Well, at least I now know why all the Blizzard staff had such cheeky looks on their faces at Federation Square whenever someone brought up PAX East. We figured it wasn’t going to be Blizzard All-Stars, since everyone was happy to talk about that.

People look at Blizzard and see this rich, vibrant history of deep, long-lasting PC games. They look at games that changed the industry, games that created careers for gamers. Then they see a card game and go “what the hell is this Blizzard can you go back and make an actual game already”.

What elitist rubbish.

Perhaps the most telling observation one can make about Heart of the Swarm is that, despite it being their expansion, Zerg players are the least happy about the changes.

They’re not despondent; they’re just not cheering from the aisles. It’s particularly noticeable in Australia, whose competitive scene has been characterised with an unhealthy degree of Zerg commanders for the last two years. Most of our tournaments were strictly all-Zerg affairs: Jared “PiG” Krensel, for instance, won the Australian leg of the Blizzard World Championship Series purely thanks to his prowess in the Zerg vs Zerg mirror.

Changing the status quo, obviously, can only be a good thing. But it’s not as if the race is at a distinct disadvantage across the board, as Andrew “mOOnGlaDe” Pender showcased at the HotS launch in Federation Square. It’s just that the collective’s knowledge has effectively been reset.

Some companies know how to treat their fans, and they receive a warm reception in kind. At the Heart of the Swarm launch in Melbourne’s Federation Square, Alex Walker witnessed just how close Australians held Blizzard to their chest.

This week, Riot announced that they would be opening a Sydney office and looking for a community manager, and an eSports organiser. Then, writes Alex Walker — the local scene immediately devolved into a frenzy of backstabbing and name calling. If you want to lead a community, maybe you shouldn’t act like a shark when there’s blood in the water.

This was the big one. This was the day where everything was on the table. All the showmatches, all the thousands of dollars bet beforehand was just a warmup to the main event.

You wouldn’t have guessed, watching the cheers, gasps and regular group hugs on the stage (to the annoyance of organisers and any health and safety officers in the crowd) that the final prizes were so small compared to what changed hands earlier in the weekend. Still, it didn’t dull the intensity of the matches or the passion of the spectators one iota. It was almost a kind of pure enjoyment, playing solely for the glory, something evident on the faces of particularly the Melbourne supporters.

As expected, the intensity ramped up significantly at the second day of proceedings at the 11th OzHadou Nationals. The fact that it’s a Road to EVO qualifier, where the top 2 of most games receive seeding points towards the Evolution championships in Las Vegas later this year, helps somewhat.

Mind you, a few thousand dollars changing hands doesn’t hurt either — and more is expected to come out tonight.

For those who have never attended a national championships for fighting games, let me offer you a primer: casual is not casual in the slightest.

The OzHadou nationals, the 11th iteration of which is being held at 99 on York’s Red Room in Sydney, always earmarks the first day for two things: registration and “casual” play.

But a cursory glance around the room proves that what’s really going on is far from casual.

Alex Walker jumps into his car — or is that a plane, or a hovercraft? — and zooms off to take a look at Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, SEGA’s all-in-one mascot racer which may have a stupid name, but turns out to be quite a bit of fun.

There’s an awful lot of action in the world of eSports, so Alex Walker sits down and takes us through it all. Read on for your guide to all the eSports action from around Australia, from local LANs to international qualifiers.

The wonderful advantage of Blizzard’s methodical approach towards their eSports baby, StarCraft 2, is that it never stays the same. Take the Heart of the Swarm beta, for example. To the uninformed the game would look essentially identical, but the quantity and subtlety of some changes have made the expansion to the real-time strategy beast a completely different kettle of fish to the game which first what went live late last year.

Some units have been removed completely; others have been substantially reworked, and some haven’t changed a bit. Old strategies have been dusted off and revamped for a new age, and brand new ones are being invented every day.

To get the best picture of just where things stand before Heart of the Swarm launches next month, I rounded up some people for whom the game matters the most.

Jackson Gray, head of the Sydney Gamers League, has passed away at the age of 20.

The iconic gamer helped organise and administer the Australian leg of the World Cyber Games over the last few years. Under his direction, the Sydney Gamers League was revived as one of the most enjoyable bring-your-own-computer LAN events in Australia and New Zealand.

Their last event, the LAN of Thrones, was held almost exactly a year ago at the Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Western Sydney. Over 500 seats were available for 28 hours of gaming that also hosted the Game Jam 48-hour developer challenge.

Friends and colleagues of Gray have begun posting tributes to the 20-year-old.

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Throughout the course of the year, Australia has a lot of wide and varied tournaments serving gamers’ competitive needs. But none are as competitive or as fierce as those held by the fighting game community, which enjoyed a stellar 2012 by having some of the biggest and most unique events seen in the country.

The first nationals for the year, OZHadou 11, looks set to continue that tradition, having been selected as an official qualifier for the Evolution global fighting game championships at the Paris Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, in July.

I spoke to some of Australia’s most talented fighters ahead of the event and asked them what their expectations were, who to keep an eye on as potential darkhorses, what Australia’s chances at the world finals in Las Vegas were — and just exactly why they love fighting games so much.