BlizzConline 2021 is starting in just a few hours. The biggest event for Blizzard games had to be moved from its usual November time slot because of the ongoing pandemic. It was also moved 100% online – all of the announcements, panels and community showcases will be streamed, often straight from developers’ homes.
The event is completely free to watch. You can buy extra “Celebration Bundles” if you want the usual in-game loot associated with BlizzCon tickets, but that’s obviously all optional.
Event Schedule
BlizzConline happens today & tomorrow, February 19-20. The event will be much shorter than usual.
Day 1 starts at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET / 23:00 CET, and goes for about 3.5 hours.
Day 2 starts earlier, at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET / 21:00 CET, and goes for about 4.5 hours.
You can find a full PT schedule below, or click here to go to the official website for the schedule in your own time zone.
Day 1:
Day 2:
Where to Watch
The easiest way to watch any channel you want is through the official BlizzCon website. After the events go live, you’ll be able to pick any stream you want and watch it for free.
However, if you prefer other methods, the entire BlizzConline will also be streamed on other platforms such as YouTube and Twitch.
If you’re looking for Hearthstone streams in particular – you can find it here on YouTube and Twitch.
What’s worth mentioning is that people are free to restream the event this year, which means that you might also check out whether your favorite streamers are doing it and watch it with them!
Update: Opening ceremony will only be streamed on the official “Blizzard” channel – like I’ve said, official website is your safest bet to watch it.
What to Expect
I can only speak about Hearthstone part, since I’m not up to date with other games. Well, technically we all know what to expect from WoW announcements since they leaked (check them out here if you’re interested – but I recommend just waiting until the official presentation).
When it comes to Hearthstone, here’s what I’m nearly sure we’re going to see:
- Expansion announcement – Not only Hearthstone expansions were always announced at BlizzCon, but it’s just about time we hear about the next one. Madness at the Darkmoon Faire released just over 3 months ago, so if we assume the regular ~4 months schedule, next set should be out in a month or so (maybe a bit longer, Hearthstone Designer Iksar mentioned that they might push it back to April if it won’t be ready in time). Earlier this week, a teaser was released, suggesting that the new expansion will have something to do with Quillboars. Being set in The Barrens is the most common community guess, and would be a great way to start a new year. Normally, when an expansion is announced, we learn its name, theme, its main new mechanics/keywords, and a few new cards, which is exactly what I expect now.
- Core Set & Classic Format information – When those two were announced last week, we were told that we’ll learn more about them on February 19 on BlizzConline. So it’s a safe bet that we’ll hear more about those. What I expect in particular is that they showcase some (or all?) of the new Core Set cards, tell us which of the cards we’ll see back, and maybe talk a bit more about how the Classic format is going to function exactly.
And here are the things that MIGHT also happen:
- New game mode announcement – According to the roadmap, there’s still one game mode left to be revealed for this Standard year. Just like Duels came out shortly before Darkmoon Faire, there’s a high chance that we’re going to see another game mode within the next month or so (probably right before the next expansion). Or maybe even right after BlizzCon – that’s how Battlegrounds announcement / early access release worked in 2019, after all. When it comes to what it might be, I have no clue – we had no teasers at all, so anything I say would be a complete guess.
- Upcoming Standard Year information – Standard rotation is coming soon, and it’s around the time we should learn more about it. I’m talking about the new Standard year’s name announcement, maybe a roadmap of some sort, image teasing the next two expansions, new features that are coming, and so on. However, they might not want to overwhelm us during a single event, so there’s a chance that they will release a separate announcement soon.
Keep in mind that not everything will be announced right away. Each game will only have a few minutes of the spotlight during the opening ceremony, but there’s a “Hearthstone Deep Dive” panel right after it, which should give us more details. Of course, there’s no telling if they will showcase everything during it – maybe they will still drop some smaller announcements/card reveals throughout the event.
All in all, I’m nearly sure that we’ll see new expansion and info about Core Set/Classic, and I’m pretty sure that we’re going to hear about either new game mode or new Standard year – maybe even both.
