If you we’re lucky enough to get a ticket and have enough cash to actually go, well congratulations my fellow geeks. You are about to embark on a journey many a privileged gamer have ventured before, but even more still dream of achieving. Expect a lot of Overwatch cosplay this year. After the official announcement of Blizzcon 2015 on March the 12th, speculation rose like wild fires regarding what we can expect to launch, be announced, and surprise us. As we look ahead we take you through everything you need to know for the epic event.

We will be updating this post as more information becomes available, so be sure to bookmark this page or share it. BlizzCon 2015 – What To Expect:

 

1. Date & Ticket Info

BlizzCon 2015 will take place from November 6-7, 2015 in Anaheim Ca. Ticket prices go on sale on Wednesday, April 15 at 7 p.m. PT. General Admission tickets are Limited to 4 per household and will set you back $199.00 Buy your tickets HERE. The first batch has already been sold out, and we’re waiting for the second batch to be released soon…

 

2. Events and Competitions

The uaual costume and talent competitions will no doubt happen again, but we have no official information on this yet.

1. CHOC Benefit Dinner

Blizzard is once again planning a special pre-BlizzCon Benefit Dinner the evening of Thursday, November 5 in support of Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), where guests will have a chance to meet and chat with developers, artists, community team representatives, and others from Blizzard.

Attendance to this special event will be limited, and we’ll have more information on ticket pricing and availability at a later date.

 

2. Starcraf tII World Championship Series Global Finals

The StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Finals will return to BlizzCon in 2015, where the world’s best players will take the stage to battle for the title of WCS Global Champion. Last year, with thousands in attendance and millions watching around the world, Lee ‘Life’ Seung Hyun rewrote the Zerg playbook and claimed the Gosu Trophy in spectacular fashion. While the journey to find the next champion has only just begun, pro StarCraft II players in pursuit of the ultimate prize are now on the road to BlizzCon.

You don’t need to wait until November to watch thrilling StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm competition. The best players regularly go head-to-head in the three WCS leagues: the Global StarCraft League (GSL), the StarCraft II StarLeague (SSL) and the WCS Premier League. The better they perform in each WCS League, the more points players can earn and accumulate to improve their positions in the WCS Standings. Players can bolster their placement in the Standings by playing well at Global Events—approved StarCraft II tournaments that reward additional points.

Blizzard will lock the WCS Standings and invite the top 16 WCS points-earners to compete at the WCS Global Finals. There, they’ll have to advance through an unforgiving single-elimination bracket if they want to be crowned the WCS Global Champion, earning $100,000 and the admiration of the entire StarCraft II community.

The path to BlizzCon is a year-long process, and players will compete for more than $2 million USD in WCS League and Global Events in 2015. To follow all of the excitement or to see where your favorite player’s current standing, head over to StarCraft2.com/WCS.

 

3. WoW Arena World Championships

Once again this year, the top World of Warcraft 3v3 Arena teams from around the globe will compete for a chance to face off in the 2015 WoW Arena World Championship, culminating November 6 and 7 at BlizzCon 2015 in Anaheim, California. If you’re a World of Warcraft Arena competitor, now’s the time to polish up your rotation and gather your group so you too can compete for a chance to secure a spot in the big battle—and win your share of an epic prize pool of $250,000 USD. Online qualifiers will be held for North America (which will include Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand), Europe, China, and Korea/Taiwan in the near future. We’ll have all the details on qualifier eligibility, rules, and schedules here for you soon.

If you’re a spectator, you’ll be able to catch all of the action live online even if you can’t make it to the show in person. So to get one of these prestigious places teams will have to go through the grueling championship stages shown here

 

 

4. HearthStone World Championships

The road to the Hearthstone World Championship begins anew! Starting January 31st, players are eligible to collect points from Ranked Play, Fireside Gatherings, tournaments, and more to earn themselves a spot in the 2015 Hearthstone World Championship. Here’s a quick run-down of how the tournament will decide its victor at this years Blizzon:

 

5. BlizzCon 2015 Costume, Talent, Art and Movie Contests

As in previous years, Blizzard will be opening up online signups for all the above contests soon. We’re most excited about the costume contest, every year the bar is set higher to a rather astonishing level. Final contest registration and participation confirmation will take place on Friday morning at BlizzCon. Spread the word to all of your cosplay friends — BlizzCon is the place to see and be seen! Check-out the official word from Blizzard on the other contests here.

Entries are now open. The deadline to submit your entry for each contest is July 22, 2015.

