Editor's Note: Happymint, a former World of WarCraft pro gamer, attended the WarCraft III finals in Cologne, Germany. The following Q&A session is a polished sum-up of the information that he has graciously shared with the SC:L community: 
Can you describe your overall impressions in detail?
Well, after playing the game I realized that in 4 more short days I was going to not be able to play it again. I was like "Oh shit this is going to suck when I get home" so I was constantly going from Blizz employee to Blizz employee trying to get some sort of information on when to expect beta. I generally hung out with the four staff members who I played StarCraft with/against the most. They were really down to earth and great guys, one night we talked about StarCraft II alone for like three hours while having some drinks. I can say that no matter how I tried I could never get them to say exactly when (they sincerely did not know I think). Though as often as I brought it up all I can say is that I got the impression that it was not going to be really soon. Sure they could have been pulling my leg, but I built up a good amount of rapport with them over the course of the week. And I think that if it was honestly in like 1-2 months from then and they knew that it was, at least one of them would have told me. The impression I got was basically, there was 0 rush on this game. They would not - no matter what - release it until it was perfect. They were like 100% content playing it amongst themselves for however long it takes to actually get a build they felt was really solid and balanced. It is like there is absolutely no overhead Blizz president/board member/ whatever calling the devs every day saying "Hey, when's my beta going to be done, I need MONEY!" After all, Blizz has plenty of money. They put us up in four star hotels, unlimited room service, free meals every meal. It was a ballin good time haha. What are the overpowered elements that you found in StarCraft II? The Raven (previously named Nighthawk), the new Terran "Science Vessel", can basically be teched to incredibly fast. It has turrets that it can drop. These are not for those "Oh crap!" situations; they are actually quite good. The turrets only cost fifty energy, have two armor, 150 health, and do eight damage per attack. It attacks at approximately the same speed as a non-stimmed Marine. Energy seems to regenerate faster than in StarCraft I from what I could tell. This made it so I could kill players entirely with turrets or with the Raven's heat seeking missiles, which are also really good. The misses, according to the Blizzard staff were nerfed in the most recent build to move slower than the one I was in. They were very good and perhaps needed the nerf. However, if you use them, you have to be dangerously close to enemy units for it to actually hit. There is also an upgrade the range at which it will chase units.
There were games where I had eight Ravens and flew over the Zerg expansion and base and used smart casting to drop approximately thirty turrets on their base. The player had to sacrifice almost its entire army to fend off these turrets which gives terran very quick map control.
Another overpowered element was the Baneling. In the build I played, their AOE was a bit smaller. However, they did forty damage on each explosion which one shot infantry. They were incredibly good. The newest build nerfed them according to the Blizzard staff there, but they increased their AOE abilities.
The last overpowered element I can remember was the Planetary Fortress. A big Terran weakness in StarCraft I is the inability to easily defend expansions, because they had no sunkens/photon cannons. In StarCraft 2, a player can turn their Command Center into a Planetary Fortress. This can be spam repaired with a player's SCV's. It only hits ground but does AOE damage and forty damage per attack. There was a game I had my Planetary Fortress take out 12 zealots and 5 immortals while I was spam repairing, allowing it's HP to never drop. It is not without cost, however; a player can only get this OR the Comsat. Comsat has a really cool element in which a player can spend fifty energy on a Comsat, or a player can spend fifty energy on dropping a MULe for mining. MULe's actually mine at the SAME time as your SCV's on the same mineral patches the SCVs can mine at. This can drastically increase a player's income. A player can drop a MULE anywhere that he has vision of. What are some things that you think should be changed or things that you think will be changed? Some things that need to be changed are: (1)the turret energy requirement increased; (2)Baneling damage nerfed and AOE increased; (3)Siege Tank damage increased; (4)Zerg tech reworked. The Zerg seems to only be good right now because of the Baneling. Every good unit is way too late in the tech tree and Zerg seem to constantly lose in the early or mid-game, as can be seen in Battle Report #3. The temporary Force Field that can be put up by early Protoss tech Disruptor is obscenely good. In my opinion, it needs less AOE or cost more energy. Can you describe in detail how Creep Tumors are used? Is the ability instant and does it have a cooldown? When casting on receding creep, does it instantly halt the recession and will it magnify creep around it within a radius? I didn't play Zerg all that much unfortunately, but the Creep stays for a good while. It costs energy and has no cooldown as far as I know. If a player makes Creep Tumors, he can't inject Larva into his Hatcheries because of the lack of energy. It's very important to do so because Zerg no longer needs to spam Hatcheries for Larva; one or two Queens is all that is needed. I had like twelve larva on one Hatchery at one point. Its quite good.
Are there any significant changes with the UI from what we've seen in the latest screenshots? Can players now draw on the minimap in addition to the standard ping? The UI seems to be about the same as the in the screenshots I have seen. I was unable to draw on the mini map, and the Blizzard staff never mentioned anything about it in all my discussions with them.
Can you discuss Psi Storm? How is it in terms of importance/usefulness?
Psi Storm is just as good as it has ever been. When the Blizzard devs talked about ZvP with me they would talk about the game before and after "storm". This is because it's that big of a difference. When you cast it, similar to WC3 when you're casting say - blizzard for example - you get a circle on the ground where it will show up. There is smart casting now so there is no need to single select each Templar to cast, you can just press T click T click T Click and 3 of your selected Templars will each make a cast etc. The graphic is a bit different, it no longer looks like lightning, it looks more like a very high quality version of the Corsairs web but all "stormy" for lack of a better term. It is still a very integral part of Protoss play. 
What was the Thor like, and how effective did you find this unit?
