Wrap up that term paper, because you’ll want to hit the battlegrounds with no distractions. Today, Blizzard Entertainment and TeSPA revealed plans for Heroes of the Dorm^™—the ultimate Heroes of the Storm^™ college tournament, offering an unprecedented prize pool where the winning team will receive free tuition for the rest of their college career. Currently in closed beta testing, Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard Entertainment’s free-to-play online team brawler featuring iconic heroes from more than 20 years of the developer’s rich gaming history. ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, will deliver exclusive live coverage for Heroes of the Dorm on television and digital platforms. This represents the first live televised coverage of a collegiate eSports event on an ESPN network.

Heroes of the Dorm will bring together teams of college students from across the United States and Canada in an epic showdown to determine the strongest scholars in the Nexus, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition at stake. Every competing team will get access to the Heroes of the Storm closed beta test in order to participate. Plus, everyone’s invited to show their school spirit—and compete for prizes of their own—by participating in the Heroes of the Dorm fantasy bracket challenge.

“College sports do great things for student athletes—they help pay for schooling, build teamwork and communication skills, and create lasting memories,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We believe eSports has the same kind of power, and this tournament aims to bring positive experiences like these to college gamers. We can’t wait to fill out our fantasy brackets and cheer on a new generation of eSports athletes as they compete in Heroes of the Storm.”

The Heroes of the Dorm tournament is open to active college students in the United States and Canada and will be played across three rounds of competition:

·       Open Qualifiers – Begin March 28

·       Single-Elimination Bracket Play (Round of 64) – Begins April 11

·       The Heroic Four live event to be held in late April

All five members of the first-place team will each enjoy up to $25,000 per year in college tuition for their remaining years of undergrad or graduate enrollment (up to three full years as an undergrad or up to two years as a grad student). Seniors and grad students with no remaining years of enrollment will receive one year’s worth of tuition to help repay student loans (or an equivalent cash prize if the student does not have any remaining student loans). Each player whose team emerges from the Round of 64 and makes it to the Heroic Four will take home a top-of-the-line gaming PC and officially licensed Heroes of the Storm peripherals and accessories.

ESPN3 will carry the Round of 16, Round of 8, and “Heroic Four” live exclusively on the multi-screen sports network.  It is accessible in more than 99 million households nationwide to fans who receive their Internet or video subscription from an affiliated provider. The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones, and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks. The coverage will also be available across ESPN media platforms in several international regions.

Viewers will be able to access Heroes of the Dorm tournament action on ESPN3 under the eSports category online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app (visit http://espn.go.com/watchespn/apps for a list of compatible devices), and streamed on televisions through Apple TV, Roku, and other connected devices.

In late April, the Heroes of the Dorm championship match will be televised live in prime time on an ESPN network and also accessible via WatchESPN. Further details on the telecast will be shared at a later date.

“Heroes of the Dorm presents an exciting opportunity to once again work with Blizzard, a leader in the games industry,” said Raphael Poplock, Vice President of Games and Partnerships, ESPN. “By delivering the tournament to an audience of gaming fans in the US and beyond, we are able to experiment with new formats and programming across our networks.”

To sign up, students should form a team of five players and register by visiting the official Heroes of the Dorm website, heroesofthedorm.com. Complete rules and eligibility requirements will be posted there as well.
Fantasy Bracket for Everyone
The Heroes of the Dorm tournament isn’t just for collegiate competitors—spectators can also create and share fantasy brackets to root for their favorite teams and partake in an epic prize pool valued at more than $25,000, including a $10,000 top prize for whoever predicts the final bracket most accurately, and top-of-the-line gaming PCs for the best five predictions. In addition, everyone who participates will receive a Heroes of the Storm in-game portrait, as well as opportunities to win high-end gaming PCs and a range of gaming peripherals. Check the Heroes of the Dorm website for complete rules and eligibility. Fantasy brackets will be available there starting on April 3.

JamesBl0nde is now live on Twitch.TV with a special look inside recent updates for Dirty Bomb, Nosgoth, SMITE, and Unreal Tournament. Catch this live filming for the raw, unedited experience!

Watch live video from JamesBl0nde on www.twitch.tv

6 months after being successfully funded on Kickstarter, Warlocks – an action RPG/brawler set in a fantasy world invaded by shadow monsters, is now getting ready to launch on Steam Early Access. The game will debut on Steam on March 17th allowing you to become an incredibly powerful Warlock on a quest of slaying nasty monsters, defeating epic bosses, collecting magical loot and saving the universe!

(…)But there is one world that people didn’t reach – The Shadow World, where all evil is born. Unfortunately, its inhabitants have found a way into human worlds and started to spread a deadly virus affecting and changing everyone with dark magic. The only way to rescue the afflicted Warlocks and stem the source of evil is to defeat it in battle.

That’s pretty much it when it comes to Warlock’s plot. Sounds generic? Good! That’s exactly how developers wanted it to be! Everything in the game will be both extreme and mockingly over the top. In the end Warlocks is all about slaying monsters, exploring multiple dimensions, collecting loot and having fun either by yourself in a single-player story mode or with your friends in local and multi co-op or versus. And all that in a beautiful, stylish, pixel art universe.

