Just a reminder: As we mentioned a couple weeks back, on November 12, 2009, all World of Warcraft players must merge their World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account in order to continue to log in to the game. As our way of saying "thanks" for taking a moment to go through the process, all accounts that upgrade to Battle.net will receive a brand-new penguin in-game pet. On November 12, all World of Warcraft players will need to log in to the game using a Battle.net username and password, and anyone who wishes to create a new World of Warcraft account will need to start with a Battle.net account.

Creating a Battle.net account is simple and free. To merge your existing account with a Battle.net account and receive your penguin in-game pet today, visit https://eu.battle.net/account/management/wow-account-conversion.xml. For more info, check out the Battle.net site or read the FAQ.

J!NX is unveiling a new store in association with Blizzard, tailored exclusively for Europe!

To celebrate this special occasion the J!NX Europe store will be offering shirts:

• With two new exclusive World of Warcraft: Cataclysm designs
• Constructed from high quality, heavyweight materials with solid craftsmanship
• In distinctive European cuts for both men & women

Stop by the new J!NX European Online Store and find out what exclusive swag awaits you!

Today the biggest Russian games exhibition, IgroMir, opened its doors to the public! Players flooded the Blizzard booth throughout the first day of the show, meeting our staff and trying out the playable demos of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

Quizzes on World of Warcraft and StarCraft gave those waiting to play the chance to win some nice prizes from our partners if they knew the correct answer to one of the questions asked by our Community manager Кихьяви (Kihjawi). The crowd won lots of great Razer and SteelSeries loot!

Further attractions for the Russian communities were the discussion panels on two hotly anticipated Blizzard games: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and StarCraft II. Chris Sigaty (lead producer on StarCraft II) and J. Allen Brack (production director on World of Warcraft) visited IgroMir for the first time to tell players about the games that were presented to the Russian audience.

J. Allen Brack spoke about some of the many changes coming to the world of Azeroth, paying special attention to PvP aspects (Tol Barad, a new outdoor PvP area) and the totally revamped guild management features.

Meanwhile, Chris Sigaty talked not only about the story that drives StarCraft II, but also about the many new Battle.net features that players will experience once the premium online gaming service is relaunched.

A recap of the panels will be published later on our IgroMir site. Please be sure to check it out, and stay tuned for more news from IgroMir 2009!

In our eleventh episode of BlizzCast, we have a roundtable discussion with members of the Community Team to recap the major happenings of this year’s BlizzCon. Rob Simpson from the eSports Team leads the session which includes the community team managers Bashiok for Diablo, Karune for StarCraft, and Nethaera for World of Warcraft. Join our discussion as we relive some of our favorite moments from BlizzCon 2009.

Listen to BlizzCast #11 now!

World of Warcraft
At the beginning of November, the Major League Gaming (MLG) tour will be arriving in Anaheim, CA. Eight World of Warcraft Arena teams will battle for glory, prize money, and a chance to compete in the MLG World of Warcraft championship in January. The official team list for MLG Anaheim has now been published. In addition, the European online qualifications for Season Four of the Intel Extreme Masters will begin soon.

Warcraft III
The Grand Finals of the World Cyber Games 2009 will take place in mid-November, and the group drawings have now been published. South Korean orc player June "Lyn" Park was victorious in the weekly ZOTAC Cup, where he bested South Korean orc player Hyo Sub "Focus" Eom in a close final. Looking forward to Season XVI of ESL’s WC3L series? The team tournament starts pretty soon, and a lot of high-class matches are scheduled on play day one.

StarCraft
The finals of the World Cyber Games 2009 are getting closer. The organizers have published the results of the group drawings, and we’re looking forward to the games beginning soon. The weekly ZOTAC Cup featured some impressive games this week. In the end, German zerg player Anton "kolll" Emmerich achieved victory in the 27th week of the tournament.

We have just released the fourth installment of our StarCraft II Battle Reports, a series of videos created for the official website in order to give you a closer look at the fast-paced, intense, and exciting-to-watch multiplayer matches of StarCraft II. In this latest battle report, you'll see two of Blizzard Entertainment's best players go head-to-head as the protoss and terrans while our commentators, StarCraft II lead designer Dustin Browder and eSports team member Robert Simpson, dissect and analyze the on-screen action for you.

