On May 11 2026 20:28 Harris1st wrote: It probably just needs a steam release with all the possible modes/ ladders and whatnot and player numbers would go up to AoE numbers. People HATE the bnet launcher and everything connected to it
Do you mind adding some details? What possible modes/ladders are missing? What are the player numbers? Why are the player numbers bad for Warcraft 3? Why do people HATE "bnet launcher and everything connected to it" (Especially compared to Steam, which has so much garbage on it its not even funny anymore)
I haven't touched WC3 since Reforged myself. I know there are (or were)some unofficial ladders since reforged didn't have a ladder. Reforged did overwrite the "legacy" version of WC3 in the bnet launcher. I recall there were found out options to stop it from doing that later on/ reversing it. Dunno what the state of official ladder / pro ladder is these days. I have no idea what the numbers are since it isn't on steam. You tell me what the numbers are since you clearly know? I never said anything remotely close to "numbers are bad for Warcraft 3" no idea what you are fishing for but it seems very bad faith argument. I hate the bnet launcher, everyone I know hates the bnet launcher, reddit is full of opinions why bnet launcher is bad. Random updates, voice chat is mostly broken, ads everywhere, game updates are slow as fuck. Like how is that even possible in modern times slow Is Steam the holy grail? Of course not. But it's the launcher that everyone has and everyone uses. Bit like Windows in that regard. GOG was supposed to be the one that rules them all but at least in my personal echo chamber that hasn't happened.
I could tell you that you have no idea what you are talking about, but you already did that yourself in great detail.
Let me dissect your initial post: "It probably just needs a steam release" Why? Because numbers arent where they should be? "with all the possible modes/ ladders and whatnot" Well, thats the "you dont know what you are talking about" "player numbers would go up to AoE numbers" You would have to know the Warcraft 3 numbers in order to say that
On May 10 2026 23:49 Antithesis wrote: I should like to resurrect this thread because of the recent bit of hype around WC3 coming from Grubby's next invitational streamer tournament: Altar of Champions.
In particular I have been enjoying following Hera's journey – the best AoE2 player – from a complete beginner to I believe now around 1300 MMR on W3Champions as UD. Also I have returned to playing and laddering WC3 a bit, and I must say so far it is really fun. Challenging of course but much less swingy compared to what little I played on the SC2 ladder recently, especially compared to the horrible ladder experience for zergs on the current patch, haha.
Anyone else following?
Yeah. I'm running a daily chart documenting their progress. Here it is today:
My notes on the players:
- Tyler1 has had an extra 12 days to reacquaint himself with the game, having known about the event and essentially leaking its existence via a chat bot command referencing his upcoming schedule, yet he has also had considerable difficulty. He sank from 1500 to 1250 over 4 weeks.
- Hera is obviously an AoE2 master, and was assigned Undead as a suitable challenge. He has been grinding a ton of games, often choosing to mass game rather than study. As a result, he's plateaued multiple times, but easily broken past them after small coaching sessions (you can see the dramatic slope shifts corresponding to coaching days).
- Pohx has extensive experience in custom games, giving him engine familiarity, but has not played a competitive game in many years. He has decided to leverage his solo hero experience and play mostly Warden, and it seems that his ladder anxiety is fading a bit and timings and concepts are clicking for him more, as he is currently on a 13-game win streak.
- YamatoCannon decided to play 100 games on Bnet before jumping into W3Champions, just to orient himself. He played War3 when it released, and apparently matched against Grubby on the ladder back then. He has shown incredible tenacity and growth, often having 12-16 hour streams full of analysis and practice and reaping the benefits. He hit 1400 at his peak and dropped back down to 1350 later that day, but with his versatility he could easily recapture it.
- Maxim doesn't have as much time to commit as some streamers, but he has jumped up to near 1100 without much difficulty. He's chosen to specialize in Pala/Rifle, as he feels it is still strong at his level.
- Simply is a Mario64 speedrunner, and predictably his strengths are in minor timing optimizations, which any RTS player knows pays rippling dividends. His improvement has been steady as he meticulously applies each new discovery.
- MaryMaybe is a significant underdog because at the time the practice period began, she was committed to a week-long sponsorship for a new gacha MMO, and shortly after that was doing event streams with her enclave in Austin. Nevertheless, she learns quickly, and executes strategies and tactics well, albeit a little slowly. Given a little more time, she can easily surprise the competition.
- Dantes' situation is similar to MaryMaybe's, as he was suddenly asked to coach Jynxzi (a 50k-viewer streamer) as he learned League of Legends, and so this was an easy business decision for him. Dantes is attempting to catch up by getting structured coaching from some W3C community figures, which can challenge his impulsive nature.
People seem to be excited about the clanwar format on Friday, in particular how the results impact the bracket assignments for Saturday. I think the event will be really fun. I've done admin work on both of the previous Grubby invitational tournaments, and will of course be doing more of that this weekend. I hope people check it out and enjoy!
Thanks for all your work on this!
I love to watch the Grubby Invitationals and always get motivated to play a few games. Matched vs Simply on W3C when he was pushing 1100 MMR and did a cumstom game against him afterwards at his request, so Kevinwc3 could live coach him against UD.
