HELLO KITTY CLUB
World of Warcraft
Sargeras US
Alliance Mythic Raiding Guild
Guild History
Hello Kitty Club was formed December 14th, 2006 from an idea that Melona had to create an Alt & PvP guild for their raiding guild Unleashed. During the summer of 2007, HKC was converted into one of the most dominant raiding guilds on Akama consisting of some of its best PvP players on the realm and transfers from Azshara.
Select an Era
Blizzcon 2017
For the eleventh Blizzcon and after all of these years a good portion of the former and current guild roster met in Anaheim, California. The majority of the crew landed in Cali and we met up the day before the con. Many steps were walked over 3 days, we went to Disney for dinner and then proceeded to look our best dressed for the Thursday night festivities. Wowhead was throwing a VIP party at the Hilton which after clever use of game mechanics the HKC crew managed to attend. Many drinks were had that night and for many of us, the jet lag was 3+ hours added onto our day. The crew stopped by the convention center to pick up goodie bags along with our passes and we managed to snag some great pics in the meantime.
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After a few hours of sleep, we all were ready for the Blizzcon gates to open Friday. We all managed to grab seats in the main hall for the opening ceremony and it was one of the best years in terms of announcements. A new hearthstone expansion was announced, Hanzo and Alexstrasza were announced as new heroes for Heroes of the Storm, it was announced that Starcraft 2 and its expansion were now going to be free to play, and last but not least FINALLY Blizzard announced not only the development of the new expansion "Battle for Azeroth" but also that a classic Vanilla server option was in development. Day one was jam-packed and the HKC crew spread out throughout the con checking out all it had to offer. Quests were set up all throughout the convention center at various booths and areas allowing you to acquire patches to decorate your goodie bag backpack, some were easy to obtain and others proved near impossible. The ability to order Blizzcon-exclusive items from the store was made easy by ordering through the blink store and picking up your purchases whenever it was convenient. With the exception of the Codecraft panel lines were not terrible.
By the end of day one, we had walked the convention center for miles visiting all the great booths and playing many new demos. Meeting up with Beastcloud for some Roscoe’s Chicken N Waffles for dinner was just the icing on the cake.
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Day 2 of the con was way more relaxing. By this time everyone including Aurongodx pretty much knew the layout of the con and which events were most important to them to hit up. In the days prior Auron pretty much had no idea where anything was and got lost repeatedly. Without feeling rushed and with so much to witness we all jumped in lines wherever we could. Developer and voice actor signings had the longest line unless you were a Starcraft fan; they were pretty much just giving away signatures with no one lining up. The Overwatch arena was an amazing atmosphere to be a part of and congrats to South Korea for winning it all! The Hearthstone tavern was a really chill place even if you were not into the card game and along with the area they also had the new Razer phone available to demo and play Hearthstone on. The Warcraft Q/A was one not of the greater ones. The questions were prescreened before being asked and were directed toward the new expansion with only two questions asked about server population imbalance and Warcraft Classic. Completing the quests to obtain all the con-exclusive badges for your goodie bag meant you got to visit every booth and demo every Blizzard product hardly anything was looked over.
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As day 2 came to a close a few of us filed in for the ending ceremony with Muse being the main event. It was lackluster, to say the least, the main hall is just not designed for a concert performance and unless you are in the reserved sections in front of the stage you found yourself sitting in your chair watching the screen. We left early! Saying goodnight to Blizzcon we met up with the Life Sentence crew from Akama Horde and grabs some dinner at IHOP. Talking with the guys in red and putting a face to a name after all these years was a great experience. We all shared our good times on Akama and hopefully, it will see better days in the future. Everyone returned back to the real world on Sunday as we all had flights to head home. Do we say next year will be an even larger meet? We will just have to wait and see!