Check out Battle Report 4 now!

A few months ago, we unveiled the Battle.net account, our new way for players to log in to World of Warcraft and future Blizzard games, sign up for upcoming beta tests, shop the online Blizzard Store, and more with just one username and password. This was just the first step in the rollout of the brand-new Battle.net; in the future, players will be able to use Battle.net to participate in cross-realm chat in World of Warcraft, create real-life friends lists, communicate across different games, and a whole lot more.

In preparation for the launch of these new features, on November 12, 2009, all current World of Warcraft players will be required to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with a Battle.net account in order to log in to the game. As our way to say "thanks" for taking a moment to go through the process, existing World of Warcraft accounts that upgrade to Battle.net (including those that have already switched over) will receive a brand-new penguin in-game pet -- after you’ve merged, he’ll be waiting for you in your in-game mailbox the next time you log in. Starting on November 12, all World of Warcraft players will need to log in to the game using a Battle.net username and password, and anyone who wishes to create a new World of Warcraft account will need to start with a Battle.net account.

Creating a Battle.net account is simple and free. To merge your existing account with a Battle.net account, visit https://eu.battle.net/account/management/wow-account-conversion.xml. For more info, check out the Battle.net site or read the FAQ.

The SteelSeries World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse has served as a high-quality input tool for players since its introduction, but it's about to become even more useful. A new software update will allow users to customize the mouse's functionality directly from within World of Warcraft's interface, making macro programming easier and removing a layer of software translation to offer faster response speeds. This will allow players to bind macros to any of the mouse's 15 buttons without ever leaving the game. The in-game integration is available now, check out the SteelSeries website to learn more about the mouse or find where to get your own.

This edition of the Q&A features some questions sent in by our fansites. If you haven't done so in the past, go check out those fansites for great news and articles about StarCraft II!

We've had some exciting times over the summer with BlizzCon and juicy single player news as well as some more information on our new and improved Battle.net service. But some time has passed since then and I am sure that you are longing for more information and have been asking yourself a lot of questions. We'd like to now continue with our Q&A series for you to enjoy!

If you have any questions you'd like to have answered, feel free to post them in our questions thread here and they might just pop up in our next Q&A.

Members of our recruitment team will be at the Blizzard booth during gamescom 2009 to answer your questions about life as a Blizzard employee. Blizzard Europe currently has numerous open positions in quality assurance, localization, customer support and other departments in our offices in Vélizy, France (near Paris) and Cork, Ireland. We’re looking for Italian, Polish, Russian, German, French, Spanish and English speakers. You can find out about all our open positions in Europe here.

So come to Cologne from 20 to 23 August armed with your CV and a passion for forging great games! We look forward to seeing you there.

In addition to the live Pay Per View Internet stream of BlizzCon 2009, rebroadcasts will be available for those who tune in after the show has begun. Rebroadcasts will be available during and directly following the show, giving viewers the control to watch BlizzCon at their convenience. Access to the rebroadcasts is included with the purchase of access to the Internet stream at no additional charge.
Don’t miss out; visit here for more information on the Internet stream.

The map pools for the BlizzCon StarCraft Invitational and Warcraft III global finals have been determined, and are listed below. Each player will be able to eliminate two maps prior to each match and then select a map they wish to play on to determine the map order. Check out the Tournament page for more details about the tournaments.

StarCraft:

• Colosseum II
• Destination
• Heartbreak Ridge
• Neo Medusa
• Outsider

• Ancient Isles
• Echo Isles
• Melting Valley
• Secret Valley
• Terenas Stand
• Turtle Rock
• Twisted Meadows

We are pleased to announce that this year, for the first time, all of our streaming tournament coverage for BlizzCon will be available in both high-resolution and low-resolution formats, and you can choose whichever fits your available bandwidth. The BlizzCon Tournaments page will host one stream featuring StarCraft and Warcraft III events and another dedicated to World of Warcraft. As in previous years, all of this streaming tournament coverage will be provided free of charge. Be sure to tune in to find out which teams and players are the best in the world by visiting the BlizzCon Tournaments page on August 21 and 22.
To clarify, the tournament coverage streams are free, but to watch panels, see new announcements as they are made, or receive the in-game pet, you will need to purchase the Pay Per View Internet stream.