The Thor is a funky unit. It's actually not that expensive, only slightly more than a Siege Tank. It's clunky and slow and its damage is pretty measly. There are only two good things about the Thor: (1)It has an instant 300 damage (something near there), and (2)a five second single-target stun that requires energy. The Thor is also like the Goliath 2.0 against air. It shoots off volleys of around six rockets in the air. Unless the rocket damage is upgraded later in the game, they are relatively low damage rockets though, making them ineffective against units with level three armor. An adjacent Sensor Tower is now needed to grant detection to Missile Turrets. Can you confirm this? Also, does the Sensor Tower still reveal itself to enemies once constructed? It does reveal itself to enemies once constructed. I have no idea why; it doesn't make sense to me to be honest. I cannot confirm that sensor towers are needed for detection for Missie Turrets. I can say that the Turrets are substantially better than before, though slightly more expensive. A welcome change if you ask me. What was your impression of Proton Charge? Proton charge is pretty easy to keep up and is low tech so you can get the Dark Pylon very fast. I think it only requires a Gateway. You select it then a huge AOE pops up and you have to physically click where to put the charge. It simply makes Probes get 1 more minerals per trip instead of 5, now 6. Everyone gets it pretty early from what I saw. I am pretty sure they balanced the Mule and Proton charge to give these races approx the same minerals/minute if both used every time possible. Down side is that Mule is energy that can't be used for a Comsat. How is the macro aspect of the game? Macro as you would expect is much easier in StarCraft II. They pretty much added dark pylon / Queen / mule to force players to macro. Having rally straight to minerals and being able to hot key all your CC's hatcheries/whatever to one key makes the game much more seamless to play. I welcome the changes, I know some people are hesitant b/c it will require less APM, which is why they put in these new abilities. Hatcheries now have two rallys. One for workers, one for everything else. It's nice. One thing I hope is that they get rid of the two geysers. I feel like two geysers really screws Zerg because they need gas more than any other race and have to sac four Drones PER gas instead of three. The idea is that if you don't want to tech super fast you can just go one gas. But I found that almost every race seems to need two geysers pretty early to produce anything outside of lings/lots/marines
Did you use Tanks much at all? Or Helions? If so how did you feel they compared to a more bio build? From what I can tell this is basically how it works with Terran. Bio is strong by itself. Mech is "ok" by itself. Bio Mech is very strong. Bio Mech + Air is also very strong. Unlike in StarCraft I where spamming two units is the best way to go, armies in StarCraft II seemed a bit more diverse to me. For example, Banshees are really strong. Great damage to ground, and can really supplement ground units along with Ravens. You really *can* get a bit of everything at the moment. Tanks in regular mode are the same as in StarCraft I
I personally didn't like Helions that much. They have their uses but I honestly just love Vultures so much they just seemed like crappy Vultures so I avoided them a lot. I felt like their attack was a bit clunky. Vultures can patrol, move micro and fire to harass. Hellions basically stand still to attack which means I don't like the role it fills quite as much. They're more like buff Firebats and less like Vultures. Did you try any cheese or silly builds? (like proxy Planetary Fortress) or run into any cheese-like builds from Protoss? The only cheese I really did was mass Ravens and spammed turrets because it's abusing what is in my opinion an overpowered game element. I heard of games of people spamming Planetary Fortresses but I never really did that myself hehe. Keep in mind, you cannot lift Planetary Fortresses. So you can't like... attack with them.
I used Tanks all the time, but never in large numbers. They are REALLY really weak in comparison to StarCraft I. You have to have an Armory to upgrade Siege mode (Armory doesn't upgrade damage anymore either) so Tanks are later in tech, more expensive, deal less damage, and still slow.
If you get a Lair your Overlords can basically drop creep anywhere (you don't even have to research it). And Nydus Network only requires a Lair now. So one game a friend of mine found a corner of my base, dropped creep then a Nydus Worm, flew out, and about 25 Banelings wrecked my base from behind. It was funny, but also a good strategy. How did you handle Hydralisks and Roaches? Do you recall their stats? Roaches are generally reserved for ZvZ and in ZVP they seem to only be pretty good against Zealots from what I understand. Banelings were just so good in the build I played no one got much Roaches because they would just rather have Banelings. Roaches can't hit air so banelings are like better all around for the money. Hydralisks are stronger, I don't remember the stats specifically for them; some people got Hydralisks but usually everyone just spammed Banelings. Lings + Banelings is insane against ground... Did you get to play with the Disruptor? If so, did you play with Hallucination? I didn't play with it myself, but I played against people who did. It's a very good unit and the damage isn't *that* bad either. No one used Hallucination from what I can recall, just the force fields. People seemed to just prefer Stalkers to them overall. Blink is insane. Whats the state of the Neural Parasite ability? Has it changed much since the examples in Battlereport 3? Neural Parasite is pretty much the same as in Battlereport 3. One really great thing about it is that it is standard when you create an Infestor. Infestors only require a Lair and Neural Parasite does not need to be researched. Thus you can actually tech to Infestors really quickly and use parasites relatively early game which is one of the really strong aspects of Zerg. However, as you would expect, the longer the game continues the better they get overall as the higher tech units they can mind control. Did you get to see any use of the Corrupter? What were your impressions? Corrupters are actually really strong, and they are actually more microable than Mutas. They are better for "Jaedong style gibbing" than Mutas currently are. With Corrupters there is what they call a "critical mass" number for them. Once a person has like 6 or 7 of them they can 2 shot almost any air unit in the game (save carriers/BC's etc) and give Zerg major air superiority. They're almost necessary against Terran that uses Ravens since there are no more Scourge in the game. You say that the Siege Tanks are underpowered. Could you give a few example scenarios? The only one you mentioned was against Immortals, but Immortals are designed to counter hard hitters like Siege Tanks.It's like, all the bad parts of Siege tanks from before: slow, clunky, immobile, with nerfed damage, higher tech required to make it, and a good chunk more expensive. They're still good, but massing them isn't realistic or worth it overall. This is all subject to change when people actually figure out tried and true strategies. But overall in the limited amount of time I had to play, I never really felt they were that amazing. I felt like Terran infantry got the job done better overall. Having Tanks is great for support, but massing them is unrealistic due to expense. What is the status of the Mothership? Mothership is ridiculously slow (not as expensive as you would expect) but relatively weak in terms of dealing damage. It can take a ridiculous amount of damage. I never got to use it myself, I only played against it, and I was never impressed. It is so unbelievably immobile (other than being able to blink to buildings) that it makes it difficult to keep up with the pace of battle. You can easily just avoid it. The blink around ability does cost energy which makes it less of a caster. It looks really cool though. Did you get a chance to try Lurkers? What is their current role? A while back, they were 11 range anti-building siege units. Not a single person got Lurkers the entire time I was there. They require a Hive now, and their cost is high. I can't comment on them myself unfortunately. It's a shame because they're like a late game unit now instead of the early response to M&M (though there are no more early game Medics either). Any change in unit designs portraits? The new portraits look about as life-like as you can get. The Zerg look absolutely...disgusting..and awesome. I honestly didn't pay too much attention to the details of the units. The one thing I regret most is not spam clicking them to hear what goofy stuff they might say. What is the Zerg response to Psionic Storm? I honestly would assume Ultras if they can get to them. Ultras are so obscenely powerful they change games. They have like 600 health now and damage is increased and they cleave everything around them for partial damage. 
How fast can Medivacs be acquired? is rushing them a common strategy?
