On November 3rd and 4th at the Anaheim Convention Center in California there was an event that happened there called Blizzcon. The event has happened almost every year since October 2005 when the first one was. It has been canceled 4 times, 2006, 2012, 2020, and 2022. The last 4 years Blizzcon has been online due to covid, this is the first year Blizzcon has been back in person in those 4 years. Blizzcon is a celebration of all games created by Blizzard such as World of Warcraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, and Overwatch. This year they had a lottery set up for the opening ceremony, how it worked was once you bought the ticket you were automatically entered into the lottery to win opening ceremony tickets and I was lucky enough to win those tickets. The opening ceremony showed all the things that the developers had planned next for their games and everything to come in the future.
After that we entered the convention center where they had everything set up into 4 halls, hall A was for Diablo since Blizzard released Diablo 4, hall B was for the Overwatch World Cup where all the countries get their best players and have them compete for the world cup trophy. Hall C was for Overwatch since Blizzard released Overwatch 2, and hall D was for World of Warcraft which was the most populated hall since that is Blizzards most popular game that they put out almost 30 years ago.
The Overwatch World cup was the main event since it was the biggest thing happening there. Only 8 teams qualified for the competition in California and those 8 teams were USA, Canada, South Korea, China, Great Britain, Finland, Saudi Arabia, and Spain. All matches were played in a first to 5 format so first team to 3 map wins would win the series and eliminate the opposing team from making it further. The first 4 teams that were eliminated did not advance and went home, those 4 teams were Canada who lost to South Korea, USA who lost to China, Great Britain who lost to Finland, and Spain who lost to Saudi Arabia. Those 4 teams than advanced to the quarter finals where South Korea played China and Finland played Saudi Arabia. China beat South Korea putting them in the position to play for 3rd place, and Saudi Arabia beat Finland which put them in the position to play for 3rd place now against South Korea. South Korea and Finland both fought hard for 3rd place but in the end Finland ended up winning beating South Korea 3-2. Then it was time for China versus Saudi Arabia, China took an early lead and ended up taking the series 2-0 but then Saudi Arabia stopped the 3-0 sweep from China and they reverse swept winning the series 3-2 which made Saudi Arabia Overwatch World Cup champions for the first time ever. After the award ceremony to wrap up the night and Blizzcon all together there was a special performance by the K-pop band LE SSERAFIM.
For my first Blizzcon it is seriously an experience I will never forget. All the people I got to meet there and all the performances and the way everything was set up for the first Blizzcon back in person after 4 years everything was perfect. Blizzard and the entire Blizzard crew that were working there had a perfect set up and great performances all around.
