Big thanks to MacEG for the awesome banner!

Hello and welcome to the very first Giant Bomb Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm Community Tournament!

This tournament is open to all players regardless of skill level. You're also welcome to come observe games if you don't feel like playing.

Sign-ups are now live. Go here to sign up:http://binarybeast.com/xHotS130310126

Format:

Together with my fellow tournament organizers(Harris, Hennet_sim and Moztacular) I've decided to change up the double elimination format we used in Wings of Liberty tournaments.

A group stage will precede the bracket. Players will play against people in their own group and the players with the most wins will advance to the bracket stage. The size of the groups will probably lie between 6 and 8 players per group, which means everyone will get to play a minimum of at least 5-7 matches.

The number of groups and number of people who get to advance to the bracket stage is very dependent on the number of participants and will be determined by me before the tournament once I get an idea of how many people will participate.

We've decided to make this change to make sure people get to play more games against one another. We hope you will enjoy it.

All matches in the group stage will be played as a best-of-1.

The bracket stage will be played as a single elimination bracket.

Quarter finals (and any matches before) are best-of-1.

Semi-Finals are best-of-3.

The Finals are best-of-5.

Changes to this format may occur in tournaments after this one, depending on what I, my fellow organizers and you, the players, think works best and is the most fun.

Rules:

- No use of hacks or exploits is allowed.

- If a player drops from a match, you can restart from a replay.

- Please only spectate other people's games if you're eliminated from the tournament or are waiting for your match. Due to the nature of a group stage, it's important everyone plays their games as soon as possible in order to prevent holding up the rest of the tournament.

- Please be courteous enough to leave other people's games if you're lagging while spectating. (General rule is that you should leave if it happens more than once)

Map pool:

1. Akilon Wastes LE (Ladder edition)
2. Bel'shir Vestige LE
3. Daybreak LE
4. Neo Planet S LE
5. Newkirk Precinct LE
6. Star Station LE
7. Whirlwind LE

In the group stages players will play on a pre-determined map. I used random.org to randomize the maps.

• Group stage game 1 map: Akilon Wastes LE
• Group stage game 2 map: Star Station LE
• Group stage game 3 map: Bel'shir Vestige LE
• Group stage game 4 map: Newkirk Precinct LE
• Group stage game 5 map: Daybreak LE
• Group stage game 6 map: Neo Planet S LE
• Group stage game 7 map: Whirlwind LE
• (optional)Group stage game 8 map: Akilon Wastes LE

The bracket stage will use the following maps:

• Round of 16: Neo Planet S LE
• Round of 8: Star Station LE
• Semi-Finals: Akilon Wastes LE
• Finals: Daybreak LE

In the Semi-Finals and Finals after the first game, the loser may pick a map from the map pool.

Official sign-ups:

Sign-ups are now live. Sign up here: http://binarybeast.com/xHotS130310126

The official sign-ups will be done on the day of the tournament itself. I will post a link to the sign-up page in this thread and in this post when that time has come. We'll be using Binary Beast to organize the tournament. Please prepare a personal account there so you're ready to quickly sign up once you're able to. (It's free!)

Please let me know in the thread if you're willing to participate so I get an idea of how many players will show up. (Remember, posting in the thread does not automatically sign you up for the tournament. See above.)

When and Where:

The tournament will start on Saturday, March 23rd 19:00 GMT, 20:00 CET, 14:00 EDT, 14:00 CDT, 12:00 PDT (Check your timezone here)

Please make sure you sign-up before that time, otherwise you won't be able to participate.

When you log in to Battle.net, make sure you log into the US Server as we'll be playing our games there.

Once you're logged in, join the 'Giantbomb' chat channel on Battle.net in order to set up matches with eachother.

Prizes:

The winner of the tournament will win $15

The player who comes second will win a $10 Steam purchase.

One participant in the tournament will win the raffle. Each contestant will be given a random number and once the tournament is complete I (or Moztacular) will generate a random number using random.org. Whoever's number gets picked will get to choose a single game from the following list:

• Civilization 5 (Vanilla)
• Borderlands 2
• Serious Sam 3
• Deus Ex: Goty edition
• Payday: The Heist
• Dungeon Defenders
• Binary Domain

Raidcall group:

We've got a Raidcall group now where you can hang out in and talk to fellow Bombers if you want. The group's called 'Giant Bomb SC2' (Group id: 5863394).

Tournament streams:

As usual, Moztacular will be streaming his games and will commentate as many games as he can.

You can find his stream here.

Hennet will also be streaming his matches. His stream is here.

If you're also willing and able to stream, please let me know. I'll add a link to your stream in this post.

Let me know if you want to participate and what you think about the new format. And, as always, GLHB!

I'm in.

Arise Starcraft brethren, you are needed once more! 
 
