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While it was good, ole' Jimmy Raynor who kicked the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign into overdrive, his revolution certainly wouldn't have been as epic if not for the rich and diverse cast of supporting characters at his side.

From the grizzled Tychus Findlay to the fiercely loyal Matt Horner, we're able to learn more about these characters by playing through their missions in the single-player campaign. Each supporting mission storyline is unique and immersive in its own way, but which one did you enjoy playing through the most?

Balance. It's the hot topic, and if you haven't already seen the patch 1.1 situation report we recommend you take a look. For this blog we want to focus some of the discussion that's been ongoing since the sitrep was posted and give you a place to put your thoughts on the changes, specifically as they relate to zerg. Are reapers looking less like death? Will you no longer rage against siege tanks? Will your ultralisk miss bumping its head against buildings?

It's good strategy to use your forces to destroy the most immediate threat to your victory, but that's not what we're here to talk about today. In fact, we're not going to talk about sound strategy at all!  

The Blizzard Entertainment eSports team will consider several discretionary factors when selecting participants for the Invitational. This might include your overall performance on the SEA/ANZ Battle.net, your rank within your home country, and any tournaments you might have won. The invitees won’t necessarily reflect the top 16 ranked players. As the region is very diverse, our plan is to ensure that every country is properly represented by players at a highly competitive skill level.

One question is often asked by the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty community regarding our new leagues and ladder system: “Who are the best players on the ladder?” We have plans to one day have the best players, based on their current rankings, compete against each other. In the meantime, we can pull some internal numbers, do a little math, and come up with a list of the best players in each region. Here are the top 200 players in SEA/ANZ.  We'll update this list approximately every week until it's time to have them compete.

In our previous blog, An Audience with the Golden Crown, you had the opportunity to ask GlaDe, one of SEA/ANZ's top StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty players, your burning questions regarding life, the zerg, and everything.  We'd like to thank GlaDe for graciously taking the time to respond. And now, without further ado...

Greetings, citizens of the Koprulu sector! StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is celebrating its one-month anniversary and we’re extremely excited to witness the amazing community that’s come together around the game. To that end, we want you to know we are hard at work on the first feature and balance patch, and expect to have it completed and available by the middle of September. Patch 1.1 will contain a number of improvements including additional mod features, Editor improvements and bug fixes, some custom game improvements, support for NVIDIA’s 3D Vision, and more. We'd also like to share some specific plans for this patch with you.

There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty multiplayer matches. At first it seems deceptively simple: collect resources, build an army, fight. Dig a little deeper, and you'll find that it’s more than just deciding on the correct build order. It’s about making your resources work for you and putting time on your side. Buildings and units have different costs, whether in minerals, vespene gas, supply, or a combination of all three. Factor in the time they take to build and things get complicated. Managing your resources is crucial to being able to build the units you need as you need them and failing to use them efficiently (or at all) can mean defeat.

For our discussion topic today, we want to ask: how do you manage your resources in multiplayer matches?

There’s something to be said for facing an opponent who isn’t directed by a string of 0s and 1s. Human competition can drive you to step up your game and take it to the next level. For some, there's the exhilarating rush of knowing that a single misstep or well-executed maneuver can mean the difference between bitter defeat or thrilling victory. For others, head-to-head conflict with a living opponent can be a nerve-wracking journey into self-discovery.

For those who are experienced in multi-player competition, what advice would you give to players still trying to find joy in the face of no-holds-barred battle? How do you find your sense of calm within the storm?

The StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty single-player campaign can be experienced in many different ways, and we've seen a number of players discussing the choices one can make when progressing from mission to mission.  

Among these choices is the level of difficulty on which a mission can be completed. Depending on the selected difficulty, objectives can become harder or easier and mission rewards can range from the standard spendable credits all the way up to epic profile portraits.

In the end, there is no right or wrong difficulty setting; it's entirely up to one's own personal preference and play style. With so many possibilities available to our players, though, we're wondering: what's the hardest difficulty on which you've completed the single-player campaign?

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty offers more than just head-to-head competitive play and the ability to play online with friends; it presents the continuing evolution of the StarCraft storyline through its epic single-player campaign. Understanding how it all began can mean the difference between simply running through the various missions and experiencing the story on a much deeper level.