MLG News: Dallas Passes For Starcraft 2 Go On Sale Today
In the off chance that you don’t find yourself in the DC area next weekend, you still have a chance to get in on some pro-level Starcraft 2 play next month.  The passes for the MLG Dallas event went on sale today for participants in the Starcraft 2 Tournament.  The passes themselves run $60 USD and admit a single player to participate in the events at the Dallas competition. If you happen to be in the Dallas area that weekend you can get in on the action as a spectator.  There are plenty of events planned just for spectators as well as the chance to check out all the gaming live.  So, if you happen to end up in Texas November 5th through 7th, be sure to check out this event if you can.
Starcraft 2 Zerg Strategy – Baneling Guide
Everyone loves explosions.  This is especially true when its your opponents that is exploding.  While Starcraft 2 Zerg lack the certain overkill flair of a Tactical Nuke, they have their own impressive explosions in the form of Zerg Banelings.  These little mutated Zerglings ram head first into their target and in the blink of an eye, their target is suddenly missing a huge amount of health.  Granted, the Baneling doesn’t survive the fun, but its still a ton of fun to watch. Papp has given us several awesome guides on utilizing Zerg units to their full potential.  His Baneling guide is no different.  He goes through and explains how to best utilize a Baneling group and goes over the advanced tactics involved in using them with other units.  Everything from a Mass Baneling steam-roller, to the Overlord Bomber, its all here.  Enjoy this awesome guide from Papp.  Also remember to check out our awesome Guide Forums for even more great Starcraft 2 Strategies.
Starcraft Protoss Build Strategy – Korean 4-Gate All-In
If you keep tabs on the international Starcraft 2 Tournaments such as the GSL Tournament, then you know that different styles of gameplay emerge in different sort of ways in different regions.  On top of that, Korea is known as the holy ground of Starcraft gameplay.  Most of the top progamers in the world are Korea and their media is in love with them.  Tournaments, TV shows, even TV channels are devoted to Starcraft.  Well, that’s what makes their strategies so interesting. This version of the more standard 4-gate rush is even more risky and requires even more commitment.  However, it does still maintain a certain level of recoverability in that you aren’t forced to surrender in a failed attempt as with many other all-in strategies.  However, it is still a risky play, but let’s take a look at the build.
Blizzard Bans 5000 Starcraft 2 Accounts for Cheating
When it comes to Account Administration, Blizzard does things in bulk.  This is certainly reflected when they announced that 5000 Starcraft 2 accounts were banned for using cheats and hacks.  The announcement came down about three weeks after they sent out a warning concerning the use of hacks and cheats.  Pretty much everyone got the warning about incoming bans in plenty of time to stop.  It seems that at least 5000 players didn’t heed the message. This action comes after weeks of player complaints concerning the state of cheating within Starcraft 2.  The Battlenet forums usually have a post or two a day concerning a player that is aggravated about playing against a cheater or a hacker.  Now, it seems, there are 5000 fewer players to worry about.  This shouldn’t effect the vast majority of the player base as there are over three million Starcraft 2 players worldwide already.  Still good news from Blizzard concerning this hot topic.
Blizzard Releases BlizzCon 2010 Event Schedule
Well, we’re just a few short weeks away from Blizzard’s biggest event of the year.  The Blizzard Entertainment BlizzCon 2010 begins October 22nd and they’ve made the schedule of panels and events available for you all to peruse.  There are a total of five panels dedicated to all things Starcraft 2.  Everything from story to art to gameplay is covered over the course of the weekend.  In addition, there’s also the BlizzCon Starcraft 2 Invitational tournament. If you’re attending BlizzCon in person, we’ll give you a bit of a low down on what to expect from the panels.  If you’re not so fortunate and have to rely on the DirecTV live stream, we’ll let you know which channel all the Starcraft 2 action is.  Even if you are stuck with the live stream, the production values have risen considerably from last year as each area of the convention has their own dedicated video stream.  So, there’s never a moment where you don’t get to watch what you want live.
Starcraft Zerg Strategy – Zerg Anti-Stalker Guide
When it comes to Protoss opponents, the Stalker can be quite the handful to deal with.  The unit is armored, shoots fair-far, and even has the ability to Blink forward.  This can be quite the challenge to deal with, especially for Starcraft 2 Zerg players.  Stalkers do quite well against most any unit type.  What they can’t deal with head-to-head, they’ll just kite till their enemy is dead. Well, from our guide forums, Papp has come up with a guide to help deal with Stalker well with two of a Zerg player’s main types of units.  First, he explains how to use Zerglings to your advantage by using higher battle strategies.  Then, he gets into how to deal with Stalkers with Hydralisks.  Also, how to use both at the same time for the best results.  Quite the excellent guide to check out.