Hope to see lots of folks there. Thule didn't mention it in the main post but there will be prizes too :)

I'll be thur... oh wait there will be prizes... bah

@Moztacular said:

Thule didn't mention it in the main post but there will be prizes too :)

This is correct, I've added a mention of it to my post. More details about the prizes will come soon.

Yes! Was hoping these would come back once Hots came out. Really enjoyed them. I'm definitely in :)

@Chronologist said:

Yes! Was hoping these would come back once Hots came out. Really enjoyed them. I'm definitely in :)

Ofcourse the GB Community tournaments would be back! Glad to see you're joining us again too!

prizes just mean that random masters players will turn up and win them... without prizes they dont bother or even post in the sc2 forum sections on GB

@baldgye said:

prizes just mean that random masters players will turn up and win them... without prizes they dont bother or even post in the sc2 forum sections on GB

Pretty sure high level Master players wouldn't waste their time with that with more potentially lucrative online tournaments to sign up for.

Count me in. It's been to long since I played with you guys.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@baldgye said:

prizes just mean that random masters players will turn up and win them... without prizes they dont bother or even post in the sc2 forum sections on GB

Pretty sure high level Master players wouldn't waste their time with that with more potentially lucrative online tournaments to sign up for.

last time I remember, we had maybe 3 tournaments in WoL both na and eu and had a pretty tiny turn out... then there was one with prizes and suddenly it was full of masters lvl players who just dominated...

The raffle is completely random and the 'prize' for winning the tournament will probably not be a huge amount of money. Hell, it might not even be money.

If random people want to join, play in a tournament for 5-7 hours to win 10 bucks or whatever, then they're welcome to do so. Besides, they're not going to win anyway, because I suspect we're all going to get crushed into tiny little bits by a certain Zerg player whose favorite color is purple...

Cool. Hopefully I'll be there. Still only been playing WoL so far though.

I will be spectating!

Will definitely join for this!

Yay! 3am my time, but I'll try to make it.

The only issue with this is that I'm very likely to have forgotten it thrice over by the time the actual date comes along.

Been in beta for a number of months now, and zerg feels less significantly powerful to me than they did in the last two seasons of WoL. It feels very balanced across the board; though I'd claim zerg still has the upper hand with their new siege creatures, which are genuine fucking bullshit; the best kind, mind. Air has taken a heavy hit, overall; and mutas ain't really bothered me considering I main terran. Voidray spams have been rendered almost useless; and in fact, all air units feel significantly less powerful than their ground counter-parts; making air much more of raiding tools or direct counters to certain tech-builds. This is also reflected in said ground-units where for example, Thors, have been given two different "modes" for them to switch between, anti-air and anti-ground. My only remaining issue at this point is stalker spams still being too powerful, and god knows they're the most boring, efficient tactic out there.

I was actually referring to Shibbxyz, who played in almost every GB Community tournament and who (as far as I know) is probably the most skilled player of all the GB players, considering he's the only one who is actually on a pro-team (FM E-sports). I admit, it was an obscure reference, but I wasn't trying to take a jab at the game's balance.

I can't really help you remember the tournament apart from maybe suggesting you put a reminder about it on your phone or putting a post-it note on your monitor.

You guys should create a group in the game now that you can do that.

EDIT: also, with global play, anyone can switch regions and play together!

I've missed the GB community tourneys

I may play or I might do some casting of other peoples games :D

I'm in. I also created a Giantbomb group on WoL because I don't have the HotS beta. Just search "Giantbomb" and you should be able to find it. The group is public so you should be able to join without an invite and play some Starcraft with giantbomb duders. Does anyone know if these WoL group are going to transfer over to HotS? Or does someone need to create one when HotS goes live?

@shibbxyz: Glad to know you'll be joining us! Good games in the Sc2 Improve Winter league by the way!

@forcen: @thejappernaut: There's a Giantbomb group in the HotS beta and I'm sure that creating a group when the game releases isn't going to be a problem.

@thule: You can create that group now i meant, the game just got that stuff patched in.

I'll try to remember to keep that day open, and I'll probably play and stream my games. I'm not real good though! I could try my hand at commentating too after I'm inevitably knocked out, maybe if half the bracket isn't being covered by someone else's stream or something.

Cool, let me know what/where your stream is so I can add it to the first post.

Sounds cool, I might pop on and observe some of the games.

If my PC is set up at home I'll try and drop by, it'll be good to play with the 'Muricans for once.

@thule: Yeah, it's twitch.tv/wrathofconn. Thanks.

Little over a week until HOTS is out yall! hope to see everyone for the tournament, it should be great fun

I forgot how to play SCII.

I'll be there.

Are there any good Terrans on here?? I think in all the tournaments I've played on GB all the Terrans have been silver or lower... all the dia/masters guys seem to Z...

