[4] This led to high expectations for the sequel's success as an esport, but also a conflict between KeSPA and Blizzard Entertainment, sparking a three-year long legal battle between them.
[8] The success of both viewership and sponsorship of these early events cemented high expectations for professional play of the title going into its July 2010 release.
Following its launch, StarCraft II quickly turned into a successful esport, becoming the main feature of many leagues and circuits of ongoing tournaments with some of the largest prize pools in professional gaming.
[15] Blizzard and GOMTV signed an agreement on 26 May 2010, allowing the latter to create and broadcast the GSL starting with a series of three open tournaments, each with a US$170,000 prize pool, in South Korea.
[5] The non-profit public interest group Public Knowledge made the following statement regarding the issue: "The Battle.net Terms of Use state that it is a violation of the agreement—and an infringement of Blizzard's copyright in the underlying game—to "use the Service for any 'e-sports' or group competition sponsored, promoted or facilitated by any commercial or non-profit entity without Blizzard's prior written consent.
Throughout the following years the GSL was joined by the StarCraft II StarLeague (SSL), while Proleague folded following its first and only Legacy of the Void season in 2016 following a matchfixing scandal that saw one of the game's most successful players, Lee "Life" Seung-Hyun, permanently banned from competing.
[1] In late 2017 the StarCraft II Warchest was introduced, featuring cosmetic rewards and an unlocking system to accompany them.
This included the Wings of Liberty campaign, full Legacy of the Void multiplayer and co-op access, and the custom games section called the Arcade, for everyone.
StarCraft II also saw growth and recognition as an international competitive sport, as it was featured at an exhibition tournament prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics at the Intel-sponsored IEM PyeongChang, which was won by Canada's Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn, and the game was also featured as part of the 2018 Asian Games esports exhibition, an event won by South Korea's Cho "Maru" Seong-ju.
[23] Since 2020, Blizzard partnered with esports organizers ESL and DreamHack for a period of three years, where tournament qualification format would change to weekly cups, and the global finals would no longer be held at BlizzCon, rather the Intel Extreme Masters event would serve that purpose.
[25] Starcraft II has been part of the electronic sports event at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games since 2013.