If you happen to be one of the many Blizzard fans that enjoys attending BlizzCon – and there were 26,000 such people last year – we unfortunately have some bad news to report today. There will not be a 2012 BlizzCon, and the next event will be placed on hold until 2013. However, not everything about the announcement Blizzard put out today is bad, even more so for fans of eSports. They are also launching the 2012 Battle.net World Championship eSports event.
Running a large eSports event is a time consuming process and may be part of the reason why BlizzCon is cancelled for this year. Blizzard claims that their “jam-packed schedule” is the primary reason, with Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria, and Heart of the Swarm all coming out this year. That is an awful lot of releases and tacking on a much expanded eSports initiative could have the company taxed.
The 2012 Battle.Net World Championship will begin near the end of the year in Asia, which is as specific as they’ve gotten so far. According to Blizzard, it will feature “some of the best pro-gaming competition in the world.” Given that it is Blizzard, we suspect that many of the top pro StarCraft II gamers will be in attendance. The tournament won’t be limited to only Starcraft II however, and World of WarCraft Arena matches will be included, too.
