64 international StarCraft 2 pros compete for a $10,000 first prize this weekend at DreamHack Valencia, the latest stop in the DreamHack EIZO Open series.
Reigning European StarCraft 2 champ Ilyes “Stephano “ Satouri looks to continue his incredible year and build on his victory last week at the Blizzard World Championship Series European finals. He’ll be competing once again with many of the European stars he just bested, including the Spanish brothers Juan and Pedro Moreno Duran, respectively the Zerg VortiX and and Terran LucifroN, who finished 2nd and 3rd behind Stephano last week.
While the brothers Moreno are undoubtedly hometown favorites (and I suspect a final between them would probably cause a riot), Valencia plays host to a great competition field this weekend, including Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen, Benjamin “DeMusliM” Baker, Joseph “Ret” de Kroon, and Kim “viOLet” Dong Hwan, among others.
Matches will be called by Shaun “Apollo” Clark and IGN Pro League’s Kevin Knocke, and observed by the venerable Mike “Adebisi” Van Driel. Rachel “SeltzerPlease” Quirico will conduct interviews from the stage.
While competition doesn’t begin until tomorrow, Valencia has already played host to the first-ever Valencia eSports Congress, where players, casters, developers, and other eSports stakeholders have discussed the future of their growing business. One interesting remark came from Blizzard’s Dustin Browder, who admitted Blizzard are “looking at” the possibility of free-to-play StarCraft 2.
The livestream begins at 4 AM Eastern time / 9 AM BST, while competition begins two hours later with the group play at 6 AM Eastern / 11 AM BST. Sunday’s livestream begins at at 5 AM Eastern / 10 AM BST. For those of you who only want to see the big finale, the quarter finals begin on Sunday at 11 AM Eastern / 4 PM BST.