On Sunday the 5th of September at 7.30pm CET we see the kick off of the Beta Championship, The first Sunday cup being the SteelSeries beta Cup!

The SteelSeries cup invites the top 8 rated teams from the 3v3 team ladder, Invited teams will go head to head for prize, prestige and a spot in the Championship finals held in October. Qualified teams will be split up into 2 groups. From those 8 teams only 4 will qualify from group play to move onto single elimination playoffs, where eventually one team will be crowned the SteelSeries beta cup Champion!

To watch the tournament head over to http://www.levelupyourgame.net/blc and be ready for some of the best competitive Bloodline Champions arena matches. For those still interested in participating in the SteelSeries cup information and prizes can be found here and Championship rules here

GLHF to all competitors!

Cup Prizes:
1st Place: In-game title “The Steelseries Cup Champion” and qualification to the Beta Championship finals
3x SteelSeries Xai Laser mouse
3x SteelSeries Merc Stealth keyboard
3x SteelSeries 9HD mousepad

2nd Place:
3x SteelSeries Siberia v2 headset
3x SteelSeries 4HD mousepad

3rd Place:
3x SteelSeries Kinzu Optical mouse
3x SteelSeries 4HD mousepad

Bloodline Champions at GamesCom 2010!
Bloodline Champions will visit GamesCom 2010! Visitors will get to try out the game on the showfloor. Until now only a select number of beta testers have been allowed to try the game out, and the reactions have been very favorable. The press is also starting to dig into it, with sites such as The Examiner calling it ‘brilliantly simple, fun and quick to play’. Now the 240.000 visitors expected to GamesCom will also get a chance to experience the intense battles of Bloodline Champions, and could possibly also walk away with one of the thousands of beta keys that will be handed out during the show.

Razer events, Live stream and James Harding!
Through a special partnership with Razer, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end gaming products, Bloodline Champions will be available at both the Funcom booth (Hall 9, stand A031) and the Razer booth (Hall 9, stand B031) where players can either take part in competitive games or just try it out for fun. Renowned professional gamer James Harding will be present at both booths to provide live commentary on several of these battles, and those emerging victorious from the competitions will be able to walk away with exclusive prizes such as t-shirts, beta keys and even superior computer peripherals provided by Razer.

Razer will also be live streaming the Bloodline Champions battles as well as their other activities on their website so that even if you are stuck at home you can still take part in the fun!

Extended Beta times during GamesCom 2010!
To allow Beta testers not able to visit GamesCom 2010 to join in, we will extend this beta weekend during GamesCom 2010! The Beta opens on Thursday 19th August at 08:00 UTC. In addition to this we’re also sending out a giant batch of beta keys and friend invites! It’s time to have one IMBA gaming weekend!

Warcraft Movies Competition
We've teamed up with Warcraftmovies.com and challenge you to make a Bloodline Champions Teaser Movie!
Read more at: http://warcraftmovies.com/contest.php

The prizes for the SteelSeries Beta Cup have just been announced! Woof!


SteelSeries have put up over €1000 worth of products to be won in the Bloodline Champions SteelSeries Beta Cup held on the 5th of September! Including mice such as the Xai Laser mouse used by various professionals in SK-Gaming and Fnatic, prizes also include the Merc Stealth keyboard, top of the range headphones, the Siberia v2 headset and more! To check out the full prize distrubtion list, product information and Beta Cup information head over to the SteelSeries Beta Cup information page found here.

About SteelSeries

SteelSeries is a leading manufacturer of gaming peripherals and accessories, including headsets, keyboards, mice, software and gaming surfaces. SteelSeries has been on the forefront of professional gaming gear since its inception in 2001, thanks to continued innovation and product development in cooperation with leading professional gamers. All SteelSeries products are developed in co-operation with professional gamers to ensure optimum performance and durability. SteelSeries supports the growth of competitive gaming and electronic sports through professional team sponsorships and community support all over the world. For more information, please visit www.steelseries.com, SteelSeries facebook.

To Celebrate awesomenes, Stunlock Studios and Funcom will be inviting an aditional 500 gamers from the beta signups this Friday! So for a chance to play Bloodline Champions, enter the SteelSeries beta cup and win some great prizes head over to www.bloodlinechampions.com and sign up to the beta!

Bloodline Champions Beta Championship

Stunlock Studios and Funcom are proud to announce their Beta Championship for the competitive gaming title Bloodline Champions! The Beta Championship consist of 3 Cups, 2 Invitationals and a Championship Final. Participants will have a chance to win a share of the €3000 prize money, eSport products from top peripheral manufactures Steel Series and Razer and an all expense paid trip to the world’s largest gaming Lan, Dreamhack Winter held in Sweden, November 2010.