GomTV GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament Grand Championship Final Results
*Spoiler Warning: Results are revealed in this story* Its been a long month getting here. We’re finally going to take a look at the GomTV GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament Finals for Season 1. The original pool of players numbered in the thousands. Among them are the best Starcraft 2 players in the world. There is, of course, a good reason for the incredible level of competition. The prize pool for this tournament is the largest of any Starcraft 2 Tournament in the world. The total prize pool is $170,000 for the top players in the tournament. Both of these players have won $27,500 for making it this far. The winner of the tournament will recieve $85,000. For the next couple weeks there won’t be much GSL Tournament news as we still have a couple weeks till season 2’s preliminaries start.  You can expect to see the same awesome coverage you’ve seen these past couple weeks along with coverage of all the biggest and best pro-gaming tournaments from around the world.
Starcraft Zerg Strategy – Zerg Vs Zerg
Following his look at taking out Terran air units, one of our forum go’ers set out to make another guide to help out Zerg players.  Papp’s last guide has helped new Zerg players take out Terran players with even greater ease.  So a huge thanks to Papp for giving us another great look at utilizing Starcraft 2 Zerg forces. Now, Papp takes on other Zerg players.  Nothing is imbalanced in a mirror match, but there are still counters to use and tactics to employ.  He takes a look at how best to deal with all the threats that the Zerg bring to the table. Papp takes us through the various stages of a standard Zerg build and identifies the threats you’ll face as a Zerg player yourself.  Anything from Zerglings to Mutalisks, Papp has you covered.  He sets you up to get the counters in place so that you don’t lose in a mirror match.
Starcraft Terran Strategy – 1/1/1 Opener Build
A problem that many players run into when deploying their Starcraft 2 build is running into a hard counter. You may be pushing out Marines and Marauders when you suddenly run into a sea of Psionic Storms. This Terran build is meant to counter that pigeon-holing. This build makes it so you have access to nearly every unit available in the early game. The exception being the third tier units such as Terran Thors and Battlecruisers. Within the opener, you’ll have a Barracks, a Factory, and a Starport. A few thing to note about this build. The versatility does come at a cost. You lose a bit a defense versus early rushes. You’ll be spending more resources establishing the buildings and less on an early army. This makes scouting key. Identify early rushes and move away from this build if necessary.
Starcraft Zerg Strategy – 6-pool All-in Rush
This is probably one of the cheesiest Starcraft 2 builds that the SC2 Zerg are capable of.  It is also one of the riskiest.  You either win or lose as it takes every bit of resource from your economy and places it in the attack.  If you lose, it is extreme difficult to comeback.  The Starcraft 2 Zerg 6 pool build requires a few things to go right in order to have a shot at winning. First, there is no scouting with this build, so it becomes most effective in a 2-player map.  Your Zerg Overlord will not clear the space between bases in time to scout and you need all your drones gathering minerals non-stop till the rush attack.  In a 4+ player map, you will need to rely on a bit of luck as each time your send your rush against the wrong starting point means that it is more and more likely the forces you’ll face will defeat you.
Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1.1 Goes Live Tomorrow And Fixes Some Bugs
Earlier last week, Blizzard deployed Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1.  The patch results in quite a few balance issues being address as well and adding some minor functionality across the board.  Improvements were seen in the editor, the replays, the interface, and even the addition of a stopwatch to help keep time.  All of these were pushed out to make Starcraft 2 a more enjoyable experience for all. However, despite all the good intentions, bugs always seem to fall through the cracks.  The biggest of which was the Ultralisk building cleave bug.  The bug caused a large amount of negative backlash over the Starcraft 2 patch and Blizzard set up to take care of those issues as quickly as possible.  The results of their efforts can been seen in Starcraft 2 patch 1.1.1, a bug fix patch that takes care of some glaring issues as well as taking care of a couple older gameplay issues, including mineral boosting. The news came down via the South-East Asia Battlenet blog, the first region to see the patch as it was deployed early this morning.  The North American server should see it deployed tomorrow morning during some brief downtime.
GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO16 Results Day 2 Part 2
Earlier we brought you the results for the first two matchs at today’s GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament matches. Some excellent play from all players involved and the second half doesn’t disappoint. As the final matches of the RO16 set are played, we see some nice stratgies and counters. The final 8 are decided by the time you read the story, and a great final 8 it is. Look for the final 8 coverage over the next couple days leading into the final rounds of the GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament. The RO8 matches will be played tomorrow with the RO4 matches being played on wednesday and thursday. Expect full reports of the results on all those days. Enjoy our coverage of the GSL Tournament. *Spoiler Warning: This story reveals the winners of today’s GomTV GSL matches*
Starcraft Terran Strategy – Beating Ultralisks
The SC2 Zerg are the masters of creating the ultimate beast.  The Zerg Ultralisk is no exception.  It is the biggest, baddest melee unit that can be produce in Starcraft 2.  Its big, fast and can crush anything it gets close enough to hit.  The other races have learned not to try to fight this beast toe-to-toe.  Instead, they utilize their big guns to take it out from a distance. Now, let’s take a look at some of the Starcraft 2 strategy countermeasures for when your SC2 Zerg opponent opts to bring in the Ultralisk.  Also, how you can avoid taking the devastating damage it can deal out against your units.  The key is making sure you can hit it without it getting close enough to hit you.  And you can do it with the right SC2 Terran units.
HuK is joining Team Liquid for Upcoming GSL Starcraft 2 Tournaments
The pro gaming community is always in a state of flux.  Players leaves, players join.  This is especially true with new games such as Starcraft 2.  Teams are always on the look out for new minds that can prove their stuff with
Starcraft 2 Achievement Hunting: FFA Achievements
Over the past week, Nghtmr9999 has been bringing us awesome guides on how to complete Starcraft 2 Achievements.  He’s brought us a guide to completing the Outmatched Achievements as we as a quick guide to getting the Zergling Rush Achievement.  The guides are easy to follow and will help anyone that’s at a loss and can’t stand not having an achievement. This time around, Nghtmr9999 is giving us some solid advice on how to complete the FFA achievement set against the AI.  With this guide you’ll be able to complete 4 achievements at once and on top of that unlock a new portrait, Orlan.
GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO16 Results Day 1 Part 2
Earlier today we brought you the recap of the first two matches of the GSL RO16 Tournament.  Some excellent play from all involved.  Now, we’re going to take a look at the rest of the results for the day.  Again, some great play from everyone involved including excellent examples of both micro and macro based Starcraft 2 gameplay. Remember, this news post will contain the full recap of each match as well as reveal the winner of each match.  If you plan on watching the VoDs and don’t wish to have the games spoiled, skip over this newspost for the time being.  We’ll be bringing you more RO16 with the results of day 2 on monday. *Spoiler Warning: Match results will be revealed in this story*
GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament RO16 Results Day 1 Part 1
The first games of the next round of the GomTV GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament have just been played. And Starcrafting is bringing you the earliest results on the first of the RO16 matches being played live from Seoul, Korea. Congratulations to all the players that made it this far. Definitely a show of how high-level all of these players are. For those that haven’t seen the matches and are planning to watch via VoDs or other means, you should definitely turn away now. This is a complete results writeup on how the tournament is progressing. Be sure to check in every event morning for the latest in results from the GomTV GSL Season 1 final rounds. *Spoiler Warning: Match Results will be revealed in this story*
GSL News: Starcraft 2 Tournament Final 16
Over the last week or so, the GSL tournament has been playing through its RO32 Games.  The Starcraft 2 Tournament has seen some incredible games and incredible upsets.  If you haven’t had a chance to check them out, you should definitely find a way to check them out.  Especially TLO’s first match. Now that the RO32 of the Starcraft 2 Tournament is over,  the schedule for RO16 is in the process of being finalized.  The first sets of games are set to be played on Friday, September 24th starting at 6pm KST (5am EDT).  If you’re interested in checking them out, be sure to wake up early to catch the live tournament streaming SC2 matches.  Alternatively you can order the GomTV premium package and watch the videos via VODs (Video On-Demand).
Battle.net Region-Lock Semi-lifted for SEA region
Earlier this week, Blizzard announced a somewhat surprising change in the works for SEA (South East Asia) clients.  The ability to connect into the NA (North America) Battlenet servers at-will.  This means that anyone holding a SEA client will have access to either set of servers anytime they wish.  All of this will be included with the client patch 1.1 which is due Thursday for those regions. The change seems to be specfic to the English SEA versions of Starcraft 2.  Its not clear whether other language versions in SEA will have the same options.  For now, this is the only Region-lock that has been lifted.  Although, it may be a sign that Blizzard may be rethinking their plans concerning how Battle.net is divided up.
Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 Now Live
Early yesterday, Blizzard deployed the latest patch to the North America servers. Starcraft 2 Patch 1.1 went live with a lot of balance changes. Most were discussed here the past few days, others were hadn’t heard the details on. Still all of them have been offered up by Blizzard in their official Patch 1.1 notes. The major changes are primarily to balance, mostly to Terran units.  However, both Protoss and Zerg units have been adjusted as well.  As with any changes to Starcraft 2 Gameplay, the adjustments to high-level strategy will take a short while to adjust. We’ll keep you informed about anymore changes to Starcraft 2 and Bnet as they become available. From Blizzard:

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