Post by SpaceDominator on Jul 3, 2020 13:25:28 GMT
Blizzard Gaming Night History:
The history of Blizzard Gaming Night is a long one that mirrors that of StarCraft's, in particular StarCraft: Brood Wars. The hundreds of people who attend Blizzard Gaming Night throughout the years probably do not even realize the long history that this particular event has gone through. How did Blizzard Gaming Night come to be? What made Blizzard Gaming Night such a great event? What's the future of Blizzard Gaming Night? I thought it would be interesting and perhaps a bit nostalgic for some to go back through and give a bit of a history lesson on the evolution of Blizzard Gaming Night and how it evolved and how it changed throughout the years.
The Beginnings: StarCraft Millennium and Beat The Staff[1998-1999]
Blizzard Gaming Night began under the name of Beat the Staff at StarCraft Millennium[http://www.scmillennium.com]. The year of 1998 was a special year for all SC fans as both the original and Brood War were released. Understandably so, during this year there was a huge boom of major StarCraft websites who covered the scene and wrote content. However, the StarCraft community was an interesting one in those days. A large number of the webmasters who bought the website domains and covered the scene never actually played much of the game of StarCraft itself. I was hired by my good friend Agelmar over at StarCraft Millennium to write strategies and contribute other content to the website. StarCraft Millennium was built on the idea of developing a small-knit community and I came up with an idea that would harness that goal. Since a large number of sites covered the game but didn't seem to share the same passion for playing the game, I thought that it would be a great way to strum up attention and community connectivity by hosting an evening where the staff and the community would compete in games for fun. It would be an opportunity for the community to get to know the members who worked on the website. Brood Wars was released on December 18th, 1998 and the first Beat the Staff was held on December 28, 1998. The Beat the Staff events primarily occurred on the weekends Saturday and Sunday and quite often they lasted throughout the entire day.
The Shift to SC:L: StarCraft Legacy Strategy and Beat the Legacy[Late 1999-2000]
Early in January 2000, RedCloak one of the webmasters over at StarCraft Legacy offered me a job that I couldn't honestly refuse. I was going to take over the writing of strategies for StarCraft Legacy, one of the largest StarCraft websites in the community. So along with my shift from StarCraft Millennium(a site that I continued to contribute to), the event moved over to StarCraft Legacy and was known as Beat the Legacy. The first Beat the Legacy was held in Early 2000, and Beat the Legacy events occurred on a semi-regular basis on Sunday Nights in the channel LHQ. During this time frame StarCraft Legacy was in the process of expanding to what was known as the "Legacy HQ," thus where the channel name came into play. During this time frame as well, Diablo II was released which offered up a shift in the name of the event.
SC:L Strategy Thrives: Legacy Gaming Night[2000-2001]
From 2001-2002, the StarCraft Legacy Strategy Section underwent its most successful period. The strategy section was run by a group of five strategists that each brought their own unique style and approach. We had Raptor, RangerofTheDeep, Blackberry, NobleHelium and myself. The five of us were the backbone of what set up the fundamentals of the StarCraft Legacy strategy section and we also were the ones that went through a great time period of Legacy Gaming Nights. The event's name was shifted as it went from being a competition between the staff and the community to a more laid back event where people would come in and out whenever they wished and would play games of whatever they wished. The Gaming Nights were filled with a large number of interesting games and competitions. StarCraft Fortress was popular, Balance of Power(basically a true FFA). During this time period we went through a large number of different competitions including ladders, competitions, games outside of StarCraft, etc.. In a sense, it was a renaissance period for Blizzard Gaming Night as it was a time where we had our own niche inside of SC:L and we used it to our advantage. The channel would quite often be active from 7:00 PM-3:00 AM as you would have waves of people show up throughout the night. It was in a sense, moderated chaos.
The Transition: Gaming Nights[2002-2003]
From 2002-2003 the SC:L Strategy Section had many new faces come in to take over the load of a staff that was in the process of graduating from high school and preparing for college. From 2002-2003 there were very few gaming nights and the few that were hosted were primarily held by Freak. During this period, SC:L's strategy section was graced with two highly qualified writers in Nibsley and Dragonlord who both maintained the SC:L strategy section while I was busy.
The Return: Blizzard Gaming Night[2004]
After a long hiatus from myself, I was able to finally find some time to again continue the event. On March 26th, 2004 the first edition of Blizzard Gaming Night occurred. I had decided to expand the event to include WarCraft II BNE and Diablo II as an attempt to bring in more members to join the event. However, in all fairness the number of WCII players and Diablo players we had were minimal at best and we ended up with large crowds of StarCraft players. These events occurred on a monthly basis and were highly successful and served as a return to the glory of the strategy section over at SC:L. During 2004, StarCraft Legacy also hosted USA State Wars which was an idea that never ultimately succeeded in which you would have a representative of each of the fifty states participate in a tournament to see who's state would reign supreme. In December of 2004, we also unveiled the idea of Midnight StarCraft which served as a way to allow our European friends to participate.
