The first DreamHack StarCraft event in the United States came close to hosting a miracle as America's Alex "Neeb" Sunderhaft fought his way into a close final series against Korea's Shin "Hydra" Dong Won.

Complaints about balance has been an ongoing theme throughout the course of StarCraft 2's development, and an element of that has always resulted in some hostility towards the developers and David Kim in particular.

This isn't new. It's been happening for years, but the StarCraft team and Kim have managed to be largely resilient to the consistent stream of attacks on forums and social media over the years. But the comments over the last week have started to really get to the team.

It's a known fact that in any competitive online game, if you win a match you're going to be called a hacker at some point. It's a crutch for some, shifting the burden of the loss off of them. It wasn't their fault, after all: the playing field wasn't level.

But most accusations of hacking are unfounded rage. And when you consistently get called a hacker, this might be one of the best ways to respond.

In contrast to Mark, the difficulty I had with this was keeping games that weren't released in 2015 off the list. I did a lot of exploring in 2015, and participating in a fortnightly game challenge also meant I was working through my back catalogue more than I ordinarily would have been.

But that's not to say that there weren't plenty of new releases worth paying attention to. If anything, 2015 has probably been the best year for releases since the launch of the new consoles. So without further delay, here's my unordered selection of what I thoroughly enjoyed from the last 12 months.

It was one of the most heartbreaking experiences. After investing years mucking around on the Aus-1 server for Brood War and years grinding my way up the South East Asian, Korean and North American ladders in Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm killed StarCraft 2 for me.

I simply couldn't play. The physical stress was already a substantial burden. But it was more than that. The game had ceased to be fun. The campaign was less of a joyride too. And the many problems that existed with Wings of Liberty were still present.

But Legacy of the Void has corrected many of those. I'm enjoying myself again. I'm looking forward to matches again, and I'm not the only one.

Today in Sweden, the organisation DreamHack hosted the first professional tournament for the recently released StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, and it led to some genuinely fantastic games. Who says StarCraft II is dead? Nobody, anymore. Probably.

How to review a game like StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void? Where do you even start? Do you try to figure out how it fits into today's landscape of competitive multiplayer games? Do you ask whether it makes for a worthy conclusion to the story that began nearly 17 years ago? Do you just say whether or not it's fun?

If you go back a few years the idea of StarCraft 2 going under the radar would have been unfathomable, but that was the situation we found ourselves in last week when Legacy of the Void decided to inhabit Fallout 4's celestial orbit.

Nevertheless, having had some involvement with the franchise as a wee boy, there was no way I was going to let the conclusion of the story go by unnoticed.

Last night, former StarCraft pro NaDa had the most fitting wedding ceremony you could imagine: at the Legacy of the Void launch party.

In July of 2010, Blizzard released StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty with promises that the next two parts of the trilogy would be out soon. Five and a half years later, "soon" has finally arrived.

As part of Blizzard's plans to continue supporting their flagship RTS, the company has revealed that it will produce and release episodic single-player content as paid DLC.

Being teased is fairly annoying, but at least it's a confirmation that Blizzard are actively looking to change things up.

The Legacy of the Void developers were making a bit of a song and dance about patch 3.0 for all versions of StarCraft, and they weren't kidding -- it's bloody huge.

It probably makes sense when you think about how much money Call of Duty actually makes, although it's probably not what I would have picked for overall community engagement.

The StarCraft community has been debating ways Blizzard could fix the ladder ever since the beginning of the beta for Wings of Liberty. With Legacy of the Void due out on November 10, that talk has ramped up a notch.

Some are even suggesting that Blizzard split the ranked and unranked ladders with separate map pools to help break the ladder anxiety that prevents so many players from playing online StarCraft. But there's a better way.

People have been bitterly divided over Blizzard's proposed changes to the way macro mechanics work in Legacy of the Void. But in the latest update, Blizzard's David Kim has claimed that the crowd you'd expect to be most opposed to making the game less repetitive -- South Korean professionals -- are actually the most in favour of it.

I’ve lost count of the number of players on my friends list who got addicted to StarCraft 2 -- and then became subsequently intimidated, either by the ladder or the sheer intensity of gameplay. It’s intriguing because there are plenty of other games that offer a similar rush, but I can’t think of any game where there such a degree of anxiety, almost fear, about online multiplayer.

It’s a problem that the Legacy of the Void developers are keenly aware of. Their answer: introducing new modes like Allied Commanders, alternatives to ease fans into the 1a2a3a rhythm without triggering the apprehension that ladder play often brings.

The second expansion pack for StarCraft II will officially launch on November 10, Blizzard revealed today during the World Championship Series season three finals live on Twitch.

For a long time now, StarCraft II players have been asking Blizzard for variety in competitive multiplayer. Traditional ladder matches are fun and all, but they can get a little repetitive -- especially when you're addicted to StarCraft and play like four hours a day.