Twitch and Blizzard have entered a partnership to stream Blizzard-related tournaments and competitions on Twitch, according to an official announcement on the Twitch Blog.
Here is the full blog post on Twitch and Blizzard’s new partnership:
“The brilliant minds at Blizzard have given gamers a lot of gifts. From their genre-defining titles to compelling characters and stories, we’ve been lucky to experience some unforgettable gaming moments over the years. We still fondly remember taking our first steps into the world of Azeroth, holding off an aggro deck until top-decking EXACT lethal, or that one time we landed a game-changing Graviton Surge.
In fact, Starcraft II was one of the main inspirations for building Twitch (when we weren’t microing hydralisks until our fingers felt like falling off). And since then, we’ve streamed Blizzard’s game launches, crowned their world champions, and celebrated alongside the community at BlizzCon — which makes today’s reveal that much sweeter.
Twitch and Blizzard are officially teaming up in a bigger way than ever before. We might not have Pharah and Mercy beat, but this combo has to be close.
From now through 2018, Twitch and Blizzard fans will get the legendary treatment. Twitch will be the exclusive third-party streaming platform for more than 20 Blizzard tournaments. The best place to watch Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and StarCraft II just became even better with tons of exclusive content (you’ll find all the details in our press release). You can also expect community events, and, of course, some sweet, sweet loot. That reminds us…
Starting on June 20, Twitch Prime members will receive an Overwatch Golden Loot Box containing a guaranteed legendary item, along with three additional in-game items like emotes, voice lines, or character skins. That’s right — Twitch Prime members get guaranteed, certified-Legendary loot. Over the coming months, Twitch Prime members will receive 10 additional loot boxes containing more in-game goodies. Similar promotions will begin in August for Heroes of the Storm and in September for Hearthstone, so stay tuned.
Because Twitch Prime recently expanded into over 200 countries and territories, perks like these are available for more people than ever before. For more information, a free trial, and more loot for Blizzard’s best games, visit www.twitchprime.com.”
Originally, Blizzard only streamed certain tournaments and competitions on their official website. But, with this partnership with Twitch, Twitch will be the only other streaming source for future Blizzard-related tournaments and competitions until 2018.
Some of the main Blizzard-related tournaments and competitions that will be streamed on Twitch includes the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship, the StarCraft II World Championship Series, the Hearthstone Championship Tour, the Hearthstone Global Games, the World of Warcraft Arena Championship, the Overwatch APEX League, and the Overwatch Premier Series.
In the press release for this partnership, Twitch COO Kevin Lin says that this has been a long time coming since Twitch was created due to the popularity of Starcraft II.
“We founded Twitch as a gaming platform heavily based on our community’s reaction to games like Blizzard’s StarCraft II,” said Lin. “Since then, our large, but tight-knit community, our constantly evolving suite of interactive features, and a native emote-driven chat language celebrated by viewers enable us to support and grow Blizzard esports in a manner that best serves our collective fans. This includes providing Blizzard fans with exclusive in-game content for those who subscribe to Twitch Prime, another defining and cherished component of our brand.”
Blizzard is further paving the way for their e-sports brand by putting up streams for many tournaments and competitions up on Twitch. The Twitch community can now openly support some of their favorite games without having to leave Twitch.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons.