Blizzcon 2018
This marked the twelfth Blizzcon hosted by Blizzard Entertainment and HKC got off to an early start coordinating our guild members for a larger than ever meet up. Jenn AKA Shebalo spearheaded those interested early on and the day ticket sales were announced started planning. Whereas last year HKC Blizzcon was a last-minute occasion given most of us got tickets during a surprise third wave of sales, this year Auron and Shebalo already had hotel rooms booked before the first wave went live.
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The dreaded day arrived, on May 9th. We had an entire discord full of folks desperately trying to get a queue to pop for their ticket purchases...only Lindsay AKA Shawnessy was successful. A max of four tickets could be purchased and all were claimed immediately. May 12, the second and final wave proved to be our lucky night. Both Aurongodx and Someguy managed to acquire 8 tickets respectively allowing our group to grow from four to twelve. Aurongodx, Veres, Shebalo, HungryYeti, Someguy, Awesomerogue, Drakeblade, and Jellyshaman claimed them all and our group was ready for the long wait till November 2nd.
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Surprise! Blizzard decided that 35000 people at Blizzcon was not enough and decided on the third wave of ticket sales! The guild mobilized and Teed managed to acquire 4 more tickets which were all claimed by his fellow Canadians growing our group to a massive 16! This is more than double the turnout from last year and dares I say it...this could start a guild tradition...an expensive one.
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Hotels were booked, cars were rented, and money was saved. Aurongodx decided it was time for some guild swag! Business cards, Postcards, Magnets, Pens! The HKC was legit and always looking to add to our roster thus a littering campaign was planned to get our guild name out there at Blizzcon. A couple of us decided to hit up Lilena Talem for badge commissions after seeing what an amazing job she did for Shebalo's Blizzcon badge last year.
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Blizzcon week! One of our Horde counterparts Elfbane arrived first in Anaheim and enjoyed the spoils of the Hilton located directly next to the convention center. Someguy and his brother also managed to pull some strings acquiring a room there as well. The majority of us would not arrive until that Thursday before the con. Shebalo found a sweet deal at the Garden Grove Marriott about a 15-minute walk down the road from the convention center and most guild attendees followed suit booking rooms there or at hotels nearby.
Some would argue that the best day of all Blizzcon week is Thursday. You have badge pickup and the Blinkstore opening along with all the festivities that night at the Hilton with Con Before the Storm and the Wowhead Party. Last year we made the mistake of not acquiring enough tickets to the Wowhead party but this year that was not the case and we had more than enough for everyone. Our friendly neighborhood Beastcloud managed to make our party yet again this year and Moghedian also biked his way down to Anaheim to chill with the guild even without having tickets to Blizzcon.
A guild dinner was had at an Outback Steakhouse with many drinks and good times following at the various Hilton parties. We ran into our favorite horde rogue Nolarz, an old guildmate from our A-Team core at the Wowhead party and a huge fight broke out following....just kidding! It is always great running into old friends and Noted's discord got a kick out of our selfies. Many drinks were had and everyone had an amazing time that went well into the night. Teed and his fellow Canadians arrived around this time and managed to stop by as our party concluded with more drinks in Someguy and Awesomerogues hotel room. We also managed to take the first officer core photo...minus Laetus, maybe next year?
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Many had high expectations for this year of Blizzcon announcements but the day got off to a rocky start. The majority of us only got a few hours of sleep to combine that with the added security at the convention center and you are left with one of the worst lines getting into Blizzcon ever. Metal detectors were used for the first time this year and routes were not clearly defined which led to many different lines forming from the nearby hotels all funneling into one larger line. It took over 2 hours to get into the convention center if you got in line early and many missed the opening ceremonies due to this. Having a larger group this year meant that it was harder to keep track of everyone's location. The largest of these memes was "Where the hell is Veres". The guy spent more time at Jack in a Box than at Blizzcon I swear.
