W3C Season 19 - Rastakhan
- Gustav Andersson
- Kageman
- David Kan (Unlicensed)
New UI theme - Rastakhan
In the dense jungles of Stranglethorn Vale, the trolls of Azeroth found a leader in Rastakhan, the mighty King of the Zandalari trolls. His ambition to dominate Azeroth brought him into conflict with Sylvanas Windrunner, the Dark Ranger, who had spread fear and destruction across the land. With the spirits of his ancestors guiding him, Rastakhan rallied his troll warriors, shamans, and beastmasters for a decisive confrontation. In the twilight hours beneath the jungle canopy, the trolls' fierce battle cries clashed with the eerie silence of the dark rangers. Rastakhan, wielding his Loa-infused staff, summoned spectral beasts to tear through the undead ranks while Sylvanas commanded her forces with cold precision.
In a climactic duel, Rastakhan faced Sylvanas, their powers clashing in a whirlwind of dark arrows and divine magic. Rastakhan's connection to the Loa proved stronger, and with a final, devastating strike, he shattered Sylvanas' bow, forcing her to retreat. With Sylvanas defeated and her forces in disarray, Rastakhan and the trolls emerged victorious. The jungles echoed with triumphant roars as the trolls celebrated their newfound dominance. This victory marked the rise of the trolls and their orc allies, united under Rastakhan's banner. With their ancestors' wisdom and their king's indomitable will, they set their sights on uniting all of Azeroth under their rule.
Rankings reset and ladder changes
Season 19 will see an introduction of a new Custom Game ladder - Direct Strike is coming to W3Champions!
Our friends over at Team OZE (creators of Legion TD) have taken over the Direct Strike project in the beginning of this year, and their first huge release of the map - version 4.0, will now be available on the platform.
Direct Strike is a 3v3 gamemode where players' units clash in waves fighting to destroy the opponent's base. It will test your ability to strategise your unit choices and placement, resource management, and ability to counter your opponents' compositions.
As usual, we will see some resets on the other ladders:
There will be a 100% MMR Reset for FFA.
There will be a 25% MMR Reset for Legion TD 1v1 and Legion TD 4v4 RT and 100% for Legion TD 4v4 AT, the last of which makes a return after being disabled amid last season. To ensure fair AT MMR, players will now be required to play at least 25 games of Legion TD on the 4v4 RT ladder before they can queue together with a group of 3 friends.
There will be a 100% MMR Reset for Survival Chaos.
There will be a 100% MMR Reset for PTR 1v1.
Rankings and RP will be fully reset in all modes so the leaderboards will look fresh after the reset. Remember, activity is rewarded more at the start of the season!
Season end tournament
Current Schedule:
Saturday, July TBD: 1v1 Round of 16 + Round of 8 + 2v2 Semifinal
Sunday, July TBD: 1v1 Round of 16 + Round of 8 + 2v2 Semifinal + FFA
Friday, July TBD: 1v1 Round of 16 + Round of 8
Saturday, July TBD: 1v1 Round of 16 + Round of 8 + FFA Grand final
Sunday, July TBD: 1v1 Semifinals, 1v1 & 2v2 Grand Finals
Matcherino: https://matcherino.com/t/w3cs18finals
More servers
We have deployed a number of new servers around the world to improve ping conditions.
During Season 18 we deployed servers in the following locations:
Stockholm, Sweden
Los Angeles, USA
Dallas, USA
Novosibirsk, Russia
We will continue deploying more servers in select locations to provide the best possible latency for all players.
Map pool changes
1vs1
Total maps reduced from 14 to 13, number of vetoes unchanged
Removed Rune Maul
Terenas Stand replaced with Lost Temple
4vs4
Winterly Magic replaced with Black Forest
Winter Township replaced with Felror Coast
Royal Garden replaced with Blasted Lands
Black ForestFelror CoastBlasted LandsBlasted Lands is a classic Battle Net 4 vs 4 map. A few changes have been made:
Add critters
Fix doodad gaps
Fix wisp trees
Widen a few narrow paths
Add trees near tavern
FFA
Freezing Field replaced with Harvest Of Sorrow
Twisted Grove replaced with Hot Espresso
Vile Reef replaced with Legions Demise
ATR
Removed Tioga Pass, Drake Nostrum, Gloom Stalker, Circumvention and Withering Fields
Added Echo Isles, Twisted Meadows, Terenas Stand, Plunder Isles and Lost Temple
A shoutout to the map makers
A lot of the work you see on the maps that are tirelessly updated every season is thanks to the MMC (Melee Mapping Central) community. You might see names like Tenshi, JaleVeliki, Kaer, Meerel, Mafe, SaveOrcas, rhythmt and more mentioned often but they are all a group of volunteers who love the game as much as we do and have spent a lot of cycles building these maps to be up-to-date for us to play and watch games on. Previously they worked with Blizzard to provide community maps for the BNET ladder. Updating existing maps (like LR, EI, SV, and TM) and improving them is also a significant effort that we want to show them gratitude for. You can always say hello, post suggestions, or join in, on their Discord server:
Build W3Champions together!
W3Champions is looking for .NET, TypeScript, and Rust developers
While we appreciate PR submissions, we are mainly interested in developers that are willing to commit time and take ownership of their projects. We have very little formal hierarchies and our approach is free-for-all. We are always open for a talk if you want to inquire more about how you can help!