Blizzard Entertainment

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[e][h]Blizzard Entertainment
Company Information
Parent Company:
Founded:
1991 as Silicon & Synapse
1994 as Chaos Studio
1994 as Blizzard Entertainment
Headquarters:
Irvine, California, USA
Employees:
7,300[1]
Links

Blizzard Entertainment is an American video game developer and publisher and is the company that created the StarCraft franchise.

Overview[edit]

Blizzard Entertainment was originally founded on 8 February 1991, as Silicon & Synapse, by three UCLA graduates: Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce.[2][3] Based in Irvine, California, the company originally concentrated with the creation of ports for games that were developed by other studios.[Citation needed] In 1993, the company began development of their own game titles such as Rock N' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings.[4] In 1994, the company renamed itself Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. before being acquired by Davidson & Associates.[Citation needed] On July 9, 2008, Activision officially merged with Vivendi Games, culminating in the inclusion of the Blizzard brand name in the title of the resulting holding company,[Citation needed] though Blizzard Entertainment remains a separate entity with independent management.[Citation needed]

Blizzard has since gone on to create several successful PC game franchises, including the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo series. Blizzard also took significant steps in MMORPG development, with the development and maintenance of the game World of Warcraft. Blizzard games in the StarCraft and Warcraft franchises, in particular StarCraft, StarCraft II, and Warcraft III, have developed into flagship games in the world of professional gaming.

Events Organised[edit]

StarCraft: Brood War[edit]

In 2005, Blizzard started to organize its own premier event, BlizzCon. BlizzCon is an annual convention organized in order to celebrate the company's major franchises: Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. In 2005, the Brood War tournament featured eight major players, including four Korean progamers: NaDa, Reach, YellOw, and Nal_rA, as well as some of the best foreigner players: Mondragon, Assem, Testie and Legionnaire.

At Blizzcon 2007, Blizzard allowed the public to play to an early version of StarCraft II.

Event Date Winner Runner-Up TL Articles
2005
BlizzCon 2005 Brood War Invitational 2005 (2005-10-28 – 2005-10-29) South Korea Zerg YellOw South Korea Protoss Reach R&S
2007
BlizzCon 2007 Brood War Invitational 2007 (2007-08-04 – 2007-08-04) South Korea Zerg sAviOr South Korea Protoss Nal_rA [ R&S]
2008
BlizzCon 2008 Brood War Invitational 2008 (2008-10-11 – 2008-10-12) South Korea Zerg sAviOr South Korea Terran NaDa [ R&S]
2009
BlizzCon 2009 Brood War Invitational 2009 (2009-08-22 – 2009-08-23) South Korea Zerg EffOrt South Korea Zerg ZerO [ R&S]


Wings of Liberty[edit]

Blizzard Entertainment still organize premiers tournaments in the StarCraft II era. Competitors are no longer invited directly into BlizzCon by Blizzard. Players must instead have to pass through qualifier tournaments to which they had been invited because of their ladder performance.


List of BlizzCon Events[edit]

Event Date Winner Runner-Up TL Articles
2010
BlizzCon 2010 StarCraft II Invitational 2010-10-22 – 2010-10-23 South Korea Protoss Genius China Terran Loner [ R&S]
2011
BlizzCon 2011 StarCraft II Invitational 2011-10-21 - 2011-10-22 South Korea Terran Mvp South Korea Zerg NesTea Recap
2011 GSL October Code S Final @ BlizzCon 2011-10-22 South Korea Terran MMA South Korea Terran Mvp Recap
2013
2013 WCS Global Finals 2013-11-08 - 2013-11-09 South Korea Protoss sOs South Korea Zerg Jaedong Recap
2014
2014 WCS Global Finals 2014-11-07 - 2014-11-08 South Korea Zerg Life South Korea Terran MMA Recap
Legacy of the Void Archon Mode Show Tourney 2014-11-07 - 2014-11-08 South Korea Terran MC/South Korea HyuN South Korea Protoss soO/South Korea Polt [ R&S]
2015
2015 WCS Global Finals 2015-11-06 - 2015-11-07 South Korea Protoss sOs South Korea Zerg Life Recap
Legacy of the Void Champions Showmatch 2015-11-06 South Korea Protoss MC/Canada HuK Norway Zerg Snute/Germany TLO [ R&S]
Legacy of the Void Legends Showmatch 2015-11-06 South Korea Terran Mvp/South Korea BoxeR South Korea Zerg NesTea/South Korea YellOw [ R&S]
2016
2016 WCS Global Finals 2016-11-04 - 2016-11-05 South Korea Terran ByuN South Korea Zerg Dark Recap
2017
2017 WCS Global Finals 2017-11-03 - 2017-11-04 South Korea Zerg Rogue South Korea Zerg soO Recap
2018
2018 WCS Global Finals 2018-11-02 - 2018-11-03 Finland Zerg Serral South Korea Protoss Stats Recap
2019
2019 WCS Global Finals 2019-11-01 South Korea Zerg Dark Italy Zerg Reynor Recap
= Ladder BlizzCon Qualifier

= Global Event

References[edit]

  1. FY 2011 Balance Sheet for ATVI — TheStreet.com
  2. M. Abraham (6 November 2006). "UCLA Engineering Celebrates Accomplishments at Annual Awards Dinner". UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  3. "Blizzard Entertainment 10th Anniversary Celebration". Blizzard Entertainment. Archived from the original on 26 January 2002. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  4. [1]