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There will be no Blizzard games at WCA 2017 after organisers failed to secure licences from the developer.
Titles such as Warcraft 3, Hearthstone and StarCraft II have made appearances at the event in the past, which has been running since 2014. However, there will be no repeat showings for any of these games this year.
In the past WCA events have been mired in controversy over a multitude of faults and questionable decisions, including unorthodox tournament formats and production issues. In one instance during the DOTA 2 finals in 2015, competitors reported that caster commentary could be heard through the player booths as they weren’t sufficiently soundproofed. It is unclear whether these problems have led to Blizzard’s decision.
When quizzed by GosuGamers about the decision, WCA representative Frank Zhang replied: “We don’t know the reason, and due to time limitations we can’t wait for a response from Blizzard before our press conference on March 23.
“We provided all documents which Blizzard requested and tried everything we could do but it didn’t work. If we keep waiting for Blizzard to respond, this will put WCA into a dilemma situation,” he added.
More information should come to light at the press conference on Thursday, where we can also expect to hear more about the games that should be featured at the tournament, including CS:GO and DOTA 2.