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There were some surprising announcements this year that many were not expecting. The obvious announcements were a summer 2019 release date for World of Warcraft Classic and the playable floor demo but a crowd shocker was the Warcraft III Reforged announcement with a 2019 release date. Rebuilt from the ground up and with the Culling of Stratholme playable on the floor, it was an amazing thing to experience firsthand. New heroes for Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch were announced along with a new Hearthstone expansion and some sort of co-op hero thing for Starcraft 2 as well as World of Warcraft announcing further content patches with a new cinematic trailer. The largest disappointment would have to be the Diablo Immortal trailer. Only for mobile and no mention of any specifics regarding any other related projects in the pipeline led to actual boos during the following deep dive panel. All they had to do was mention that Diablo 4 was in production with a splash screen of the logo and I think Blizzard could have avoided this PR disaster.
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This year’s fan wall was dedicated to Mike Morhaime given his upcoming retirement so instead of signing our names and HKC in huge letters over other signatures we decided to stake out small areas to leave our marks. Who knows what he will even do with such a thing but I am sure his house has room for it. Everyone in our group went about their own experiences on day one, checking out demos, listening to panels, and watching Esports. Veres spent the day drinking in various hotel rooms occasionally popping his head into Blizzcon to say hello. Sadly not in attendance were Shebalo and Yeti due to her getting sick the night before. At day's end it was decided that a small group of us would continue the tradition of dining in at Roscoe’s Chicken N Waffles.
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Blizzcon day two was much more relaxing. Everyone from the guild was in attendance and we even managed to get Veres to stick around long enough to complete the first-ever Blizzcon Mythic Dungeon challenge! Granted it was fairly straightforward, you were given one hour to set up key binds and macros to complete a Waycrest 5 in time. The prize was a poster...woohoo. One guild group managed to +2 the instance and another group easily completed a +3 dungeon. Drakeblade used clever game mechanics to acquire a second Blizzcon badge from an attendee and it just so happened to be a media pass! He kept the media pass for himself and gave the second pass to Mog allowing him to experience all of the day 2 festivities; good things come to those who wait!
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As always there is so much to do at Blizzcon that it is hard to get around to each and every booth to experience it all. Last year each booth had quests to complete which rewarded Velcro patch swag for your backpack. This was an easy incentive to explore the convention floor and visit every booth. This year however those quests were absent and prizes were pretty lame for what was required. Most booths had you tweet or hashtag advertisements all over social media and you got a water bottle or some random piece of junk. The Blizzard-related booths rewarded exclusive posters that could then be signed by developers located all over the convention.
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Some minor but entertaining editions to this year’s Blizzcon were the Starcraft beers which when you could find them were delicious but stayed sold out much of the time. The Darkmoon Faire had many new games offered to show off new toys such as the various Overwatch Nerf guns and the ever-mysterious time capsule boxes which contained anything from past promotions or in-game codes such as the Spectral Tiger mount for example. Naturally, this ended up being the longest line at the convention and when one person decided to buy all the boxes for himself, many that waited hours in line were upset.
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Nearing the closing ceremonies many of us got in our last-minute visits to demo areas and vendor booths. Shebalo managed to hook us up with a media pass friend and we skipped the Overwatch line. We all worked together to build an HKC logo in the Lego area and with many photo ops involving Mercy cosplays along the way. The closing act this year was 3 different artists each taking up a different hall in the convention center. "Train" was the main act located in the main hall; Lindsey Stirling was located in the Warcraft Arena hall and Kristian Nairn in the Overwatch Arena. Naturally, most congoers migrated toward Lindsey Stirling and the Overwatch Arena was at capacity by the beginning of the Hodor concert so needless to say they both killed it during the closing acts. Sadly but was to be expected the main hall where Train performed was pretty much empty. They are just not Blizzcon material but still were a solid performance.
