W3C Season 16 - Pandaren Empire
Ladder Update
Rankings reset
There will be a 100% MMR Reset for melee FFA.
There will be a 25% MMR Reset in Legion TD 1v1.
There will be a 25% MMR Reset in Legion TD 4v4 RT.
There will be a 25% MMR Reset for Legion TD 4v4 Arranged Teams.
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:
September 02 : 1v1 Round of 16 + Round of 8 + 2v2 Quarterfinals + FFA
September 03: 1v1 Round of 16 + Round of 8 + 2v2 Quarterfinals + FFA
September 08: 1v1 Round of 16 + Round of 8 + 2v2 Semifinal
September 09: 1v1 Round of 16 + Round of 8 + 2v2 Semifinal + FFA
September 10: 1v1 Semifinals, 1v1 & 2v2 Grand Finals
Matcherino: https://matcherino.com/t/w3cs15finals
New UI theme - Pandaren
Dive into the mystic beauty of the Pandaren Empire with our new UI theme. Inspired by the rich lore of Azeroth's most enigmatic inhabitants, this theme captures the tranquil elegance of the Pandaren culture. Ancient symbols of balance and harmony will envelop your interface, evoking the serene landscapes of Pandaria. Whether you're meditating at the Peak of Serenity or brewing a perfect Stormstout ale, this season we hope you find your balance and inner peace.
Progress on the new launcher
In the last few months, a lot of work was put into getting the new launcher to the same level of user experience as the legacy one. In particular we now have:
automatic replay saving, which had been a problem until Ewar showed up and made it happen
all ladder modes are supported, including AT (arranged teams) which works with a friend list system, thanks to Kovax
joining and creating custom games is now fully supported
One of the main benefits of the new launcher is that issues with joinbugs are fixed for the most part. Soon, you’ll also be able to watch FloTV with it, and moving forward it will allow us to implement new features much more easily, and make our tech not be dependent on the sometimes buggy Warcraft 3 Reforged menus anymore.
You can download it here:
Thanks again to everyone else who contributes to this project, in particular air, Cepheid and of course fluxxu.
Revamped moderation system
We have revamped our reporting system. From now on, all reports for ingame melee offenses (1v1, 2v2, 4v4) will have to be filed by using the command !report on our discord server. After you enter the command, the bot will PM you and you will be asked to provide a replay: simply reply to the bot by sending a replay (the name of the replay is irrelevant, you may send LastReplay.w3g ):
You will then be asked to pick the player you wish to report from a list, and provide a detailed description of the reason for your report.
#1v1-2v2-4v4-reports will now only be used for the bot to show reports by users, and decisions by moderators. The identity of reporters will remain hidden in this channel - the identity of the moderators will also remain hidden to users when decisions are announced. We hope this will decrease the level of toxicity against moderators, and between users. Appeals will remain manual and have to be posted in #melee-appeals. If you feel an overwhelming need to discuss decisions, go to #report-comments.
Map pool changes
1v1
Melting Valley replaced with Turtle Rock v1.6. Turtle Rock is returning from season 11 but has been updated since then, see detailed changes below.
Eversong replaced with Ruins of Azshara v2.1. Ruins of Azshara is returning from season 7, with a big rework that might have flown under the radar for many - find all the details below.
Twisted Meadows has NOT been updated. The map versioniong was simply changed to v1.9 to better take into account all previous changes by Blizzard, as reported by Liquipedia.
2v2
Turtle Rock has been updated.
4v4
Gold Rush replaced with Bloodvenom Falls v2.0, the rework of a classic 4v4 Reign of Chaos map.
Indigo Keeper replaced with Dark Beacons, a map where three teammates are clamped together while the fourth one can comfortably claim a whole area to themselves.
Feralas LV replaced with Golems In The Mist LV, returning from season 11.
Mount Hyjal has been updated: several creep camps reworked to make creeping progression smoother and provide more alternatives to all races early on.
FFA
Imaginary Friends replaced with Twisted Grove.
Fallen Esgaroth replaced with Freezing Field.
Tatsas Castle Gardens replaced with Wellspring Temple.
All The Randoms
No map changes.
Turtle Rock has been updated with the following changes:
Added critters (1 at the tavern, 1 between each starting green and orange camp, 1 near each shop, 1 between each two neighboring starting locations).
Removed runes of the watcher and runes of healing.
Removed the possibility to AOW-creep the bottom-left orange camp.
Removed the possibility to build AOWs around the right red camp.
No longer possible to abuse pathing to creep red camps with just a hero and a mechanical critter.
No longer possible to sneak behind murloc orange camps at night time.
Rebalanced starting locations (fairer tree distribution, more space to build structures inside).
Cleared forests across the map to reduce the amount of chokepoints.
Ruins of Azshara has been part of our ladder between seasons 4 and 7, but in fact not everyone is aware that this map has received a massive overhaul for season 6, primarily because of its previous low playrates and the fact that we didn’t use to highlight map versioning in-game back then. Hopefully some of you will decide to give this map a second chance for this new season, and in case you missed it, these are all the relevant changes:
Reduced map size and amount of pathways (more action, easier to scout)
Reduced rush distance (about 8 seconds less, in line with other maps such as CH and LR)
Expansions are closer to enemy bases, but now have better natural defenses
Mercenary camps are now stronger and relocated to be more contestable
Rebalanced some creep camps to improve mid-to-late game progression
Improved all-round AOW-creeping
Greatly improved visual clarity, with much lighter colors
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!