The first ever global StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm tournament will be hosted at the forthcoming Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Hanover, Germany. The event will run from from March 5 to March 9 and 24 gamers from all over the globe will fight for their share of the $100,000 prize pool.
As well as showing off Heart of the Swarm itself, Blizzard will also have a chance to demonstrate the new spectator UI and, should anything go wrong, we may even get to see The Heart of the Swarm’s new resume from replay function in action.
The new resume from replay function allows players to continue games that might have been interrupted for any reason, such as a power cut, technical fault or good old crash, and it’s also included as part of the Wings of Liberty patch.
The Intel Extreme Masters has a history of hosting major esports events for Blizzard, and previous tournaments have featured Wings of Liberty, World of Warcraft and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
The event starts just after the closure of the HotS public beta, on
March 1, though the private beta will continue until the game’s launch
on March 12. Whoever claims the title of Intel Extreme Masters World
Champion will be invited to the game’s launch party, which will take place on March 11 in Versailles.