Most of us made our exit during closing ceremonies and all met for the second annual official post-Blizzcon HKC guild dinner at the gourmet 5-star restaurant...Red Robin. It was a Veres thing. Granted they had no issues seating all of us and after spending hundreds of dollars of Canadian money at the con it is nice to have a pretty decent dinner bill. Aurongodx decided to take his commissioned badge work and have a canvas made for the guild to sign at the dinner. Afterward, we grabbed a few guild photos and parted ways. Most of us were headed back Sunday but 5 of us decided to stick around. As quickly as it was all put together convention crews were already there Sunday morning taking everything down. Some of us took the Sunday to catch up on sleep after a hectic 3 days while others spent time at Disneyland. The remaining crew of 5 had dinner in downtown Disney ironically at the same place where we all had our first meal last year. After a few drinks at the Hilton everyone said their goodbyes and it was back to reality.
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Blizzcon is an amazing experience. Sure there is everything Blizzard has to offer but for some of us its all about just getting to experience each other’s company in person makes the expense worth it all. They have already announced that there will be another Blizzcon in 2019 and of course that same day Shebalo changed the Facebook groups chat to reflect that. We will see who will decide to show their face next year!
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Blizzcon 2019
After the 2018s lack-luster Blizzcon, many of us talked about skipping the next year. Many factors played a part in those thoughts from the lack of announcements to the “Diablo Immortal” disaster to many cost-cutting measures implemented by Activision basically killing off the esports scene for Heroes of the Storm and firing over 800 employees at the start of the year. Given all the negativity surrounding Blizzard, somehow the members of Hello Kitty Club somehow manage to be the bright spot of the entire event from our guild dinners to our hangouts. This led to even more increased interest in Blizzcon from former and current members of the guild. After a group of 16 from the guild made it last year, HKC somehow managed to more than double interest, and once tickets were announced everyone was jumping at the chance to snag a ticket to Anaheim. Surprisingly even with a ticket price increase and a third ticket tier added with additional perks called a “Portal Pass” for 500 dollars, HKC has a collectively managed to acquire over 25 tickets over the two wave sales!
With tickets acquired the guild entered the planning stage with Blizzcon still months away. A few lucky folks managed to book rooms at the Hilton months prior and guessed the correct dates allowing the best experience possible given all the parties that take place in and around the Hilton and the convenience of being directly next to the convention center. Aurongodx wanted to outdo himself with swag this year and it was past due that HKC gets an official logo. Lilena Talem was again commissioned for an official guild logo incorporating both the Hello Kitty branding and Jaina Proudmoore into a one-of-a-kind piece of art. This art was utilized in the creation of much of the guild swag given away at Blizzcon in the form of recruitment cards, magnets, pens, postcards, stickers, and exclusive pins! Aurongodx also had another canvas made for guild mates to sign this year which has become more of a tradition. Blizzard shilled out products over the summer that enticed many to spontaneously purchase in the form of a 15th-anniversary collector’s edition of World of Warcraft that came with a large Ragnaros statue along with another wave of server blades that were sold for charity.
Blizzcon news was quiet throughout the summer all the way up until just weeks prior to the event. They kept a lid on all news regarding Blizzcon possibly due to continued negative press surrounding Blizzard and the ongoing Hong Kong protests. Blizzard ended up on the wrong side of the conflict when they banned a Hearthstone player for using his platform to broadcast his support for the protests. This negative press would lead all the way into Blizzcon with multiple planned protests going on in and around the convention center. With all that going on there was the yearly threat of California being on fire that ended up causing real problems for the LA area and almost canceled many flights coming into LAX on Blizzcon week.
With Blizzcon week landing in the middle of Halloween, many of the party festivities were modeled after the holiday with Wednesday night's “Ditchcon” party being a costumed villain dress-up event and Thursday night's “Con before the Storm” party having many Halloween themes. Aurongodx was a backer for the Con before the Storm party and dedicated the guild to his donation putting HKC on the Wowhead party thank list!