The Formalization of BGN: Blizzard Gaming Night[2005]
In 2005, Blizzard Gaming Night returned with a vengeance. For thirteen straight weeks starting on April 28th, 2005, there was a weekly Blizzard Gaming Night held on B.Net. The biggest difference that Blizzard Gaming Night went through during this time frame was yet another shift in the date. Blizzard Gaming Night was moved to Thursday Nights which seemed to really work out well for people during this time. In addition, on September 19th, 2005 Ascension was hired at the StarCraft Legacy Strategy Section to serve as an advisor and an assistant in the work over there. During this time frame as well, in November Blizzard Gaming Night became themed. In other words, each day of the event had a "theme" such as: "Team Maps", etc.. The first one occurred on November 10th, 2005. Blizzard Gaming Night became more of an event instead of an evening.
Blizzard Gaming Night's Separation: Blizzard Gaming Night[2006]
In Early 2006, the first Blizzard Gaming Night Challenge Cup occurred. This was a competition where a team of Americans led by myself would take on a team of international players led by Ascension. Two editions of the BGN Challenge Cup occurred and the American team won both editions of the event. On March 21, 2006 I ended up leaving StarCraft Legacy and Ascension took over control over the Strategy Section to allow for myself to "pursue other interests and to also get a life." The event was originally intended to remain a part of StarCraft Legacy's strategy section but it was ultimately separated on June 27th, 2006. The SC:L Strategy Section then proceeded to die on August 18th, 2006. During this time frame though a large number of members from StarCraft Legacy's strategy section continued to meet on a regular basis to play games and to continue the tradition of BGN.
The BGN Invitationals: Blizzard Gaming Night[2006-2008]
Blizzard Gaming Night's community was interested in doing some more formalized tournaments and thus began the idea of the Blizzard Gaming Night Invitationals. The BGN Invitational tournaments were intended to give our community the opportunity to compete in tournaments that were based on the professional leagues that were quite popular during the time. During this time frame, Blizzard Gaming Night's community really acted more as a clan than anything as the base of players were very tightly knit. The first Blizzard Gaming Night Invitational Tournament's championship series was probably one of the most successful events that was ever hosted at Blizzard Gaming Night and also served as a bit of a historic day for the event as a whole. On September 5th, 2006 Dieter Huber[Desastroso] and myself broadcast the first game of the PacificAce.Tibs vs Kilahace series. Four more Blizzard Gaming Night Invitational Tournaments were held. You can view all of the information about those here on this particular message board.
StarCraft 2 Is Released[2010-2013]
When StarCraft 2 Wings of Liberty was released on July 27, 2010 it beckoned in a new generation of Blizzard Gaming Night gaming. Admittedly some tournaments were held but I think it's fair and safe to say that StarCraft 2 didn't really hold the attention as well of the overall gaming group, there were some events that did happen throughout the StarCraft 2 period including a lot of fun UMS nights and a variety of different competitions. However, ultimately as the BGN group ended up growing up and times got busier events started to slow down and real life began to take over. For myself, the last game that I had played in SC2 was a 3v3 with FBS 217 weeks ago(which would have been around June 2013).
Blizzard Gaming Night Returns![2017-2018]
With the release of StarCraft Remastered, several of the old members of the Blizzard Gaming Night community including myself have decided to give it another go and Blizzard Gaming Night will continue it's long, historic run again. Remarkably in December of 2018, BGN will celebrate 20 years of existence(yes, even including the four year hiatus that has included several of us getting married, in a couple cases kids, and much more.) We had successful gaming nights on August 19th, 2017, October 25th, 2017, January 19th, 2018 and February 10th, 2018,March 24th, 2018 and our last one on Friday, April 13th, 2018.
Blizzard Gaming Night Returns Admist The Coronavirus Pandemic[2020-?]
Admist the craziness of March 2020 was the Coronavirus Panademic that has raged across the world. Schools were shut down for long periods of time and many adults worked from home in an age of "social distancing" and "self isolation." With everyone back at home, as a means of not letting social distancing become social isolation, Blizzard Gaming Night returned as a means of reuniting this group at a time when positive memories and positive vibes were desperately needed. These BGN nights began during the week of March 16th, 2020 with two BGN events that occured on Friday, March 19th and Saturday, March 20th and continued on Friday, March 27th and March 28th, 2020. This continues yet another appreciation for how meaningful the game of StarCraft: Brood Wars has been for all of us.
I hope you enjoyed this look back on the history of Blizzard Gaming Night. If you have any modifications, suggestions, changes to this history please feel free to let me know.
