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Heroes of the Storm: New Recruit a Friend & 2 New Heroes Announced


Posted on November 4, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Blizzard’s competitive Massive Online Battle Arena Heroes of the Storm has a ton of new content coming in the remainder of 2016 and throughout 2017. During the opening ceremonies for Blizzcon 2016 developers announced two new characters that will be coming in the following months – Varian & Ragnaros as well as a brand new arcade mode map Blackheart’s Revenge and all new recruit a friend campaign that has the potential to unlock 5 free heroes and a 30 day stim-pack.

Varian 

The former High King of the Alliance Varian will be the game’s first dual class hero – allowing players to customize their game play experience depending on which style of play they prefer – either tanking or becoming a nimble assassin. Varian will either wield his sword in one hand if playing a tank or split it into two for the assassin role.

Ragnaros

Hailing from the classic World of Warcraft Molton Core raid Ragnaros comes into the nexus in a future update. One of his unique abilities allows Ragnaros to take over a keep or fort and become a giant version of himself for a limited amount of time with a second set of abilities. It looks like this former raid boss will be a force to reckoned with once he hits the lanes.

New Recruit a Friend Event

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Running on November 15th until January 4th invite your friends to play with you in the nexus and unlock rewards in both Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch for both of you.

Completed 15 Games (Ranked, Unranked Draft, Quick Match or Co-op) and unlock the Oni Genji skin in Overwatch, a spray + player icon in Overwatch as well. For Heroes of the Storm playing 15 games will unlock Zarya as a hero and a Genji portrait for use in-game.

Complete 30 Games (Ranked, Unranked Draft, Quick Match or Co-op) and unlock Greymane, Karagin and Li-Ming in HOTS as well as the Orochi Hovercycle mount and a 30-day stim pack granting double experience and gold.

More information on this new Recruit a Friend campaign is available on the Heroes of the Storm Developer Blog.

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Meet Overwatch’s Sombra In The ‘Infiltrator’ Short


Posted on November 4, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Overwatch’s stealthy hacker has been teased, hinted at and hidden in the shadows since her first mention several months ago. After a lengthy Alternate Reality game involving fictional corporations, hidden voice lines and out of game mysteries – Sombra is now in plain sight for all to see,

In true Blizzard style she interrupted a documentary outlining the global launch of Blizzard’s competitive online shooter. The brand new animated short showcases Sombra, Reaper and Widowmaker taking on an assignment to assassinate the head of a Russian weapon development corporation.

In terms of personality it seems that Sombra is a fun loving and not so serious hero. She ends her interaction with the head of the Russian weapons corporation by “booping” her nose. Sombra’s personality certainly matches her colourful aesthetic, it is a shame her design was leaked so early but this new short certainly makes up for it.

According the official Overwatch site here are all of her abilities:

Machine Pistol Sombra’s fully-automatic machine pistol fires in a short-range spread.

Hack – Sombra hacks enemies to temporarily stop them from using their abilities, or hacks first aid kits to make them useless to her opponents.

Theromoptic Camo – Sombra becomes invisible for a short period of time, during which her speed is boosted considerably. Attacking, using offensive abilities, or taking damage disables her camouflage.

Translocator Sombra tosses out a translocator beacon. She can instantly return to the beacon’s location while it is active (including when it’s in mid-flight).

EMP – Sombra discharges electromagnetic energy in a wide radius, destroying enemy barriers and shields and hacking all opponents caught in the blast.

Watch the new short below. Sombra is playable on the Blizzcon show-floor and will be on the Public Test Realm next week.


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Overwatch World Cup Finals To Take Place At BlizzCon 2016


Posted on August 7, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Overwatch’s first competitive season is set to wrap up in a couple of weeks but with the announcement of the Overwatch World Cup, the first sanctioned world-wide competitive scene for the shooter, interest in competitive Overwatch is only likely to grow. Successful candidates for the World Cup will be able to earn their way to a place on the big stage at BlizzCon 2016 and Blizzard has outlined the entire process.

Players who have shown the ability to climb to the top echelon of the Season 1 competitive ladder will be invited alongside well known community members and professional gamers to be included in the voting process to represent their respective countries in one of 4 worldwide regions.  Only licensed owners of Overwatch will be able to vote for their country’s representative and each account is only able to vote for a player within the country that their BNet account is registered.

Starting September teams from each region will begin to participate in best of three, single-elimination preliminary rounds to qualify for a spot in the Blizzcon finale.  Each region has a pre-set amount of qualifying spots for the Blizzcon round Robin tournament. They are as follows:

  • Americas Region: Foud Spots
  • European Region: Six Spots
  • Asia Pacific Region: Sux Spots

Blizzard says that due to “variety of factors, including server locations, regional infrastructure and connectivity, and other geographical considerations” several countries will automatically have their team entered into the final 16.

OW_Regions

Automatically qualifying countries include:

  • Canada
  • The United States
  • China
  • South Korea
  • Brazil
  • Australia
  • New Zealand

How do you feel about Blizzard’s take on competitive Overwatch? I feel like it is a little unfair that 7 of the 16 slots are automatically given to countries due to “infrastructure” reasons. In reality that means that the remaining countries in the Americas Region (among others) all have to compete for the one remaining spot rather than being able to set their sights on one of the four slots.

 


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