Singapore. Funan the IT mall has seen its fair share of competitive eSports meets but it’s most recent, beginning on the 28th of July 2012, will perhaps be its most elaborate yet. Storming into town this weekend will be the Blizzard WCS StarCraft 2 tournament, cordially backed by the game’s parent company Blizzard Entertainment; this competition represents Blizzard’s pledge to the local e-gaming community over their continual support and backing of any competitive gaming meets based on their products.

Jasper Mah, National Head of ESL (Electronics Sports League) for South East Asia, whose company runs the setup for the competition explains, “The tournament is part of the initiative planned by Blizzard Entertainment to support eSports growth in StarCraft 2—one of the most competed eSports titles in the world at the moment. This also shows the potential of Blizzard Entertainment [at] leading an initiative to support event organizers in different regions to help promote eSports at the grassroots and National level.”

Qualifiers for the competition start on the 28th, but it won’t be until round two (29th of July) when things will start to get feisty. Narrowing the competition from 64 to just 16, expect nothing less than top notch macro and micro action as the best players from around the country and beyond attempt to outwit each other in this fast paced, sci-fi RTS (real-time strategy) game. With a prize purse of almost USD$8,000, the competition has attracted a slew of big time players such as Flash Esports’ Marcus 'Revenant' Tan as well as the previously “retired” Bryan 'Nirvana' Choo.

The winner of the Singaporean Finals will win a sponsored trip to the Asian Continental Finals in China, and will compete with the best SC2 players asuch as Enderr and Jabito, from the Philippines, Cobo from Malaysia, and the one and only RedArchon from Thailand, to decide who will represent SEA region at the WCG Global Finals. However, despite the star-studded lineup, participants seem hardly deterred. Jasper, organizer of various high profile tournaments such as Go4SC2 and Go4LOL prior to WCS, reveals that reception has thus far been fantastic. “Only within a few days we reached 50 signups out of the 64 we expected!”

The Blizzard WCS Singapore Finals will be played across the fairly familiar and standard GSL approved maps provided than none other than the parent company themselves; such as WCS_Entombed Valley, WCS_Shakura's Plateau, WCS_Taldarims Altar. Others include WCS_Daybreak, WCS_Ohana LE, WCS_Cloud Kingdom LE, and WCS_Antiga Shipyard.

“We would like to thank the community for the support of the Starcraft 2, as well as our sponsors who have supported us with the help and resources! Known brands like AMD, Crucial, Corsair, Antec are working with our PC partner, TheScore.SG, to build the PCs required for the event itself, and our venue partner, Funan Digitalife Mall, as well as our network partner, Viewqwest, with supporting our event with a 1000Mbp/s internet line for the duration of the whole event,” expressed Jasper.

For more information on the Blizzard WCS Singapore Finals, head down to the ESL official webpage. The Blizzard WCS Singapore Finals will take place over the weekend of the 28th-29th of July 2012 and is organized by the Electronics Sports League (ESL) in association with Blizzard Entertainment, Funan the Digital life mall, Viewqwest, and theScore.sg.