World Championship Series of Starcraft II heads Down Under

Nerds everywhere are breaking out in hives, sweating profusely and letting out high-pitched yelps of excitement as the World Championship Series of Starcraft II makes its way to Oceania.

The top 16 Starcraft II players in Australia are currently competing in the national finals for their share of the $10,000 booty.

Surprisingly, the top six of those players will face off against the top two Kiwi Starcrafters in the Oceania finals on Sunday.

I say surprisingly because, well, I didn’t think we had that much of a presence in the world of semi-professional gaming; it’s pretty cool to see that we are making our mark.

Both the Australian national final and Oceania final will take place at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney.

New Zealand finalists Thoms “JazBas” Cho and Tilea “KnighTLighT” Flavall will be representing New Zealand’s gaming community after winning the national finals on June 2.

Those Oceania finals will be an eight-player double elimination tournament with a prize pool of $15,000 – which isn’t a bad pay off for sitting in a dark room playing Starcraft for hundreds of hours. Or perhaps it is; I’m a little torn by the idea.

Like any competitive event (almost said sport, better tone it down), commentary is key. In this event it will be provided by international casting duos Nick ‘Tasteless’ Plott and Dan ‘Artosis’ Stemkoski, and Alex ‘HDstarcraft’ Do and Taylor ‘PainUser’ Parsons.

Although free tickets to the event were available they were gone in less than 15 minutes, both tournaments will be streamed online.