Blizzard Watch

Watching Blizzard: It’s all about the esports

Added 2018-01-23 05:26:53 +0000 UTC

This past weekend was filled with all the esports. Between Overwatch League, the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship, and the Hearthstone World Championship, it was a packed schedule where you could easily go from event to event without doing anything else over the weekend. I mostly stuck to Hearthstone, though, which is a game I actually understand enough of to enjoy watching. But it’s also apparently the esport that only I am excited about so there’s no one to talk to about that dramatic Jade Druid vs. Jade Druid final match. Oh well…

But, hey, there are more esports to come. Overwatch League starts up on Wednesday (with apologies in advance to the Shanghai Dragons on their inevitable loss to the Seoul Dynasty), the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship is back on Friday, and Heroes of the Dorm signupshave started. That’s a long, roundabout way of saying there’s plenty to watch over the coming week even if you aren’t enthusiastic about anything in game.

But now that I’ve spent 150 words rambling about esports, let’s catch up on today’s actual news, plus what’s coming up this week

Coming up this week (other than esports)

WoW and Diablo both have short maintenances scheduled tomorrow, but — unlike last week — it’s nothing that’s likely to disrupt your gameplay.
And while there’s no downtime on the agenda, new cosmetics are slated to show up in Overwatch tomorrow.
There’s just one day left to enjoy the Call of the Scarab micro-holiday in WoW!
And did we mention that the college kids in the audience can sign up for Heroes of the Dorm, as well as Hearthstone and StarCraft 2 scholarship tournaments? Well, you can.

It’s bad news for at least some Overwatch players

Sorry, console players who use a keyboard and mouse: Blizzard doesn’t want you doing that. But in good news, they don’t actually have a way to stop you. Yet.
13 have been arrested in Seoul for Overwatch hacking and match-fixing. Don’t do it, people.

This week in lore…

Anne mulls over whether we’ll ever see Ogres as a playable race.
And in this week’s Lore Watch podcast, it’s the ramblings of Ogmot the Mad.

Ben Brode tries to be a professional esports caster

After seeing Brode attempt commenting at HCT this weekend, we think maybe he should stick to rapping.
PC Gamer posted a roundup of the best moments of HCT, if you wanted to catch the highlights — complete with great moments of Brode-based hilarity.

That’s all for now, my gaming friends. We’ll be back with another news rundown tomorrow (likely with 100% less esports-related rambling).