ESL PRO Tour 200.000$ prize pool for Warcraft 3 Reforged

[Archian]

Modern Times Group properties ESL and DreamHack have entered a three-year strategic agreement with Blizzard Entertainment.

StarCraft II and Warcraft III: Reforged will receive their own ESL Pro Tour circuits with respective prize pools of $1.8 million and over US $200,000 in 2020 as part of the deal.

As a replacement of the StarCraft II World Championship Series, the ESL Pro Tour StarCraft II will have tournaments in at least four continents. The qualifying format for the circuit will be based off of the existing WCS system, with the first season being made up of seven tournaments: two IEM events, four DreamHack stops, and a Masters Championship at IEM Katowice in 2021.

Sebastian Weishaar, CPO at ESL discussed the deal in a release:

Sebastian Weishaar said: We feel extremely honored to establish a new home for RTS esports fans and be responsible for two of the most prestigious esports titles of all time. ESL and DreamHack are deeply rooted within Blizzard esports games and have built ecosystems around them for years now. Tying both StarCraft II and Warcraft III into the ESL Pro Tour narrative is our contribution to these passionate communities and will provide both titles with a promising platform to continue writing esports history.

The ESL Pro Tour WarCraft III: Reforged has also been announced, comprised of one ESL competition and three DreamHack events – all working towards a championship tournament to be held later in 2020. The newly-announced ESL Pro Tours will have weekly ESL Open Cups to support the amateur communities of each title.

J. Allen Brack, President of Blizzard Entertainment also commented on the landmark agreement:

J. Allen Brack said: We are so proud that StarCraft II and Warcraft III are home to two of the most passionate, storied and devoted communities in esports history. Both ESL and DreamHack have been long-standing partners for our esports, and we want to give our players, talent, content creators and fans the stability inherent in a long-term relationship, keeping these communities thriving for yearsto come.

 

[MasterHaosis]

First, Reforged needs to be out

 

[Fang]

That's Cool O_O

 

[Ardenaso]

So this is what they meant by "patching aggressively", huh

 

[xorkatoss]

@Ardenaso hopefully not every patch is going to be 16GB >_<

 

[MasterHaosis]

For one week just 4 comments here. Seems that people are not interested much in this joke.

 

[deepstrasz]

For one week just 4 comments here. Seems that people are not interested much in this joke.

We're 99% (excuse my modesty) a mapping community, not melee/e-sports oriented.

 

[Power107]

I don't get why this is still on the top of the home page.
They just published an official article about Night Elves and its not on the Hive homepage.

 

[MasterHaosis]

I don't get why this is still on the top of the home page.
They just published an official article about Night Elves and its not on the Hive homepage.

Seems that people no longer care about it.
Not just that. Remember that they released patch few days ago, and that was not covered here as well. But I do not blame them honestly. Those patches, and how is game handled overall ruined all ,,hype" and expectations about Reforged. Even I have to agree that this is not interesting anymore. Its just best if we wait for official release and see how game looks like. It will be out in two weeks.

 

[Ardenaso]

It will be out in two weeks.

at this point we're not even sure if it indeed releases in 2 weeks

 

[Power107]

at this point we're not even sure if it indeed releases in 2 weeks

I agree because still, they have not fixed the AMD hardware issue.

I can run Sc2 and HoTS on hard with high fps but Reforged beta runs at 0.5 to 20 fps on lowest settings. If the graphics of Reforged were good then this fps would be sensible but with this lighting, terrain, water, trees and readability this is nonsense. Blizz needs to hire better programmers.
Most original WC3 programmers like Alan Dabiri(BSc Computer Science from UC Irvine)were from top universities.
If you want to believe that Reforged will have lustrous terrain and AAA quality optimisations at launch then please do but I think it will be better to prepare what to do if Reforged looks like the current beta...or worse.

 

[Ardenaso]

Oh god, what about the other unique campaign/models not yet in game?

Do they intend to release only multiplayer and delay the campaign?

 

[Venombite]

I can run Sc2 and HoTS on hard with high fps but Reforged beta runs at 0.5 to 20 fps on lowest settings. If the graphics of Reforged were good then this fps would be sensible but with this lighting, terrain, water, trees and readability this is nonsense. Blizz needs to hire better programmers.
Most original WC3 programmers like Alan Dabiri(BSc Computer Science from UC Irvine)were from top universities.
If you want to believe that Reforged will have lustrous terrain and AAA quality optimisations at launch then please do but I think it will be better to prepare what to do if Reforged looks like the current beta...or worse.

I have to disagree here. Blizzard has probably the best programers out there. They're still capable of making a good game, just look at Overwatch 2 graphics, perfect, stunning and I would bet it will have no bugs at all. It's not the devs who are to blame here, I would bet that they are also one of the best programers out there, it's the management.
The management has proved time and time again that they don't care about Warcraft 3 Reforged much, if at all. The project is obviousely understuffed and severly underfunded. The huge amount of bugs people complain about is thanks to the project being understuffed, there simply aren't enough people to fix bugs and continue the developement at the same time effectively. Lighting, terrain, water, trees, readability, AAA quality optimisations all cost $, and that's something that management wasn't willing to provide for the project, again.
And right here is part of the reason for that. Frankley in the time of e-sports, well Warcraft 3 doesn't really have that much potential. The same goes for pretty much all the RTSs. Just look at how the multiplayer goes, people start building their base, hire an Archmage/Blademaster/Death Knight/Demon Hunter and a few tier one units and after killing a few creeps go to the enemy base and start killing enemy workers. Usually the one who get's to the enemy base first wins. It's pretty much the same for every multiplayer game. It get's boring to watch quite fast, even boring to play after a couple of matches. Look how little rep;ies this thread has. People just don't care about e-sports when it comes to this game.

at this point we're not even sure if it indeed releases in 2 weeks

All of that being said. The game will come out on the 28th January 2020. Delaying it again would be a PR disaster for the company, and now they can't afford a single PR failure, let alone disaster. Releasing an unfinished game is far less harmful for them.