SteelSeries will be releasing two new limited edition StarCraft II mousepads featuring battle-hardened Terran marines from StarCraft II and another capturing Kerrigan and Zeratul clashing in an epic battle! Beyond bringing beautiful Blizzard artwork to any desktop, these high-quality, cloth-surfaced mousepads offer exceptionally precise and consistent glide, perfect for gamers who demand only the best. These exclusive mousepads will be on sale for only 14.99€. Also, between July 27th and July 31st SteelSeries will be hosting daily contests on Facebook where you’ll have a chance to win an ultra-exclusive signed copy of these mousepads. Winners of these contests will receive mousepads signed by Blizzard artist Wei Wang!

NVIDIA is running a promotion to award one winner with an all-expenses-paid trip for two to BlizzCon 2009. Head over to http://www.nzone.com/wow before July 31 to learn more about the contest, and visit here to review the terms and conditions. Due to various laws regarding competitions and prizes of this nature, not all countries are eligible to participate.

The brackets for the Warcraft III and World of Warcraft Arena tournaments at BlizzCon are now live. These brackets show the starting matches and also provide some information about the contestants who will be competing in this year's BlizzCon tournaments. Each participant qualified based on their outstanding performance at their respective regional final. We will be updating these brackets during BlizzCon, so make sure to check back to see the latest tournament results and replays.

Please note that the StarCraft Invitational information will be updated as we near Blizzcon.

Check out the brackets here: Warcraft III, World of Warcraft Arena Tournament.

The Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, an optional security tool to help prevent unauthorized Battle.net account access, is now available for a wide range of mobile phones and carriers in the United States and Europe. The Battle.net Mobile Authenticator is a mobile application that generates a one-time password to use in addition to your regular account ID and password when logging in to a Battle.net account or any merged World of Warcraft accounts.

Visit mobile.blizzard.com to purchase the application -- and while you’re there, we’ve recently lowered the prices on our Blizzard Entertainment-themed ringtones and wallpapers. For more information on the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, visit eu.battle.net/bma or check out the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator FAQ.

SteelSeries has just unveiled the first of a new line of StarCraft II gaming surfaces featuring original artwork from the game. Developed to meet the requirements of pro gamers, these pads boast a high-quality cloth surface optimized for precision laser and optical mouse tracking. Check them out at SteelSeries.com.

We’re pleased to announce that Blizzard Entertainment will be attending gamescom 2009 in Cologne, Germany next month. We look forward to welcoming old friends and new to our booth, which will feature hands-on gameplay with our upcoming games. Our booth is open to the public from Thursday 20 August until Sunday 23 August.

We will be revealing more information on our activities during the show in the coming weeks. You can find out more about what gamescom has to offer, and how to get there, at http://www.gamescom-cologne.com/

Our recruiters will be at the booth ready to answer your questions about recruitment and working at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Europe currently has numerous open positions in quality assurance, localization, customer support and other departments in our offices in Velizy, France (near Paris) and Cork, Ireland. We’re looking for Italian, Polish, Russian, German, French, Spanish and English speakers. Bring your CV along and talk to us about our employment opportunities.

We have expanded the international eligibility for our BlizzCon Original Song and Fan Art contests to include contestants from additional countries. You have until July 31 to enter these contests -- check the new Original Song contest rules or Fan Art contest rules for more information or to see if you’re able to enter. If you had previously submitted an entry into either contest, your submission will automatically be re-entered in the new contests. Visit the BlizzCon Contest page for more information or to submit your entry -- and good luck!

We’re pleased to announce that Blizzard Entertainment will be present at the 17th edition of the Euskal Encounter in Bilbao, Spain. Euskal Encounter is a mass LAN event for amateur and professional computing enthusiasts which will take place in the Bilbao Exhibition Centre from July 23rd to 26th.

Stay tuned for additional information about the activities that Blizzard will be hosting at the Euskal Encounter 17. We hope to see you there!

We are now accepting submissions for this year’s BlizzCon Movie, Original Song, and Fan Art contests. Head over to the contest page to submit your entries by 12 p.m. PST on July 24, and you could win some great prizes or a chance to have your work showcased at the show. We’ll be announcing specific prizing and submission guidelines for all of our BlizzCon contests as they become available, so stay tuned to www.blizzcon.com for further updates.

