera following can n- longer be disabled via hotkeys if it was requested via triggers.
– Fixed an issue with editing stylized text values when using system locales other than English.
– Fixed an issue with Veterancy experience share filters.
– Fixed an issue when editing mover data where values were not being saved correctly.
– Fixed an issue that prevented certain changes to angle values.
– Fixed an issue where selection circles would drop when a flying unit was over a cliff.
– Fixed an issue where the scroll bar for tree views could disappear.
– Fixed an issue where triggers setting the mouse relative could result in the mouse being stuck in relative move mode.
– Fixed an issue where setting the color of a dialog item of type label wasn’t working.
– Fixed a crash that could occur while editing upgrade values.
– Fixed text truncation with Set Text actor message.
– Fixed display of ability command links in the Overview Manager.
– Fixed many areas where English text was displayed instead of localized text.
– Fixed a crash when destroying a persistent effect.

ToD Joins Millenium

January 10th, 2011

Yesterday, Team Millenium has announced the acquisition of Yoan “ToD” Merlo (aka YoanM), joining the likes of Lalush, Moman, and Adelscott. ToD has made a great name for himself as one of the best WC3 players in the world, playing as the Human class. In 2006, Yoan moved to Bejing, China to be closer to the WC3 action.

In SC2, Yoan has decided to use the Protoss class. ToD is now currently in the top 100 rank as Protoss on Blizzard’s ladder, playing on the European server.

Millenium’s StarCraft II 2011 Roster:

Yoan “ToD” Merlo
Benoît “Adel” Strypsteen
Tomasz “Tarson” Boroń
Faton “LaLuSh” Rekathati
Leif “KleeneX” Boutin
Ilyes “Stephano” Satouri
Marcin “DieStar” Wieczorek

GSL To Remove 4 Maps?

January 9th, 2011

According to GSL Code S progamer NSPGenius, GSL has made plans to remove 4 maps from its official rotation. According to several sources, the maps will be replaced by new ones that are currently undergoing testing and will remain in a candidacy stage.

The maps expected to be removed are:

1. Steppes of War
2. Delta Quadrant
3. Blistering Sands
4. TBA

The custom maps that are candidates to replace the 4 above are:

1. Aiur Garden
2. Tal’Darim Altar
3. Biohazard
4. Crossfire
5. Terminus Re

Currently, the change has not yet been announced by GSL admins, however it is expected that an announcement will be made when the new maps have been selected.