 

[Ardenaso]

They're still capable of making a good game

Warlords of Draenor, Battle for Azeroth

Releasing an unfinished game is far less harmful for them.

I guess I will assume the middle-worst that they will officially release the multiplayer but no campaign yet, then

or just put some placeholders for the said unique/special campaign units

 

[Power107]

just look at Overwatch 2 graphics.

They are dreadful. I am not a fan of cartoony graphics. I think sc2 demo from 2007 has better graphics than OW2. So please don't use OW2 to show me that Blizzard can still make good games. OW2 is not even out yet. To me, OW2 does not look beautiful.
Here is the clip:

 

[Venombite]

They are dreadful. I am not a fan of cartoony graphics. I think sc2 demo from 2007 has better graphics than OW2. So please don't use OW2 to show me that Blizzard can still make good games. OW2 is not even out yet. To me, OW2 does not look beautiful.
Here is the clip:

Ok, I guess there are a lot of different people with all kinds of different tasts.
Anyhow fact is that 99,99% of people who see this:

will just be like wow. And I can bet that when it comes out, it will be a number one game in the world, like OW was back in 2016. I personally probably won't play it, cause I don't like FPSs at all, nor MOBAs that much, but it'll probably be the most popular game in the world when it comes out, just like it's predessesor was. But there are a lot of people with lots of different tasts and there's no point in discussing your taste.
But I think making what will probably become a number one game in the world is a solid enough proof that Blizzard can still make good games, if they want to.

 

[Power107]

Ok, I guess there are a lot of different people with all kinds of different tasts.
Anyhow fact is that 99,99% of people who see this...

The like/dislike ratio of the official video proves that you are wrong.
And also popularity is not = quality.
Fortnite is the most popular game (or was the top 1 most popular game when it came out) but it is not a good game at all as compared to UT99 it lacks a lot of features. The gameplay is simple, this is not what Epic Games is expected to make.
EDIT: wanted to point out that Overwatch was never the number 1 game in the world: It only had seven million players in the first week. Source: Overwatch has 7M players who've already logged over 119M hours - VG247
And...How can you use the word "good" for OW if you do not play FPS? xD
I know I am insanely serious but there is reason to be that serious. The game is about to release in 2 weeks (according to Blizz+they also confirmed that in the recent NElf update) but still, they have not fixed the AMD issue. This makes me pessimistic

 

[Venombite]

The like/dislike ratio of the official video proves that you are wrong.
And also popularity is not = quality.
Fortnite is the most popular game (or was the top 1 most popular game when it came out) but it is not a good game at all as compared to UT99 it lacks a lot of features. The gameplay is simple, this is not what Epic Games is expected to make.
EDIT: wanted to point out that Overwatch was never the number 1 game in the world: It only had seven million players in the first week. Source: Overwatch has 7M players who've already logged over 119M hours - VG247
And...How can you use the word "good" for OW if you do not play FPS? xD
I know I am insanely serious but there is reason to be that serious. The game is about to release in 2 weeks (according to Blizz+they also confirmed that in the recent NElf update) but still, they have not fixed the AMD issue. This makes me pessimistic

What I meant by good game is it being massively popular, high grossing, masively popular e-sport events, parised by people. And OW checked all these boxes. And so many people wouldn't play the game if they didn't think it's good, if they didn't like the graphics, the contents, if they didn't find it fun both to play and to watch etc...
Btw Overwatch is not a FPS, it's a hybrid between a FPS and a MOBA....
I too am pessimistic about Reforged, and I personally won't be buying it untill the initial patching phase is over and people say how buggy it is then. I really have no intention on loosing my nerves on a broken game.
And 85+% of the thumbs are likes, that's pretty high for a promotional video... 90+% of the official cinematic...

 

[Power107]

What I meant by good game is it being massively popular, high grossing, masively popular e-sport events, parised by people. And OW checked all these boxes. And so many people wouldn't play the game if they didn't think it's good, if they didn't like the graphics, the contents, if they didn't find it fun both to play and to watch etc...
Btw Overwatch is not a FPS, it's a hybrid between a FPS and a MOBA....
I too am pessimistic about Reforged, and I personally won't be buying it untill the initial patching phase is over and people say how buggy it is then. I really have no intention on loosing my nerves on a broken game.
And 85+% of the thumbs are likes, that's pretty high for a promotional video... 90+% of the official cinematic...

I think OW is good in terms of popularity and profit. So, in this case, I agree
In my opinion, to be a good game it needs a better art style. I do not know about gameplay, story and music.
I judge a game's goodness by using the standards set by Westwood Studios:
1) Gameplay
2) Art
3) Story
4) Music
You can use popularity and profit to measure goodness if you want.

 

[Retria]

and now they can't afford a single PR failure, let alone disaster. Releasing an unfinished game is far less harmful for them.

This did not age well