BlizzCon might be my favorite Orange County convention. It's mostly indoors, you get to see a bunch of stuff no one else does, and everyone is happy to be there — what more could you want? Oh, and even better, most of what's on display is Orange County-made.
Those of you who haven't made it, especially if you're Blizzard fans, I recommend you go at least once. Why? Well maybe.. this year's stand outs will convince you.
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4. Cosplay
I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret that I don't tell a lot of people. When I was in high school, I was the president of the anime club. That's right, hip ole Charles Lam was the king-leader of all the weeabos. Now, as were my duties, I saw a lot of cosplay.
In high school anime land, you see a lot of bad cosplay. Some people just randomly wearing Naruto headbands, people who can't finish a stitch to save their life, that kind of thing. But at BlizzCon? The cosplay is magical. I've written about it before, but let me reiterate. The worst cosplay at BlizzCon blows away anything I saw as a teenager. And what's even more amazing is that year after year, it keeps getting better. As the fan base ages, they figure out how to use electronics, sew better, pay more attention to the details, and it's just magical.
This year, I saw a guy walking around with a fully-lit costume (staff included) with gears for shoulder pads. The kicker? When he moved his arms, the gears moved to compensate. Wild.
3. The Beer
The Anaheim Convention Center is actually pretty good on the beer it stocks. While other major expo centers normally stock the big three, Anaheim regularly vends Ballast Point beer, which is some of my favorite. This year at BlizzCon though? The beer selection was even better.
I don't know if the guys at Blizzard love Bottle Logic or something, but Anaheim's newest brewery was out in force over the weekend, selling their beer all over the place. They even brewed a beer especially for World of WarCraft's 10th anniversary and sold tons of it during the celebration, so good look finding it in the wild.
And you know, a lot of the people who attend the con are coming from outside Orange County, so if they leave with a good impression of OC beer, then I'm a happy camper.
2. Legacy of the Void Showmatches
Blizzard always likes to do something fun during BlizzCon, and this year that meant having some of the best Korean StarCraft players playing not-so-serious exhibition matches of the game's next major expansion. I could tell you about it, but you should just watch. It's funny, I swear.
1. Overwatch
The biggest piece of news to come out of BlizzCon this year was Overwatch, Blizzard's new FPS IP. While a lot of people on the Internet complained about how it was just a TF2 rip off or were confused about the Pixar-esque introduction video, I gotta tell you guys, it's going to be a fun game.
Literally, it was my favorite thing of the weekend. I stood in line over and over again to play this game, it's going to be so awesome.
See also:
Songhammer Plays Outside Blizzcon. We Talk to 'em for a Bit
Five Reasons Why BlizzCon is Going to Be Awesome
The Best and Worst of BlizzCon 2013
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