No Blizzcon 2012; Battle.net World Invitational

[Asomath]

Many have speculated as to what Blizzcon 2012 would hold. Due to several game releases this year, and Titan still being a little too far off, there was little room for announcements.

Well, Blizzcon 2012 has been officially called off, and the next Blizzcon will not be held until 2013:

We're heavily focused on getting Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria, and Heart of the Swarm into players’ hands as soon as possible. In light of our jam-packed schedule, we’ve decided to hold the next BlizzCon in 2013.

Rather, this year, e-sports fans can look towards the 2012 Battle.net World Championship. It will be hosted in Asia, and will feature the most skilled players of Starcraft II and World of Warcraft.

Official post: http://us.battle.net/blizzcon/en/blog/4338369/2012_Battlenet_World_Championship_Event-1_25_2012

Battle.net World Championship
Planned for 2nd Quarter

The world championship cup for Starcraft II will take place in four phases or “tiers” so to speak. The process works as such:

Tier One: Grassroots National Qualifiers

Players will compete in competitions hosted by existing eSport organizations. Players who qualify will be permitted to participate in Tier Two of the championship.

Tier Two: National Championships

Each country competing in the world cup will host a National Championship (there will be an estimated sixteen). From this championship, players will be crowned “National Champion.” The champions of the nations will then move on to the next tier.

Tier Three: Continental Championships

There are five global regions: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and then “the Rest of the World.” National champions from each of these regions will battle it out for a chance to compete against the world’s best. Each will be hosted as a live event with a live audience, and will also be streamed in English as well as (possibly) local languages for the region. The top players will move on to the final tier.

Tier Four: World Championship

The top 32 players from around the world will compete against each other. The event will be hosted in Asia, and will feature some of the most grueling matches ever played. At the end, only one player stands: The Starcraft II 2012 World Champion.

~Asomath

 

[Vengeancekael]

Meh, at least we'll get 3 new games this year, I'm happy with that.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

Emm I was expecting HotS as an xmas present for 2011's holidays now it should be arriving either around May or on the same date as WotL i.e July 27th. It would be strange if they delayed it further, I thought they're done with the game and even bugs.

Go go Bnet world championship and IMMvP

D3 , I tested it in Beta from a friend, it looks and feels good as a gameplay but the story and who the evils are seems to me a little forced as basically it is supposed to be over with the prime evils, as it happened in D2 LoD.

 

[Bugz]

I expected nothing less, i am just happy we get all the games.

 

[Asomath]

Im updating the main post with the new World Championship information.

~Asomath

{EDIT}
Main Post Updated

~Asomath

 

[mckill2009]

I don't care about Blizzcon as I'm waiting for Diablo3 and hopefully a new WarCraft RTS...

 

[Ken-E]

No Blizzcon means no hot Blood elf girl cosplayers to be seen this year. Anyway, looking forward for D3.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

I don't care about Blizzcon as I'm waiting for Diablo3 and hopefully a new WarCraft RTS...

Even if War4 was ever made in the future, its editor would be like SC2's not easier. No magical button for 'create my map', 'create all data'.

 

[Miss_Foxy]

Blizzard made a good choice, it's about time the awesome games got released

 

[Rui]

Yeah, as long as they put extra effort in their games, no BlizzCon is fine by me.

 

[shamanyouranus]

Except, you know...they're probably just going to dick around like usual.

 

[Rui]

I didn't pay much attention to BlizzCon except their divulges of stuff to come, which serves only to keep people anxious and speculating, so, whatever.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

Still there will be SC2 matches to watch, other than Titan they don't have much to show. Already showed HotS and D3, they were planning to bring them before Blizzcon anyway.

 

[Vengeancekael]

I bet they'll announce Warcraft IV in 2 months.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

^ Wanna bet 10,000 $ ?

 

[Vengeancekael]

It's obvious that I'll lose the bet the day after ;D

 

[Deolrin]

This makes me sad.

No cool model\cinematic previews from new games\expansions.

 

[RiotZ]

I expected nothing less, i am just happy we get all the games.

Doubtful.

 

[Belgarath]

tbh it is doubtful that wc4 will not be created at some point. judging purely from sales, it would be an absolutely massive success, from people who played wc3, sc2, WoW players, all sorts of people would be guaranteed to buy it. likely they will milk the other sources first and then make it at some point when it seems like a good business opportunity once again

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

Well after D3 was created when the tale was supposed to be over with LoD it is indeed not impossible that WC4 will be made even if they'd have to screw up the lore either repeat WoW or go an entirely new way when we kind of know what happens 'Thanks to WoW'. But it's not gonna happen any time soon so if you enjoy crappy graphics for another 10 years - gogogo War3!

 

[RiotZ]

Well after D3 was created when the tale was supposed to be over with LoD it is indeed not impossible that WC4 will be made even if they'd have to screw up the lore either repeat WoW or go an entirely new way when we kind of know what happens 'Thanks to WoW'. But it's not gonna happen any time soon so if you enjoy crappy graphics for another 10 years - gogogo War3!

I don't think Blizzard would pass up record profits for a story line discrepancy, Bungie/Microsoft didn't.

 

[-Kobas-]

I bet they'll announce Warcraft IV in 2 months.

If they do that then we can expect that game somewhere between 2040 - 2050 when I become grandad -.-

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

There is your war4 (just a sc2 mod)

 

[Bugz]

That mod looks bad..