-SpaceDominator
The history of Blizzard Gaming Night is a long one that mirrors that of StarCraft's, in particular StarCraft: Brood Wars. The hundreds of people who attend Blizzard Gaming Night throughout the years probably do not even realize the long history that this particular event has gone through. How did Blizzard Gaming Night come to be? What made Blizzard Gaming Night such a great event? What's the future of Blizzard Gaming Night? I thought it would be interesting and perhaps a bit nostalgic for some to go back through and give a bit of a history lesson on the evolution of Blizzard Gaming Night and how it evolved and how it changed throughout the years.
The Beginnings: StarCraft Millennium and Beat The Staff[1998-1999]
Blizzard Gaming Night began under the name of Beat the Staff at StarCraft Millennium[http://www.scmillennium.com]. The year of 1998 was a special year for all SC fans as both the original and Brood War were released. Understandably so, during this year there was a huge boom of major StarCraft websites who covered the scene and wrote content. However, the StarCraft community was an interesting one in those days. A large number of the webmasters who bought the website domains and covered the scene never actually played much of the game of StarCraft itself. I was hired by my good friend Agelmar over at StarCraft Millennium to write strategies and contribute other content to the website. StarCraft Millennium was built on the idea of developing a small-knit community and I came up with an idea that would harness that goal. Since a large number of sites covered the game but didn't seem to share the same passion for playing the game, I thought that it would be a great way to strum up attention and community connectivity by hosting an evening where the staff and the community would compete in games for fun. It would be an opportunity for the community to get to know the members who worked on the website. Brood Wars was released on December 18th, 1998 and the first Beat the Staff was held on December 28, 1998. The Beat the Staff events primarily occurred on the weekends Saturday and Sunday and quite often they lasted throughout the entire day.
The Shift to SC:L: StarCraft Legacy Strategy and Beat the Legacy[Late 1999-2000]
Early in January 2000, RedCloak one of the webmasters over at StarCraft Legacy offered me a job that I couldn't honestly refuse. I was going to take over the writing of strategies for StarCraft Legacy, one of the largest StarCraft websites in the community. So along with my shift from StarCraft Millennium(a site that I continued to contribute to), the event moved over to StarCraft Legacy and was known as Beat the Legacy. The first Beat the Legacy was held in Early 2000, and Beat the Legacy events occurred on a semi-regular basis on Sunday Nights in the channel LHQ. During this time frame StarCraft Legacy was in the process of expanding to what was known as the "Legacy HQ," thus where the channel name came into play. During this time frame as well, Diablo II was released which offered up a shift in the name of the event.
SC:L Strategy Thrives: Legacy Gaming Night[2000-2001]
From 2001-2002, the StarCraft Legacy Strategy Section underwent its most successful period. The strategy section was run by a group of five strategists that each brought their own unique style and approach. We had Raptor, RangerofTheDeep, Blackberry, NobleHelium and myself. The five of us were the backbone of what set up the fundamentals of the StarCraft Legacy strategy section and we also were the ones that went through a great time period of Legacy Gaming Nights. The event's name was shifted as it went from being a competition between the staff and the community to a more laid back event where people would come in and out whenever they wished and would play games of whatever they wished. The Gaming Nights were filled with a large number of interesting games and competitions. StarCraft Fortress was popular, Balance of Power(basically a true FFA). During this time period we went through a large number of different competitions including ladders, competitions, games outside of StarCraft, etc.. In a sense, it was a renaissance period for Blizzard Gaming Night as it was a time where we had our own niche inside of SC:L and we used it to our advantage. The channel would quite often be active from 7:00 PM-3:00 AM as you would have waves of people show up throughout the night. It was in a sense, moderated chaos.
The Transition: Gaming Nights[2002-2003]
From 2002-2003 the SC:L Strategy Section had many new faces come in to take over the load of a staff that was in the process of graduating from high school and preparing for college. From 2002-2003 there were very few gaming nights and the few that were hosted were primarily held by Freak. During this period, SC:L's strategy section was graced with two highly qualified writers in Nibsley and Dragonlord who both maintained the SC:L strategy section while I was busy.
The Return: Blizzard Gaming Night[2004]
After a long hiatus from myself, I was able to finally find some time to again continue the event. On March 26th, 2004 the first edition of Blizzard Gaming Night occurred. I had decided to expand the event to include WarCraft II BNE and Diablo II as an attempt to bring in more members to join the event. However, in all fairness the number of WCII players and Diablo players we had were minimal at best and we ended up with large crowds of StarCraft players. These events occurred on a monthly basis and were highly successful and served as a return to the glory of the strategy section over at SC:L. During 2004, StarCraft Legacy also hosted USA State Wars which was an idea that never ultimately succeeded in which you would have a representative of each of the fifty states participate in a tournament to see who's state would reign supreme. In December of 2004, we also unveiled the idea of Midnight StarCraft which served as a way to allow our European friends to participate.