Members of the guild began arriving Wednesday morning and after a small meet-up at IHOP for a late breakfast, everyone began checking into their hotels. After a brief trip to the local Walgreens to stock up on alcoholic beverages, Aurongodx and Veres decided to try out the hot tubs at the Hilton with their room having direct access! The Wednesday night plans were light due to attending but those that arrived early all met up for an interesting dinner at a Japanese restaurant then it was off to the Ditchcon party! I will note that a lot of things happened this night; it was eventful, to say the least. So eventful that it led to Auron and Veres walking the streets of Anaheim at 0300 talking about life. After an unplanned meal at a Denny’s, they encountered a group of folks from Australia that had just gotten into Anaheim for Blizzcon. Obviously, we had a lot of things in common that grew into a friendship that would last throughout the convention.
After hardly getting any sleep, the Hilton room crew grabbed breakfast and began the long journey of acquiring our Blizzcon tickets from a tent located outside the Sheraton Hotel next to the Hilton. The “Portal Pass” cuties were allowed to pick up their tickets inside the Hilton and were given their goodie bag at the same time while we peasants were reduced to standing in a sea of people in Hall E of the convention center for hours just to pick up a statue and maybe do some Blink Store shopping. With many more HKC members arriving Thursday, a large group of us made our way into Disney for an early dinner before the evening festivities at the Hilton. The group met up at “Tortilla Jo's” which had become a tradition and we also purchased some “Professional” group photos from our waiter. Afterward, a brief search ensued to find Luceous as he was playing mind games by taking pictures of our group while in hiding. After finally meeting up with Luceous after over a decade of knowing each other we ventured around the remaining parts of downtown Disneyland before heading back to our hotel rooms to get ready for the evening festivities.
Thursday night is probably the best time during Blizzcon and this year was no exception. All of the HKC crew was in attendance for the Con before the Storm party that had merged with the Wowhead party to take up all of the first and second floors of the Hilton. Many drinks and laughs were had, and some tears were shed as well…it had been somewhat stressful leading up to this moment for many of HKCs members. What a relief it was finally to all be in the same place to hang out and enjoy each other’s company. Even some of the Acquired Taste folks…former and current managed to make their way into the party to hang out with us! Aurongodx participated in some backer activities and won a ton of goodies and artwork. As the party began to wind down, the after-party began in Aurongodx and Veres room. More alcohol was consumed and laughs shared…laughs shared so loudly that Hilton security had to come by the room to quiet us down…yikes! As the after-party drew to a close everyone began venturing back to their hotel rooms…shout out to Luceous for making sure Skorp made it back to his hotel room!
Day 1 Blizzcon...the mystery surrounding the convention was felt as the much-hyped Diablo 4 was set to be announced along with the next World of Warcraft expansion. After some breakfast at the Hilton, many of the HKC crew began filing into the long security lines that plagued last year's experience. Fortunately, this time around the hired convention center security learned their lesson and lines moved quickly! As you entered the main walkway to the convention center, the Hong Kong protestors had set up shop and were handing out a lot of propaganda but remained peaceful. Most of the group wanted to get through the lines early in order to save seats for the HKC crew at the mythic stage but by the time they started allowing general ticket admittance inside the portal pass folks had filled the mythic stage to capacity…a trend that will continue throughout Blizzcon. As the peasant passed folks threw a fit outside the Mythic Stage, Shebalo managed to snag an amazing section in the Overwatch arena and many of the guild members ended up watching all announcements from there.
Blizzcon started off with a bang! Huge announcements! Blizzcon opened with a Diablo 4 cinematic and they finally announced its development. HungryYeti had the right idea and after they had announced a playable demo in the mythic stage area he got up and ran across the convention center to play it! Next up was the World of Warcraft cinematic for the next expansion Shadowlands! It was pretty epic to finally see Bolvar open up a can of….nope he got 1v1’ed by Sylvanas…yikes! Even though ESPN had leaked the Overwatch 2 announcement prior to Blizzcon it was still amazing to see the cinematic and announcement. Tons of events were planned for Blizzcon this year with the return of the Blizzard Arcade area, a movie theater featuring all Blizzard game trailers, the 15th World of Warcraft and 25th Warcraft anniversary event planned for Friday evening, and so much more along with tons of returning festivities. Not to mention everything announced had playable demos on the floor! Everyone had so many things they wanted to do so we all went about our separate ways and split up into smaller groups in order to cover the ground of the convention center. Emo and Shebalo were left to recruitment duties and were given guild swag to pass out!
