Since the beginning of Starcraft 2's beta, people claimed its rise would spell Warcraft 3's demise. They weren't wrong. Even before SC2 was launched, WC3 tournaments started to diminish. First the team leagues and then one by one solo leagues went out of business.
Moon at the last NGL finals
With so few tournaments remaining, many players started to switch to SC2, hoping to get a chance at the huge amounts of money poured in by sponsors.
Among the migrating players, were some of the biggest stars of the game including Moon, Grubby and Lyn. Let's see how they've fared in SC2 so far, one year after its launch:
Moon: IEM Season V World Championship, 2nd place, $6,500
Lyn: -
Grubby: Copenhagen Games, 3rd place, €1,100
Source: Gosugamers.net
As the above numbers indicate, their performance has been less than impressive. One might argue that given enough time, they will eventually improve. Problem is as they try to get better in the game, so will their opponents. How long, if ever, will it take them to catch up with the likes of MC, Mvp and NesTea?
MC, one of the most successful Starcraft 2 players
They can't play the Warcraft 3 Legend card forever. Eventually, Starcraft 2 will have its own legends. Will not-delivering Moon and Grubby get a free spot in tournaments after that?
Why would eSports need such exclusivity anyway? Warcarft 3 and Starcraft 2 can coexist as two entirely different games, appealing to different people. I believe such diversity would be beneficial not only to WC3, but to eSports as a whole, too.
Despite many speculations, ESWC and WCG still support Warcraft 3. CPL, an old-school event is back and it has already announced a WC3 event in China. Add ECL, StarsWar and CEPL to the mix and you can see that there's still a lot to fight for in WC3.
Some older generation players such as Lucifer and SoJu are back to WC3 after finishing their military service. Recently, rumors of Lyn's practice for WCG have surfaced. He has lots of catching up to do, if he wants to surpass ReMinD and FoCuS, but if the rumors are to be believed, he's practicing hard to do just that.
As more players, especially stellar names come back to WC3, more and more sponsors will be willing to invest in the game and more tournaments will pop out. There's still hope for Warcraft 3.