Blizzard outraged many gamers when it announced that Star Craft II would not support multiplayer gaming over local area networks. That is, gamers would no longer be able to get a bunch of desktops together in someone’s house, or at a tournament, and play each other on a small network. All multiplayer would have to be routed through Battle.net, and thus require an internet connection, even if the two computers were right next to each other.
The original Star Craft, and its little brother Warcraft III, were a large part of LAN party culture, and so the idea that the first sequel to the franchise in more than a decade wouldn’t honor Star Craft’s contributions to LAN culture was pretty unexpected.
Big Download is now reporting that there may still be hope.
Blizzard gave them this statement:
We will be addressing StarCraft II tournament functionality in a post launch patch to the game, soon after ship. This patch will include features to address the needs of location-based pro tournaments, but we have not discussed any specifics about tournament support beyond that.
So it sounds like Blizzard is, at the least, committed to allowing large, professionally organized LAN parties, if not the little ones in your buddy’s basement or your college computer lab.
... They're not overpowered, though. His opponent in that video was pretty bad too.
