Originally released in 2002 as 'Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos,' the game was developed by Blizzard and released for Microsoft Windows as part of an already famous Warcraft video-game series. But it wasn't until the release of its expansion pack, 'The Frozen Throne,' a few years later in 2003, that Warcraft 3 became an essential component of the eSports scene.
It would become a constant presence in a variety of different eSports festivals, such as the Electronic Sports World Cup, World Cyber Games, and World Series of Video Games, to mention a few. It would be especially popular in South Korea and China. While its popularity waned slightly in 2010 due to the introduction of various other eSports titles, it maintained a strong following that has grown in recent years.
Warcraft 3 takes place several years after the events of Warcraft II and follows the story of the Burning Legion's attempt to seize the fictional world of Azeroth with the assistance of an army of the Undead headed by fallen paladin Arthas Menethil. It follows the Human Alliance, Orcish Horde, and Night Elves as they work together to stop them before they corrupt the World Tree.
Warcraft 3 is a real-time strategy game set in a high fantasy world. Real-time strategy, or RTS, is a subgenre of strategy video games in which all players can play at the same time in "real-time" rather than in turns.
In a real-time strategy game, such as Warcraft, each player positions buildings and maneuvers units under their partial control to secure map locations and/or decimate their opponents' resources. It is possible to build additional units and buildings in a traditional RTS game, though this is usually limited by the need to spend gathered resources.
To sum it up, an RTS game like Warcraft includes resource gathering, base construction, in-game technological development, and indirect unit control.