April has been Intense for the StarCraft II community with a plethora of news and events. Blizzard Entertaiment sent our way a community news roundup that’s surely going to entertain StarCraft II fans.

StarCraft II

World Championship Series News – The World Championship Series has begun and there’s plenty to keep track of. We’ve tried to make it a little easier by posting the events as they occur. You can keep tabs of it all on the official StarCraft II site.

North American Open Qualifiers

European Nationals

  • Netherland & Belgium Nationals – The next couple of national events in the StarCraft II World Championship Series take place in Cologne, Germany. Participants from the Netherlands and Belgium will fight for a combined prize pool of $4,000 and two slots in the European Finals. Find out more below, including info on how you can watch streams of these events including the televised finals, or even sign up to take part in the remaining qualifiers!

Ask Creative Development– The time has come for the Creative Development hive mind to delve into the vaults and answer your questions pertaining to the lore of the StarCraft universe. You stand at the brink of gaining true knowledge, but will you ask the question that the ancients will answer? Or will your question fall into the galactic abyss? Consider well what question you will ask because you are only allowed to put a single query before them. Then, return to the thread often and vote on the questions you would most like to see answered. Welcome to information by democracy.

  • Time is running out for the community to submit their questions and vote for their favorites. The forum thread (here) will be closed as of 11:59 p.m. PDT on Monday, April
    30.

Additional Matchmaking Changes– After analyzing data and reviewing player feedback, we have made improvements
to the matchmaking system to correct a few issues and are now ready to move back to the more relaxed matchmaking system. Read on for more details.

  • We’re continuing to keep a close eye on the new matchmaking changes and as always welcome feedback from all of you.

Talking Balance with David Kim– Join us as David Kim talks about balance in StarCraft II, including recent shifts that might merit further investigation, where the game is in terms of balance over all, as well as how things look in the pro scene.

We’d love any feedback or comments you or your community have about the Developer Blogs we’ve been posting. If you have ideas for topics you think we should cover, please feel free to let us know!

Community Content: Highlight Reel– Wings of Dream (last fly) By Coyote- Featuring a very cool homage to a classic anime series and incredible action from some of the most exciting StarCraft II plays ever, this highlight reel does not disappoint.

The Art of War – Making Sacrifices–  Are you a veteran player? Are you new to StarCraft II and striving to improve your skills? In this weekly feature, we invite players of all skill levels to ask questions, share their tactics, post replays, and provide advice for understanding, executing and defeating today’s most popular strategies.

We’d love to encourage more players to take part in these discussions each week. If you have suggestions for great topics, please feel free to email them to us.  This week we asked, “Making Sacrifices – Have you ever sacrificed an army, or even an entire expansion, to achieve a tactical goal? What was your strategy, and how did that match play out? When does it make sense to make sacrifices?”

Heart of the Swarm at MLG Pro Circuit Spring Championship– The culmination of the Spring Season. This massive, three-day event will be broadcast live across multiple streams and will welcome thousands of in-person spectators. Lots of exciting details will be released in the coming weeks, including Spring’s full lineup of Pro Circuit games.

General Blizzard News

Diablo III Midnight Launch Events – We’re inviting you to join us for the midnight launch of Diablo III! In addition to local retail shops’ midnight launches, we’re holding a number of demonically charged worldwide launch events in major cities where you can join Blizzard to celebrate the release of Diablo III and pick up your copy of the game. Each event will have its own activities, giveaways, and contests, so see the press release for further details and be sure to check the launch event site for more info on the one nearest you.

It’s not StarCraft news, but we’re pretty excited about the launch of Diablo III and hope you all are too.

Did You Know…? Social Networking – You already know that you can find StarCraft news right here, but did you also know that Blizzard has several social networking pages? These sites feature news, visual media, contests, player-created content, and much more. Check out what we have to offer, interact with your peers in the community, and share the latest updates with your friends.

We love getting new followers on our social media outlets, so would appreciate getting the word out. We’re also happy to follow you and highlight your tweets and news articles when we can. Please remember to send them our way!

Battle.net Mobile Services & Alerts– We’re pleased to present  Battle.net Mobile Alerts; a free and optional self-help service that will allow you to manage your Battle.net account using any text-enabled cell phone with a data plan.

We’re always looking for ways to improve account security and we hope that we can get more of the community hooked up with the Battle.net authenticator and now the Battle.net Alerts.

Reminder: WoW Annual Pass- Last Chance– You have until Monday, April 30 to sign up for the WoW: Annual Pass, which includes a 12 month subscription commitment to World of Warcraft, a free digital version of Diablo III (available when the game launches), the Tyrael’s Charger flying mount for WoW (available immediately), and other epic benefits.  If you’ve been waiting for the last possible moment to sign up for the Annual Pass, this is it!  After April 30, this offer will no longer be available.

FanSite and Community News

Google ‘Zerg Rush’ Easter Egg Invades Your Search Results– It’s Friday, so why not waste a few minutes this morning with Google’s latest playable Easter Egg? Typing “zerg rush” in Google.com seemingly returns the regular Google search results for this unusual term, but soon, little O’s (from the Google logo) start dropping from the top of the page.

GLHFMag Launches – Founded in late 2011 by a handful of StarCraft 2 enthusiasts with a shared vision, we have since grown into an international project with dozens of contributors around the world. Every two months, these journalists, artists, and developers work together to deliver a new issue ripe with fresh community content alongside exclusive interviews and editorials.StarCraft Legacy Reviews Wings of Liberty – (April 14) StarCraft: Legacy is proud to present its review of the Wings of Liberty story. As is the standard with SC:L articles, it is extensive and contains the culmination of the best suggestions and feedback we have to improve the StarCraft franchise.

StarCraft Legacy Reviews Wings of Liberty – (April 14) StarCraft: Legacy is proud to present its review of the Wings of Liberty story. As is the standard with SC:L articles, it is extensive and contains the culmination of the best suggestions and feedback we have to improve the StarCraft franchise.

BlizzPlanet- StarCraft Summary – Covers match making changes, Metropolis LE GSL map removed, MLG partnering with Blizzard, MLG Spring Arena 1, Dreamhack, and a big giveaway with a Starcraft hat, Blizzard hat, Goblin mousepad, and Dethling Blizzcon 2010 statue.

TeamLiquid StarLeague 4 – We are excited to officially announce the TeamLiquid StarLeague 4. It’s been a long year, but we’re finally back. The TSL4 will feature three returning seeds and twenty-nine open qualifier spots. It will have a live finals and after party in New York City, as well as full news and coverage on TeamLiquid.net. But most of all, it will hopefully recapture the spirit that made TSL3 special to not only the TL community but to StarCraft fans everywhere.

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