Heroes of the Storm esports is back, but it's just for one day

Not a day goes by without me lamenting the death of Heroes of the Storm. While League of Legends will always be the premier MOBA, HoTS took all of my favorite games and smushed them into one, perfect place. It's a game that I have far too many fond memories of; I used to be an absolute beast on Sylvanas Windrunner, but could happily spend games healing up my squadmates as Diablo's Auriel or WoW's Alexstrasza. But HotS is effectively in stasis at the moment, kept alive with the odd balance patch and update, but nothing more. I think we're all secretly hoping that Blizzard brings it back, but BlizzCon 2026 is doing the next best thing.

BlizzCon 2026 will host the brand new Blizzard Classic Cup; a cross-title esports tournament that includes WoW Arena and Mythic Dungeon International, as well as the Overwatch World Cup. That's pretty standard fare, but the Classic Cup also sees reruns of old legacy matches for StarCraft, StarCraft 2, and - you guessed it - Heroes of the Storm.

Let's start with HoTS. The Classic Cup will be a rerun of the ever-iconic 2018 HGC finale, where Dignitas faced off against Gen.G. Four members of the original Dignitas roster will be taking the stage, while Jeong 'KyoCha' Won-ho will be the only returning Gen.G member. The rest of the squads are made up of BlizzCon alumni, though, so there are a lot of famous faces.

The 2018 finale lives in my head rent-free. I vividly remember being on the edge of my seat - as a Dignitas fan (I'm UK-based) I was so excited to see a British squad make it to the finale, even if they did get absolutely obliterated. 2018 marked the end of a somewhat rocky run for HotS esports, and while I'd liked to have seen something a little more competitive to close things out, I can't help but smile at the memory.

But it's not just HoTS that's back: Blizzard is also reigniting two of StarCraft and StarCraft 2's most heated rivalries. Lim 'BoxeR' Yo-hwan and Kang 'Nal_rA' Min are back for a StarCraft Remastered rematch, and these two esports veterans have a long, intertwined history. It's a similar story with Gregory 'IdrA' Fields and Jang 'MC' Min-chul, who take to the stage once more for a good ol' fashioned StarCraft 2 bout. The sparks are going to fly.

Warcraft 3 is also back, with Yoan 'ToD' Merlo and Zeng 'TeD' Zhou returning for yet another bout. TeD's won four out of six of the duo's skirmishes, so it'll be interesting to see if he can make it five.

Blizzard claims that these three matches "are just a taste of what's in store with the Blizzard Classic Cup." That could mean that there's more to be added to the roster - imagine a rerun of a GOATs-era match in Overwatch Classic. The possibilities are endless.

As someone who loves esports and spends far too much of her time on Twitch, this is very exciting. Bar World of Warcraft, Blizzard's struggled to break into the competitive gaming sphere - even OWL didn't really make a mark. Yet, I truly believe that its esports scene was truly special; partly because of the communities around it, but partly because Blizzard's games are so beloved and unique. I'd love to see the company give it another bash, but that one feels like somewhat of a pipe dream. But, then again, never say never - maybe the Classic Cup with spark a revolution.