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Highlights from Blizzcon 2016
Here’s what you may have missed
Blizzcon is Blizzard Entertainment’s largest annual convention, featuring big reveals and various events related to their games, and other tech and gaming showcases. This year was an even bigger Blizzcon thanks to Blizzard’s newfound support for their e-sports brands, namely Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm and Starcraft II. We list down the best from this year’s Blizzcon:
Shamans Everywhere
The Hearthstone World Championships was a dramatic tournament full of upsets and fierce battles all in order to claim a piece of the 1 million dollar prize pool. Favorite Thijs was knocked out surprisingly early in the group stages by handsomeguy, while 16-year old prodigy Amnesiac made it as far as the Top 8, only to be eliminated by the eventual tournament champion Pavel. Judging by the more or less similar decks played at the tournament, it seems we’re still heavily in a Mid-range Shaman/ Anti-shaman meta.
Ballistix wins Heroes of the Storm World Championship
One of the highlight events at Blizzcon this year was the Heroes of the Storm Fall Global Championship. Alongside DOTA 2 and League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm is one of the most popular MOBA games internationally and representing the country in this year’s championships is Imperium Pro Team. The championship was won by Korean team Ballistix, who won $300,000.
Overwatch Gets Its Own League + Sombra
Blizzard also revealed Overwatch’s 23rd playable character: Sombra, a stealthy hacker from Mexico. Her abilities include the power to Hack enemies, preventing them from using their skills.On top of the Sombra reveal, Blizzard also unveiled the start of the Overwatch League. The League will be an e-sports organization that will organize tournaments for teams based in major cities around the world. Like Riot’s model, the Overwatch League will supposedly salary its players and will be the home to the world’s best.Finally, in the Overwatch World Cup, South Korea took home the gold after a truly dominating performance, placing Korea as a top contender region in yet another e-sports title.
Splyce Dominates With Beastcleave
US-Canadian team Splyce won their second Arena World Championship in a row, beating Method NA. The team was dominant throughout the entire tournament, using a Hunter-Druid combo in a Beastcleave composition. Despite Method NA’s more defensive Paladin-centric composition, Splyce’s pressure and aggression was simply far greater in the end.
Starcraft 2: End of an Era
ByuN took home the WCS Global Finals trophy, in what was surprisingly a hype finale to the year’s gauntlet of Starcraft 2 tournaments. We say surprisingly because the mood around the Starcraft 2 fanbase has been somber ever since the announcement of the Korean StarCraft ProLeague’s discontinuation. Still, fans cheered as hard as ever for the game that undisputedly gave birth to the e-sports boom.
Necromancy Nostalgia
For fans of the classic Diablo 2 game, here’s some good news: everyone’s favorite Necromancer class is finally coming to Diablo 3. As part of the game series’ 20th anniversary, the entirety of the original Diablo will also be ported into Diablo 3 itself, allowing players to play through the original dungeons in the first game, but in Diablo 3’s shiny engine.
Get your game on right here.
