StarCraft 2 daily: Balance patch coming this Friday (and more stories)

Lead balance designer David Kim confirmed in a forum post on Battle.net that StarCraft 2 will be patched before the weekend. The update will introduce three of the five proposed changes which were implemented on the test map two weeks ago, particularly the Mothership Core decreased vision range, the increased attack speed of Hydralisks and the Widow Man splash damage increase to be more effective against Protoss shields.

The balance team will be holding off the other two changes that were on the test map: the increased Tempest damage against structures and the increased Blink cooldown. They justify the former as “not being 100% sure if this is the right change” and the latter as “too large a nerf to move forward with right now”.

The patch thus reads:

Widow Mine splash damage increased from 40 to 40 +40 shields
 

• Up to 1.25 radius, splash damage will increase from 40 to 40 +40 vs. shields.
• From 1.25 to 1.5 radius, splash damage will increase from 20 to 20 +20 vs. shields.
• From 1.5 to 1.75 radius, splash damage will increase from 10 to 10 +10 vs. shields.

Hydralisk attack delay decreased from .83 to .75
Mothership Core vision decreased from 14 to 9

Source: Battle.net

Supernova. Photo: Thisisgame

After the disbandment of Azubu’s StarCraft 2 roster was hinted by Korean eSports journalist Ethan Ahn of February 17th, team’s management now confirms the news – by the end of this week, Azubu SC2 will be no more.

2014 had nothing but bad news for Azubu. Starting from the very first days of the new year, the team saw most of its players depart, be it to join other teams or become free agents. Patience was the first to do so on January 2nd to join Alien Invasion and by February 9th he was followed by six more players which left the Azubu squad down to just BBoong and Supernova.

With a diminutive roster, no team league prospects and with eSF disbanding, fans expected the fallout of Azubu to come sooner rather than later and effective February 28th the team will be no more.

Azubu spokesman points to “StarCraft 2’s waning popularity in South Korea” as the main reason for dropping the team. SC2 has been losing the battle in Korean PC Bangs for some time now and by January 15th, the game was at the abysmal 23rd place.

"We still view Starcraft II as an important game on the eSports scene and it will continue to form a key part of Azubu’s programming content," says Azubu's JH Choi.
 

Korean PC Bang ranking: 1. LoL 2. Sudden Attack 3. Fifa online 4. SC BW 5. Blade and Soul 6. Lineage 7. WC 3 8. Aion 23. SC 2 36. Dota 2

— TL-Chexx (@TL_Chexx) January 15, 2014

There is no information give whether or not Azubu will revisit the idea of reopening a StarCraft 2 roster in the future or where Supernova and Bboong will end up next.

WCS Europe Ro32 is halfway through as Dayshi and San took the top two spots in Group D. The French Terran is the second European to come on top after Vortix ruled Group C on February 22nd. Dayshi went 4-1 against San and Miniraser, the two of who had to face each other in the deciding match of the group. The next group on WCS EU’s schedule will be played on February 27th with StarDust, Happy, Bly and Bling.

With three Zergs and one Terran, Group C of WCS America Ro32 was bound to become a swarm parade. HyuN and Revival took the top spots and left TheSTC and ByuL out of the competition. Three groups into the round, Terrans have thus seen just one of their representatives make it through as Hearth took Group B on February 19th. Next WCS America playday is on February 26th with Jaedong, Arthur, Has and Bomber.

KT Rolster continue to be undefeated so far in Proleague round 2. Coach Kang’s team snatched another 3-2 victory this time against Samsung Galaxy to top the rankings after week one.

The series started strong for KT as TY and Zest scored back-to-back wins to put their team on a 2-0 lead. Samsung’s retaliation, however, tied the series back up thanks to TurN and Stork and the two teams were in for an ace match. Flash was called for KT Rolster while Solar stepped in for Samsung and after one base race on Frost victory went to the StarCraft bonjwa.

In the second match for the night, Jin Air Green Wings recovered from their loss to KT on Sunday and trampled through CJ Entus almost effortlessly. Opening with Maru and sOs gave Jin Air the momentum they needed and Hydra’s victory for CJ could not stop the green-and-white team. Cure came as fourth to finish herO[join] and bring his team to fifth position in the round rankings.

[VODs] KT Rolster vs Samsung
[VODs] CJ Entus vs Jin Air