Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is an expansion that achieved what few expansions manage: it moved both the story and the gameplay of the base game forward so significantly that players today perceive it almost as a full-fledged sequel. In it, Blizzard finished telling the fate of Arthas, who became the Lich King, and introduced the new playable faction of the Night Elves into the balanced multiplayer alongside the already established Humans, Orcs and Undead, raising the number of sides in the conflict to four.

In terms of gameplay, the expansion improved the hero system and added new units, abilities and neutral buildings that allowed deeper strategic decisions when building armies, and it was precisely this balance between the races that made it the foundation for years of competitive play in tournaments and on Battle.net ladders. The map editor included with Frozen Throne also became the cradle of the Defense of the Ancients mod, from which an entire genre of MOBA games later evolved, with titles such as League of Legends or Dota 2.

Critics and the player community received the expansion exceptionally well, and Frozen Throne still ranks among the most significant RTS expansions in history, partly thanks to its unexpected influence on the birth of an entirely new game genre. Even more than twenty years after its release, it remains the basis for the remastered Reforged version and a mainstay of the community of players who appreciate both the storytelling quality of the campaign and the depth of the balanced multiplayer.