Tips on Running an Effective StarCraft II Tournament

Tips on Running an Effective StarCraft II Tournament

Community-driven tournaments are essential to the health and growth of StarCraft II as an eSport. Follow these steps to make sure that your StarCraft II tournament kicks off flawlessly.

License your event — Obtaining a license to run a StarCraft II event is easy (and free for the vast majority of applicants) and the application only takes a few minutes of your time! Head on over to our Tournament Submission Form to start your licensing process now. Approval time will vary; most events will be approved automatically after your submission, and others will take up to a couple weeks, depending on the complexity and level of licensing required for the event.

Follow the rules — Head over to our Video Policy and StarCraft II EULA pages to find out more about what’s permissible when it comes to broadcasting and running your event.

Help us whitelist your IPs — This is a very important step, especially if you're running a mid-sized or larger tournament. The reason for this is because if Battle.net detects large numbers of StarCraft II players trying to connect from the same IP, the IP range could get temporarily blacklisted, making it impossible for your event’s participants to play. If you’re running an on-site event that will have lots of people connecting at once from a limited range of IPs, send us an email with the subject Whitelist Request and include your event’s information as well as your venue’s IPs. We will only provide whitelists for licensed events.

If you have any questions about running your event, contact us at sc-tourneyinfo-eu@blizzard.com

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Comments (26)

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Revan #682
Revan
05/02/2013
In other words: WE WANT TO CONTROL EVERYTHING !
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Marrow #931
Marrow
05/02/2013
why not just join the DSCL (european tournament) on dscl.nl. Hosted by Frank van Caspel a.o.
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IceColibry #174
IceColibry
03/03/2012
And how about you add a tournament-style mode in your game, like in Warcraft 3 ?
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Yogi #164
Yogi
02/03/2012
Can we have the clan functionality back from WC3 ?
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Dune #784
Dune
05/02/2013
@Yogi: Already in HOTS!
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Theunknow #977
Theunknow
01/03/2012
get back the lan and we will be happy
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ObsidiaN #554
ObsidiaN
26/02/2012
Here is another tip for Blizz:

get a better b.net :P With clan support, LAN, and all the functions that will make DOTA 2 a nemesis for other e-sport games :)
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Jeffrey #986
Jeffrey
21/02/2012
Why no CLANS?!
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CaNeRaT #847
CaNeRaT
11/02/2012
so does this mean that i will have to apply for a licence if i want to host a small competition/tourney with no prizes other than bragging rights, with a few, say 8-16 members online (not at a lan venue) via the custom game mode????
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Grovbolle #219
Grovbolle
05/02/2013
@CaNeRaT: no
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It's a good thing that we have a Video Policy page now. If you want to become a YouTube partner you kind of have to provide a link where blizzard says it's ok to do game commentaries.
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MrTortoise #910
MrTortoise
02/02/2012
You shuold be ashamed of yourselves at exerting so much control over what small lan parties for 20-30 people can do.
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Horcon #984
Horcon
01/02/2012
heh, making it hard to make tournaments for people? well, i hoped for some serious help on how to run an effective tournament, NOT that paperwork that is just stupid and time-consuming. And that blacklist thing, why is it there in the 1st place?
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@Horcon: Blacklisting is there to stop the DDoS attacks.
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OldEnt #728
OldEnt
01/02/2012
When I saw the title I thought Blue people were giving tournament know-how but it's mostly just a remainder of things which every tournament host should know by now. Good to know about IP blockade. BTW me and my NA co-host jzerg are going to host the biggest StarCraft II custom map tournament so far: http://starbattlewiki.uk.to/wiki/World_Star_Battle_Tournament_1 It will be the 10th tournament and the 11th organized event overall (including Grand Masters of Star Battle) in the history of Star Battle, excluding the WildFire Star Battle League. About 200 players and 22 teams participated in last Star Battle Tournament on NA Battle.net. We expect at least 400 players in upcoming WSBT1 scheduled on March 3th-4th. Is there any chance of being mentioned in official Blizzard post? Damn it, this tournament is going to be bigger than most "official", "sponsored" and "pro" tournaments!
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jhawƙ #284
jhawƙ
01/02/2012
Why are you forcing all this legal bureaucracy down our throats, Blizzard?

It's like you're trying to control what people do with a game they have already payed for.

Just relax a bit and your company's popularity will take care of itself.
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Rebound #217
Rebound
31/01/2012
Interesting
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KiFirE #972
KiFirE
31/01/2012
So will this mean that when i go to the next MLG or IPL, Blizzard will still blacklist the event?

And what if its not a tournament, just a big get together? Will those still be forever banned by blizzard...
@KiFirE: If you receive a license to run a tournament, you can send us the list, so we can prevent this from happening. We don't blacklist IPs, it is done automatically. If you expect a lot of people, you plan ahead and use the solution we are providing here, to avoid it.
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flighterbear #596
flighterbear
09/02/2012
@Kapeselus: "lot of people" mean more than 10? or what? KiFirE is right, what if i have 2 or 3 of my friends come over?
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Darklight #106
Darklight
22/02/2012
@flighterbear: I don't think 2 or 3 friends is what is meant by "an official tournament"
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luuk #230
luuk
31/01/2012
thats it? you couldve also posted a link to your ToS and legal policy ...
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Gilthans #674
Gilthans
31/01/2012
I was sort of looking for practical tips on what you should do, set up, and stuff like that, not just a legal cover-up to make sure what you do is OK with blizz...
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TORAK #214
TORAK
31/01/2012
nice
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Brucie #853
Brucie
31/01/2012
I Applied for a license TWICE last year and to this day I still not got a reply.
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Brada #791
Brada
31/01/2012
tnx for info i was looking for this