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Um... announcement has been out for a couple hours, but haven't yet seen a thread:
http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/blizzard-partners-with-mlg-for-the-world-championship-series
![[image loading]](http://wordpress.tools.majorleaguegaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/blizzardworlds_545.jpg) We are extremely excited to announce that we are partnering with Blizzard to host two events as part of their StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS). The StarCraft II World Championship Series USA Nationals will be held at the MLG Spring Championship – June 8-10 at the Anaheim Convention Center. 64 participants will be invited through a combination of qualifiers and the StarCraft II ladder to compete in a best-of-3 games, double elimination tournament for $15k in prizing. The top 16 finishers in the USA Nationals will receive an invitation to compete in the StarCraft II World Championship Series North America Finals. The StarCraft II North America Finals will be held at the MLG Summer Championship – August 24-26, location to be announced. 32 players from the StarCraft II World Championship Series–Canada Nationals, USA Nationals, and Mexico Nationals–will compete in a Best-of-3 games, double elimination tournament for $30k in prizing. The top players from the StarCraft II North America Finals will receive invitations to compete in the Battle.net World Championship in Asia later this year. Additional information will be released in the coming weeks. Spectator passes for the Spring Championship are available now. If you can’t make it out to Anaheim in person, then mark your calendar and catch the live stream. The basic broadcast will be free, but you can get full HD access to all streams by purchasing a Spring SCII Season Pass. Read more at http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/.
Please read MLG_Adam's posts below for a few clarifications! 
Should be a great event! I'm personally super pumped - as I'm in school and June is right around finals (  ) I'm glad I'll be able to play in two amazing events in one weekend to save travel costs and time  !
short-form info about the US Nationals:
64 total players, bo3 double elim bracket, no extended series
24 invites have gone out, based on placement in top tournaments (MLG, NASL, possibly others)
8 spots will be given out in the Playhem Dailies this week as qualification: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=328751
other spots TBD/TBA, not sure if there are more invites or more qualifiers or what combination of the two
there is a separate stream(s?) for the Nationals/Continentals (it won't be on MLG stream)
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United States994 Posts
You will be able to play in both.
Schedules will overlap but will be scheduled so players can still do both.
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from what i know you'll be able to play both
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On April 21 2012 02:44 MLG_Adam wrote:
You will be able to play in both.
Schedules will overlap but will be scheduled so players can still do both.
Are the National/Continent tournaments only Fri/Sat/Sun? Or will there be extra days/hours?
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United States994 Posts
On April 21 2012 02:45 Pokebunny wrote:Show nested quote +On April 21 2012 02:44 MLG_Adam wrote:
You will be able to play in both.
Schedules will overlap but will be scheduled so players can still do both. Are the National/Continent tournaments only Fri/Sat/Sun? Or will there be extra days/hours?
Only Friday/Saturday/Sunday.
There will be a Blizzard tournament...plus other Blizzard activity...specific stream for Nationals and Continentals.
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United States994 Posts
On April 21 2012 02:45 Krainer wrote:
Extended series?
Not for the Blizzard event.
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Thanks a lot Adam for clearing up some questions I had!
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lol MLG partnering with everyone, well it is just good for everybody
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On April 21 2012 02:47 MLG_Adam wrote:Not for the Blizzard event.
Woot!
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From what i have read, in this thread, you will be able to play both.
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United States994 Posts
Anaheim is going to be awesome of course with at least double the seats you saw in Columbus, double the main stage screens for those not near the stage (yes all 3 screens again), etc. to accomodate this event, but the August event for Continentals will have even more SC2 presence to celebrate the North American finals.
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OMG this is great! Can't wait for Anaheim and I am also pumped to find out what other "Blizzard Activities" the MLG guys have planned for us 
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This could be very interesting. If Blizzard starts getting partnered with tournament organizers and making things like the World Championship yearly and other smaller tournaments throughout the course of the year, this will be huge!
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United States994 Posts
Giving out codes on twitter soon for Spring Arena #1 PPV
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On April 21 2012 02:47 MLG_Adam wrote:Not for the Blizzard event.
You should learn from blizzard!
And every other sc2 tournament including your own spring arena
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Wait, reading again, it says the location for Summer Champ is TBA - I thought it was already established that it was Raleigh, as it was on their convention center site?
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Glad I already bought a spring season pass
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MLG doing it big. keep it up.
