Every StarCraft II fan is waiting for the second beta phase to begin. What to do now? What about sleeping more than six hours a day? What about reading a book?

First of all I try to work on my timings and build orders using Yet Another Build Order Tester (YABOT). This mod includes most standard StarCraft II maps and allows you to keep track of your build order, as well as the total match time passed. The AI will occasionally send attack waves to you, ensuring you don’t try any utopian tech BOs. You just have to put the maps into your Documents\StarCraft II Beta\Maps folder and then drag & drop them onto your StarCraft II desktop icon.

Second, I watch interesting replays of the first beta phase, grabbing most of them from my favorite replays site replayers.com. Again, just put them into your Documents\StarCraft II Beta\Replays\Multiplayer folder and drag & drop will cause StarCraft II to load them.

If you are interested in a more detailed analysis of your or other replays, try SC2Gears. This little tool does not need to be installed and culls all interesting information off your replays, such as APM graphs, build orders or in-game chat.

Hope you are not too bored anymore now

d1sReGard

…too bad, that there’s still no possibility of viewing the new Battle.net profiles in a browser. Hope Blizzard will change their mind soon, and Gibybo will not have to fill the rankings manually into starcraftrankings.com any longer…

Let’s see how much experience I can collect until the first Beta shutdown, which fourtenately has been postponed to June 7. After that I will spend more time on my strategy guide again!

The first phase of the StarCraft II beta test will end on Monday, May 31. We’ll have to wait for some weeks for Blizzard Entertainment to change some hardware and software configurations. Currently the second beta phase is scheduled to start a couple of weeks before the game’s launch.

We’ll see which effect this will have on leagues and tournaments like the ESL G04SC2 and the SC2CL, which will have to rearrange their schedules and deadlines now.

A recent press release by Blizzard Entertainment revealed the official release date of StarCraft 2: The real-time strategy game will hit the stores on July 27.

Additionally, pre-ordering StarCraft 2 at amazon.de or similar stores will get you access to the closed beta of StarCraft 2! This offer will expire on May 16, don’t miss it!