Receiving transmission: StarCraft Remastered is about to go live! While we at Ars have yet to begin testing the final retail version, I couldn't help but point out that this 1pm ET launch (update: now bumped to 4 pm ET) gives fans plenty of time to get ready for one of the funnier old-school PC gaming giveaways we've seen in recent memory.

Starting at 6pm ET today, Blizzard will begin accepting entries for the only "free pizza for your LAN party" contest we have ever found on the Internet.

From that hour until 11pm ET, series fans are invited to capture "a wholly original photograph of Entrant participating in a StarCraft Remastered LAN party with at least one (1) friend," then post it on Twitter with a #StarCraftPizzaMe hashtag. (Meaning, you can't pull out a few computers, boot SCR on all of them, and add a caption about how everyone else has gone to pick up Doritos and Mountain Dew. #foreveralone)

Blizzard staffers will then pick "up to 50" submissions based on "the most creative, humorous, or original photograph[s]" with the aforementioned hashtag. Those winners will be notified and asked to provide a physical address, to which Blizzard will direct delivery of five pizzas costing approximately $75. (The official rules don't mention a participating pizza chain; we can only hope Blizzard lets fans make requests for which restaurant and which toppings.) Now, we're not necessarily the kind to post about gaming contests, but we're happy to see every mechanical element of the original StarCraft: Brood War release retained in SCR—including, of course, the ability to play with and against friends in wholly offline LAN modes. So, yes, please celebrate the glory of LAN play with roughly 250 free pizzas, Blizzard.

StarCraft Remastered's launch date was previously announced at a special preview event in June, which was the only time Ars has gone hands-on with the $15 remaster so far. Advance code was not provided for testing on our own PCs and Macs ahead of release, but we're diving in as soon as possible to work up impressions of the retail release—and its new aesthetic elements, including 4K-ready assets, a new lighting system, and redone single-player story scenes—very soon.