Blizzcon 2011 to host GSL finals in October

Blizcon 2011

The final of one of the biggest StarCraft 2 tournaments in the world will be held outside of Korea for the first time this year. The GSL final will take place in front of a live audience at Blizzcon 2011 in Anaheim. Anyone with a Battle.net account will be able to log in to Blizzcon.com for free and watch the best StarCraft 2 players in the world do battle live this October.

The GSL is one of the reasons we've become addicted to watching StarCraft 2 competitions over the past year. It's one of the most surprising and exciting pro gaming tournaments in the world. The fact that this year's final is taking place at Blizzcon in front of a local audience of tens of thousands, and a global audience of much more, is a sign of the tournament's growing appeal beyond the borders of Korea.

Mr.Chae of GOMTV wrote to TeamLiquid to explain the decision to hold the finals in the US, saying that "while watching other tournaments recently, I've noticed many people discussing how it would be if GSL held its final outside Korea."

"Lot of people have made requests about it through Twitter and the time I went to MLG Columbus, I gained faith that holding GSL final outside Korea would be meaningful."

"Korean gamers are competing with Korean gamers and despite frequent foreign tournaments, they are willing to fly over to compete. They are also very impressed and enjoying the support from foreign fans, he added. "For these reasons I have decided to hold GSL final outside Korea and have prepared for it."

"The decision was not easy to make. It is first time and therefore a great challenge for us to send staff and produce and transmit from oversea. But it is a worthy challenge for GSL and something that must be done at some point."

If you're new to e-sports and fancy getting watching some pro StarCraft 2, have a look over our pick of the ten best StarCraft 2 games . You can follow all the latest in the current run of the GSL on GomTV .

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.

Latest in RTS
Immortal Pillars expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold
Age of Mythology Retold's new Chinese pantheon expansion takes a bold stance on updating an old game: Just make good new stuff
Earth vs Mars screenshot - Martian troopers vs Earth light tanks
Relic's new project is a 'smaller indie-style' game about a martian invasion of Earth
Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition promo art
Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition DLC promised last year is cancelled: 'We announced content before it had been built, and we now feel that announcement was premature'
Tempest Dynasty faction
The first multiplayer demo for my most anticipated RTS, Tempest Rising, is out now
Former Age of Empires developer says the RTS genre's stuck in a rut: 'you're still playing the same game'
Creeper World IXE
Creeper World IXE breaks the RTS mold and adds a dash of Noita's alchemy to the gooey war
Latest in News
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all