The Silicon Sports crew have reminded us that their BarCraft gathering is meeting again tomorrow night at Melbourne's The Exchange Hotel for another round of alcohol-fueled e-sports action. The occasion is the GSL Season 2 Final which will see StarCraft 2 players MVP and Squirtle duke it in a Terran vs Protoss showdown.

The Exchange Hotel wants to support eSports as much as it can and have opened the entire venue for BarCraft Melbourne on May 19th at 5 pm. With a capacity of 1000 people, 7 screens and 3 bars, we will all be able to watch, enjoy and celebrate the GSL Season 2 Grand Final in comfort. I am sure MVP and Squirtle will put on an epic TvP series – I can’t wait! Go MVP!!!

Hit up the Silicon Sports website for further details.

Anyone who plays StarCraft 2 even remotely seriously is familiar with the awesome Husky and the incredible work he does on his HuskyStarCraft YouTube channel, commentating on high-level competitive StarCraft 2 games. It's an awesome resource for all StarCraft players as he explains a lot of neat gameplay stuff in a fun and engaging way so even Bronze noobs like me can understand them.

His latest video is a little different, but it seems worthy of a news post - he's done a hilarious SC2-themed song called "Nerd Alert - Nerdy and I know it (a parody of the LMFAO song with a similar name). Check it out below (props to Raven for initially throwing it down in the forums):

We've heard that Blizzard's hugely anticipated Diablo 3 will have an immensely challenging final difficulty level and it looks like the StarCraft 2 team are not going to be outdone, with the announcement of a "fiendish" new official Custom Game modification called StarCraft Master, due in the "next few days" and aimed at teaching newcomers some of the advanced play techniques that can be used in multiplayer.

In a blog post on the official site, Blizzard describes the new addition:

A new challenge is coming: the new single-player Blizzard mod StarCraft Master. StarCraft Master offers you the opportunity to put your skills to the test in 30 different challenges that will tax your knowledge and your ability to control your forces. Each fiendish challenge will demand your utmost concentration to prevail, and they’ll help you hone your unit micro-management skills in situations which mimic real battles.

See battle.net for more specifics and keep an eye on the "Custom Game" menu over the next few days.

The StarCraft 2 blog carries word a new feature is coming soon to Battle.net - region linking:

Region linking will benefit players in the connected regions in a number of ways. First and foremost, a linked community means a larger pool of players to improve our automated matchmaker. Whether you're an elite Grandmaster or a Bronze-league all-star, more players in the mix means that we'll be able to find you a matchup more quickly and more accurately. Players will also get access to a broader range of custom map games, which in turn means wider audiences for mapmakers. Those of you who have friends in the linked region will also be able to add them to your Battle.net friends lists once the region linking is complete.

The post also carries a FAQ with some more information, although nothing about Australia is mentioned specifically.

Blizzard have launched three new official mods over on their StarCraft 2 mod page (for those that don't know what mods are, they're like DLC but you don't have to pay for them). The mods:

StarJewelled
Pit your puzzle-solving talents against your opponent's. Match jewels to generate resources - and spend them to attack with StarCraft II units, countering your adversary's forces and destroying their base.

Aiur Chef
Gather and mix exotic ingredients in a cooking race against your opponents. Choose your recipes carefully to achieve culinary dominance and be counted among the most hallowed chefs of Aiur!

Left 2 Die
Working together with a partner, defend your base from onrushing zerg infested. Protect yourself from the relentless hordes during the night, and build up your forces to strike back during the daytime. Cooperate, or measure your survival in seconds.

You can find them all in the "Custom Game" section - just look for the maps with the little Blizzard logo next to them. Looking forward to trying these out!

The version 1.2 patch for StarCraft 2 has landed and is now available in the annoying Blizzard updater, or for direct download via the awesome AusGamers site! There is a healthy changelog with a bunch of cool changes:

This patch will update the U.S. English PC edition of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty to version 1.2.0. This patch features adjustments to race balance, notable StarCraft II Editor improvements, the addition of Battle.net Chat Channels, and several bug fixes. Be sure to check out the full patch notes below to learn all about the latest changes.

General

• Battle.net Chat Channels have been added! Players can now join others in both public and private channels.
• Added in-game chat bar command to whisper to other players. Using the "/w" command will open up a list of available friends, party members, chat channels, and other players within your current game.
• Added Battle.net option to auto-join previous private channels.
• Added Battle.net option to prevent chat channel text from appearing in in-game chat display.
• A new Master League has been added! This league now represents the highest tier of players.
• Customizable Hotkey Support has been added.
• Stalemate Detection has been added. This will end the game in a tie for all remaining players if no players have income, production, or destroyed structures for three consecutive minutes. A countdown timer will now appear when the game detects this scenario.
• An Extreme graphics option is now available. Players can now configure screen space ambient occlusion.

There's also some minor balance tweaks to Protoss and Terran - you can check the full changelog on the download page. We've got both the Windows and Mac OS X patches available for download right now.

For those who haven't tried it yet, you can now get a sweet free taste of Blizzard's latest strategy extravaganza with the new StarCraft 2 demo:

If you haven’t yet experienced the intense strategic combat of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, you can get into the action today with the newly released demo edition. Featuring full access to the first three missions of the single-player campaign, as well as unlimited access to skirmish mode as the terrans versus an A.I. opponent, the free demo gives you an introduction to the cinematic storytelling and fast-paced gameplay of StarCraft II.

You can download it now locally from AusGamers (1.6GB).

Blizzard have revealed StarCraft II players can now log into their account and change their character name. But you only get one.

If you'd like to change your character name, log in to Account Management and choose your StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty game license. On your game license screen a "Character Name Change" button at the bottom will initiate the request. After confirming that you'd like to change your character name, simply log in to StarCraft II and you'll be prompted to select a new one. Please be sure to use this name change wisely.

Not sure why anyone would want to change their name after having already made one up, but each to their own.

Some gamers were up in arms after the recent rumour wildly propagated that not only were they [Blizzard] bringing down the banhammer on StarCraft 2 players caught cheating in multiplayer, but also some that were only using third-party cheat applications for the single-player content too.

Blizzard typically responded to their community to clarify and reaafirm their position on the situation, which, it would seem, also confirms they have actually taken into account a number of gamers utilising said third-party tools for the single-player, despite no negative affect on the multiplayer:

"Blizzard Entertainment is not banning StarCraft II players just for using single-player cheats. There's been some confusion in the last couple of days about the suspensions and bans meted out to players caught cheating in StarCraft II. It's important to point out first, that many of the 3rd-party hacks and cheats developed for StarCraft II contain both single- and multiplayer functionality. In order to protect the integrity of multiplayer competition, we are actively detecting cheat programs used in multiplayer modes whether there are human opponents or not.

That said, players who opt to use any type of 3rd party hacks do so at their own risk — there are already built-in cheat codes for StarCraft II single-player that can be used safely. Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating seriously and will continue to aggressively crackdown on players who cheat in our games."

While this company line appears somewhat reasonable, it renews the debate on how much control consumers should have over the games they buy. Some would argue that Blizzard have the right to protect the integrity of their service, but others might say that the issue here is Blizzard's own fault for requiring such hard-line online authentication for the solo play content in the first place.

The anticipated v1.1 patch for StarCraft 2 has landed; the in-game updater will obviously get you upgraded but you can also download the manual patch now locally from AusGamers (~130MB).

There's an extensive changelog (all available on our download page), but the major change is that Australians can now join the US region to play against our American brethren (though note all your achievements and Battle.net stuff will be reset for the new region). There's a lot of balance changes; what's the verdict on them?