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MLG Adam hinted at HotS being at Anaheim in another interview. This is an even stronger indication IMO
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I think this is awesome. I have a huge concern though because the players that are playing both tournament at the same time(which will be most) might get exausted from playing so many games. Also, if a player starts to tilt a bit then it'll result in them doing bad in both events
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On April 21 2012 03:00 Pokebunny wrote:
Wait, reading again, it says the location for Summer Champ is TBA - I thought it was already established that it was Raleigh, as it was on their convention center site?
it is MLG hasn't announced it but it was found out by the convention center if im correct
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On April 21 2012 03:21 ChuCky.Ca wrote:Show nested quote +On April 21 2012 03:00 Pokebunny wrote:
Wait, reading again, it says the location for Summer Champ is TBA - I thought it was already established that it was Raleigh, as it was on their convention center site? it is MLG hasn't announced it but it was found out by the convention center if im correct
MLG has numerous times mentioned that Raleigh was the location of summer championship.
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This is big news guys... seems to not have gotten much attention, but it's featured in the news panel on bnet NA and is a pretty big deal heh. It certainly says a lot about Blizzard's presence and involvement with this MLG season, and huge things coming up at Anaheim.
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United Kingdom14464 Posts
This is pretty fucking cool, hopefully the tournament goes off without a hitch.
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Well to be fair it was an exciting weekend with DH and MLG to take up everyone's time.
This will be an insane year in SC2, that is for certain.
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Disappointed that TL is not featuring this at all! It kind of got buried in all the DH and MLG Arena business. I am hoping MLG will release more details soon as this event is literally a mere 6 weeks away. I am expecting a full arsenal of casters, production crews, and interviewers since there will be two simultaneous tournaments going on. I am assuming this tournament will be old school meaning that you will have to foot the travel/lodging bill if you qualify for national finals, continental finals, and world finals.
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On April 24 2012 16:20 onedayclose wrote:
Disappointed that TL is not featuring this at all! It kind of got buried in all the DH and MLG Arena business. I am hoping MLG will release more details soon as this event is literally a mere 6 weeks away. I am expecting a full arsenal of casters, production crews, and interviewers since there will be two simultaneous tournaments going on. I am assuming this tournament will be old school meaning that you will have to foot the travel/lodging bill if you qualify for national finals, continental finals, and world finals.
I actually believe Blizzard said that they would cover that.
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Why am I not surprised Acti-Blizz is supporting the company with the PPV model? Guess Kotick needs more money for his $15 a month CoD:MW MMO he's been so hard over.
All trolling aside good for MLG, I'm too confused by all the PPV/non-PPV MLG models and packages to even tell if I even can watch this, but at least it's nice to see the whole e-sports scene growing with Blizzard actively supporting it rather than just quietly collecting money from tourney organizers behind the scenes
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The partnership between Blizzard and MLG kinda implies that Riot will not be able to put LOL on the circuit. Blizzard is not only trying to grow SC2, but also trying to secure a spot for their new MOBA in order to compete with LOL(IMO).
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MLG drowning out important news with their own event, well done guys
This should have far more views for how important the news is, good job on Blizzard and MLG's part!
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On April 24 2012 18:19 Alva` wrote:
The partnership between Blizzard and MLG kinda implies that Riot will not be able to put LOL on the circuit. Blizzard is not only trying to grow SC2, but also trying to secure a spot for their new MOBA in order to compete with LOL(IMO).
MLG already had a meeting with Riot CEO about putting LoL for Anaheim, Announcement is gonna be this week.
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Cool news, are there gonna be any free streams of the event?
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Awesome deal. Can't wait for the show! Gz to MLG
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On April 24 2012 18:06 Hamdemon wrote:
Why am I not surprised Acti-Blizz is supporting the company with the PPV model? Guess Kotick needs more money for his $15 a month CoD:MW MMO he's been so hard over.
All trolling aside good for MLG, I'm too confused by all the PPV/non-PPV MLG models and packages to even tell if I even can watch this, but at least it's nice to see the whole e-sports scene growing with Blizzard actively supporting it rather than just quietly collecting money from tourney organizers behind the scenes
Even if u are right, altho there are tons of other reasons they chose MLG, they are supporting a business model that helps grow major event-organizers like MLG. How about people stop asking for free stuff, and actually pay for what they get....did people expect SC2 to be free also? "... damn those Acti-blizurd guys for charging u for their work...and now these mlg guys? damn them all!"
Seriously stop with this. The price they ask now is ok. Back in winter arena the price was high..but now it's half the price and in time, the whole system will only get better + maybe they will have a free-stream also at the major event, i think.
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Big blizzard announcements coming up at Anaheim I feel. Super excited!
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cool thing. blizzard makes sure that the us finals will be held as professional as possible.
hope that the stream will cover both.
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This will be a lot harder for me to watch all games at a time -_-
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On April 21 2012 02:47 MLG_Adam wrote:Not for the Blizzard event.
