eSports Report for May 7, 2012

There aren’t a ton of events coming up next week (aside from the GSL Season 2 Code S finals), so instead, here’s a list of cool happenings.

COOL HAPPENINGS:

Skullgirls Bracket at Shadowloo Showdown (Starts at 4:05)

I’ve been waiting for a legit bracket of Skullgirls since the game came out, and luckily they crammed one into Shadowloo Showdown last weekend. From what I can tell, this game combines the craziness of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with the crazy ratio imbalancing of Capcom vs. SNK 2. Hopefully we’ll see more of this game in a professional capacity in the future.

Blizzard Announces Heart of the Swarm Features

A developer update just hit Blizzard’s official StarCraft II blog with a tidy list of features that promise to fix nearly every major problem with the game so far. Heart of the Swarm will introduce the ability to resume a multiplayer game from a replay, which should provide a neat solution to those pesky connectivity issues that have popped up in tournaments lately.

I’m also stoked about multiplayer replay watching. I’ve had several times where I’ve wanted to study a replay with one or more buds online, but we just have to sync up over Skype and watch the whole replay at normal speed. This is a great (and oft requested) feature for coaches and friends that just want to kick around ideas about how to improve.

HotS will also add global play, so you can choose your play server, clan support, and unranked matchmaking if you want to just fuck around with new builds. It’s basically a complete wishlist of all the problems people are having with StarCraft II, now let’s just hope they don’t delay the game on account of any one of them.

KeSPA, OGN Partner with Blizzard for StarCraft II

Or, as you should probably interpret the headline, “Foreigners Will Soon Stand No Chance.” KeSPA and OGN have finally reached an accord with Blizzard and will soon start StarCraft II tournaments, which means old timers like Flash, Bisu, and Stork might cross over… and probably annihilate everyone. KeSPA will run combo tournaments featuring both Brood War and StarCraft II starting this month, before switching entirely over to SCII this October, wile OGN will start a StarCraft II tournament in July.

Basically, if you thought the StarCraft scene was big already, it’s about to blow the hell up.

DIIIIIVE KIIIIIICK

Tribes: Ascend CSN Launch Tournament

More Tribes! All the damn time! The Cyber Sports Network is running a launch tournament for Tribes: Ascend and the matches have the best gameplay I’ve seen in Tribes so far. We’re deep into the Launch Cup already — in fact, the finals are happening this Saturday, May 12. I won’t list the teams in the finals in case you want to catch up on the semis, but you can check out the brackets right here.

And Hey, We’re Streaming Tribes Too

Tomorrow (Tuesday, May 8), we’re throwing down with Destructoid in Tribes: Ascend. As always, check http://www.machinimalive.com/ to watch Inside Gaming destroy the Internet.