James ‘2GD’ Harding – eSport Manager
"I’d just like to say a big thanks to all our beta championship Cup sponsors, Dreamhack, Steelseries and Razer for continuing to support eSports time and time again, Arenajunkies for following Arena eSports over the years, and we hope you enjoy the tournament we’ve prepared for you. We’re announcing the lineups for the EU and NA Allstar tournaments in a few weeks, so stay tuned for that. And if anyone out there is eager to get beta keys or follow future announcements head over to http://www.bloodlinechampions.com and sign up for beta, or follow us on http://www.facebook.com/BloodlineChampions. Soon you'll also see various beta key competitions with some championship partners. More details about tournament formats and rules will be released in the near future."

Championship Coverage:
All tournaments will be streamed in LQ and HQ by lvl^ with live commentary by James ‘2GD’ Harding and Guests.

Beta Championship Overview:


For detailed descriptions on each tournament please visit our Tournament forums or the Beta Championship Overview page found here

...AWESOME!

If you're attending Dreamhack Summer this weekend don't miss us on the Big Stage at 18:45 tonight (Sunday) and at DreamArena Orange at 20:00, where you'll get to see matches live commentated by James "2GD" Harding and get a chance for a betakey. If you still need one!

The Council
The Bloodline Champions Council serves as a means of communication between experienced members of the community and the developers of Bloodline Champions.
The primary function of the Council is to discuss issues and topics brought forward by the developers, giving quality input from selected players on all levels of play. The secondary function of the council is to highlight current high priority bugs, game imbalances, potential exploits and bringing other issues the community is having to the attention of the developers.

Player Profiles
The new player profiles are here with added information about player ladder statistics as well as their team memberships. The teams themselves are viewable as well, and on top of this a search system able to find both players and teams has been implemented.

The Team System
The new Team system is now online! Currently a team consists of 3 players in a more permanent grouping, with their own team name and banner. This team is then able to compete against other Teams in the new Team Arena 3v3 Leagues.

The Knowledge Base
To delve deeper into these systems as well as browse Bloodlines and their abilities or reading general information, tips and tricks about the game, please consult our new in game Knowledge Base! Accessible from the top bar in the interface, the Knowledge Base should contain all information needed to play the game!

New Beta Season
The “Rise of the Noobs” Season is now closed and taking its place as the new shiny Season and place to be is “Summer Season: Beach 2010”! The rewards for the "Rise of the Noobs" season will be handed out as soon as the system for rewards is in place. The results from previous Seasons can be viewed in game.

Facebook Fan Drive
The amount of fans on Facebook is still increasing and we want to push it further as Facebook is a great tool to spread the word of the game. We're really grateful for your hard work to get us more fans and at the 10 000 fans milestone we will send out more keys! Don't forget to tell people to sign up for the beta on the website as it is needed to be considered for a key! So tell your friends and tell your friends to tell their friends!

Capture The Artifact
The Capture the Flag game mode has been redesigned and is now known as The Capture the Artifact. The Gazini Summit map has been redesigned to suit the new rules and is now known as the Gatura Summit.

The objective is to capture both artifacts and hold them in your base for 45 seconds. At the start of each round one artifact is located in each teams base. Use the game mode ability (default hotkey Z) to pick up an Artifact and carry it to your base. Use the game mode ability to throw the artifact when you carry it, throwing the artifact directly at a friend will instantly make him the carrier and he does not have to pick it up. Artifacts cannot be thrown over gaps and cliffs. An Artifact thrown at the ground will stay in that location until another player picks it up.

• When carrying an artifact the player has 20% reduced movement speed and takes 25% more damage but the player also deals 25% more damage. Using mobility abilities such as a Leap, Time Shift or Rocket Jump will cause the artifact carrier to drop the artifact.
• When a player dies he or she will respawn in the base and the respawn length will increase over time as the round progress.
• Pick up runes spawned in the base and in the middle of the map to gain increased speed and/or increased damage for a short duration.
• Strategy is the key to victory in this game mode. Split up your team to defend your own artifact while you at the same time are moving to steal your opponents’ artifact.
• First team to win 2 rounds will win the game.