Medivacs only require a Starport (no Tech Lab necessary) so they are really easy to get and mass with a Reactor. You can get them very quickly and they basically serve as the new Medics. They are 100/100 in costs and can be made quickly. You can offensively drop as a Terran faster than in the original StarCraft. The healing they do is probably the same as before though because you can't really mass them like you can Medics. How is the Zerg Base defense with the mobility of the Spine/Spore Crawlers? Do the little things that come out when a building dies contribute at all, or are they more just eye candy for dead buildings? Zerg base defense seems weaker overall, but the mobility of it is a plus. Most people didn't get many Spine Crawlers. One person got Spore Crawlers to stop my Banshees but they did not do much good because banshees are still pretty devastating. The little things that come out when the building die are in between eye candy and useful. They will actually kill off a unit maybe, but most importantly they eat damage. So if you move units in right as the building dies you have a little army that is far superior to either by itself. Was the Carrier model improved, or it's still a yellow Tempest? The Carriers looked pretty cool to me, but I will say they didn't seem all that powerful. I had a set of 12 Vikings pretty much decimate my opponents 6 Carriers. I felt like Carriers are not quite as powerful as they were in the original. What units do you think are best for a Medivac drop? Simple Marines for cheapness? Or something else. I usually just went with Marines, they are still the best for worker gibbing and overall harassment. A lot of the time I really wished I could have two Dropships per eight Marines *Note - For more Q&A from HappyMint, visit this thread.
This is a StarCraft: Legacy (http://sclegacy.com/) feature event article. 
Editor's Note: Happymint, a former World of WarCraft pro gamer, attended the WarCraft III finals in Cologne, Germany. The following are his impressions of the StarCraft II build playable there:
Hey everyone,
I initially came back to StarCraft: Legacy after about 9 years not visiting the site. I remember when StarCraft came out this was the place to be for StarCraft info, strategies, etc. and I am sure it still is. The thread I created in the forum for StarCraft II Question and Answer seems to have taken off since there is still a lot of ambiguity about the game at the moment. Many people have seen some specific aspects of StarCraft II that are intriguing, but don’t really understand the full picture. After all, Blizzard does want to hide certain aspects of it to keep the fans interested.
On June 24 of this year I was shipped off to Cologne, Germany by Blizzard to compete in their World of Warcraft regional finals. I was at the tournament (all expenses paid by Blizzard, thank you!) to compete for prize money and a shot at a trip to BlizzCon. Unfortunately my team didn’t quite make it but I did have lots of time to play StarCraft II. Blizzard had about twelve StarCraft II PCs set up down stairs for the pros and the general public to play whenever they so desired. It was generally pretty packed so I often had to rotate with friends, but the days were long and since we lost the tourney we had nothing better to do than release our frustration on others in the best RTS I’ve ever touched. I got to play the game for 3-4 hours a day (of actual play time) for about five days straight. I also got to hang out with a lot of the StarCraft II Blizzard staff who were there and talk to them about previous builds, the current build, and future build changes. The Blizzard team is absolutely awesome to hang out with and are really down-to-earth guys. They were passionate about the game and making it the best RTS ever. I will say even at its current stage it is the best RTS I’ve ever played. Perhaps there are a few balance tweaks, but that is to be expected. The game is still in an experimental phase. They are still designing new elements to add - meanwhile removing or tweaking others. Despite my sincerest efforts I could not get a general date on when beta was supposed to come out. The reality is that it is supposed to be out this summer, but from what I could tell from them I personally expect a September beta. Keep in mind they didn’t say anything about September, that’s just my estimated guess from playing the game and my interactions with them. I believe they didn’t know the date themselves, they just knew it wasn’t yet. They’re dedicated to releasing a game that’s incredibly well polished and ready for the world - even for Beta.
The Basics:
The first thing you notice when you sit down to play a new RTS is the user interface and the smoothness and pace of play. From the Battle Reports, I was worried that the game would be slower paced than the original StarCraft - something like in between StarCraft and WarCraft III in terms of speed. The released Battle Reports seem slower-paced than the original game, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that the game is every bit as fast as the original, or faster. In fact, Speedlings are so fast it’s almost unbearable to deal with them. The Battle Reports were not played on the fastest speed according to the Blizzard staff.
As for the UI, there are a few changes all of which are immensely welcome. First of all, the player can select infinite units in the current build. If the player selects, say, 100 units and presses "A", then clicks on a base, all the units neatly march off in formation to attack. No more single file lines – ever. Moreover, each page of the selection can display 36 units. Beyond that your selection screen will create tabs along the left side in which you can actually tab through your units. When selecting multiple types of units, each type will get its own tab. Suppose five Siege Tanks and three Ravens are selected. The player can keep them all selected and micro them, while tabbing back and forth in between the pages and using abilities. You no longer have to deselect the Tanks to cast Raven abilities and vice versa. Same with Marines/Reapers/Ghosts/whatever. One selection can Stim your marines, EMP your enemy, and cloak your Ghosts – just simply tab through. 
Rally points can be done by selecting as many builds as you want and right clicking. Command Centers and Nexii can rally to minerals or gas and SCVs and Probes will automatically mine. It is absolutely amazing how convenient it is. In WarCraft III you have five guys mining gold, you don’t even NEED that mechanic. In Starcraft you think you’ve about died and gone to RTS heaven. Zerg have two rallies on Hatcheries, one is a worker rally, the other is an "everything else" rally. Right clicking on the Mineral line will automatically set the worker rally to it (as will using the hot key “W”), and right clicking anywhere else will set the normal rally. Spamming Hatcheries is a thing of the past. Queens inject larva into Hatcheries using energy (which quickly regenerates and allows you to use only one Hatchery in a situation where you might have previously used three. The Larvae count you can get from one Queen and one Hatchery is huge.
Unit production is easier also, suppose for a moment I have a group of four Barracks selected and I want to make two Marauders and four Marines. Well, if two have Tech Labs, and two have Reactors, I can actually make all six at once. Nevertheless, with them all selected I just press DD MMM and they will be queued up. After pressing D the first time one of the Barracks will have a little square dot beneath it queue up - basically showing that it’s got something in queue or being made. After each subsequent D or M the other ones light up with dots showing how many of them are currently being used. Each little Barracks icon can have up to five dots below it showing the queue of that specific Barracks.
The game play is pretty much seamless. It ran incredibly smooth on the PCs there and the graphics are well, you’ve seen them. There was never a point the entire time there were I became frustrated with unit pathing. I never had an SCV get stuck or cursed at one floating around unresponsively on top of my Command Center or mineral line (my biggest peeve of StarCraft I). Units always move perfectly in formation and have multiple death animations each. I think there are three death animations per unit at the moment.
General Race Specifics + Ramblings
Terran:
Terran is the race I consistently play on StarCraft I and is the race I played almost exclusively in Cologne. I played perhaps 3-4 games as Zerg and Protoss and about 30 as Terran. So my knowledge of the specifics of the race is much higher in terms of this one in comparison to the others. One really interesting thing about Terran is that it has transformed into a do it all type of race. What I mean is that, you can now run Marines and Infantry against Protoss unlike in StarCraft I. Marauders really fill the huge hole that Terran infantry had in StarCraft against heavy armor, HP, or high damage units. Marauders are like little unsieged Tanks running around that snare whatever they hit. Moreover, Marines can have shields now which give them 10 bonus HP, which is really strong against Protoss. You can still play mech against Protoss too; Hellions are great against Zealots, though the effectiveness of the Terran Siege Tank is greatly diminished. 
