Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzCon 2010: Closing ceremonies
by Gregg Reece 
Oct 23rd 2010 at 10:45PM
Blizzard used this opportunity to bring out the tournament winners. Warcraft 3 winner Remind (night elf) from South Korea and StarCraft 2 winner NEXGenius (protoss), also from South Korea, were presented with $25,000 for being grand prize winners. They will also be getting an eSports ring customized to their game that's the size of Superbowl rings. The WoW Arena tournament was still going on at this point (*aAa* vs compLexity.Red), so there was no winner to announce for it yet.
Some faux-hype was built up as Paul started to hint that he was going to announce the secret next-gen MMO that Blizzard has had in development only to reveal a series of joke slides such as World of Jersey Shorecraft, Glee-ablo, and Booty Baywatch. So, still no news on that front. Based on interviews throughout the weekend we might not hear anything about it in 2011, but things should be announced by BlizzCon 2012.
The one big thing that did come out of the closing ceremonies was the announcement that 1,000 of the attendees will be receiving beta keys for Diablo 3. That's about 5% of the crowd that was at the convention. If you want to know how much of a chance this is, get a 20-sided die and take one attempt at rolling a 20. However, this does mean that the Diablo 3 beta is getting really close to being ready for testing.
All in all, I really feel that the closing ceremonies were phoned in. There were some cool moments and interesting features announced for all three major Blizzard properties this weekend, but the closing ceremony itself really left the convention feeling much more lackluster than it was.
On the bright side, Tenacious D is about to rock our socks off.
BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Ominous Oct 24th 2010 7:30AM
Blizzard don't need to make big announcements, for a BlizzCon to be good. It's not "Big Announcement Con". People go / watch because they like Blizzard and its products. It would be nice to have lots of big announcements, but they are not / should not be the main motivation to hold a celebration. Announcements are the accessories to, rather than substitutes for, a good time. If you can't live without them, you're in the wrong gaming universe(-s).
kmurph07 Oct 24th 2010 10:03AM
@MrGrosser- I'm not surprised. Those South Koreans play video games pretty much morning, noon, and night. I have friends who were stationed in Seoul while in the army and they said those guys are video game beasts.
Jason Oct 24th 2010 12:53PM
Was anyone else slightly annoyed that they joked around with World of Jerseycraft? Or that when they announced free beta keys and finished with for 1,000 of you attending. I think it might have been better to say we are going to be sending you all beta keys but not unlike how they did with SC2 and Cataclysm, just in batches.
Drakkenfyre Oct 24th 2010 1:30PM
"However, this does mean that the Diablo 3 beta is getting really close to being ready for testing."
No, it doesn't. People were given StarCraft 2 beta keys two years before the beta came out.
They said in an interview the beta would be out 6 months before the release. And seeing as the release isn't going to be in 2011, it's not coming out any time soon.
fernando Oct 25th 2010 10:10AM
what's going on in Korea ? They teach wow at schools ?