BlizzCon 2015 Original Art Contest to enter and discuss on the forums here.

BlizzCon 2015 Movie Contest to enter and discuss on the forums here.

BlizzCon 2015 Talent Contest to enter. Discuss this contest on the forums here and see the available music composition options here.

Here’s the BlizzCon 2014 First Place Winner – Py Wilson:

 

 

 

3. Expected Announcements

This is what we’re all interested in…the new announcements! We’ve mentioned each of Blizzards games below with the possible, rumored and confirmed announcements already known:

1. Warcraft Movie

The Warcraft Movie‘s release date’s been moved to 10 June 2016. And last year, Blizzard showed the movie’s trailer for limited BlizzCon attendees. Due to confidentiality agreements, we still haven’t watched the trailer yet. All of these are stimulating our appetite. Blizzard and Legendary Pictures should be looking for a timing to officially show the trailer and more cast interviews at BlizzCon 2015.

 

2. Starcraft II

It is said that the player who buys the Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void Collector Edition will get a Protoss Drone Pet in Diablo III. Currently, the pet’s model has been added into the new patch of Diablo 3. This seems to indicate that Legacy of the Void is close to be released. Besides, Blizzard has revealed that Legacy of the Void will begin beta in the first half of 2015 and be released in 2015. So, its pre-sale will be likely to begin soon. This is all prior to Blizzcon 2015, which means we don’t expect much to happen on the Star Craft front during Blizzcon 2015.

 

3. Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Storm has been in Closed Beta for around half a year. The release date for game’s Open Beta and official version is still unknown. Perhaps, this suspense will be unraveled in BlizzCon 2015 with an official release date. Besides, Heroes of the Storm’s game designer Dustin has said that there are still over 30 unrevealed  heroes. Kael’thas, Maiev Shadowsong, Mannoroth…. Who will we see in this year’s BlizzCon?

Of course, we can also expect new maps, new game modes and maybe, the Map Editor.

 

4. HearthStone

With Blackrock Mountain opining this Thursday, HearthStone would have received two big updates in a very small time frame. Don’t expect anything big to be announced here. If we’re lucky we’ll get a few more cards and perhaps additions to Blackrock Mountain.

 

5. World of Warcraft

With the end game reached, and the last raid almost open for Warlords of Draenor Blizzcon 2015 would be the ideal place to annnounce the release date for the next expansion.. Legion! Blizzard designers said in the previous interview that the dev team has planned the next 2 expansion for World of Warcraft. In 2011’s BlizzCon, Mists of Pandaria was announced. And 2 years later, Blizzard’s creative director Chris Metzen revealed the Warlords of Draenor in BlizzCon 2013. Now, another 2 years have passed. At this rate, Blizzard will be likely to unveil the theme, teaser trailer and some contents for WoW 7.0 A.K.A. Legion.

6. Overwatch

During the just-completed PAX East 2015, Blizzard revealed 2 new heroes and a new map for their cartoon-style FPS Overwatch, while announcing the game’s Closed Beta will come in this fall. Believe Blizzard will reveal more character information, new map and detailed gameplay to continue promoting the game. Of course, we can also expect Overwatch’s release date.

Overwatch is probably the most intriguing game at BlizzCon 2015, Blizzard’s foray into the first-person shooter market. They’ve already conquered the traditional mmorpg (WoW), moved on to both TCG games (Hearthstone) and mobas (Heroes of the Storm), so it’s now time for the mmofps genre to be dominated by Blizzard. This year saw some new characters and maps for Overwatch revealed at PAX East, so you can definitely expect that Blizzard will be setting the hype machine to overdrive come BlizzCon. By sheer coincidence, the closed beta for Overwatch is set to begin in late 2015.

I wonder if closed beta invites will be part of the swag bag given to attendees. That would be a welcome surprise it that comes to pass.

 

 

7. Diablo III

There has been a rumor that some Diablo III developers have been transferred to Blizzard’s new project. But it hasn’t been confirmed. So, we can still expect there will be some surprise for Diablo III fans. Blizzard has been chugging away Diablo III for way too long now. Introducing seasons has added a spark that has brought gamers back, and a lot of rumors are speculating that gamers will see an announcement of a Diablo 3 expansion at the convention. Most speculation is based on the game bringing the Runewords system from Diablo 2 into the current game.

Stay tuned for more info as we update this post. What do you think? What do you expect to see at this years BlizzCon 21015?