Observer
Observer support now added, sporting features such as:

• Free Camera allowing you to freely control the camera panning, zooming and rotating.
• Chase Camera working in the same way as the current spectator function, allowing you to stick the camera to a player and view his abilities and cooldowns.
• Smart Camera that automatically displays all participants at once by zooming out as players space apart from each other, taking care to always have every participant in view, giving you a good overview of the battlefield.
• Observer Interface enabling you to view all party frames and combat logs at once. Furthermore you can completely hide the interface ensuring a cleaner capture if you are recording, as well as toggle the fog of war on or off.

Two New Maps
Well of Sergan (Arena)

• A map sporting an interesting but direct layout, pitching the two teams against each other while allowing for some hit and run tactics from the two alleyways to the side, as well as from the pillars along the border on the other end.

Cauldron of Tau-Tau (Conquest)

• A conquest map featuring two capture points on a horizontal line and spawning points on a vertical line at the top and bottom border of the map. The result is a tug of war with flanking tactics, direct attacks, and carefully considered pushes on the different capture points.

Questions & Answers Session
The last Q&A Session we held was a great success and due to this we are hosting another one.

Thursday the 27th between 18:00-20:00 UTC +1, Tau Petersson (CEO), Johan Aronson (Art Director) and Peter Ilves (Lead Designer) will be answering your questions in the Bloodline Champions IRC channel (#bloodlinechampions; Quakenet). If you can't attend or already have questions you can post them at the forum and they will be answered at the session as well. After the session all questions and the answers will be posted at the forum for everyone to read. Please use the following forum thread to write your questions:
http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=2352

Funcom
As you might have heard we have entered a publishing agreement with Funcom for Bloodline Champions. Our partnership with Funcom will give us the possibility to spread the word about Bloodline Champions to get it the kind of attention it deserves. One of the first things you'll experience of the partnership will be the upgrade of servers in the near future which also will let us expand the beta in number of players and with that also expand the beta sessions.

For more information read the press release at:
http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1407&table=CONTENT&item=1004

Or visit the forum thread at:
http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2215

You might also have noticed that we've have changed the name of our studio, we're now known as Stunlock Studios. We hope you like it as much as we do!

We at Stunlock Studios, previously known as Bumblebee Studios, are happy to share the following news:

Durham, USA - May 13th, 2010 - Funcom has signed a publishing agreement with Stunlock Studios AB, a start-up company based in Skövde, Sweden. Funcom will publish, operate and provide customer support for the multi-player arena game ‘Bloodline Champions,’ which is currently in the later stages of beta testing. ‘Bloodline Champions’ is an arena-based player vs. player game featuring unique and action-packed gameplay for up to ten people.

Read more at: http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1407&table=CONTENT&item=1004

*hihi*

We've sent out more keys in time for the beta testing this weekend. Enjoy! *hihi*

Match Making, Leagues & Beta Invites

The much anticipated Match Making system will begin testing and we will couple this with beta keys for friends, ramping up the number of testers for the system.

Who gets keys and how many keys are handed out to each recipient is dependent on in game activity. More time active playing the game, the more keys are received, letting you invite friends.

The friend invitations will be made available today (Thursday 29th April) at 20:00 UTC+2. To check if you have any keys and to invite a friend to Beta testing, log in using your existing Beta Account at http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/account.php and click "Beta Invitations".

EDIT: To beg, cry, whine, plead, do performance art, dance or write poetry, for a key, go to: http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=1785

In addition to the friend invitations we also sent out another batch of regular invitations earlier today.

The match making system itself will consist of Solo Match Making only to begin with, matching you against other solo players to put you into competitive teams. In connection to this we also launch the solo arena League, the Beta Season “Rise of the Noobs” starting up at the same time.

This will only be available on the EU Servers for now, when and if Match Making will be available for the US beta servers is currently unknown.

Leagues will allow you to compete in brackets with equally skilled players.

The Council

To improve game balance we will later form a Council from top ranked players, giving us direct input on game issues. The selected players will get access to their own part of the forum, and will be able to have an active interaction with the developers, acting as community ambassadors. We will release more information regarding the election process and the Council later on.

Account (up)Grades

We are also launching a grade system, showing a rank depending on your performance over all rated game types. This ranking will rise and possibly drop over time depending on your success.

In addition we’ve added new sounds to the Interface, updated the quick profile, updated the navigation bar and updated how Game Invites work.

On the Horizon!

In addition to of course expanding the Match Making and League system, we’re also looking at adding an Observer mode, Replay support, Teams, Practice Mode with bots, as well as more elaborate player Profiles.


As for the alleged network outage ploy for Beta Phase 3, it was actually just a funny coincidence resulting in a slightly larger patch at once instead. Honest.