Another huge shout out to our Aussie buddies we met Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Veres had broken his cell phone Wednesday night (long story) and got separated from our group Friday morning before Blizzcon. We all came to the realization that we would not see him again that day due to not being able to contact him when luckily he ran into the Aussie crew and they let him use one of their phones to contact us. Talk about some wholesome chaps!
Day 1 was spent trying out all the demos and exploring the convention center. A new layout and many returning fan favorites such as the Hearthstone Tavern and an entire hall of space were added for the Blizzard Arcade where you could go and demo some of Blizzard's oldest titles. Hall A used to house the Badge pickup and blink store but with badge pickup being moved offsite this allowed for many more festivities and the Arcade was one of those along with Raynors Bar being set up downstairs in the same hall. All the returning brews were present along with new brews featuring the Alliance, Horde, and a Murloc brew!
As the day came to a close, most of HKC spent their time at the convention center only leaving to grab a bite to eat at one of the many food trucks located conveniently outside. That Friday evening was an amazing Warcraft 15th anniversary celebration located outside in the Overwatch arena plaza. There were beverages served and collectible mugs to be picked up…and that long was LONG! Shout out to Jellyshaman for hooking Aurongodx up with a mug and braving the long lines! The tribute band played all kinds of music as we all jammed out to some old-school tunes. We ended day one at one of our usual diners that can seat large groups once again at IHOP!
Day 2 was spent practically recovering from the past 3 nights of straight partying but there was still so much to do and a planned guild photo in front of the Blizzard timeline wall located in the Arcade area. After a quick Hilton breakfast for the folks that were staying in luxury, the HKC crew started making their way into the convention center for day 2 festivities. Many of us had yet to step foot into the Mythic Stage since the Portal Pass folks kept the hall at capacity most of day one. Luckily they finally ventured out allowing the peasant pass folks the opportunity to try out the Diablo 4 demo and explore the Mythic Hall area. Much of the day was spent trying out demos and viewing panels. The officer core of HKC tried its best to recreate their in-game officer photo at one of the Diablo 4 photo booths and we all had an amazing time it! After attempting to coordinate as many guild mates as possible HKC took their guild photo in front of the Blizzard timeline wall. Luckily the panel most of us wanted to see was upstairs and most of us watched the Warcraft Q/A panel together. “Red Shirt Guy” made a much-welcome return and a Hong Kong protestor even stole the mic for an awkward moment that presenters Taliesin & Evitel handled with respect.
As Day 2 came to a close, Blizzard waited literally 30 minutes prior to the closing ceremony to announce the closing acts. The Glitch Mob, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Haywyre were set to perform on different stages during a simulcast. HKC members attended The Glitch Mob closing in the Mythic Stage and made the most of it since many didn’t want to leave the area due to its exclusivity. There may or may not be video proof of Aurongodx throwing it down on the dance floor but said the video is just proof that he is a better dancer than Veres!
As everyone filed out of the convention center we planned for one last guild dinner before everyone began their journey home Sunday. Luceous has recommended a rooftop restaurant nearby however unbeknownst to us; Method had reserved the entire restaurant for their Blizzcon after party! After some deliberation, it was decided that we would all meet at The Pizza Press down the street from the convention center. This place ended up being the highlight of the trip! They could easily sit at our large party and also served alcohol with an attached bar on the hotel side of the restaurant! We ended up hanging out here for hours into the night and exchanged many laughs and good times before snapping a group photo that ended up being our best one of the trip.
Blizzcon is so much more than a gaming convention for Hello Kitty Club. The convention is a footnote to the good times we all have when we travel from all over to fully realize our friendships from our guild into the real world. We have continued exponential growth with each passing Blizzcon since 2017 when 6 of us decided to finally all group up and make a meet out of it. We had in total over 30 formers, current, and future members join us! Will we see 60 next year??? Let’s hope someone can help Aurongodx plan all of this is that many people commit!
