Blizzard Entertainment
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| Blizzard Entertainment [edit]
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| General Information | |
| Parent Company: | Activision Blizzard |
|---|---|
| Industry: | Video Games |
| Founded: | 1991 as Silicon & Synapse 1994 as Chaos Studio 1994 as Blizzard Entertainment |
| Headquarters: | Irvine, California, USA |
| Key people: | Michael Morhaime (president and co-founder) Frank Pearce (vice president and co-founder) Dustin Browder (StarCraft II lead designer) |
| Employees: | 7,300[1] |
| Events: | BlizzCon World Championship Series |
| Website: | Blizzard.com |
Blizzard Entertainment is an American video game developer and publisher and is the company that created the StarCraft franchise.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
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.[citation needed] 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 2, and Warcraft 3, have developed into flagship games in the world of professional gaming.
[edit] Events Organised
[edit] StarCraft: Brood War
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 | |||||
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BlizzCon 2005 Brood War Invitational | 2005 (2005.10.28-2005.10.29) |   YellOw |
 Reach |
R&S |
| 2007 | |||||
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BlizzCon 2007 Brood War Invitational | 2007 (2007.08.04-2007.08.04) | sAviOr |
Nal_rA |
[ R&S] |
[edit] Wings of Liberty
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.
[edit] List of BlizzCon Events
| Event | Date | Winner | Runner-Up | TL Articles | |
| 2010 | |||||
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BlizzCon 2010 StarCraft II Invitational | 2010 (2010.10.22-2010.10.23) | Genius |
 Loner |
[ R&S] |
| 2011 | |||||
| Battle.Net Invitationals | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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2011 European Battle.net Invitational | 2011 (2011.08.06-2011.08.07) | Ret
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NaNiwa
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R&S |
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2011 Chinese Battle.net Invitational | 2011 (2011.08.09-2011.08.20) | XiGua
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Uhen
|
R&S |
|
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2011 Latin American Battle.net Invitational | 2011 (2011.08.10-2011.08.11) | MajOr
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KiLLeR
|
R&S |
|
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2011 North American Battle.net Invitational | 2011 (2011.08.12-2011.08.13) | SeleCT
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Sheth
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R&S |
|
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2011 Taiwanese Battle.net Invitational | 2011 (2011.08.26-2011.09.10) | Sen
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Nifi
|
R&S |
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2011 Southeast Asian Battle.net Invitational | 2011 ( 2011.09.17-2011.09.18) | mOOnGLaDe
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JazBas
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[ R&S] |
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BlizzCon 2011 StarCraft II Invitational | 2011 (2010.10.21—2011.10.22) | Mvp
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NesTea
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[ R&S] |
= Ladder BlizzCon Qualifier
= Global Event
[edit] References
- ↑ FY 2011 Balance Sheet for ATVI — TheStreet.com
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "Blizzard Entertainment 10th Anniversary Celebration". Blizzard Entertainment. Archived from the original on 26 January 2002. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
