StarCraft II is the longest running eSport we’ve seen to date. A sequel to the 1998 original game, which is considered to be the definitive origin of eSports as we know it today, StarCraft II was released in 2010 and still remains one of the largest eSports around.
StarCraft II is the longest running eSport we’ve seen to date. A sequel to the 1998 original game, which is considered to be the definitive origin of eSports as we know it today, StarCraft II was released in 2010.
Despite the rise of games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and Fortnite, StarCraft II still remains one of the hottest eSports titles on the market.
Starcraft II is a real-time-strategy (RTS), science-fiction game that centers around three different species embroiled in an interstellar war hundreds of years in the future.
Players can choose between playing as the Terrans, which are humans from Earth and who afford players an adaptable play style; the Zergs, an insectoid, hive-mind species who specialise in overwhelming enemy forces with multitudinous waves of cannon fodder; and the Protoss, an advanced race of technophilic psionics who attack in much smaller numbers and thus require more micromanagement from the player.
The Terrans typically have low DPS (damage per second), but great defense and mobility on the field. The Protoss units have very high production costs, but balance this out by producing extremely high DPS units who can take a number of hits before going down. The Zerg units are low cost and quick to produce, though have very low DPS and can be taken out easily by enemy units. Different players gravitate towards the different play styles that are possible for each of these races.
The main objective of a Starcraft II match is to destroy your enemy’s base/s. In order to do this, players need to protect their own base from destruction, construct several buildings, gather resources, spawn, train, and upgrade troops and vehicles, and find where the enemy base is on the map.
These are all standard mechanics of the real-time-strategy genre, which was at the height of its popularity in the early to mid 2000s, with games like Warcraft III and Red Alert 2 dominating PC gaming sales charts and review boards. The most important aspects of the genre are speed and strategy. If a player walks into a match without a strategy and at least one back-up plan, things are more than likely to go south. If a player has an amazing strategy, but takes too long to implement it, they’re likely to be caught unprepared and promptly defeated.
StarCraft II was released in 2010, and the visuals are pretty indicative of that. This isn’t to say that the game looks bad in any way, it just doesn’t include some of the fancier graphical touches that AAA titles from 2018 and 2019 give us.
Each race is typified by its signature colors, with Zergs sporting red accents, Protoss Blue, and Terrans yellow, so it’s easy to distinguish between units even in massive clashes between dozens of troops.
StarCraft II can be a pretty thrilling game to spectate, but the action only really starts to heat up during the endgame. The initial stages of a StarCraft II round tend to be focused on players accumulating resources and growing their bases.
There are over 50 official maps, each set in the territory of one of the three playable races. Players do, on average, tend to do a little better in maps that correspond with their race, however the difference in performance is negligible when talking about professional league players.
Tournaments and pro-events use a limited number of maps, and tend to publicise their map pool months in advance, so both players, spectators, and bettors can do their research well in advance.
Evan ‘Winter’ Ballnik is a StarCraft II streamer who, by and large, is mostly uninvolved in competitive play. He isn’t a member of a team, and he doesn’t compete in major league or premiere tournaments, but his Twitch channel is the #1 English Twitch channel ran by an individual, and his personality and commentary on his streams seem to be the key to his success.
Choi ‘Polt’ Seong Hun is a retired pro player who played Starcraft ever since 2010, and played in a number of pro teams. He’s a highly decorated streamer who holds a number of first place premier tournament wins. Polt is the only player in the history of StarCraft II to have won at least one premier tournament each year for six consecutive years. He retired from competitive play in 2016, and now focuses entirely on his career as a streamer.
Austin ‘Neuro’ Filsinger, who splits his time between streaming StarCraft II and World of Warcraft. He’s a StarCraft II pro who streams, creates content, and coaches for team ROOT Gaming.
Where Starcraft II differs from most other eSports is that pro-tournament matches are by and large 1-vs-1 affairs, so teamwork and cooperation generally aren’t factors in StarCraft II tournament play. The game does, however, support matches of up to 4-vs-4, so make sure to check tournament rules before finalising your betting strategy.
As with all eSports, we recommend that bettors go for live StarCraft II betting over pre-match betting. It’s a lot more exciting to place bets when odds are shifting in response to player actions, and a much more fun experience.
In terms of what kind of bets are available on live StarCraft II, outrights are, of course, a given. Certain operators will provide a number of live StarCraft II betting markets too, and these can take the form of map winners, correct map scores, first to max out a specific type of building’s development, first blood, and many more.
We recommend that bettors try playing a few rounds of the game themselves to help them come up with live StarCraft II betting strategies. The game is free to play, and as it’s been out since 2010, can run on even the lowest specced PCs.
Another tip we have for Super eSport Betting readers is to follow the game’s patches. As with most games nowadays, the game is patched regularly. When it comes to StarCraft II these often take the forms of balancing tweaks. Knowing if a player’s favoured unit type gets nerfed can change up the way you place your bets.
We also recommend spending some time watching a few StarCraft II matches on Twitch before placing any large wagers. The game is complex and multilayered, meaning the more you know about the game and the possible strategies that players might employ, the more likely you are to make the right choices.
In terms of operators, the ones we would recommend for your live StarCraft II betting adventures would be:
Arcanebet, which not only offers live betting, but embeds matches’ live stream feeds into their betting pages, so users can follow along and place bets within the same window. They also cover a wide variety of events, not just Premier Tournaments, meaning you’ll have plenty of live StarCraft II betting opportunities with them.
GG.bet offer their users decent odds, and are one of the only operators to have been created specifically for eSports betting. Like Arcanebet above, they also have embedded live streams built into their site, providing users with the ultimate live StarCraft II betting experience.
Activision-Blizzard, the company behind StarCraft II also publish two other major eSports titles.
Overwatch is a cross between a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) and a first-person-shooter (FPS). It features a cast of 30 heroes, each with their own unique powers, attributes, and abilities, and is one of the hottest eSports titles out there.
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) that has been a huge hit since it came out in 2004, and even all these years later is still one of the most popular games on live streaming sites like Twitch and YouTube. In recent years, World of Warcraft has seen a growing eSports movement sprout around the game’s PvP (player versus player) elements.
Strategic thinkers, science-fiction lovers, and bettors who love to be kept guessing are all well suited for live StarCraft II betting.
The game provides players and spectators alike with a rich lore, multilayered game mechanics, and aesthetics that are easy on the eye. Definitely two thumbs up from Super eSports Betting.