StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game, which is widely known by the acronym SC II.
SC II now ranks amongst the most popular and widely played eSports with professional competition ongoing in many leagues and tournaments around the world… most of which you can bet on.
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How Does Competitive SC II Work?
As a military science fictions strategy game, competitive SC is quite a bit different from other multiplayer eSports in terms of general gameplay. Firstly, rather than pitting teams of players against one another, most SC II tournaments are made up of one vs one matchups between just two individual players. Those players aim to fight and ultimate destroy one another by taking charge of one of the game’s three races of people, constructing structures and building an army.
Races and Units
Just like the original StarCraft game, SC II features three different races of people each of which feature in both the game’s campaign and multiplayer modes. Those races are known as the ‘Terrans’, the ‘Zergs’ and the ‘Protoss’ and each of the races feature different unit and structure types which boast their own abilities and characteristics.
Players taking part in a competitive SC II contest both set up on a particular map and must gather resources, build structures and create an army of the units available to them to ultimately do battle with their opponent’s forces.
A contest comes to a natural and obvious conclusion, therefore, when one army destroys the other and as SC II match within a tournament will often be played out over a best of three format.
SC II or StarCraft: Brood Wars?
Before the launch of SC II a healthy eSports setup had already established itself around the game’s predecessor; StarCraft: Brood Wars. In fact, the original StarCraft game was one of the most popular eSports in the early years of the development of eSports as a whole.
Whilst Blizzard Entertainment were keen to transition players over to SC II, StarCraft: Brood Wars competitions continued to be popular and the game is still played by some at the professional level today. Most of the biggest events set in the StarCraft gaming universe, however, are now played through SCII and its expansion SC II: Legacy of the Void.
What Are the Big Events?
As we’ve already mentioned, StarCraft was once one of the biggest eSports around. The game’s popularity in recent years, however, has dwindled a little as other games such as League of Legends and Defence of the Ancients 2 have attracted greater numbers of players.
There is still a buzzing competitive SC II circuit, though, which includes a number of notable and impressively valuable competitions.
SC II World Championship Series (WCS)
Since 2012, Blizzard Entertainment have arranged and sponsored over 30 offline SCII tournaments annually around the globe which are all a part of the so-called World Championship Series (WCS). These events boast sizable prize pools and often attract the top SCII players from the regions in which they are held.
Each of those WCS events are categorised as either national qualifiers, national finals and continental finals, and are used to determine the participants in the season’s showpiece event; the WCS Global Finals.
The WCS Global Finals
At various points in its history, the WCS Global Finals have also been known as the World Championships and that older name reflects the prestigious nature of the event. The tournament’s 16 participants are decided over the course of the WCS season by performance in the numerous WCS competitions and the Finals are held in a different country each year.
As the culmination of the entire WCS, the Global Finals boast the most impressive prize pool of any SC II event, with the 2017 edition paying out a total of $700,000 to competitors. Largely dominated by Korean players, the WCS Global Finals also often welcome players from the USA, Europe and South America.
What Bet Types are Available?
Given that there is clearly organised and global SCII competition, it should perhaps be little surprise that the eSport is now available to bet on. Both traditional online bookmakers and eSports specific bookies offer odds on SC II and some of the more commonly available types of SC II bet are described and explained below.
Match Winner – The simplest and most commonly available type of SC II bet, a match winner bet is simply a wager on which player you believe will win an upcoming match in an SC II competition.
Map Winner – Competitive SCII matches in tournament play often involve players battling it out over three or five different maps, with the winner being the first player to win either two or three maps respectively. Some bookmakers will allow you to bet on the winner of each individual map as well as the overall winner of a match.
Correct Map Score – In the same way as you can bet on the correct score of a football match, you can also bet on the final scoreline of an SC II contest. In a best of five encounter, for instance, you are able to bet on either side to win 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2 depending on how you believe the match will go.