Last Sunday, the 28th of June, the 2009 Warcraft Regional Finals for Warcraft III:The Frozen Throne and World of Warcraft in Cologne, Germany came to an end. We have prepared for you a video page with an overview of all the matches that were played during the event. We have also updated our Gallery with more photos from the event. Make sure to check it out here!

Please check back frequently over the next few days as we will be updating this site with after-event footage and commentaries on the matches.

The 2009 Warcraft Regional Finals have come to an end! We shared exciting moments and thrilling matches with our visitors and viewers here at the venue in Cologne, Germany. Fast matches, breathtaking scenes and top performances shown by the participants of this tournament heated up the air in the halls of the KOMED venue during all three days.

The last day finished with the North American finals for both Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and World of Warcraft. In the final rounds of Warcraft III, LongWalk defeated SonKiE a second and final time with 2:1, taking back home $5000.00 and a spot at the Grand Finals in Anaheim for his impressive performance during this event.

Set to fight it out in the Lower Bracket finals for World of Warcraft were TSG and EG. The match was played out relatively quickly as each team won every second round, making good use of all five potential rounds. In the fifth round, we found TSG playing very aggressively and cooldowns such as BladeStorm were used straight off the bat in order to put that extra little bit of pressure on EG. The tactic proved successful as they managed to drop Azael after a well-coordinated target-swap, securing their spot in the Grand Finals.

Waiting for TSG in the Grand Finals was SK Gaming US who considered themselves very well-prepared for TSG despite having never faced them in a tournament before. The rounds went by quickly as SK Gaming justified their high level of confidence by winning the match 3-1 in some very fast-paced rounds. Their use of Mass Dispel against Zilea's bubble won them the round as they proved to the world that they are currently the best American team in the world , receiving a reward of $15.000.00 for their title.

Finally we would like to thank all players, visitors, and spectators for their dedication and commitment. We hope that everybody had as much fun as we did on this great event here in Cologne. Make sure to check out our Regional Finals page here. Don’t miss the latest live coverage for this last tournament day on our forum thread for today. Additionally we have updated our gallery with more pictures showing impressions and emotions we were able to catch here for you.

The second day of the Regional Finals in Cologne, Germany is over with plenty of fast-paced and thrilling games and matches. During the first half of the day, the last four games of the EU Regional Finals took place and we were able to see the champions for both Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne – LucifroN -- as well as for World of Warcraft -- team x6tence from Spain -- who managed to come back from the lower brackets and take the title once again.

The second half of the day, the 2009 US Regional Finals started, bringing us a lot of exciting and fast-paced matches. For Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne SonKiE and LongWalk reached the semi-final of the upper bracket while ShrieK and CrunCher are fighting their way through the lower bracket. The upper bracket of World of Warcraft was dominated by the teams EG and the tournament veterans SK Gaming US while in the lower bracket the teams TSG and eMg managed to beat their opponents.

We also saw several contests down in the free gaming area and signing sessions with Tom Chilton. The venue was crowded with spectators cheering for their favorite players while following the breathtaking fights which took place live on stage.

Today, however, we will be watching the last set of US matches. Expectations are high as we are left with the above-mentioned players and teams to duke it out not only for the title of North American regional champions, but for a chance to visit BlizzCon and participate in the Grand Finals of 2009 in Anaheim, California.

Be sure to check out our Regional Finals page here. Don't miss the live coverage for this last tournament day on our forum thread for today and stay tuned for more exciting coverage and additional images in our Regional Finals gallery.

The second day of the 2009 Warcraft Regional Finals here in Cologne has already started and we already know the teams and players who won a safe place for the Grand Finals this year in Anaheim, California.

For WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne LucifroN, Nicker, and Grubby won their spots for the Grand Finals, while for World of Warcraft team Woah and x6tence, who just defeated eDawgs in the lower bracket semi-final, earned their tickets to BlizzCon in Anaheim where the Grand Finals will be held.

Today Grubby showed his strength in the EU Warcraft Regional Finals, defeating Nicker, a night elf player, quite quickly in the first game. After a fight between two huge armies in the second game as well, Grubby emerged victorious as well. Later on team x6tence, the winners of last year’s EU Regional Finals, crushed the eDawgs RMP team in three very fast and exiting matches in the lower bracket World of Warcraft Semi-Finals with 3:0, leaving eDawgs in the dust.

The Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was staged between the two famous players LucifroN, winner of yesterday’s upper bracket, and Grubby, who got his chance for revenge after losing against LucifroN yesterday morning in the first Warcraft III game of the day. Grubby started strong and was able to beat LucifroN on the first map. LucifroN recovered quickly and showed his superior skills, defeating Grubby with 2:1 on the last two maps to become the winner of the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne 2009 Regional Finals, taking home $5000.00 as a prize.

Spanish domination kept on going when team x6tence was able to defeat team Woah -- led by the famous Inflame -- in two breathtaking rounds, winning both times 3:2. A thrilling moment was the match where Woah lost their druid but still kept on going, finally resulting in the defeat of team x6tence in that round. After two rounds, x6tence won the World of Warcraft Regional Finals and received a $15,000 check from Tom Chilton.

Stay tuned and continue watching the beginning of the 2009 North American Regional Finals which will start in a few minutes with more exciting matches on our website for the Regional Finals and make sure to check out the live coverage on our forum thread.

The first day of the 2009 Regional Finals has seen plenty of action loaded matches for Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. European players Grubby and LucifroN and teams Woah and eDawgs have fought and won their first round matches in this amazing tournament here in Cologne, Germany.

One of the most energetic matches in WCIII’s first round was shown to us by Grubby, losing the first game against Happy (download the replay), struggling in the second, but recovering amazingly to eventually defeat Happy 2:1 thus keeping his title "King of the Orcs".

On the World of Warcraft Arena side, "Rest in many pieces" lost against eDawgs in an awesome second round battle featuring two RMP (Rogue Mage Priest) teams, a popular class composition for the European competitors. In the second game, both spectators and Blizzard staff watched breathlessly while the two surviving mages hunted each other with DaisyD from "Rest in many pieces" finally triumphing over his counterpart, Saori of eDawgs.

Players including Happy, SaSe, VortiX and Nicker as well as teams Rest in many pieces, SK Gaming EU, x6tence and aAa will continue battling each other in the Lower Bracket of this tournament, fighting for a chance to reach the finals.

We’ve updated our photo gallery for the Regional Finals with many awesome pictures. Check out our gallery to get an impression of the tournament location, visitors, shoutcasters and of course the players on stage. Be sure to continue following the exciting action in real-time from our Regional Finals live Internet stream. You can also check out the live coverage on our Forum thread for Day 1.

Stay tuned for further exciting coverage from the 2009 Regional Finals!

Today, Friday June 26th, the 2009 Regional Finals for World of Warcraft Arena and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne will open its gates to both pro-gamers and visitors looking forward to the start of the competition. The expectations are high, and plenty of well-known players and teams have gathered in Cologne to fight for the European and North American Regional Finals title for 2009.

The first matches are slated to start at 14:00 CEST. Be sure to check out our Regional Finals site we’ve prepared for you with a detailed schedule and also our live updated brackets page for both World of Warcraft and Warcraft III.

Additionally we will provide you with live, up-to-date coverage on the Community Forums. Each day, we will be creating one forum thread and providing coverage, commentary, and perhaps a few responses to questions that come up during the event. See the Day One thread where we’re gathering some initial impressions from our pre-event coverage for your reading pleasure.

Starting this Friday, the 2009 Regional Finals featuring World of Warcraft Arena and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, will take place in Cologne, Germany. The best players and teams from the US and the EU will compete to determine which of them will win a much sought-after spot at the Grand Finals at BlizzCon in Anaheim, California.

Watch the action in-person by joining us at the KOMED Meeting Centre in Cologne's MediaPark or follow the action from wherever you are through our official Regional Finals website. Additionally, we've prepared for you a brackets page with all participants, which will be updated throughout the event. The newly added tournament schedule available from the Information Page will help you follow the action and our Community team will keep you updated during the entire event from our Forums.

Stay tuned for more information about this exciting event and we hope to see you there!