I'm a decent terran in the HoTS beta I was rank 1 masters with like 2000 points :P

fair enough, then I'd put my money on you winning it :P dem mines and medivacs!! lol

@baldgye: haha for sure!

@baldgye:

I'm switching races from Z to T, although I'm not sure whether I can consider myself 'good' just yet. I was diamond when I played Zerg though.

I'm sure we'll have plenty of players from all races represented in the tournament. Although it's not impossible if we'll end up with alot of Zergs and Protoss, considering those races were very well represented on both the EU and US side in WoL. I'm sure it'll come out somewhat even though.

Well I'm (just got promoted to) dia Protoss and dealing with an equally skilled Terran who knows how to play HotS is... kind of insane because of medivacs and mines.. and then hellbats when they go mech...

So IMO if a good terran is playing, they'll probably role though because of how hard it is to deal with the new terran units without falling way behind :P

Is the Tourny going to be a one day thing or is it going to span across several days? Just wondering since the the day after this I have to go to work and wouldn't be able to play much the following few days. I have always wanted to give a thing like this a try so if I can remember I may hop in.

We're aiming to keep it a one day thing. However, there's always the (slight) possibility of it running really long and us being forced to delay the remaining games until later. Currently, I'm hoping we can start and finish the tournament within 6-7 hours. Alot depends on how many players show up and how the new format shakes out.

How good you actually are at the game, also matters. If you keep winning your games, you'll keep advancing until you hit the finals. However, most players will only be playing 5-7 games before they are eliminated due to the group phase. What you do after that is up to you, hang out and observe others playing, play games with other eliminated players or leave and do something else and catch the replays/stream VOD's later.

@thule: Sounds good. I'm sure I won't be playing long as I have never been into the online part of RTS games. I was always the guy that replayed single player over and over, messed around with rules.ini files to make crazy game modes to skirmish against the AI, and just trying to push the game to the limits by building as many of a certain unit as I can.

We will see. My personal goal is to win at least one game. :)

Man, I am going to be at PAX East.

Hey guys, really psyched for this game. If I don't lag on the American servers to much I'd love to play also.

Just hope the postman arrives early today! (took the rest of the week off :-D).

I added the map pool now that the game's out. I also changed the rule about restarting games from which a player drops. This will no longer be neccesary considering we should be able to restart a game from a replay now.

garbage maps are garbage

The current map pool is quite alright actually. There's some issues and some more might pop up later, but overall these maps seem fine. Might I remind you of the map pool when WoL started? Steppes of War anyone? Also, please keep nonsense like that out of this thread. If you can't post anything constructive, don't post.

Yeah the WoL maps where bad, but that dsnt mean the current map pool isn't bad also. Blizzard have included GSL maps, which is good... but they changed them so they are bad.

I don't know how I can be constructive other than to point out that the current map pool is just not good at all. The beta map pool was better... by a long way... why can't you just include tournament maps? Least then you can take a 3rd base or just not die to an all in you can't defend becasue lolhugeramps...

It's not nonsense and your not a mod.

Apart from some maps not having a neutral depot at the natural´s ramp they seem pretty much identical. That´s not a big enough difference to make a map go from ´fine´ to ´bad´. I´ve chosen to not include tournament maps, because there´s barely 1,5 week between the game´s launch and the tournament start date. It´s easier to just let people play ladder to practice and then use the same ladder maps for the tournament. Maybe I´ll consider changing the map pool in later tournaments, but not right now. Also, if you´re losing games because of a single missing neutral depot or because the ramps to your natural are relatively big, it´s probably not the map´s fault. That stuff matters, but not at the level we´re playing at.

You´ve been complaining about stuff ever since this thread started, first about the prizes, which in my experience never caused the problems you describe, and now about the map pool. If you don´t like the way I´ve got this set up, don´t participate. Or go host your own tournament in the way you want. And yes, posting ´garbage maps are garbage´ is useless nonsense, that´s neither useful to me as an organizer, nor does it contribute anything constructive to the thread. I´m reasonable, if you care so much about the map pool then you could´ve suggested I use a different one, for example. That´s alot more constructive than saying: ´garbage maps are garbage´.

I might not be a mod on GB, but I´m still the tournament organizer here and ultimately I´m the one who determines who gets to play in this tournament and who doesn´t. So, you post shit in my thread at your own peril.

I'm getting SC2 on friday, and since I've never touched it before there's no point in me trying to play you guys, but I'll totally watch!

Maybe next time I'll know what I'm doing and can play!

@canteu: Glad to hear it sir, I hope after watching some of the tournament you'll take an interest in watching more SC2 like Day9 and others. Check out the upcoming MLG dallas event in between your playing this weekend, you'll see some good commentating and matches and it might hook you (or not).

Keep signing up people and spread the word, we'd love for this to be a big enough event to warrant future tournaments!