BlizzCon 2026#
Four days in Southern California centered around Anaheim Convention Center for BlizzCon 2026. From surviving the confusing sprawl of morning lines and pushing Classic+ dungeon demos to their limits, to catching up with friends, devs, and an epic 6-hour LAX delay before heading across the Pacific.
Day 1: LAX Arrival, Badge Pickup & Sabrosada#
I flew into Los Angeles on American Airlines, pleasantly surprised to find that they actually served free food on the flight. After landing, I met up with Tater at LAX. The terminal I landed at was definitely on the uglier side of airport design—a bit confusing to navigate—but we banded together and made our way to the LAX-it pickup area to grab a ride over to Anaheim.
Once in Anaheim, we checked into the Hilton right by the convention center and headed over to pick up our badges, including Tenju’s. We had to text him mid-stride to get a photo of his ID so they’d release it to us. Later in the evening, Tenju drove over from his event, parked in the hotel lot, and the three of us hunted down some late-night food at a nearby Mexican spot, Sabrosada. With full stomachs, we called it a night to get ready for the convention floor.
Day 2: BlizzCon Day 1 – Sprawling Lines, Classic+ Demos & The Shark Hazard#
Lines, lines, and more lines. We woke up early and joined a massive, sprawling, and frankly confusing queue to get into the convention center. Once inside, we originally sat with Vynestra, Leyna, and friends over at the Diablo Immortal area. However, the video and audio feeds weren’t working properly for the opening ceremony broadcast, so we migrated back to the World of Warcraft area and stood near the demo entrance.
The opening ceremony itself was great—I really liked the StarCraft and Warcraft trailers, though I didn’t get to finish the Warcraft cinematic because they officially opened the demo line right in the middle of it. Naturally, we chose the demo line. The demo was a Classic+ dungeon. I decided to play Frost Mage, which turned out to be a rough choice—I performed horribly. It felt like a distinct hybrid of TBC and WotLK gameplay. Afterwards, we caught up with Mael before his meet-and-greet to debrief about the demo, the gameplay feel, and some of the class changes (including Blizzard nerfing Frost Mages).
For lunch, we stepped out for a decent meal at a nearby pho restaurant. Afterward, we split up for a bit: Tater headed back to the hotel to rest, while Tenju and I went right back to the WoW demo area to try the new leveling experience. We only managed to hit level 4, but it was fun to explore.
Later in the day, we watched a few panels—grabbing some deep-fried Oreos to snack on—before returning for another run through the dungeon demo as a trio. This time, I switched over to tanking on Prot Paladin, which went significantly smoother than the morning run. We downed an extra boss before eventually wiping to a massive shark that we were convinced was a boss. We later met up with Mael for dinner, walked over to Cheesecake Factory, and spent the meal discussing the announcements and class changes—where Mael revealed to us that the shark was actually just an environmental hazard with no real loot! We hung out for a while afterward before heading back to sleep.
Day 3: BlizzCon Day 2 – Sarthe’s Talent Hack, Quesabirria & Bottle Rocket#
Another exciting day on the convention floor. We got in two more demo runs today, starting with a run alongside Vynestra and Ashler. With that crew, we pushed deeper and took down three bosses. The dungeon design is genuinely fun, and it definitely built up my anticipation for the full release. Between demos, we attended some developer panels featuring Mael and Aggrend as speakers. For lunch inside the convention center, I grabbed quesabirria quesadillas alongside a horchata float and a refreshing cantaloupe agua fresca.
Later on, we spotted a post online from Sarthe pointing out that you could use legacy talents to unlock capstone abilities in the demo build. Armed with that knowledge, the three of us headed straight back into the demo line and picked up a PUG. I tanked on Prot Warrior this time—it went okay, and with the extra firepower from the capstone talents, we carried the group through three bosses very efficiently, though we ran out of time before taking down the fourth.
For dinner, we met up with a big group—Coup, Aggrend, Mael, Ashler, Helt, and several others—at Bottle Rocket in Anaheim. We spent the evening hanging out, grabbing drinks, ordering loaded fries and food truck eats, taking a guild group photo, and talking about everything under the sun.
Day 4: Anaheim Rush Hour, A 6-Hour LAX Delay & Heading West#
We kicked off the morning with a Starbucks run downstairs for the three of us before getting packed and ready to head to LAX. My flight was scheduled for 12:45 PM, so driving out of Anaheim meant running right into morning rush hour traffic. Tenju navigated us through a rather bewildering detour route that had us all slightly confused, but he got me to the airport safely.
After getting dropped off and checking in, I settled into the lounge for a boozy brunch. A single rum and coke hit surprisingly hard. When I strolled over to the gate for boarding, the reality of air travel set in: delayed. Then delayed again, and again, repeating in rolling increments. I ended up shuttling back and forth between the lounge and the gate for what turned into a massive six-hour delay. I even had dinner in the lounge—while an improvement over the breakfast options, it still wasn’t anything to write home about.
When we finally boarded and took off, the inflight experience was smooth. The meal service took a while, which cut into valuable rest time, but I still managed a few hours of sleep as the plane cruised across the Pacific toward Tokyo…