As the 2009 Warcraft Regional Finals approach, we are excited to announce that the tournament will be streamed live* on the official Regional Finals homepage (starting at 14:00 CEST on Friday June 26th through to Sunday June 28th). You’ll be able to follow the thrilling competition by watching the event live and shoutcasted by Rob Simpson from the Blizzard eSports team and three special guests from the ESL: Stuart "TosspoT" Saw and Daniel "LilLD.C" Claesson for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and James "2GD" Harding for World of Warcraft Arena.

We will also be offering live coverage throughout the event, including news reports, articles and live updates from the Forums. Visit the Regional Finals website for more information!

*In order to view the action, you may need to install the Octoshape Flash plugin. After installing, you may need to restart your browser.

Next in our series of Regional Finals interviews is our discussion with Kintt of Team Pandemic where we talk about tournament preparation, teams to watch and what makes their 3v3 team unique. Read the full interview!

In our weekly E-Sports update this week we bring you news fresh from the front lines. Whether you are an Ensidia or SK Gaming World of Warcraft arena fan, or whether you prefer the clever tactics and micromanagement of Warcraft 3, we have you covered! Results from DreamHack Summer in Sweden, the ESL TV Invitational and NGL ONE's Play Day are just some of the goodies you can find news about below.

World of Warcraft: Ensidia wins Dreamhack Arena Tournament

Ensidia wins Dreamhack Arena Tournament beating SK Gaming in a nail biting final.

World of Warcraft: SK Gaming EU wins ESL TV Invitational

The ESL TV Invitational reached its' climax this week with the final round of their World of Warcraft Arena invitationals. SK Gaming wins the tournament by beating iNNERFiRE in an all out battle to the end!

WarCraft III: NGL ONE Play day

Coming up this weekend is another play day of the NGL ONE league with players like LucifroN from Spain, ReiGn from Korea and TH000 from China.

WarCraft III: LiiLD.C wins Dreamhack Summer

The Swedish Night Elf player Daniel Claesson better known as LiiLD.C Dreamhack Summer by beating the Swedish Human player Thorzain in the Finals.

WarCraft III: 91st edition of ZOTAC Warcraft III Cup

The Korean Night Elf player ReMinD won the 90th edition of the ZOTAC Warcraft III Cup. If you are a competitive player though, don't start slacking just yet as you don’t want miss your chance to sign up for the 91st edition of the ZOTAC Warcraft III Cup.

Welcome to this weeks' edition of the StarCraft II Q&A featuring a new part of the Map Maker special. We are looking forward to seeing a lot of creativity from map developers from around the world and here is another sneak peak on how the tool for implementation will look like.

We are excited to unveil the participants for the WarCraft III 2009 North American and European Regional Finals which will take place end of June in Cologne, Germany. Players from both continents have been battling for the available slots and proven themselves worthy of competing in these Regional Finals. In each of these two competitions held on the same weekend, eight WarCraft III players will fight for the title of Regional Champion. Three European and two North American players will have the chance to qualify for the Global Finals to be held at BlizzCon on August 21st and 22nd in Anaheim, California.

Here is a list of the EU participants:

Seed	Nick	Team	Race	Country
1	Happy	Team eG
2	SaSe	None
3	LucifroN	nGize
4	Grubby	Team eG
5	DeMusliM	nGize
6	ThomasG	nGize
7	VortiX	x6tence
8	Nicker	Bin Game

Here is a list of the US participants:

Seed	Nick	Team	Race	Country
1	srs[razer]sonk	Serious Gaming
2	LongWalk	None
3	BoX %)™	None
4	CrunCher	None
5	ShrieK	None
6	Unknownguru	None
7	HolyHuman	None
8	Deuce.	None

Make sure to check out our information page for the 2009 Warcraft Regional Finals!

This week’s eSports news covers both World of Warcraft and WarCraft III. We bring you news on the winner of week four in the ESL TV Invitational, an exclusive interview with SK US’s very own Ryan ‘Realz’ Masterson, the Zotac Cup #90, details about the NGL One: 1v1 Tournament and more information on the Dreamhack Arena Tournament!

World of Warcraft: iNNERFiRE wins week 4 of the ESL TV Invitational

iNNERFiRE has fought their way to the ESL TV Invitational grand finals by defeating Whoa in the fourth week. It looked like the WLD team of Whoa were set to take the fourth week for themselves, but the Bulgarian RMP team fought back, and in doing so claimed their ticket to the grand final. You can find out more about this story here.

