[Maynarde]

I think all these upcoming features are great, don't see a downside to any of it.

As I see it's not going to be one big giant ladder with all servers lumped in together. That would be a nightmare lag wise. It makes sense to just be able to have access to other ladders / servers via ONE client (as per Diablo 3 which they mention in the article as an example). Will they be merging some ladders? Will you be able to make a different account on each server or just have multiple ladders with one account? All this we'll just have to wait and see.

Re: unranked ladder, I think it's an excellent tool for ALL leagues. If you want to try out a build order and not lose points you have the perfect medium and don't need to hassle friends for a custom if they're busy.

Regardless, I'm really excited for the future of SC2 in 2012 So many big things happening and they all look promising.