An important factor when it comes to balance and the general flow of a matchup is the map. With heroes and creeps being characteristic to Warcraft 3, another level is added to the complexity of understanding and making maps. Arguably this has also led to a very conservative competitive map pool, with several years between map rotations (latest being Concealed Hill and Northern Isles replacing Ancient Isles and Turtle Rock in 2018).

In this article series I will try to highlight each map individually and see whether any conclusions can be drawn from the data we have, as well as ask competitive players and map makers of their opinion on maps to see if there is a general consensus on these maps - be it positive or negative.

I think few to non would argue against Moon being the hands down most accomplished player in Warcraft 3 history. Having competed on top level since the release of TFT, Moon has shown - and still shows - passion, dedication, and an immense amount of skill. This has lead to him winning several World Championships, achieving the award 'Esports Player of the Year 2008', being listed by The Daily Dot as one of the 10 greatest players in Esports history and now having been inducted into the Esports Hall of Fame.

December 14th is Moon's birthday! The Korean legend is 32 years old today.

His fans already had obvious reasons to celebrate as their idol became, once again, the World's Champion, after his WGL title.

Jang Jae Ho holds a special place in Warcraft 3's history as the greatest of all times. His Chinese fan club decided this year to collect funds to finance a school library in the Fujian province. 

Warcraft 3 has many predecessors that helped sculpting it into the game we love. Games such as Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, Command & Conquer I, The Settlers, and, of course, the games prior in the Warcraft series have all had a vital part in establishing the Real-Time Strategy genre.

I imagine most of us regard mentioned games as revolutionary, or even legendary, but also as mere history - that's at least what I thought. This is why I was very surprised to see that Warcraft II still has a surprisingly thriving community with several hundreds games of multiplayer games being played each day!

4 years ago, Seung-Hyun 'Space' Park passed away. 

A tribute to the Korean player was released as a poem in Korea this month.

The poem is titled "There was one professional Warcraft 3 gamer" and was written by Chan-Ik, ‘Charles’ Hwang.

From this, we looked for another article that was published in the Yeongnam Daily Newspaper on August 29th 2008. This newspaper is read in Daegu city, where Space used to live. It's named "I want to live just until I am 30 years old".

Space passed away at age 25,

and to this day, he is still teaching us a lesson of life.

In the context of an increased will of control from the Chinese authorities over teenagers' video games addictions, the Guangzhou Daily published a long article about the Chinese Warcraft 3 star : TH000.

China was the first country in the world to register Internet addiction as a a clinical disease and has passed laws to control the access to online gaming.

The Guangzhou Daily is the third biggest newspaper in China with 1,85M copies sold every day. The article ended not being an interview but the opinion of the journalist on the subject, which obviously aligns with the Government's one. Aimed to break the dream of the "ideal life" of a pro gamer, it raises important subjects such as the player quality of life, struggle with studies and transition to another career.

TH000 reacted strongly to the article on his weibo and received a lot of support from the scene and his fans.

Beyond the TH000 controversy, I think we can expand this story to a larger general topic of online gaming addiction, renowned gamers and streamers quality of life. This is I believe, what guided the journalist in his writing.

One warning here : I do not pretend to have any answer, I am just gathering some facts inside and outside of the Warcraft community.