Tanks cost more than before, do less damage, are still highly immobile and slow, and get hard countered by new units like Immortals. I personally felt like a Bio + Mech combination was the strongest overall build you could run against Protoss. Tanks are still great to have, but there is no need to have 20 of them in a single large scale battle like what is common in StarCraft I. Ghosts are also really great to have against Protoss too since they are the new EMP machines and aren’t hard to tech to at all. There is no needed Science Facility or anything like that. You can get Ghosts about the same time you would be able to get Tanks; so needless to say, they’re a great deal stronger and easier to get. Cloaked units that fire off EMP rounds? Yes please.
Terran seems to be the race that still requires the most Micro and APM at the moment. There are more casters that are absolutely vital for Terran to be effective. Ravens are in my opinion 100% necessary against Zerg, likewise with Ghosts against Protoss. Fortunately all the extra things you have to do as Terran (Stim, Seige, Raven casts ,Ghost casts, Thor Stun) are all made much easier to perform in comparison to before. The new UI makes casting less of a nightmare.
Currently, Terrans can salvage some buildings to get 100% of the resources used back. Bunkers are like this so you can even progressively Bunker push forward and just keep salvaging the ones behind it. The opportunities that open via this option are pretty insane. Moreover, Bunkers are stronger than ever because you can put Marauders in them now which have really long range and do extremely good damage to the types of units Marines were most vulnerable to in StarCraft I. You can also upgrade the number of units you can put in a single Bunker and the armor on all Terran buildings (including Bunkers) to make them even stronger both defensively and offensively.
The Thor is like having three Goliaths in one. It costs 300 minerals and 150 gas (maybe 100 gas) and currently has an ability that does not have to be researched that does instant high damage and a five second stun to a single unit. The Thor is a bit of a Tank but it is quite slow and its overall damage output is not extremely impressive for the cost. Nevertheless, the Thor is a very impressive anti-air unit. It fires off volleys of six or maybe eight rockets at a time at air units that do eight damage each (I think). This makes them great for fending off early Mutalisk harassment. However since each rocket is low damage, armor upgrades on air are very effective against the Thor.
Zerg:
Zerg is the race that in my personal opinion needs the most love. Zerg isn’t bad to say, but it’s missing the special ingredient at the moment to bring it back to the spot where I feel it should be. The Zerg is still a gas heavy race and the current game design is two Vespene Geysers that yield four gas per trip per worker. This effectively doubles the amount of workers races must contribute to mine gas. The problem is that Zerg is the one race with the most delicate early game economy so losing four drones to get the same amount of gas as is required in StarCraft I is quite a feat, especially considering most Zerg players want to get an early expansion and multiple gases going to facilitate quick teching, Mutalisks, etc. The problem is that the loss of eight Drones that could otherwise be mining minerals puts the Zerg in a bad position which makes it difficult for Zerg to actually tech quickly without being super vulnerable to attack.
From the build that I played there was one thing that made Zerg really strong, and that was quite simply the wonder that is Banelings. In the newest build (not this build), they are slightly nerfed in damage, increased in AOE range and are still going to be extremely powerful. Banelings are what make Zerg at the moment. Without them Zerg players would have 10 times as much trouble early, mid, and I dare say late game as they currently do. They are incredibly fun to use, do ridiculous damage, and are absolutely devastating to Zealots and Terran infantry.
Roaches on the other hand are a new unit I have mixed feelings about. The greatness of them is that they are ranged (though cannot hit air) but cost no gas at all. They’re like replacement for zerglings in a way. They also regenerate very quickly as soon as they are created, and with Hive tech can get increased regen which makes them regen about 10hp/second. However I wonder how good they will be even with the increased regen late game after the opponent has units of higher tech levels.
I feel like Zerg struggles most with its Tier 2 Lair units. A Lair opens up Mutalisks, but with all the improved anti-air in the game Mutalisks have lost their effectiveness. Moreover, Hydralisks have been buffed and moved to tier 2, but they are still just Hydralisks and get eaten away by quite a few counters. If you can make your way to Hive tech, Zerg simply explodes with options and becomes a powerhouse again. Ultralisks are phenomenal at the moment. Expensive but well worth the money, they have tons more health, just as much armor, and a powerful attack. A player can run Ultralisks into just about anything and they’ll leave a huge dent or just kill everything in the way.
Overall I feel like the best change to help the Zerg would be to simply make each base only one gas again instead of multiple. The fragile economy of early game Zerg seems to get taken advantage of by the multiple gas requirement; meanwhile, it seems unnecessary for other races as I could not find a single game where I didn’t get both gases as quickly as I could afford to. Almost no build I ran could manage off of a single gas in StarCraft II. I think double gas is unnecessary.
Protoss:
My experience with Protoss is less than with other races, so I cannot speak too clearly about them with utmost confidence. Nevertheless the power of Protoss at the moment is the same as it always has been - very strong, very dangerous, durable ground units. Zealots with charge are very comparable to Speedlots. The speed is no longer necessary as most units move in formation with Stalkers, etc. So it’s actually better to have burst speed when a Zealot engages and a bit less speed overall. Stalkers with Blink are perhaps the best units in the game at kiting and microing efficiently. They are really difficult to kill when microed well and likewise are great at chasing down other units and harassing in general. These units are neat, but nothing truly special.
Most of you should know that the Reaver has been Scrapped and is not in StarCraft II. Its replacement is the Colossus, perhaps the overall most devastating unit in the Protoss arsenal. I know you all have seen the videos and to be honest I was never really that impressed with it. The thin red line that AOE burns units didn’t seem all that powerful to me. Well my friends, that is because the video doesn’t show Colossus in "critical mass". The "critical mass" of any one unit is once when you get X number of this unit, it passes a certain threshold of deadliness - like Carriers and Battlecruisers in StarCraft I for example. One Colossus, mediocre. Two Colossi,pretty good. Three Colossi, getting warmer. Four Colossi, absolute morbid destruction. If a player accumulates four Colossus or god forbid five, nearby ground units absolutely melt away. They sit behind your wall of Zealots and Stalkers and absolutely do devastating damage to enemy ground, Zerg, Terran, or Protoss. They are strong enough to take quite a few hits, they have strong escape options by being able to walk up cliffs and out of line of sight, but most importantly, they can literally one-shot nearly everything once when in critical mass. Psionic Storm? Yeah it’s still amazing, but why bother when you can press "A," click on their base, and watch the bloody mess your Colossi leave behind. 
