Blizzard defends Starcraft 2 WCS finals clash with The International 3

Developer Blizzard has addressed fan backlash to the timing of the Starcraft 2 World Championship Series (WCS) Season 2 regional finals, which sees it run at the same time as Valve's The International 3.

Posting on Reddit, Blizzard senior manager of eSports Kim Phan said the date clash was "unintentional", and was a result of wanting to host the season finals event in late August.

"Unfortunately this has resulted in overlaps with other major eSports events. These conflicts were certainly not intentional. This simple fact is that as eSports has grown with more events, more games, and more viewers; it's nearly impossible to avoid all conflicts. Many major weekend events already host multiple games, which are running simultaneous game streams in conflict with each other," she said.

Blizzard recently announced the dates of their Starcraft 2 WCS Season 2 League finals for regions North America, Europe and Korea. The regional finals will take place from August 10-11. The top players in each region will compete for the opportunity to advance to the global finals at BlizzCon, where they can play-off for first place and claim the title as the 2013 Starcraft 2 World Champion.

The dates coincide with that of Valve's Dota 2 competitive event, The International 3. At the time of writing, The International 3 reached a new milestone in offering the largest prize pool in competitive gaming history at $2.6 million.

The International 3 will run from August 7 through 11 at Seattle's Benaroya Hall. Fifteen of the tournament's 16 teams have already been invited, with the final spot up for grabs in a qualifier in Seattle immediately before The International 3 begins.

The revamped Starcraft 2 World Championship series was revealed earlier this year with a total prize pool of $1.6 million.

Blizzard declined to comment when approached by GameSpot.