One week ago, Blizzard announced that the beta would start this month, but has now confirmed that the beta has launched. Initially, the beta would have started much earlier, but was postponed because the new functionality of Battle.net was not ready. Blizzard opened the sign-up for the beta as early as May 2009, but had to announce in November that the test would not take place until 2010. The developer had previously stated that the game was postponed to 2010, which led to some unrest among shareholders of parent company Activision Blizzard.

Blizzard has also posted the minimum system requirements for the beta of StarCraft II announced on the support pages. The developer of the new RTS stressed that these specs are liable to change and therefore not definitive. The requirements are modest, according to the specs page that Blizzard has made. A 2.2-GHz processor meets the minimum and the beta requires at least 1GB memory and Windows XP SP3 is played. For Windows 7 and Vista is 1.5 GB.

Blizzard also announced that 4GB of free disk space required will be minimal and that the type of video card GeForce 6600GT or ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and that it should be a minimum of 128MB memory is available.

On Wednesday Blizzard announced the closed beta started and thousands of players joined the game on the new Battle.net. A Mac version of the beta software is not available at the start, but will come when the beta progresses are available, as is mentioned in the faq.

The best part about all this is that it wont take long for the beta to leak! Which means its likely that we will soon all be playing!

Well for those that didn’t get into the beta, heres the official cinematic trailer so you can still have a look at the game:

Update: Here are some live streams i found from www.1up.com where they recorded a game played in the Starcraft II beta

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

I’m guessing that everybody that comes here is looking for a way to play the Starcraft II beta without a beta key?

Well i guess I’m right anyways, and this is how it’s done, remember this is still like a beta crack and it’s not fully functional it does include the following functionality:

• Define races, starts location, colors, types, teams;
• Read maps informations like: name, author, description (multilanguage);
• Select map and difficulty;
• Quickly download/upload maps from/to our main server;
• Use game tweaks (FPS, Textures, etc);
• Restore original files (In case you have problems);
• Play official/hacked maps without modifying original files;
• Play replay in one click.

Although its possible to only use LazyLaunch we recommend you to download the starcraft II – beta launcher application as well, this for the simple reason that this wonderful piece of software automatically places maps and files in the right folders for you, and saves you a hell of a lot of work.

• Starcraft II – Beta client
• LazyLaunch2
• Starcraft II – Beta Launcher
• AI & Maps pack

Trojan Warning

LazyLaunch2 does NOT contain a virus, its a false positive. Most anti-virus softwarewill indeed give a Trojan warning. This file does not contain a Trojan, it contains code that looks similar to the way Trojans are scripted ( a packer algorithm) because it does in fact hack and interfere with the game while your playing. This means it is not harmful for your PC and in fact does not contain a Trojan.

Minimal system requirements

Downloading

Since there are a lot of changes being made to these two applications we will not host a direct link, but we will link to the location’s where the files are uploaded.

Starcraft Beta client

First of all you will need a Starcraft II Client version, which you can get right here although its better to get the latest build, simply search the pirate bay for that.

• Link to Starcraft II beta client torrent (build: 13891)

 This should contain 4 files:

• “Installer Tome 1.MPQ”
• “Installer UI 1.MPQ”
• “Installer UI 2.MPQ”
• “Installer.exe”

Crack Files

Once that’s downloading, or when you already had that download the following files:

LazyLaunch:

LazyLaunch is a hack for the Starcraft II Beta to be able to play replays and singleplayer matches without a beta key! Created by the Lazy Town team.

• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Starcraft II Beta Launcher:

This beta launcher is a graphical interface for the awesome tool from LazyTown Team. It allows you to quickly change and define your settings for Starcraft II Beta, like Arguments, Maps, Difficulty and some other tweaks.

• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Requires NetFramework 3.5 or higher: download link

Maps & AI

Last of all you need maps and AI. Here is a direct download for some map packs:

• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file. – best maps

Here is a direct download for some AI packs:

• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Installation

1. Open the folder “StarCraft II Beta enUS 13891 Installer”.
2. Run “Installer.exe”, starcraft II beta client installation should start.
3. Start the installation, and finish it.
4. Now start the beta client. It should connect to the Blizzard servers and automatically update to the latest release.
• warning: do not patch beyond version 0.10.0.14803! you wont be able to play than
5. Your not done jet, follow the steps listed under “Cracking”.

Cracking

1. Extract the Starcraft II – Beta Launcher zip (Download the latest version above)
2. Copy all files that popped out directly into your starcraft II installation folder
3. Extract the Lazylaunch2 zip
4. Copy all files that popped out directly into your starcraft II installation folder
5. Add Maps & AI (read below on how to do this)
6. Run the Starcraft II Beta Launcher
7. Select your Maps and AI folder
8. Your good to go! let us know if you run into problems, but make sure to check at the Known Errors first.

 Adding new maps

Copy the maps you have downloaded into the “Maps” folder you just added to your starcraft directory

 Adding new AI