BlizzCon is the vibrating culmination of lots of work. Not just for the people who lay out all the chairs at the Anaheim Convention Center, but for the main events too – for the StarCraft II pros who’ve endured months and months of matches livestreamed for millions and emerged on top; for Blizzard, who’ll finally take the lid off a whistling kettle that almost certainly conceals a new WoW expansion, among other things.
You’ll be able to watch the moment both reach a long-awaited point of release live this weekend.
Blizzard are streaming the opening ceremony and all of their eSports coverage – including the WCS Finals, WoW Arena Global Invitational, and Hearthstone Innkeeper’s Invitational – in one place on their official site.
The opening ceremony kicks off later today at 11am Pacific time / 7pm GMT, while the last WCS Round of 16 begins just after 12 – which translates as an 8:30pm start for us. The WCS Grand Finals are due to happen at 3:30pm Pacific time Saturday / 11:30pm GMT Sunday. Check the full schedule for more details on that.
Of course, Blizzard are streaming the entire show – but you’ll need to pay for the rest. It’s £24.99 / €29.99 for the weekend, and you’re promised access to every panel, contest and Blink 182 gig, as well as “exclusive in-game goodies”, at a consistent 720p quality torrent of pixels.
Here are our BlizzCon 2013 predictions, and our thoughts on what to expect from Warlords of Draenor, the WoW expansion we’re very nearly certain exists. What are you most looking forward to seeing?