Blizzard has announced the Warcraft III invitational and the release of the patch 1.29 on the Public Test Realm which introduces widescreen support and 24-player limit.

　　Rumors around a Warcraft III meeting surfaced last week when several top Warcraft III competitors around the world shared to be invited by Blizzard for a special event. These rumors have proven true as Blizzard has now announced the first very Warcraft III invitational which will take place next week on February 27th and 28th. You can read Blizzard’s official post on the matter below:

　　Over 15 years since the release of Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III has a new major patch coming and your favorite players are throwing the first Warcraft III Invitational to celebrate it!

　　Hosted by casters Neo and Remo of Back2Warcraft, join us on February 27 and February 28 on Twitch for a slew of special events, including Free-for-All, 4v4’s, and other friendly competitions. Well-known Warcraft III competitors from around the world will be getting together live at Blizzard HQ to showcase their talents in friendly competition!

　　We love and continue to support our Warcraft III community, and we’re excited to see classic competitors like Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen, Park “Lyn” Joon, and Kim “ReMinD” Sung Sik try out all the new PTR changes for themselves—including balance adjustments to many heroes, widescreen support, and more – all playable now on the PTR!

　　Be sure to tune in for your own sneak peek and check out our PTR patch notes for more information.

　　Attendees

　　Neo [Observer] Germany

　　Remo [Observer] Germany

　　Happy [Undead] Russia

　　Foggy [Night Elf] Ukraine

　　HawK

　　[Human] Russia

　　Effect [Human] Sweden

　　ReMinD [Night Elf] South Korea

　　Lyn [Orc] South Korea

　　FoCuS [Orc] South Korea

　　LawLiet [Night Elf] South Korea

　　Grubby [Orc]

　　Netherlands

　　MaDFroG [Undead] Sweden

　　Insomnia [Human] Bulgaria

　　Tak3r [Orc] Germany

　　As said, Blizzard has also announced the release of Warcraft patch 1.29 on the PTR which offers numerous improvements, including widescreen support and a 24-player limit. Balance changes are included as well.

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　　Interesting to note is that it seems that a valid key from Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne are required to play on the PTR and that the patch notes mention that this will be the last version to support Windows XP. This might imply that Blizzard intends to make more radical changes to the game in the future.

　　We’ve included the full patch notes down below:

　　Windows

　　https://battle.net/download/getInstallerForGame?os=win&locale=enUS&version=PTR&gameProgram=WARCRAFT_3

　　Mac

　　https://battle.net/download/getInstallerForGame?os=mac&locale=enUS&version=PTR&gameProgram=WARCRAFT_3

　　Specific Changes & Improvements

　　Widescreen Support

　　Added bookends to the in-game interface

　　Added black pillars in menus to prevent stretching

　　24 Player Support

　　Game lobbies revised to support 24 players

　　Team colors revised and expanded

　　Color selection is an ongoing effort, feel free to leave specific suggestions with color codes

　　Balance & Map Pools

　　Head here for details and focused discussion: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/bnet/topic/20762006793#1

　　World Editor Upgrades

　　Head here for details and focused discussion: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/bnet/topic/20761976724#1

　　Bug Fixes

　　Clans may now be created

　　Mac clients launch on 10.11 and beyond

　　Known Issues

　　Unable to change resolutions in native fullscreen

　　PTR only supports English version of the client

　　This will be the last version to support Windows XP

　　Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was released back in 2002. Its expansion, The Frozen Throne, was released in 2003.