Blizzard Entertainment’s 10th BlizzCon
celebration unveils new content for the company’s blockbuster
franchises and marks the culmination of five esports
championships
With the dust now settled on one of the most exciting weekends
in gaming, a new crop of fantasy and real-world heroes has emerged.
BlizzCon® 2016, Blizzard Entertainment’s two-day community festival
taking place November 4–5 at the Anaheim Convention Center,
celebrated the company’s 25th anniversary and came to a close with
a bevy of new announcements for its iconic games—as well as global
champions crowned across Blizzard’s stable of world-class esports.
A video showcasing the weekend's events can be downloaded at
http://blizzard.gamespress.com/BlizzCon-2016-Recap.
This Smart News Release features multimedia.
View the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161105005019/en/
BlizzCon panels feature the latest news
on Blizzard games for attendees. (Photo: Business Wire)
After months of intense competition leading up to the show,
BlizzCon hosted the world championships for each of Blizzard’s
global esports programs, with a combined prize pool of $2,750,000
up for grabs. These tournaments represent the pinnacle of
competitive play in Blizzard’s games, and the company again
congratulates the champions who battled their way to victory:
StarCraft® II World Championship Series Global
Finals
Winner: ByuN
In the 2016 WCS Global Finals for StarCraft II, Byun followed up
his impressive Global StarCraft II League championship as a
team-less free agent with an unforgettable WCS Global Championship
run. With the most diverse cast of players in the tournament’s
history competing at this year’s finals, every match was a
must-watch.
Hearthstone® World Championship
Winner: Pavel
For the first time in the history of the Hearthstone World
Championship, two players from Europe squared off against one
another in the Grand Finals at BlizzCon. In a tense series,
Russia’s Pavel defeated his Ukrainian opponent DrHippi 4–2 to claim
the title of 2016 Hearthstone World Champion.
Heroes of the Storm® Fall Championship
Winning team: Ballistix Gaming
Ballistix Gaming from Korea took home the Fall Championship
trophy after a grueling final series with Sweden’s Fnatic, who had
just taken down the favorites, MVP Black, in the semifinals.
Incredibly, Ballistix dropped only two battlegrounds over the
course of the event.
World of Warcraft® Arena World
Championship
Winning team: Splyce
In perhaps the most epic World of Warcraft Arena Grand
Finals match to ever take place on the BlizzCon stage, the
defending champions, Splyce, bested Method NA in a
nerve-wrecking 7-game series, becoming the first team ever to win
back-to-back titles.
Overwatch® World Cup
Winning country: South Korea
With dominant performance after dominant performance, South
Korea became the first winners of the Overwatch World Cup in front
of a packed BlizzCon arena. Besting tournament heavyweights USA,
Sweden, and Russia en route to the final, South Korea didn’t drop a
single game.
Blizzard also used the occasion to reveal its plans for the
Overwatch League, a world-class sports ecosystem for
professional Overwatch competition that’s launching in 2017. The
Overwatch League will bring together some of the best elements of
esports and traditional sports to create an experience that’s
accessible and sustainable for players, teams, and fans.
Looking beyond esports, the company also detailed several major
game updates for players in packed developer panels across both
days of the show, including:
- Mean Streets of Gadgetzan™—a new
Hearthstone expansion, coming in early December, which will
expose players to the darker side of Azeroth’s famous port town,
with new game mechanics and 132 new cards
- “The Tomb of Sargeras”—the next major
content update (patch 7.2) coming to World of Warcraft,
which will feature a new raid zone and a new dungeon, introduce
player-vs.-player Brawls, bring flying to the Broken Isles, and
more
- “The Darkening of Tristram”—a special
20th anniversary update for Diablo® III that
will recreate the experience of Blizzard’s first Diablo game when
it’s released in January
- The Necromancer—a brand-new Diablo
III hero, coming to the game next year, who commands the dead
on the battlefields of Sanctuary
- Varian and Ragnaros—two heroes who will
bring new and vastly different styles of play to the Nexus in
Blizzard’s fast-paced team brawler Heroes of the Storm later
this year
- Blackheart’s Revenge—a uniquely
asymmetrical attack/defend battleground, featuring everyone’s
favorite ghost pirate, coming to Heroes of the Storm’s
chaotic Heroes Brawl mode
- Alexei Stukov—a new (infested) co-op
commander who will bring a blend of Zerg and Terran might to bear
in StarCraft II’s popular Co-op Missions
- Sombra—a stealthy hacker who’s joining
the roster of Overwatch, Blizzard’s smash-hit shooter
released earlier this year
For more information about all of the esports action and news
shared at BlizzCon 2016, visit www.blizzcon.com.
ABOUT BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INC.
Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft®,
Hearthstone®, Overwatch®, the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and
Diablo® franchises, and the multifranchise Heroes of the
Storm®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division
of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and
publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of
the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard
Entertainment’s track record includes twenty-one #1 games and
multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming
service, Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with
millions of active players.
Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-looking Statements:
Information in this press release that involves Blizzard
Entertainment's expectations, plans, intentions or strategies
regarding the future, including statements about Hearthstone,
Diablo III, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm,
StarCraft II, and the Overwatch League, including with respect to
their content, components, start date, or structure, are
forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number
of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Blizzard
Entertainment's actual future results to differ materially from
those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this
release include unanticipated product delays and other factors
identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s
most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly
reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this
release are based upon information available to Blizzard
Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this
release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard
assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when
made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not
guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or
Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and
other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause
actual results to differ materially from current expectations.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161105005019/en/
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.Rob Hilburger, 949-242-8404 dirVP,
Global Communicationsrhilburger@blizzard.comorAndrew Reynolds,
949-955-1380 x14301Public Relations
Directorareynolds@blizzard.comorDavid Gordon, 949-955-1380
x13506Public Relations Managerdgordon@blizzard.com
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