Battle.net

The air in the Anaheim Convention Center was electric as the StarCraft II Invitational kicked off at BlizzCon today. Thousands of StarCraft II eSports enthusiasts filled the seats of the RTS Tournament Stage to watch as a field of 16 top players, selected from each region after months of fierce Battle.net ladder competition, finally met to see whose skills would earn them glory and cash prizes worth over $45,000!

The games were shoutcasted by an all-star team including Nick "Tasteless" Plott, Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, and Sean "Day[9]" Plott, not to mention Blizzard's own Rob "Voice" Simpson and StarCraft II Game Director Dustin Browder.

Since the tournament encompasses so many games, the majority of the matches were played offstage -- but you can find an up-to-date bracket of all the BlizzCon 2010 StarCraft II Invitational Tournament games on the BlizzCon Tournament page here. That page will be updated with replays of these epic games soon!

Showmatch - SlayerS_`BoxeR` vs. Fruit Dealer

In what was possibly the most anticipated match of the day, BoxeR, known throughout the eSports community as a strategic innovator and a living legend of the StarCraft: Brood War professional gaming scene, faced off against the universally hailed and extremely skilled champion of the TG-Intel GSL Season 1 tournament, Fruit Dealer (AKA Cool). The RTS Tournament stage was thronged by a roaring crowd full of fans cheering both players, eager to witness the battle between these two titans. Would Fruit Dealer's mad skills and cool resolve be enough to best the legendary BoxeR? Would BoxeR, experienced and respected but relatively new to the StarCraft II scene, manage to take down the reigning champion and emerge victorious? Spoilers ahead!

The showdown started with a match on the Lost Temple. The action was fierce, with both players drawing explosive cheers from the crowd with their world-class play. BoxeR almost took the win early in the match with a brutal, expertly micro-ed marine and marader timing push, but Fruit Dealer managed to eke out a defense and went on to keep BoxeR contained in the south of the map, countering BoxeR's signature inventive play and surprises with almost supernatural skill to finally come out on top.

The second game took place on Metalopolis. BoxeR punished Fruit Dealer's early expansion and almost took the entire match by sealing the zerg into their starting position with a pair of well-placed bunkers. While a move like that might seal the fate of a lesser player, Fruit Dealer broke through, and in an incredibly gutsy move, took the rich mineral patch adjacent to BoxeR's terran base to get back into the game. This match was marked by incredible back-and-forth action, and things looked grim for Fruit Dealer as BoxeR made a heavy mech push with calculated siege tank placement to eventually wipe out Fruit Dealer's game-saving rich mineral base, but yet again, Fruit Dealer managed to take the win with a mix of steely-nerved macro and the liberal application of roaches and banelings drops. 

These wildly entertaining and tense games were an epically satisfying conclusion to the first day of StarCraft II action, but we’re just getting started -- so don’t forget to join us for the conclusion of the BlizzCon StarCraft II Invitational tomorrow. If you weren't able to join us at the convention this year but want to witness these epic battles firsthand, you can catch tomorrow's action via the BlizzCon 2010 tournament stream or on DIRECTV.