Blizzcon 2020 & COVID-19
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Shortly after Blizzcon 2019 came to an end, plans were already being put in motion for an even bigger Blizzcon 2020…or so we thought. No one knows the exact date and time when the literal shit started hitting the fan but history will say it was shortly into 2020 that the whole world was turned upside down. COVID-19 was brought upon us all and what started as a simple flu-like virus turned into a global pandemic. In the early months, there were only minor delays to large events, as the pandemic worsened…all large events were canceled. It was announced in April that Blizzard would be monitoring the pandemic closely and not even a month later they announced the cancelation altogether. It was not all bad news however, Blizzard also announced a replacement for an “in-person” Blizzcon in the form of “Blizzconline” which would take place in early 2021 taking place completely online.
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Blizzconline was imagined as a virtual Blizzcon in the literal sense and aired over a 2-day format on February 19th and 20th. There would be your usual game announcements along with community events such as costume contests and various panels with developers and voice cast members, all being done virtually from home. Packaged with this event was the Blizzconline virtual ticket that was free for everyone but also had a paid tier that provided in-game goodies and a remastered compilation series of Blizzard's earliest titles “Rock N Roll Racing”, “Blackthorne”, and “The Lost Vikings”.
The one thing that the virtual Blizzcon lacked however was major announcements. Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic took a major toll on Blizzard's game development roadmap. Announced for 2021 was the latest content patch for Warcraft 9.1 Chains of Domination, a new Hearthstone expansion, launch dates for Warcraft Classic Burning Crusade, and the remastered Diablo 2 Resurrected. The panels were great content as per usual and they did have various bands playing throughout both days, the most comical being the Metalica set that was muted and played over with generic music on Twitch due to dcma issues.
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Most guild members tuned in for what their interests were and we all enjoyed Blizzconline virtually with the hopes that later in 2021 there would be a return to in-person events. The show ended with the footnote that an in-person Blizzcon will happen again. With the pandemic reaching a turning point hopefully, that will be sooner rather than later.
Blizzcon 2021 & "The Lawsuit"
With Blizzconline wrapping up February 20th, there were those hopeful that if we reached the goals required to end the pandemic that in person events would return and a Blizzcon 2021 slated for the end of October could be in reach. Sadly, disaster would strike in the form of Activision Blizzard imploding on itself. Early in July, as other major event organizers were beginning to plan in-person events again later in the fall, Blizzard was hit with “The Lawsuit”.
The short story is that the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing brought a lawsuit toward Activision Blizzard on the basis of multiple instances of sexual misconduct, many of them occurring with high-ranking employees in the company during past Blizzcon events (the now infamous Cosby Suite for example). Shortly after the lawsuit news broke, many former and current employees as well as many content creators shared their stories on social media recounting past events of sexual misconduct by Blizzard employees. You can read the ever-unfolding long version of the story here.
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With this incident dominating the news and rightfully so, instead of Blizzard planning future events they spent much of the year in damage control mode. Top-level designers, executives, and even president J. Allen Brack were out of the company. Many references to these employees in Blizzard's game titles were reworked or removed altogether.
Early 2021 started with high hopes for Blizzcon. Those hopes were diminished in May with the announcement of another cancelation of an in-person event. After the damage had been done in July with the lawsuits, firings, bad press, and overall lost trust...the Blizzconline that had been planned for early 2022 was also canceled. Statements were released stating that the company needed to focus on improving internally and that it would not be in their good conscious to host a celebratory event given what has transpired.
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What does this mean for Hello Kitty Club going forward you might ask? While we all do hope for the company to turn around, we will continue to hold our community to the highest standards possible. While we would like to have spent our 15th anniversary as a guild together in person at Blizzcon, we will be celebrating virtually and waiting for that announcement when we can all go home once again to Blizzcon.