The ESI BlizzCon guide: what’s going on and when?

BlizzCon 2018 is a stacked affair. With World Championships on-the-line in WoW Arena, Heroes of the Storm and Starcraft 2, plus the Overwatch World Cup and WoW Mythic Dungeon Invitational All-Star and Hearthstone Global Games event, BlizzCon 2018 is set to offer fans of all Blizzard games and genres something to dig into.

The main action starts on Friday, November 2nd just after the BlizzCon opening ceremony, but action has already got underway. The HoTS Group Stage has kicked off, while the WoW Arena event has already finished its first round of games and is set to continue alongside BlizzCon on Friday.

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Credit @Blizzard

With all that hype out the way, we thought we would give a brief game-by-game rundown of what’s going on and when over the three main days of BlizzCon esports competition.

BlizzCon takes place over 3 days from November 2nd till November 4th. All below times are in GMT (+0 UTC)

Heroes of the Storm Global Championship Finals

It’s clear, even based off just prize pool alone, that HGC is Blizzards marque esport title at BlizzCon. While the Overwatch League gets most of the attention, BlizzCon should shine a light on Blizzards MOBA darling.

Teams: Gen.G, TheOne, HeroesHearth Esports, Team Liquid, Dignitas, Tempo Storm, Miracle, Tempest

First day matchups: Gen.G v TheOne – HeroesHearth Esports v Team Liquid – Dignitas v Tempo Storm – Miracle v Tempest

Daily schedule: Day one – 7 pm to 3 am – Day two – 4:30 pm to 2:15 am – Day three – N/A

Prize pool: $1m (£750,000)

Multi-language stream options

Overwatch World Cup

Overwatch World Cup

The Overwatch world cup returns for BlizzCon 2018. Eight nations from around the world battle it out and the action begins right after the opening ceremony on Friday at 8 pm.

Teams: United Kingdom, USA, Australia, South Korea, China, Finland, Canada, France

First Day Matchups: UK v USA – Australia v South Korea – China v Finland – Canada v France

Daily schedule: Day One – 7:15 pm to 3:14 am Day Two – 4:30 pm to 1:30 am – Day Three – N/A

Prize Pool: $128,000(£100,000) – $16,000 (£12,000) per team regardless of finish. $90,000(£70,000) was also on the line at each group.

Multi-language stream options

Starcraft 2 World Championship Series Global Finals

The legendary RTS is alive and kicking at BlizzCon 2018, with the World Championships being decided at BlizzCon.

Players: Maru – sOs – SpeCial – Stats – Rogue – TY – Dark – Serral

First Day Matchups: Maru v sOs – SpeCial v Stats – Rogue v TY – Dark v Serral

Daily schedule:: Day one – 7:30 pm to 1:30 am (Starcraft remaster exhibition match at 1:30 am) – Day two – 9 pm to 3 am – Daythreee – N/A

Prize pool: $700,000 (£530,000)

Multi-language stream options

World of Warcraft Arena World Championships

The WoW Arena event returns, with a familiar set of names returning for the first finals played on WoW’s latest expansion: Battle for Azeroth.

Teams: Upper Bracket – Method Black, The Gosu Crew, Method Orange, Skill Capped EU – Lower Bracket – Tempo Storm, Super Frogs, Making a Movie, Reformed, Pen and Paper, Cohesion Dreams, Unitas, ORDER.

First day matchups: Upper Bracket – Method Black v The Gosu Crew – Method Orange v Skill Capped EU. Lower Bracket – Tempo Storm v Super Frogs – Making a Movie v Reformed – Pen and paper v Cohesion Dream – Unitas v ORDER.

Daily schedule: Day one – 7:15 pm to 4:15 am – Day two – 9:15 pm to 2:45 am – Day three – N/A

Prize pool: $280,000 (£220,000)

Multi-language stream options

World of Warcraft Mythic Dungeon Invitational All-Star

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The WoW MDI was a huge success in 2017 and it returns to BlizzCon for another year. This time around as an All-Star event rather than an invitational. Will a good showing at BlizzCon 2018 see it return in a bigger way in 2019?

Teams: exceL’s Angels, Free Marsy, Method NA, Method PogChamp

First day matchups: exceL’s Angels v Free Marsy – Method NA v Method PogChamp

Daily schedule: Day two – 4:30 pm to 9 pm

Prize pool: $100,000 (£75,000)

Multi-language stream options

Hearthstone Global Games

Blizzard premier card game will once again show off one of the best stage designs in esports as it focuses on teams, rather than individual players for BlizzCon 2018.

Teams: Group A – Spain, Hong Kong, New Zealand, China. Group B – Bulgaria, Brazil, Norway, Singapore.

First day matchups: Group A – Spain v Hong Kong – New Zealand v China. Group B – Bulgaria v Brazil – Norway v Singapore.

Daily schedule: Day one – 7:15 pm to 4:15 am – Day two – 4:45 pm to 10:45 pm Day three – N/A

Prize pool: $410,000 (£320,000)

Multi-language stream options