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Araxas on February 4, 2006

Araxas on February 24, 2006

We're pleased to present a video interview with the StarCraft Invitational champion from the recent Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2006 held in Seoul, Korea.

Nick "Tasteless" Plott, with Inside the Game, had the chance to chat with KTF's Nal_Ra soon his victory over teammate Yellow in the StarCraft Invitational. The Korean Protoss player discusses his feelings about winning the event, professional gaming, and a few of the opponents he faced along the way.

Download the Nal_Ra Interview through the Blizzard downloader.

Inside the Game's live streams have been recorded to media and are now available here on the GGL website. Be sure to check out and relive the excitement of some of the great games that took place at the Worldwide Invitational.

The Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2006 in Seoul, Korea has come to an end. The past three days were packed with tournaments, developer panels, opportunities to try out Blizzard's upcoming titles hands-on, and a variety of Blizzard themed events. We hope everyone who was able to attend the event, or follow it on the audio and video streams, enjoyed the show.

After a resounding victory over his teammate Yellow, Kang Min of South Korea, known as "Nal_Ra", won the StarCraft Invitational tournament. Although Yellow put up a great fight, Nal_Ra's persistance and quick play skills was able to prevail over the BlizzCon champion's experience. Replays and tournament reports are available on this site.

Araxas on February 4, 2006

Nal_ra has defeated Yellow to become the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational StarCraft Grand Champion.
Yellow has defeated Reach and now advances to round 3 where he'll face Nal_ra.
Nal_ra has defeated Nada and now advances to round 3 where he'll face the winner of Yellow and Reach.
Yellow has defeated PJ and now advances to round 2 where he'll face Reach.
Reach has defeated SEn and now advances to round 2 where he'll face the winner of Yellow and PJ.
Nal_ra has defeated FishEye by a score of 2-1. He now advances to round 2 where he'll face Nada.
Nada has defeated Eriador by a score of 2-0. He now advances to round 2 where he'll face the winner of Nal_ra and FishEye.

View the brackets here.

Araxas on February 4, 2006

Coming back from the brink of defeat in the lower tournament bracket, Chun Jung Hee of South Korea, also known as "Sweet," has emerged as the Warcraft III Battle.net Ladder Season Three champion! As the entrant into the finals from the lower bracket, Sweet had to win a seemingly impossible two straight series match-ups. In both matches, Sweet lost each of the first games to his Orc opponent from the Netherlands, Grubby. Being one game away from defeat two times in a row, Sweet managed to come back and take the next two games in each match. With that final win, Ladder Season Three has now officially come to a close. Congratulations Sweet!

In the coming weeks, keep an eye on the Battle.net web site for more information about Season Four. Next up in the schedule of events in Seoul, South Korea at the COEX Exhibition Hall, will be a panel featuring World of Warcraft developers. This will be followed by the StarCraft finals later in the afternoon. For internet audio and video coverage of the final day of the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2006, please check out the Inside the Game live stream.

Araxas on February 4, 2006

The grand finals of the Battle.net Ladder Season Three are underway! Entering the finals from the winner's bracket is the Dutch Orc player Grubby. Coming from the loser's bracket is the hometown favorite Undead player Sweet, who had earlier been knocked to the lower bracket by Grubby. After defeating Showtime in the consolation finals, Sweet is back in contention for the championship, albeit with the disadvantage of having to defeat his opponent in two straight best-of-three matches.

For live audio and video coverage, tune into Inside the Game, and see which of these two contenders will replace two-time Warcraft III Ladder Season winner ReMinD as the new champion.

Sweet has defeated Grubby in the second series of the Grand Finals making Sweet the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2006 Grand Champion!
Sweet has defeated Grubby in the first series of the Grand Finals. Since Sweet is coming from the losers bracket, he must defeat Grubby in another series before he can be crowned champion.
Sweet has defeated ShowTime in the losers brackets and now advances to the finals where he will face Grubby.
Grubby has defeated Sweet and now advances to the finals where he will face the winner of Sweet and Showtime.
ShowTime has defeated FarSeer and now advances to round 4 of the losers bracket where he will face the loser of Grubby and Sweet.
ShowTime has defeated Phreak and now advances to round 3 of the losers bracket where he will face FarSeer.
Grubby has defeated ShowTime and now advances to round 3 where he'll face Sweet.
WizPizSizZiZ vs SouthSea results in a double forfeit so FarSeer automatically advances to round 3 of the losers brackets where he'll face the winner of Phreak and ShowTime.
Phreak has defeated RotterdaM in the losers bracket and now advances to round 2 of the losers bracket.
Sweet has defeated Farseer and now advances to round 2 where he'll face the winner of ShowTime and SouthSea.
Showtime has defeated SouthSea and now advances to round 2 where he'll face Grubby.
FarSeer has defeated RotterdaM and now advances to round 2 where he'll face Sweet.
Grubby has defeated WizPizSizZiZ and now advances to round 2 where he'll face the winner of ShowTime and SouthSea.
Sweet has defeated Phreak and now advances to round 2 where he'll face the winner of FarSeer and RotterdaM.