[Update: Additional information has been added to the bottom of this post.]

We are very happy to announce the upcoming beta patch 0.8.0.12 and the new content provided in this new patch.

Here are a few things you can look forward to.


Introducing the 17th Bloodline, The Gambler!

Since the funding of Toleen a cult of people obsessed with money have arisen. Those initiated are taught the exact laws of raw luck - intuitive prediction. Gamblers can be found in bars and on the streets, always dressed to appear to the crowds to be that average sailor, or drunk soldier. Their disguises have kept their cult secret for so long, but once one was confronted by the city guard, the importance of raw luck to turn the fate to their's minds will was unmatched by the pysical strengths of the soldiers. While Toleen denies all connections with this cult, they where quickly recruited by the Ancients, not only to fight, but also so they could learn this weird form of controlling future time-paths. While some claim the gamblers has no skill at all, it is without a doubt that chance is not a factor for these guys in the long run.

For more information about the Gambler: http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/bloodline_gambler.php



New Game Mode: Defenders of the Eternals

Tired of getting stomped by players that have been in the beta longer time than you? In that case this might be the gamemode for you! In the Defenders of the Eternal gamemode you will be able to fight AI-controlled enemies known as creeps with lower health, very limited attacks and for the most part they are not as clever as the average beta tester! Show the other players that you are the best creep killing machine there is. Not only will you be able to feel the joy of slaughtering helpless goblins and trolls, you will be awarded experience and gold for the effort! Spend the gold in the newly built item shop, and if you were to cross path with a real enemy player during this 1-2 hour long frag fest -don't hesitate to use your most powerful attack! With your boosted stats through leveling and with the divine blade of creep slaughtering awesomnes you will probably oneshot him in a single blow!



Gameplay balance fixes and updates

Igniter

Fireball - Ability Removed

Frostbolt - New Core Ability

• A projectile ability dealing 17 damage, dispells any ignite effect that is currently affecting the target

Living Flame

• Now burns the Igniter for 5 damage per second while channeling

Nomad

Razor Boomerang

• Boomerang no longer returns to the Nomad, instead the boomerang lands on the ground and the Nomad has to pick it up before she can use this ability again

Tornado Call

• Now only works on windy maps like Baako's Grave, Shrine of Aron'Shon and Diom Necil the Crystal Peak

Gunner

Execute

• Damage reduced to 43 from 44

Herald

• Herald now ignores ground collision and can row across cliffs and gaps where other bloodlines would fall to their death

Glutton

Eat

• This ability can only be used 3 times in a match, after that he won't have any meat left to eat

If you have not applied for the Closed Beta, you can do so by clicking the link below and following the on-screen instructions: http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/beta_signup.php


[Update / Spoiler]
As many of you figured out, this was our April fools joke for 2010. All of it. Nothing in this post above will be implemented. Thanks to all who thought it was funny. :)

The Beta Servers are now online and will be up until Monday 22:00 UTC+2! The Beta Servers will now officially be up Friday evening to Monday evening! See you ingame! :D

We had some very positive and excited feedback when we announced the second phase of the BETA and its content update.

Now you can view the new bloodlines, game mode and lore on the homepage!

Check out the following sections:
Bloodlines
Description of Game Modes
Lore - Cultures

We are very happy and excited to announce the much anticipated BETA Phase II.

The second phase of Bloodline Champions BETA will begin March 14th!

Here are a few things you can look forward to.

• Four (4) new Bloodlines, bringing one new Bloodline for each archetype and raising the current number of available Bloodlines to 16.

• A complete new setting, allowing combat on the snowy peaks of Silverridge Mountain.
• New Game Mode: Conquest, circulating around the domination of zones on the map with the ultimate goal of locking enemy players out from respawning and thus winning the game.
• New Maps: Two new Arena maps and one Conquest map.

• Total overhaul of the Bloodgate and user interface!
  
  • Added Friends list, enabling you to keep track of your friends and their status in-game!
  • New in-game Interface, allowing a more efficient view of the game area!
  • Quick Profiles enabling you to quickly inspect the stats of other players!
  • New and improved Game Lobby allowing you to customize server settings further!
  • Improved Server Admin functionality giving the server creator greater control over the players on the server!
  • Improved Graphics, Sound and Interface settings!

If you have not applied for the Closed Beta, you can do so by clicking the link below and following the on-screen instructions: http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/beta_signup.php

Also, if you clicked passed the fancy new splash screen when visiting http://www.bloodlinechampions.com and really want to see it again, then visit: http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/splash.php ;)

[UPDATED] Added images.