In the single-player/co-op campaign you will have to clear your way through 5 different dimensions with unique enemies, bosses, and environments. You will level up your character by slaying evil monsters and getting better and more unique items. Having 10 playable characters to choose from, each with totally different playstyle and ability set, you will have to master your skills and their combos in order to be most effective.

Warlocks will allow you to:

SLAY

• Epic bosses – at the end of each world you’ll face off with powerful bosses in extremely intense battles. Defeat them to rescue other Warlocks overtaken by the Shadow virus and gain new allies in your quest.
• Hordes of enemies – that have their own unique skill sets and attack patterns you’ll have to learn in order to defeat them.

EXPLORE

• Multiple dimensions – during your challenging journey to the Shadow World you will visit beautiful sceneries of various worlds such as: 1940’s Wall Street, ruined cathedrals, foggy swamplands and much more. All hand-painted with gorgeous pixel art.
• Different play-styles – by unlocking new Warlocks as you progress through the story. There are ten completely unique Warlocks total in the game, each with four (or more) distinctive abilities that complement each other.

COLLECT

Procedurally generated loot  – dropped by enemies you slay. You will be able to choose from huge variety of weapons and magic items that combined with different skill builds will allow you to enjoy different play-style each time you play.

CO-OP

Team up with your friends in an online or local (yes, the game supports up to 4 gamepads!) co-op and hack through your opponents in an even more fun way!

VERSUS

Challenge your best friends in a classic DeathMatch, or team up in pairs and battle each other in a 2vs2 mode, or organize a small one-on-one tournament – the choice is yours. And if you still want more there will be other game modes for you to enjoy.

A huge update is coming to Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies, which introduces a new game mode, event, rewards and an extensively overhauled PvP system.

Changes players will see are the following:

Zombie War – is an intense team-based game mode, which promises to elevate the undead action to its most competitive and fearsome extremes. Two teams – one formed of humans, one of zombies – will face off in an electrifying battle for supremacy. Zombie War also brings with it two new weapons – M60E4 Maverick & Mauser C96 – and New Perfect Pick Recipe Bundles.

Rewards of War – is a new event that has a variety of prizes up for grabs where players will receive great Crafting Bundles for their engagement.

PvP 2.0 Update – includes a completely overhauled stat-tracking, and reward system that ensures players efforts will be recognised on the battlefield. As well as introducing Assists, which see combatants rewarded for contributing to an enemy’s demise, a new Valor system recognises exceptional performance across a variety of game modes. PvP 2.0 also brings with it the Action Report, which tracks a much more diverse range of combat accomplishments.

For more information and screens of Zombie War, please visit: http://steamcommunity.com/games/273110/announcements/detail/126436607866785297

Blizzard Entertainment revealed today what’s in the cards for Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft^™—an all-new Adventure that will challenge brave duelists to venture forth from the comfort of the tavern and plunge into the depths of Blackrock Mountain^™! The newest addition to Hearthstone’s Adventure Mode will introduce a slew of new hot-headed bosses to put players’ dueling skills to the test.

The Blackrock Mountain Adventure thrusts Hearthstone players into the middle of a war between powerful forces battling for control of the mountain. There, duelists will encounter fierce minions, including Dark Iron dwarves, fire elementals, and dragons, before facing off against iconic menaces from the Warcraft® universe, such as Ragnaros, the Firelord. Card-slingers who take down these villains will reap a mighty reward—31 scorching new cards inspired by the legendary mountain and its denizens, bringing a wealth of new tactical options to the ever-evolving Hearthstone metagame.

Coming this April to PC, Windows and Android^™ tablets, and iPad®, Blackrock Mountain will open up one wing per week over the course of a month. As with the game’s first Adventure, Curse of Naxxramas, it will be accessible for either 700 in-game gold per wing or $6.99 per wing , with the entire Adventure purchasable for $24.99. Further details, including specific launch timing, will be announced in the weeks ahead. Preorders (real money only) for Blackrock Mountain will be available starting March 19, and will include an exclusive card back to those duelists ready to take on what lies within the mountain when it opens.

Taichi Panda became officially available on the iOS App Store in the US and UK the morning of March 5th. Along with the new regional access, a new US-based game server (S1-US Garja) was opened for new players.

Taichi Panda will continue to reach new regions for iOS, as well as reach Android. The Android version of Taichi Panda is set for release later this month.

Along with this news, Snail has release a new CG trailer featuring the game’s 3 heroes.

For more info, visit http://panda.snail.com/en/news/2015/0305/585.html

Crytek has just announced that Arena of Fate, their upcoming MOBA title will soon to open the gates to a limited Technical Alpha Test. Before they welcome players to join the battlefield as a legendary hero, from history or fantasy alike, they want to know a little bit more about their users.

They will be hosting a small survey for users to take. By answering the questions in the very short Technical Alpha questionnaire, the information received will help them to create a fun and smooth experience.

For information, visit https://www.arenaoffate.com/