WarCraft III: Zotac Cup #90 - June 13th

The Zotac Cup #90 is almost upon us. So, why not join the roster and sign up now. Time is of the essence!

World of Warcraft: Interview with Realz / SK US

TheDalaranInn.com brings you an exclusive interview with SK-Gaming’s very own Ryan ‘Realz’ Masterson. Find out where he began, what his career highlights have been so far and much, much more.

WarCraft III: NGL One: 1v1 Tournament

The NGL One: 1v1 tournament continues! For a list of upcoming games to be played on June 13th, be sure to check out the NGL One website.

World of Warcraft: Dreamhack Arena Tournament Participants

Dreamhack has announced six more teams who shall be participating in their very own Arena Tournament, which is being held on 13-16 june 2009. With 8 announced teams, and limited spaces, this is sure to be a great event. Check out the website for details of the registrants!

This year’s Warcraft regional finals are approaching fast, with the event set to take place on June 26th-28th in Cologne, Germany. Seeing the best players from Europe and North America battling it out on stage is definitely something you do not want to miss, and if you stop by, not only will you bear witness to the climactic finals, you’ll also be able to attend organised signings with World of Warcraft Game Director Tom "Kalgan" Chilton.

We look forward to seeing you there!

In just two short weeks, the Regional Finals will take place in Cologne! Attendees will be able to see the best teams from around the world compete in the World of Warcraft Arena and the Warcraft III:Frozen Throne tournaments. To help you find your way to this free-to-all event, we have provided travel information over on our new Tournament Information page. We look forward to seeing you there!

This week, for you reading pleasure, we offer you a rundown of the best players in WarCraft III, as well as the WC3L XV player awards and finals results. Not only that, but also some insight into the mind of the ‘Skillz to pay the Bills’ creator Peter Leopold, and much, much more! Find out all the juicy details on the Battle.net forums.

We're happy to announce that the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, an extension of the same concept behind our Blizzard Authenticator, is now available in Europe.

An authenticator generates a one-time password, which you use in addition to an account ID and password to log in to World of Warcraft and other Blizzard Entertainment services. The Battle.net Mobile Authenticator performs this function for the recently launched Battle.net accounts -- only instead of a physical token, the application exists on your mobile phone for easy access.

The Battle.net Mobile Authenticator is now available as a free download for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch from the Apple App Store. Versions for other mobile phones are also in the works for the future. Please visit the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator FAQ for more information, or head to the setup page to get started after you've downloaded the application.

The 2009 Korean Warcraft III regional final series has begun. The event features the top eight players who advanced from the regional online and invitational ladders of the 2009 Warcraft III tournament, including the top two performers from last year’s regional. The tournament takes place in Seoul, Korea over several weeks, with online coverage starting at 18:00 KST (11:00 CEST) for each event day. Check out the timeline for the tournament below, along with the map pool, and don’t forget to keep track of these intense matches by following the bracket and checking out the broadcast on our hosting site. Good luck to all the players!

The second and final allotment of tickets for BlizzCon 2009 has now been sold out. We look forward to seeing all attendees in Anaheim, California! For those unable to attend in-person, online coverage of BlizzCon will also be offered via a DIRECTV Pay Per View event as an Internet video stream.

During the 2009 Warcraft Regional Finals, the best European and North American players will battle each other on stage in Cologne, Germany. Event attendees will also discover our dedicated gaming area, try our latest games, take part in contests, and much more. At the event, you’ll have the opportunity to challenge your friends in StarCraft II, the long-awaited sequel to StarCraft, and game stations will also be set up for Wrath of the Lich King. If you haven’t yet had the chance to step into Northrend or are wondering what’s new for your favorite StarCraft race, you can find out in Cologne June 26 - 28th.

If you were unable to purchase BlizzCon tickets during the first round of ticket sales, we just wanted to remind you that our second batch of BlizzCon 2009 tickets will be going on sale Saturday, May 30. Ticket sales are again scheduled to begin on Saturday at 19:00 CEST, so be sure to visit the ticket sales page then for a chance to get yours.

BlizzCon 2009 will take place August 21 and 22 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and tickets cost $125 each. For those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be available as a Pay Per View Internet stream. For more information about the convention and the Internet stream, check out the official BlizzCon site.