Which brings me to my next point, Psionic Storm is still a great spell and a must have for Protoss in nearly any matchup. The new casting system makes it easier to use, more precise than before, and thus more deadly. Templars are still around in full force in StarCraft II and will certainly be a core part of any high level player’s army. Dark Templar are pretty much the same as before and need no real introduction.
Finally, last but not least, we have the newest amazing addition to the Protoss arsenal, the Immortal. The Immortal cannot take more than 10 damage in any single attack. Due to this they are most vulnerable to Zerglings, stimmed Marines etc (although they’re still so good they aren’t *that* vulnerable) but amazing against Mech like Thors or Siege tanks. They’re quite expensive but well worth the cost. I don’t think I played a single game against a Protoss player who didn’t tech to Immortals quickly and use them throughout the entire game. They’re extremely durable and do excellent damage. Once where Protoss was very vulnerable to Terran Mech, this is no longer the case due to this one unit. It single handedly annihilates any Terran attempt to spam Siege against the Protoss player.
Overall, I feel like Protoss is extremely well polished, though the ability to warp units in with Warp gates is borderline too powerful and I can see, and have seen, a lot of amazing uses of this ability in games. Protoss is more so than any other race a stronger version than the race in the previous game. Where Terran has changed more towards Bio, and out of, Mech spam, in games against Protoss I almost always saw the players stick with ground units all the way through. Once I saw Carriers introduced and a Mothership just for fun, but the reality is mass capital ships appears to still be a relatively ineffective strategy overall for any race. I feel like late game StarCraft II will likely be similar to the first game. I personally am grateful for this because I am not a big fan of watching Carriers and Battlecruisers duke it out; I much prefer intricate ground battles.
The computers have 4 different difficulty settings, and you can set it to insane. This is not like StarCraft I where the “insane computer” simply got infinite money. Instead it’s just a really good computer that’s a pain to deal with. Even computers on hard setting were no joke to beat. I usually played against other people but it was quite fun to play against computers a couple of times.
This is a StarCraft: Legacy (http://sclegacy.com/) feature event article.
General Gameplay
For this build, each base had two Vespene Geysers on every map. Currently, the gathering of Vespene gas works similar to Brood War in that the Vespene extraction building has a set number of resources and no longer regenerates gas. However, once the Vespene Geyser has been depleted, the player's workers will no longer be able to harvest more gas. Whether this system will remain is still not 100%, according to Browder.
The mechanics against various armor types were, for the most part, balanced. Against armored units, infantry felt a little underpowered - unless they had extra damage, in which case they could be a lynchpin. In the early game Roaches are great units with their fast healing. The additional damage dealt to organic units made them popular in almost every match.
Unit and structure models have not been changed from those seen in recent screenshots and video. The audio has changed considerably, with more new music and unit sounds as the game approaches beta and units are finalized. The team colors are red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple and white.
Unique death animations have been implemented and while it is unlikely that their development is completely finished, what we've seen thus far looks very good. One especially notable set was the destruction of Protoss air units - the Carrier and the Void Ray. The ships explode in a combination of twisted metal and released psi energy before falling harmlessly to the ground and disappearing.
The game is definitely true to the original - combined arms is a must and micro is vital, even the new abilities become exponentially stronger as a player's skill increases. Macro mechanics are in place and seem to work the way they are intended.
Terran Information:
The Terran Thor has had a few changes since last seen by the public. Now, Thors can be transported by the Medivac Dropship. Currently, only one Thor can be transported per Medivac Dropship. When attaching, the Thor's body transforms, pulling its arms and legs inside, becoming a more cube-like shape, and attaching to the bottom of the Medivac Dropship, which will then be able to fly the Thor wherever its needed. Despite the work put into this, the development team is still working on the Thor's aerial transportation, and this mechanic will likely not remain the same when the beta is released.
Currently the Thor has a special attack that utilizes the the cannons located on its back. The strike is focused on a single target and bombards it with multiple shots. During this deadly strike, the targeted unit is stunned, and can neither move nor counterattack. Whether this attack remains in the beta is unclear at this point, because the Thor is helpless otherwise when using this attack, and is only worth using against a single, strong enemy unit.
The Raven's in-game model still resembles its last incarnation when it was named the Nighthawk. Its abilities are the Auto-Turret, Defensive Drone, and the Hunter Seeker Missile. The Defensive Drone wasn't given much attention - most focus on the Raven was put toward the new Hunter Seeker Missile. When the Raven unleashes its Hunter Seeker Missile, a large missile slowly flies toward its target, with a red laser constantly pointed at the target, regardless of whether it's moving or not. The Hunter Seeker Missile moves rather slowly, so a watchful player could move most units away from the missile if noticed quickly enough. After a certain amount of time without hitting its target, the Hunter Seeker Missile will harmlessly explode wherever it is when it runs out fuel. With the missile's slow speed, a player may be tempted to move their Raven very close to the intended target, however, the Hunter Seeker Missile will inflict damage on friendly units as well, including the Raven, so a hasty close-ranged launch of the Hunter Seeker Missile may spell certain doom for the Raven.
Zerg Information:
In this pre-beta build, the Zerg Infestor has three abilities: the Neural Parasite, Plague, and Spawn Infested Terrans. The Neural Parasite acts as a short term mind control over a single unit, whether it's a mighty Battlecruiser or a lowly SCV. Should a Protoss Probe be controlled, a Zerg player could warp in a Nexus if there were sufficient resources. Even after the Probe's control reverts back to its original owner, the incoming Nexus will belong to the Zerg player that paid for it. Similarly, the same can be done with a Terran SCV. However, since the SCV must be present and controlled by the Zerg player during the entire duration of the Command Center's build cycle, the Zerg player would have to use the Neural Parasite ability on the SCV at least six times before the Command Center's building can be completed. Should an enemy Zerg Drone be targeted with the Neural Parasite, the controlling Zerg player could use the drone to morph into a building, and the building will be permanently controlled by the owner of the Infestor. Whether the control of the drone would remain with the Infester's owner if the building morph were cancelled early has yet to be seen or tested.
In the group discussion with Dustin Browder, the Plague ability, formerly of the Zerg Defiler, was given to the Infestor. However, Browder mentioned that the Plague ability doesn't appear to fit well with the Infestor, and will most likely not remain when the beta is released. The third ability allows the Infestor to spawn five Infested Terran. The Infested Terran start out as sacs that grow on the Infestor's back before falling to the ground and hatching. The Infested Terrans attack using their gauss rifles, and will only stay alive for a short period of time before dying, if they're not slain in battle already.
A nice addition feature to the model of the Infestor is the slime trail that is left behind as it moves, sliming the ground for a short while before disappearing. As for the Infestor's unique ability to move while burrowed in the ground, it wasn't confirmed, but assumed that the enemy could not see the burrowed, moving Infestor without some form of detection.