I really hope its not for both events. I think the community at large is tired of extended series. Thank you for not including them In Spring Arena #1. Fingers crossed Spring Championship is extended series free!
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
Interesting! NO EXTENDED SERIES.. HMmmmmmmm
^_^ <3
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Makes sense as MLG is based primarily in the U.S (for now). The biggest issue will be time as it is a 64 player, with double elimination, on top of a championship.
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Awesome! I hope this makes more NA players play seriously (even more so if this will be a yearly event!)
Then maybe we can see more good foreigner competition! The Europeans could use some backup, NA! ;-)
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Awesome news, nice to see Blizz attempting to promote esports by teaming up with established leagues
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You gonna use the reconnect tool in case a disconnect happens? Just curious.
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Great to hear. Now i deff need to go to Anaheim!
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On April 24 2012 22:04 iNcontroL wrote:
Interesting! NO EXTENDED SERIES.. HMmmmmmmm
^_^ <3
Hmmm indeed.
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So I guess.. Blizzards maps ? ( Daybreak with the full middle base, Metropolis with rocks and no creep, etc )
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Really don't like to see two tournaments on the same date, this is going to be so hard for some players.
Questioning Blizzard intentions, with fatigue players and maybe casters this won't exactly be a great tournament.
Yes I'm calling it now, sorry
Players are already saying it's really hard to come from the open bracket and battle your way to the top, now they will have EVEN more matches if they want to compete in both tournaments.
Hope to see a IPL/DH stream with full HD and 60fps.
+ Show Spoiler +No Extended Series?
FUCKING YES! <3
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On April 24 2012 18:19 Alva` wrote:
The partnership between Blizzard and MLG kinda implies that Riot will not be able to put LOL on the circuit. Blizzard is not only trying to grow SC2, but also trying to secure a spot for their new MOBA in order to compete with LOL(IMO).
Well... IEM are having LoL and the ESL is doing !!! 12 !!! events for the Blizzard WCS... not just 2 events.
So I doubt that Blizzard tries to influence the MLG towards not having LoL in the circuit with this deal...
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I'm wondering when they are going to announce who has already been invited to nationals. The most notable names (Sheth, Idra, Axslav, Nony, KawaiiRice, Incontrol, etc.) have been missing from the Playhem qualifiers.
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Maybe the announcement will be a patch that includes extended series into the ladder!
Like if you lose to a guy on the ladder, then next game you play against them and win, doesn't actually count as a win, but exists to cancel out the previous loss. Blizzard have you ever considered adding Extended Series to the Ladder?
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On April 25 2012 02:56 morbvs wrote:Show nested quote +On April 24 2012 18:19 Alva` wrote:
The partnership between Blizzard and MLG kinda implies that Riot will not be able to put LOL on the circuit. Blizzard is not only trying to grow SC2, but also trying to secure a spot for their new MOBA in order to compete with LOL(IMO). Well... IEM are having LoL and the ESL is doing !!! 12 !!! events for the Blizzard WCS... not just 2 events. So I doubt that Blizzard tries to influence the MLG towards not having LoL in the circuit with this deal...
That and also the fact that MLG just had a meeting with the CEO of Riot games, and are already in talks with Valve on their titles to be added to the circuit.
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On April 21 2012 02:47 MLG_Adam wrote:Not for the Blizzard event.
YES
YES
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On April 25 2012 02:05 Tobblish wrote:Really don't like to see two tournaments on the same date, this is going to be so hard for some players. Questioning Blizzard intentions, with fatigue players and maybe casters this won't exactly be a great tournament. Yes I'm calling it now, sorryPlayers are already saying it's really hard to come from the open bracket and battle your way to the top, now they will have EVEN more matches if they want to compete in both tournaments. Hope to see a IPL/DH stream with full HD and 60fps. + Show Spoiler +No Extended Series?
FUCKING YES! <3
I couldn't agree more with this player fatigue is going to be a major for these tournaments and will probably end up leading towards lower quality games.
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On April 24 2012 20:12 Ace1123 wrote:
This will be a lot harder for me to watch all games at a time -_-
1st world problems
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On April 25 2012 13:58 simmeh wrote:Show nested quote +On April 24 2012 20:12 Ace1123 wrote:
This will be a lot harder for me to watch all games at a time -_- 1st world problems
Disappointed Blizzard insisted on doing these tournaments simultaneously but perhaps it will save them $. I pray that the WCS becomes so gigantic that they will have seperate events next year. At least a seperate event for Continental Grand Finals.
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Thank you for no extended series!
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EPT