Always fun to be a part of the wc3 community during these events .
On May 11 2026 20:28 Harris1st wrote: It probably just needs a steam release with all the possible modes/ ladders and whatnot and player numbers would go up to AoE numbers. People HATE the bnet launcher and everything connected to it
Do you mind adding some details? What possible modes/ladders are missing? What are the player numbers? Why are the player numbers bad for Warcraft 3? Why do people HATE "bnet launcher and everything connected to it" (Especially compared to Steam, which has so much garbage on it its not even funny anymore)
I haven't touched WC3 since Reforged myself. I know there are (or were)some unofficial ladders since reforged didn't have a ladder. Reforged did overwrite the "legacy" version of WC3 in the bnet launcher. I recall there were found out options to stop it from doing that later on/ reversing it. Dunno what the state of official ladder / pro ladder is these days. I have no idea what the numbers are since it isn't on steam. You tell me what the numbers are since you clearly know? I never said anything remotely close to "numbers are bad for Warcraft 3" no idea what you are fishing for but it seems very bad faith argument. I hate the bnet launcher, everyone I know hates the bnet launcher, reddit is full of opinions why bnet launcher is bad. Random updates, voice chat is mostly broken, ads everywhere, game updates are slow as fuck. Like how is that even possible in modern times slow Is Steam the holy grail? Of course not. But it's the launcher that everyone has and everyone uses. Bit like Windows in that regard. GOG was supposed to be the one that rules them all but at least in my personal echo chamber that hasn't happened.
I could tell you that you have no idea what you are talking about, but you already did that yourself in great detail.
Let me dissect your initial post: "It probably just needs a steam release" Why? Because numbers arent where they should be? "with all the possible modes/ ladders and whatnot" Well, thats the "you dont know what you are talking about" "player numbers would go up to AoE numbers" You would have to know the Warcraft 3 numbers in order to say that
On May 10 2026 23:49 Antithesis wrote: I should like to resurrect this thread because of the recent bit of hype around WC3 coming from Grubby's next invitational streamer tournament: Altar of Champions.
In particular I have been enjoying following Hera's journey – the best AoE2 player – from a complete beginner to I believe now around 1300 MMR on W3Champions as UD. Also I have returned to playing and laddering WC3 a bit, and I must say so far it is really fun. Challenging of course but much less swingy compared to what little I played on the SC2 ladder recently, especially compared to the horrible ladder experience for zergs on the current patch, haha.
Anyone else following?
Yeah. I'm running a daily chart documenting their progress. Here it is today:
Very cool. Interesting to see their progress laid out. Seems like Tyler1, Hera, Yamato, and Pohx will be the main competitors. Actually I didn't know Pohx was up there with the other three, but I didn't know him at all.
I've mostly followed Hera's journey because I play UD myself, and his coaching sessions with Grubby are very instructive. Also SaulApeMan's coaching of Dante is glorious.
Let's see how the last days before the tournament develop. Apparently Yamato continues to make good progress.
On May 18 2026 05:20 Crimson)S(hadow wrote: hera on a loser's tear
Yeah, great run and genuinely impressive gameplay by Hera, looking much better than in the last days leading up to the tourney.
Still giving Yamato the edge for the finals given how much coaching he has received but should be a good match either way.
Edit: Wow. Crazy reverse sweep by Hera in the finals. GGs. This was an amazing tournament overall. Lots of storylines and memes but also some legitimately good plays.
This was the best event yet. Everything went really well, the players all tried hard, they made silly mistakes, they had huge clutch plays. Really glad the clan war format was received well. The participants treated each other like teammates, had respect and humility, and really enjoyed themselves. High level players came out from all over to seek out and coach these players. It was amazing!
Agreed, best one yet with the clan war format, picking your opponent for the bracket stage, Hera's insane comeback and skill increase before sunday and the level of the grand final overall imo.
The choaches where the cherry on top and it made for great stories all around.
In case people didn't notice Hera crashed and burned in the AoE 2 tournament after this. Think he probably lost money overall on joining the tournament.
On June 05 2026 05:09 Yurie wrote: In case people didn't notice Hera crashed and burned in the AoE 2 tournament after this. Think he probably lost money overall on joining the tournament.
Ha, funny but I suppose not surprising, if you dump a few hundred hours into a different RTS it's gonna mess with you at least a little.
Also yeah probably losing money in the short term, but probably worth it for exposure/outreach in the long term, depending on what he wants to do as a streamer/educator.
First DLC for Warcraft III since TFT in 2003. And we got a new tavern hero since 2004! Forsaken Paladin!
The campaign is supposed to be really beefy, 30+ hours. Although the only bad thing I heard about it, is that its more of a Rexxar-RPG style campaign than a base building campaign. I also really enjoy World of Warcraft, so it's really cool they have this campaign which has retroactive story implications for upcoming World of Warcraft Forever and World of Warcraft retail's story since it revolves around undead paladins.
EPT![[image loading]](https://imgur.com/rGJgPIi.png)
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