Everything You Need To Know To Make The Most Of Your Time At BlizzCon

BlizzCon... It's panels. It's announcements. It's lots and LOTS of esports action. And.... It's an excuse to get together with your online crew for a weekend of good times and (maybe) debauchery.

Basically, there's a lot going on and if you're not careful you can miss the stuff you went there to check out in the first place. Luckily, Blizzard has published the convention schedule pretty far in advance and there's time to plan your personal schedule around it... maybe even slotting in some time for Disneyland while you're there...

As always, the schedule is organized by hall location -- with the main events taking place in Hall D. Other halls house panels like the spotlight series and crafting. And, of course, there are five separate halls all dedicated to your esport of choice.

Now, technically, the esports kick off a bit earlier than the primary BlizzCon event with Heroes on the Storm on October 26. These early things aren't something you can be in-house for, but as they're on the schedule, you should be able to watch them via livestream.

BlizzCon itself will kick off on November 3rd at 11 AM with the opening ceremony in Hall D. After that, if you're interested in the panels, you'll need to move around quite a bit. For our community, the first item of interest will be the Heroes of the Storm Community Gauntlet at 12:15. From there, you'll likely want to head back to Hall D for the Hearthstone panel at 1:45. After that, you'll have some time to kill before the Heroes of the Storm Panel in Hall D at 5:00 PM.

As far as Blizzard's free-to-play games go, that's all of the panels for the first day. but there will be 3 more on Saturday with the Heroes Deep Dive at 1:00PM, the Hearthstone Q&A at 2:30 PM -- both in Hall D, and the Hearthstone Tavern Trivia at 5:45 PM.

Aside from that, there are both Heroes and Heartstone esports running throughout both days in Halls B and the North Hall. And, of course, there are a lot of more general panels. Some are more fan-centric such as the cosplay panel, while others are geared more towards would be game developers. To figure out which of these you'll want to check out, take a peek at the schedule on the BlizzCon site.