The Formalization of BGN: Blizzard Gaming Night[2005]
In 2005, Blizzard Gaming Night returned with a vengeance. For thirteen straight weeks starting on April 28th, 2005, there was a weekly Blizzard Gaming Night held on B.Net. The biggest difference that Blizzard Gaming Night went through during this time frame was yet another shift in the date. Blizzard Gaming Night was moved to Thursday Nights which seemed to really work out well for people during this time. In addition, on September 19th, 2005 Ascension was hired at the StarCraft Legacy Strategy Section to serve as an advisor and an assistant in the work over there. During this time frame as well, in November Blizzard Gaming Night became themed. In other words, each day of the event had a "theme" such as: "Team Maps", etc.. The first one occurred on November 10th, 2005. Blizzard Gaming Night became more of an event instead of an evening.
Blizzard Gaming Night's Separation: Blizzard Gaming Night[2006]
In Early 2006, the first Blizzard Gaming Night Challenge Cup occurred. This was a competition where a team of Americans led by myself would take on a team of international players led by Ascension. Two editions of the BGN Challenge Cup occurred and the American team won both editions of the event. On March 21, 2006 I ended up leaving StarCraft Legacy and Ascension took over control over the Strategy Section to allow for myself to "pursue other interests and to also get a life." The event was originally intended to remain a part of StarCraft Legacy's strategy section but it was ultimately separated on June 27th, 2006. The SC:L Strategy Section then proceeded to die on August 18th, 2006. During this time frame though a large number of members from StarCraft Legacy's strategy section continued to meet on a regular basis to play games and to continue the tradition of BGN.
The BGN Invitationals: Blizzard Gaming Night[2006-2008]
Blizzard Gaming Night's community was interested in doing some more formalized tournaments and thus began the idea of the Blizzard Gaming Night Invitationals. The BGN Invitational tournaments were intended to give our community the opportunity to compete in tournaments that were based on the professional leagues that were quite popular during the time. During this time frame, Blizzard Gaming Night's community really acted more as a clan than anything as the base of players were very tightly knit. The first Blizzard Gaming Night Invitational Tournament's championship series was probably one of the most successful events that was ever hosted at Blizzard Gaming Night and also served as a bit of a historic day for the event as a whole. On September 5th, 2006 Dieter Huber[Desastroso] and myself broadcast the first game of the PacificAce.Tibs vs Kilahace series. Four more Blizzard Gaming Night Invitational Tournaments were held. You can view all of the information about those here on this particular message board.
StarCraft 2 Is Released[2010-2013]
When StarCraft 2 Wings of Liberty was released on July 27, 2010 it beckoned in a new generation of Blizzard Gaming Night gaming. Admittedly some tournaments were held but I think it's fair and safe to say that StarCraft 2 didn't really hold the attention as well of the overall gaming group, there were some events that did happen throughout the StarCraft 2 period including a lot of fun UMS nights and a variety of different competitions. However, ultimately as the BGN group ended up growing up and times got busier events started to slow down and real life began to take over. For myself, the last game that I had played in SC2 was a 3v3 with FBS 217 weeks ago(which would have been around June 2013).
Blizzard Gaming Night Returns![2017-2018]
With the release of StarCraft Remastered, several of the old members of the Blizzard Gaming Night community including myself have decided to give it another go and Blizzard Gaming Night will continue it's long, historic run again. Remarkably in December of 2018, BGN will celebrate 20 years of existence(yes, even including the four year hiatus that has included several of us getting married, in a couple cases kids, and much more.) We had successful gaming nights on August 19th, 2017, October 25th, 2017, January 19th, 2018 and February 10th, 2018,March 24th, 2018 and our last one on Friday, April 13th, 2018.
Blizzard Gaming Night Returns Admist The Coronavirus Pandemic[2020-?]
Admist the craziness of March 2020 was the Coronavirus Panademic that has raged across the world. Schools were shut down for long periods of time and many adults worked from home in an age of "social distancing" and "self isolation." With everyone back at home, as a means of not letting social distancing become social isolation, Blizzard Gaming Night returned as a means of reuniting this group at a time when positive memories and positive vibes were desperately needed. These BGN nights began during the week of March 16th, 2020 with two BGN events that occured on Friday, March 19th and Saturday, March 20th and continued on Friday, March 27th and March 28th, 2020. This continues yet another appreciation for how meaningful the game of StarCraft: Brood Wars has been for all of us.
I hope you enjoyed this look back on the history of Blizzard Gaming Night. If you have any modifications, suggestions, changes to this history please feel free to let me know.
-SpaceDominator