In this build, the Brood Lord remains as the Zerg force's siege air unit over the old Swarm Guardian. Although the Brood Lord and its predecessor both function similar in the broodling-sprouting ground attack, the Brood Lord is morphed from Corruptors rather than Mutalisks. Brood Lords didn't see a lot of action in the matches at the press event, since the idea of morphing Zerg air units feels foreign when they're not being morphed from the Mutalisk, although Overseers are an exception since they've been around for some time now.
Currently, the Zerg Nydus Worm functions similar to the last playable StarCraft II pre-beta build. The Nydus Worm can be summoned to a creep-covered section of land by the Zerg Overseer, and if combined with the Overlord Creep Drop ability, can prove to cause certain destruction upon an unwatchful opponent.
Protoss Information:
Both the Lenassa and Zer'atai Dark Templar models have been implemented into the game. When calling forth a Dark Templar from the Protoss Gateway or Warp Gate, one of the two models will randomly spawn. From the default view, the two models look very similar aside from some minor details and the weapons they possess. Currently, the models look similar enough that Protoss players should not be distracted or confused by seeing these two different Dark Templar models.
Archons haven't changed since the last few public showings of StarCraft II. They are still made from fusing any combination of High Templar or Dark Templar, and do a great deal of damage against ground or air units. Currently, Archons are still lacking any special abilities.
Replays & Battle.net
Although the full extent of Battle.net was not shown, tidbits were presented regarding after-game statistics and replays. There will now be extensive graphs showing information such as APM and economic strength presented in a post-game window. This will most likely be similar to the way that BWChart shows information when a replay is loaded in. Although unknown and untested by those present from the StarCraft: Legacy staff at the time, it has been noted that resource sharing has been added to the multiplayer, yet restricted within the first five minutes of the match. Although there may be far more features in the final product, there are many significant changes to the replay system over what we've seen in the original StarCraft and Brood War. All of its original functions still remain, with a number of new features. As we all hoped and expected, there is now a rewind button. The replay system works through the saving of checkpoints throughout the match. Along with the rewind function, there is a movable bar representing the timeline of the game. A great aspect of this movable bar is that the minimap can be viewed while moving the timeline bar, so it will be far easier to locate a key moment in the match - likely a part of the game where you mounted a critical attack or defended against an enemy's strong offensive. The demonstration of the replay function was relatively short, and this was all of the information we were given at this time.
Group discussion with Dustin Browder:
At 4:30pm, Dustin Browder entered the press-reserved computer room and began a Q&A.
One of the first questions of the discussion was about the Zerg Infestor and how its turning out at present. Currently the Infestor has the Plague ability but according to Browder, it's not working too well since the Zerg already have plenty of splash damage attacks.
After a lot of inside testing, Dustin's unsure of how the Immortal will ultimately appear in the game. The example Browder gave was a Protoss player's reaction to a Siege Tank-based offensive. Since Immortals are built at the Gateway and can be produced instantly with your Gateway set as a Warp Gate - assuming you have the necessary resources - the Protoss player is provided with an almost instant hard counter. There is some speculation that the Immortal could be moved up a tier, becoming a Robotics Facility unit. Browder mentioned that this hasn't been one of their pressing issues but that, if it becomes one during the beta, there's a possibility that the Immortal could be moved in a beta patch.
One possible change before the beta is the nerfing of the High Templar's Psi Storm as it is currently very powerful with a considerably large area of effect. For example, during one game two separate Psi Storms were enough to take out two Ultralisks and seriously injure a third.
The Mothership has been sent back to its early skill-set, with the Planet Cracker and Black Hole, but it is uncertain whether the Mothership will remain this way until the release of the beta.
Another question brought by an attendee was regarding the Phoenix and its former attack, the Overload ability. According to Browder the ability was too weak to not allow stacking but, if the ability was stackable, it would be far too powerful. For example, a Protoss player could fly several Phoenix into a tight-knit group of Battlecruisers and destroy them with a single click, which would be far too imbalanced to allow them to remain in the game. In defense of the Graviton Beam, the Phoenix's current special ability, Browder explained that it is excellent if used properly. For example, in one game, a player used a group of Phoenix for worker harassment. One Phoenix would use its Graviton Beam on one worker while the others in the group would attack, quickly destroying the helpless worker. The player continued this tactic, putting a lot of strain on their opponent's economy.
The Brood Lord, StarCraft II's version of the Guardian, is an evolution of the Corruptor and is currently a focus for the design team. Browder stated that Mutalisks have a great place in StarCraft II and have been working very well on their own, so there wasn't a strong enough justification to warrant them having an evolved form. Additionally on the topic of the Zerg, one of the attendees asked Browder about the lack of tier two siege units. The response was that the team will likely play with the Zerg line-up in order to justify this lack of tier two siege units.
The next question involved attack animations, and whether a quick player could maneuver their units to avoid damage by moving away from the attack animation of an enemy unit. Browder mentioned that players can indeed move their units to avoid attacks they can see coming. The Lurker's underground spine attack, the Colossus' thermal lances and the Hellion's flamethrower can be avoided by maneuvering the units away from the attack animation. Players can avoid attacks by quickly moving the unit or through the use of other means, such as the Stalker's Blink, the Mothership's Teleport or by loading a ground unit into a transport unit.
Browder also mentioned hotkeys, stating that while they had not yet been finalised they would be ready for beta. Also not implemented was the function keys being usable as hotkeys and again this was promised for beta.
The last question of the discussion was regarding the Carrier and how it evolved from its beginning as the Tempest to its current form today. Browder explained that the Tempest, with its powerful under-shield, gave too much of a rock-paper-scissors view of the Protoss air forces. Without the under-shield, the development team decided to return to the Carrier, since it was too iconic to remove without it being replaced by an equally special unit.
This is a StarCraft: Legacy (http://sclegacy.com/) feature event article.