View the brackets here.

Three matches remain in today's action on the Worldwide Invitational 2006 main stage. First off will be the second semi-finals in the StarCraft Invitational featuring KTF teammates Yellow and Reach, who met in the finals at BlizzCon. Yellow emerged the victor there, though Reach will be out looking for a better result and a place in the finals against the Protoss player Nal_Ra.

The evening will conclude with two Warcraft III matches. First will be the upper bracket finals between Grubby and Sweet. They advanced by defeating ShowTime and Farseer in broadcasted matches earlier this morning. The winner of this match advances into the grand finals with the advantage of coming from the winner's bracket. The loser will drop into the lower bracket where ShowTime awaits. ShowTime has kept his hopes alive, working his way through the lower bracket. In the process he defeated Phreak and Farseer, ending both those players' ambitions of appearing in the finals.

Click here for current brackets and match replays. To watch and listen live to these exciting matches, tune into Into the Game's live coverage of the event.

Sunday will be the grand finale of the Worldwide Invitational 2006. The grand finals in both the Warcraft III Ladder Season 3 finals and the StarCraft Invitational will featured on the main stage, followed by a celebration and award ceremony bringing this year's festivities to a close.

The second day of Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational 2006 in Seoul, Korea is now underway.

Yesterday, the opening ceremonies featured a performance by Korean pop bands including Jewelry, a speech by vice president Frank Pearce, and the introduction of the 16 gamers from across the globe who will be competing in the Warcraft III and StarCraft tournaments at the event. Throughout the day, the opening rounds of the StarCraft and Warcraft III tournaments took place, neither set of matches yielding a big upset as all the higher seeded players advanced to the semifinals.

The first match of today began with the Warcraft III game featuring the Undead player Sweet and the Orc player Farseer. Sweet emerged from the match with a convincing 2-0 win and advances to the winner's bracket. He will face the winner of the Grubby vs. ShowTime match, which is about to begin. To watch and listen to this exciting match, tune into Into the Game's live coverage of the event.

An second batch of photos from WWI 2006 have been posted in the Worldwide Invitational media section. Check them out here.

Today has seen the Korean StarCraft players dominating the Worldwide Invitational tournament. The top seeds won each match as Nada, Nal_Ra, Yellow, and Reach advance to the second round which will take place tomorrow. The first round of the Ladder Season Three tournament is also underway, with Grubby, ShowTime, Farseer and Sweet into the next round of the winner's bracket.

StarCraft and Warcraft III Replays have been posted on the Worldwide Invitational 2006 webpage. Check the brackets page to grab induvidual match replays or download all the available StarCraft replays and Warcraft III replays.

An intial batch of photos from WWI 2006 have been posted in the media section. Check them out here.

The first match of the Worldwide Invitational 2006 StarCraft tournament is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. KST. The Norwegian player, Eriador, will take on the tournament's top seed Nada. Nada is an extremely strong player with a long history of success in the Korean professional leagues. Eriador on the other hand, is considered to be the underdog in the match-up. He'll be looking to use his creativity as a random player to develop unexpected strategies to surprise Nada for an upset. Watch the WWI Tournament bracket page for updates as the games are completed.

Nick "Tasteless" Plott will be broadcasting the StarCraft match on "Inside The Game's" live broadcast stream. Later in the day, Kim "bunny" Phan will cover the Warcraft III Ladder Season Three Tournament Finals.

The Blizzard Worldwide Invitational is about to kick off at the COEX Convention Center in Seoul, Korea. The coming three days will feature hands-on demonstrations of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and StarCraft: Ghost. The finals of the Battle.net Ladder Season Three tournament and an invitational tournament featuring some of the world's best players will begin later in the afternoon.

Inside The Game will be covering the event live, including the opening ceremony which takes place at 12:30pm KST. The live audio and video stream can be found here.

The Worldwide Invitational 2006 mini-site has just been launched. The mini-site includes daily news updates, replays, results, and interviews covering everything that will occur before and during the event.

We've also announced the seedings and bracket structure for both the Ladder Season 3 finals, as well as the StarCraft Invitational tournament.

The Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2006 is right around the corner. Once the Worldwide Invitational kicks off, a mini-site will be made available to provide ongoing coverage of the StarCraft and Warcraft III matches.

The Warcraft III Season Three Finals roster has also been updated. Due to the fact that Xyligan and Karin-Answer will not be able to attend the Invitational, Northrend's third-place finisher RotterdaM and Lordaeon's third-place finisher WizPizSizZiZ will be taking their places in Korea.

Keep checking back for updates on the Worldwide Invitational 2006 mini-site for bracket updates, webcasts, and news about the show!

Blizzard is proud to announce that our second Worldwide Invitational will be held next month in Seoul, Korea on February 3-5. The Worldwide Invitational will be home to an invite-only StarCraft tournament as well as the Warcraft III Season Three Finals.

The StarCraft invitational players will be announced in the days leading up to the event. Season Three of the Warcraft III ladder ended in December and the finalists from the season-ending qualifiers will be playing in the Season Three Finals. Click here for more information.

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