Blizzard's Mike Morhaime on the future of StarCraft 2 eSports, Heart of the Swarm, and community concerns
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As president and CEO of Blizzard, Mike Morhaime underlines Blizzard’s commitment to StarCraft and its thriving pro community every time he appears at a tournament. It’s an increasingly important message to send: during the autumn, the StarCraft community seemed to be getting morose about its own future, and Blizzard’s ability to help it grow. Since then, Blizzard have been pushing back and trying to reassure the community that not only will Heart of the Swarm be a strong expansion, but that Blizzard hear and understand the the community’s concerns. With Morhaime in the audience, they can hardly miss it.
For a long time, 2012 looked like it was Park “DongRaeGu" Soo Ho’s year. A streak of wins and podiums in late 2011 established him as one of the strongest Zerg players in professional StarCraft 2, and he quickly made a bid for dominance. He won a GSL title in March, then started one of the best rivalries in the sport as he battled Lee “MarineKing" Jung Hoon at four MLG events, finishing second to MarineKing at the Winter Arena and Championship before getting two first place finishes of his own at the Spring Arena and Championship. He was a fixture in championship brackets, the undisputed master of the Zerg, and it seemed like he might be on his way to being the best StarCraft 2 pro in the world.
There is no overstating the energy and excitement at a GSL Code S Final. This is where the StarCraft 2 faithful gather to see StarCraft’s most prestigious title awarded, a career milestone roughly equivalent to the Super Bowl or a Formula 1 world championship. Whatever else happens in a player’s career, this elevates them into a select group of champions, who have overcome the best the sport has to offer.
No matter how good the tournament, I always find the first day and the early rounds a bit sad. In no time at all, the competition field, with all its potential for amazing matchup and great stories, is whittled down to a handful of contenders as 
Getting off the flight to Las Vegas from Boston, the man in my row starts talking to an older woman. They are both regulars in Vegas, and they reminisced about hotels and casinos while the rows ahead slowly emptied. There’s one they both liked but (and here the woman sighs wistfully), “It’s moved farther down The Strip since the old days. I haven’t been back in years."
IPL5's happening in Vegas, and it's all Starcraft 2 this, League of Legends that and Pina Colada the other. You know what it's like. But there's also Nadeo's nifty FPS, built from the ground up for eSport play. While the game isn't released until January 23rd next year, IPL marks its very first tournament - with a prize pot of $100,000.
IPL5 has already started, and will continue until the end of this weekend - such is its length. If you're in the least bit interested in professional LoL, you're going to want to watch the thing streamed.
IPL 5 is three events, really - the GSL Code S finals, a League of Legends tournament and another StarCraft 2 tournament. It’s happening this weekend and our Rob’s going to be there, run off his feet in Vegas like Hunter S. Thompson on Amumu instead of amyls. But that’s okay - he’s doing it for you.
If IPL 5 just hosted the GSL Code S finals and the League of Legends tournament, it’d already by an amazing eSports event. But fortunately for all of us, it’s also playing host to a massive StarCraft 2 tournament of its own. 68 players from around the world are playing in a massive double-elimination bracket for a $100,000 prize pool, with $40,000 going to the top finisher.
With a $100,000 prize pool and $50,000 promised to the first place finisher, IPL have gathered an incredible sixteen-team competitive field for this weekend’s 
The 
IPL 5 (IGN Pro League) in Las Vegas this weekend is host to not one but three StarCraft 2 tournaments, and one of the most interesting is the 