Today I woke up at 5:30 AM, slightly earlier than my usual 6:00 AM for work, but with far more enthusiasm. Why? Today was June 22, 2009, and I had taken a day off work to drive the 100 miles in order to attend the press event hosted at the Blizzard Headquarters in Irvine, California. After a quick stop for some coffee, I hit the freeway and took off. If you recall my first visit to Blizzard, you would remember that I hit some nasty traffic on the legendary 405 freeway because I left too late. However, I was determined to not repeat the same mistake, and left extra early, avoiding most of the rush hour traffic, arriving in Irvine around 8:00am. I lingered at a local coffee shop close to Blizzard headquarters, and headed over at around 9:00 AM. After parking my truck in the visitors section of the parking lot, I walked over to the center of the grounds to see a crew of workers setting up the decorative foundation to a statue of an Orc rider that was still in the planning stage on my first visit. The statue itself had almost been completed, but the area around the statue was not. Another thing I noticed was the large number of people that were hanging around the main entrance. What I discovered later was that today was also the first day of Blizzard's internship program, and half of the group I saw in the morning were new interns anxiously waiting to start. I went through the main entrance inside the lobby and filled out the necessary documents that would allow me to attend the press event. The documents threatened death if I were to leak any of the sacred secrets that the group might have accidentally happened upon that we were not supposed to see. Afterwards, I walked back outside and met up with AJ, Rylin, and a few others who were engaged in a pre-event discussion with Karune. It was mostly a friendly conversation, sharing our thoughts and concerns about certain parts of StarCraft II and a few other games. As 10:00 AM approached, those present for the press event met inside the main lobby, ready for our day to start.
The first stop on the press event was Blizzard's theater room. Here, the press were given a unique opportunity to see a battle report done live, with the commentators Dustin Browder and Robert Simpson in the room, doing their commentating right there. We watched three battles, played by two of Blizzard's balance designers: David Kim and Matt Cooper, from their respective desks. Before going into the first match, Dustin Browder explained that the multiplayer set-up we were seeing was not Battle.net, but a temporary multiplayer system to be used until battle.net was ready. For the matches, the game was set up in the theater, with the player being set in observer mode, an aspect that will undoubtedly be used in the new Battle.net. The observer mode allows any player watching the match to take part without having to play as a Terran and moving their Command Center to an unoccupied corner of the map. Observers will be allowed to chat amongst themselves with in-game messaging, but will not be able to send messages to any of the competing players. One function of this mode is the ability to set your vision. The vision can be set to "Everybody", or to a specific player or team. Vision includes being able to see every players' moves: their units, buildings, current researches/upgrades, units-in-progress, and even where they're clicking. The observer's view can also be set up to be used manually, or to follow the exact screen in real-time of one or both of the players. Dustin Browder warned about not being too focused on the view if the observer's setting is on automatic and focused on every player, because the screen view will jump between each player, whichever made the latest action. This observer mode is the same that you can currently see in the StarCraft II Battle Reports on the official StarCraft II website.
The first battle was a Protoss versus Protoss match, on the 2-player map: Blistering Sands. Both players had an amazing start, calling forth scores of Zealots and Stalkers to battle each other. This was the first time that I had really seen the Obelisk, formerly the Dark Pylon, being used so much. At their main bases, both players stationed an Obelisk, and would continually cast Proton Charge over their Probes, in order to allow them to carry additional resources for a short time. As the battle pressed on, Matt Cooper gained the advantage, and kept David Kim from establishing a stable expansion. After destroying the Nexus of the expansion, Cooper pressed forward with Immortals and Dark Templar in addition to his Zealots and Stalkers. Kim sent forth a Colossus in defense, but Cooper's forces stormed up the ramp into his base and overwhelmed the Colossus. Kim declared "GG" and the first match was over.
For a change in pace, the second match was Zerg (Cooper) versus Terran (Kim), on the 2-player map: Steppes of War. Kim worked quickly, building a Barracks to train his Marines. Meanwhile, Cooper quickly morphed a Drone into a Spawning Pool and grew a Queen from the Hatchery. As Kim sent out Marines to attack, Cooper met the challenge with Zerglings, and eventually Roaches and Banelings. At this point, Kim performed a Terran strategy of lifting off and moving his Factory which had an attached Tech Lab, and replaced it with his newly built Starport, which allowed him to immediately build Medivac Dropships, rather than waiting for his Starport to build a new Tech Lab. Kim sent over two Medivac Dropships filled with Marines over to Cooper's expansion. Cooper successfully defended it with a number of Roaches and a Spine Crawler that had been stationed there. Although the Terran offensive lost, the Zerg were short on defenders, and Kim was ready for another offensive, this time with Marines, Marauders, and Hellions, relentless destroying everything in their path with little resistance. Upon making their way into the main Zerg base, Cooper admitted defeat.
The third and final match was Protoss (Kim) versus Terran (Cooper), on the 2-player map: Kula's Ravine. Both players started off the match by each sending a worker out to scout their opponent's base. Meanwhile, Cooper began by blocking his choke point, first with a Supply Depot, and then sealing off the choke with a Barracks. The scouting Probe and SCV met each other, and engaged in combat. The Protoss Probe, with its regenerating shields, was winning the fight, and Cooper ordered his SCV to retreat back to his base. Unfortunately, when he opened his choke point temporarily to allow the SCV to enter, Kim's Probe was able to slip inside, being able to scout out the Terran operations. At this point in the game, the main view jumped around, as the camera setting was changed to automatic, and the view would adjust to whichever player was performing an action. Within the Protoss base, Kim was using his Gateways to call forth Zealots and Stalkers. Cooper was busy as well, upgrading his Command Center into an Orbital Command and utilizing its energy to call forth MULEs to aid in his resource gathering, which was necessary for his growing number of Marauders and his new Starport. The Protoss Zealots and Stalkers charged to battle, but suffered defeat at the hands of the large group of Terran Marauders. The Protoss countered with more Zealots, Stalkers, and a Nullifier. Despite the intense battling, both players continued to climb their respective tech trees. Kim warped in a Robotics Facility, while Cooper built a Tech Lab for his Starport to research cloaking for his Banshees. In a pivotal battle, the Protoss forces destroyed the Command Center of the only Terran expansion, but at the cost of their attack forces. The Terrans retaliated by attacking a Protoss expansion on a gold mineral patch, but Kim defended it with Zealots and Stalkers. With the Terran expansion gone, his expansion safe, and the Terran forces beaten back, Kim assaults the main Terran base with a massed group of Zealots, Stalkers and Immortals, overpowering the Terran defenses and forcing Cooper to admit "GG".
After the final match, Dustin Browder went over the current replay system. For the full details of the replay system thus far in the game's development, check StarCraft: Legacy's June 22, 2009 StarCraft II Review.
 At 11:00am, we were done in the theater, and the group was taken upstairs to the third floor and shown our private computer room. There were just enough computers for everyone to have their own. At this point, everyone present instantly engaged themselves to 1v1 or 2v2 games, or indulging in the observer mode while watching someone else's match. The group was able to play for about an hour before being pulled away for lunch. Also, during this time, everyone present was given the opportunity to pair up with another player and sign up for a 2v2 tournament. Although both casual players, the StarCraft: Legacy team consisted of myself and the other Legacy representative: Ryan, AKA Rylin.
