The 1v1 map pool is regularly discussed and dissected, but we all-too-rarely hear from the most imporant people in the process, the map makers themselves! Today we sat down with Tenshi, the creator of Autumn Leaves, on how he designed the map from scratch, and in particular the recent changes he made for v1.5.

Last week, W3Champions released a new matchmaking system that affected all modes, but in particular team games! Today members of the data science team,  Toxi and Helpstone would like to share some information on what was changed, and how it should improve matchmaking in future. For those who like to know about the nuts and bolts of how this platform works, you've come to the right place.

The end of Season 2 of W3Champions has come, and with it the end of season tournaments, inviting the season's top finishers into an 8-man bracket. It's been a competitive season, and we have much to look forward to with these end of season tournaments, which are to be played over the weekend of September 4th - 6th. 

Here's the How To Basic guide for the final race, Orc. So if you want to learn how to channel your inner brute and crush your opponent with raw, untamed power, make sure to read this article!

The various patches of 1.30 have brought about a number of changes. For Orc, one of the most prominent changes is that the Farseer has become a more common choice. However, new players still wonder, which hero to pick first… Farseer or Blademaster?

Today we’ll take a look at what prompts Orc players to choose one or the other.

Recently here at Warcraft3.info, we have been hard at work downloading a huge amount of data from the Battle.net website. We took data from ~120,000 games. Just over 76,500 of those games were 1v1. Today we bring you the first part in a series of articles diving deep into these games to see if we can spot any patterns or get any useful information. Today: Winrates!

One versus one, or ‘Solo’, accounts for the biggest share of Warcraft 3 games played online, and with few exceptions they dominate tournament prize pools. Yet, when you discuss Warcraft 3 with a casual player, especially those who played a lot during the golden years of Warcraft 3, often their defining memories are team games and custom maps. Today we’ll be looking at the team-modes in a competitive context and how 1v1 came to dominate professional play.

The HIVE workshop's 4v4 mapping contest has closed submissions and opened voting, so be sure to head over there after you've checked out the entries and cast your vote.

Let's take a brief look at the entries, and don't forget, you can download and try any of these maps right now!

PLEASE NOTE: This article was written before Reforged. How replays are stored and loaded has changed with the 1.32 Reforged release, this article does not apply to those game versions, however it will still work for old versions of the game if you wish to watch old patch replays.

Warcraft III replays are a beautiful thing. Entertainment, teaching, and record keeping all for a few hundred kilobytes. However they can be awkward to get at - you have to save the replay, put it into a folder (which they moved a few patches ago to deal with modern Windows permissions!), boot up Warcraft, select Singleplayer, View Replay, find the file, open it.

How tedious, if only you could double click the replay and it would open instantly... 

... Wait, you CAN do that?!

Sure, just follow this quick guide below for Windows machines:

Competitive gaming has been around as long as games themselves, from the arcades of the 80s through to the staggering prize pools of Dota 2’s The International (which seems to have settled around $25m this year!), however it was really the late 90s when things started to pick up for PC gaming in particular. Internet access becoming widespread and games transitioning into 3D. Times were changing. We now have around 20 years of data on what makes a game a good candidate for being a top spectator esport. Today I’d like to make the case that Warcraft III: Reforged is looking like a strong esport contender for 2019.