When 12:00pm rolled around, it was time for lunch. At the last press event, the Blizzard cafeteria made excellent pizzas and had them sent up to us, but today, the press group was escorted over to the Blizzard cafeteria for a buffet-style lunch, consisting of various hot sandwiches and sides. It was a tougher choice than my StarCraft II battle strategies, but I decided on the pesto chicken panini over the hot ham and meatball sandwiches. The difficult decision-making was worth it, probably because that choice turned out better than my "strategies". Joining a table with two representatives from the War Center, we had a discussion about gaming backgrounds while we ate. Although the two guys were far more familiar with the WarCraft series than StarCraft, the visit was an opportunity they couldn't refuse. After lunch, the press group waited outside the main lobby until we were called back inside, around 1:00pm, to continue our gaming.
When we returned back to the computer room, we noticed a piece of paper by the door, posting the first round matches for the pairs tournament. The StarCraft: Legacy team faced our first opponents, JoeOrange and Nocturne from Gamer-Source. We both played as Terran, versus Zerg and Terran opponents. This match was a wonderful lesson in how well the Zerg Hydralisk has been strengthened for anti-air. A group of several banshees, even using hit-and-run tactics, were no match for massed Hydralisks, along with Roaches, devastating the unfocused Terran defenses. In case you weren't sure, we didn't win this one. The tournament was double elimination, so Rylin and I were ready to face another pair of fierce opponents, but since the time was nearing 2:00pm, we would have to wait, because it was time for the scheduled tour of Blizzard Headquarters.
Our press group left the computer room and went back downstairs into the main lobby. The first stop was the art and awards sections, located to the left of the lobby. Looking through the StarCraft artwork section, I noticed that some of the artwork I remembered from last year was no longer there, but replaced with more recent artwork, made for StarCraft II. Next we went back upstairs to the second floor, which was focused on the WarCraft series. Throughout the whole floor, there were group offices, which would house several employees each. The idea of the group offices was so that they would be open to each other and feed off each other's creativity. Also, there were several large pieces of artwork on the walls that had covers on them, likely because they were part of upcoming projects that aren't meant to be receiving publicity just yet. Afterwards, we went to the next building over, taking a quick stop by the cafeteria again, then a small peak into the top secret server room, and a quick walk through the on-site gym before making out way back outside near to the volleyball court.
On the tour at the last press event, we were never allowed to enter the third building due to top secret projects being developed within, but this time, we were allowed to go in, so long as we didn't disturb the employees, who were hard at work. Upon entering the building, we entered a large room that housed the Kerrigan statue that was showcased at last year's BlizzCon. We passed by the room housing the development of Blizzard's Project Hydra, the top secret project of which no one outside of Blizzard knows the details about. Next we went through the StarCraft development area. The whole area was very quiet, with all of the developers focused strongly on their projects. After going through the StarCraft development area, the tour was over and we returned to the computer room to continue playing or competing in the 2v2 tournament.  Upon our return to the computer room, the second round of matches began. This time it was myself as Terran and Rylin as Protoss, facing off against two Protoss opponents. We both held off early attacks, and my strategy consisted of surviving long enough to mass Battlecruisers. Unfortunately, Rylin wasn't able to hold off our opponents relentless attacks and was defeated, leaving an uncertain future for our team. However, with Rylin's defeat, there were already six Battlecruisers ready for action, and several more being built. Turning the fleet toward the first enemy base, they were helpless against the onslaught of Battlecruisers. For every Battlecruiser destroyed, two more took its place. Seeing his opponent fall, and the wave destruction coming his way, the other Protoss player focused his efforts toward the Terran center of operations. Both bases fell at roughly the same time. However, quick thinking and a hidden third Command Center on an unreachable island kept the StarCraft: Legacy team alive, as the Battlecruiser fleet stayed strong, destroying the Protoss buildings one by one. However, the game didn't end. Searching the minimap, another Protoss Nexus had been warped in. By the time the Battlecruiser fleet found it and destroyed the Nexus, another replaced it somewhere else on the map. This went on for about 30 minutes, with a large crowd cheering both players on. Eventually, with the last of his resources, the Protoss player surrounded his last Nexus with several Pylons and Photon Cannons. The weathered and beaten Battlecruisers were able to hang a bit longer, and after probably the longest match of the entire day, the StarCraft: Legacy team emerged victorious, for this battle at least! At 4:30pm, Dustin Browder entered the computer room. Everyone who was playing at the time either paused or quit their game quickly to take part. Browder stationed himself against one wall of computers, facing the rest of the group, and started getting feedback about our experiences with the game, and any questions or concerns we may have had. To read about the discustion, check out the June 22, 2009 StarCraft II Review. Our discussion with Browder finished around 5:00pm, and those of us that were still participating in the pairs tournament continued their matches. With the win of our previous match, the StarCraft: legacy team faced off again with our opponents from the first round, JoeOrange and Nocturne. Feeling good after the previous win, and stronger with a greater knowledge of StarCraft II competitive strategy, we played double Zerg versus JoeOrange as Zerg and Nocturne as Protoss. Needless to say, the game didn't last too long, being utterly devastated by their great teamwork, and swarm of massed Roaches, Zealots, and Carriers.
As the tournament drew to a close, several of the remaining press attendees watched the impressive finals on observer mode as Karune and his ally crushed their opponents, being the top winners of the day. As the afternoon grew late, many of the representatives of the fansites left or were leaving. A few of us remained behind, to play around with some of the less familiar game mechanics to report on later, and for continued conversation with Karune. 
Around 7:45pm, the few of us still remaining pulled ourselves from our computers, and headed for lobby. Out in California, the sun still hadn't set yet, so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of the Orc statue in the center of the grounds without the work crews around it. Then I hopped into my truck, and followed Rylin and the others from our group out the main gates. After dropping off one of the guys at their hotel, I took a short walk with AJ, Rylin, and the other representative from starcraft.org over to a restaurant that claimed to be "Home of the World's Best Hamburger". It was a good burger, definitely better than any fast food burgers, but I don't think it was the best in the world. After eating, I walked with the guys back to the hotel and said our goodbyes until the next press event at Blizzard. So about 9:00pm I took off for home, a long drive, but definitely worth it.
Finally, I want to thank all of you, the members and other watchers of StarCraft: Legacy. Without your support, our site wouldn't be what it is today. If you have any questions or concerns about something that wasn't addressed in my article or the other articles spawned from this event, please ask in our forums, and I or any of the other who attended the press event would be happy to answer your questions if possible.
So, until next time, this is Zero, signing off. See you in the forums!
This is a StarCraft: Legacy (http://sclegacy.com/) feature event article.
The following is a collection of all the StarCraft II media to emerge from the June 22, 2009 Blizzard press event.
Race Tech Trees Terran 
Protoss 
Zerg 
Screenshots
 
 
 
 
Unit Renders
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
StarCraft II Gameplay Footage
Click here for standard quality.
This is a StarCraft: Legacy (http://sclegacy.com/) feature event article.
|
|
