▲ This past week was a roller coaster of emotions within the Heroes of the Storm community.

Fans of the Heroes of the Storm franchise went through a lot this past week. From weird highs to depressing lows, the full spectrum of emotions was experienced. Maybe it’s fitting that the end of this week fell on 4/20 as the “holiday” can allow individuals who celebrate to cope with the pain or comprehend the oddness that occurred.

An icon left the company, Heroes of the Storm is now labeled as a “Classic Game” and more took place that left us thinking...what? A full week in review below:

Just another Classic Tuesday

When players awoke Tuesday morning and checked the Heroes of the Storm subReddit (/r/HeroesoftheStorm) they had to rub their eyes to make sure they were awake.

The top post was a job opening within Blizzard for a new “Esports Coordinator, Classic Games.” Why is that relevant to Heroes? Well, as of that post, Heroes is now considered a “Classic Game” within the Blizzard Entertainment portfolio. A game that has been live for less than four years is now a “classic,” according to Blizzard.





Here are a few other titles included in the Classic Games section of Blizzard’s website: The Lost Vikings (released in 1992), Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994), Blackthorne (1994), Warcraft 2 (1995) and Diablo (1996). Additionally, Starcraft 2, Starcraft Remastered and Warcraft 3 are included.

While SC2 wasn’t made back in the 90s, it launched in 2010, five years before Heroes. There’s no clear definition for what being a “Classic Game” means in the Blizzard portfolio. But if the company felt the best way of announcing Heroes being added to the list was via a job application, odds are, it isn’t great.

Weird Wednesday

This video was posted to the subReddit on Wednesday. Nothing else needs to be said other than that Chen still needs a rework.

Live Designer Adam Jackson, agrees.

Has it really been that long?

Thursday marked 100 days since the last Heroes of the Storm character was released into the game, Imperius. There have been numerous large patches, hero reworks, and events that have taken place. But no heroes.

Funny enough, this is the longest period of time without a new hero in the game’s history. That changed Saturday morning when the official Heroes of the Storm team revealed what is presumed to be the newest hero (possible Anduin).

With the game in a moderately healthy state at the moment, the development team appears to feel that tweaking past content over feeling the pressure to constantly crank out new heroes is what’s best right now.

The loss of a legend

The week ended with some somber news being shared on Twitter by long-time Creative Content Lead, Kevin Michael Johnson. Also known as “Cloaken,” Johnson climbed the ranks from Community Manager back in 2013 to the official Heroes of the Storm Creative Content Lead.

On Friday, he made it known that he was leaving Blizzard Entertainment after a long run with the company. Back in January, Cloaken was transitioned off of the Heroes team amid cutbacks within the title itself.

Few individuals, if any, are more synonymous with the franchise than Cloaken. Heck, he was featured in developer interviews before the game even went live. Known for making public appearances, narrating hero spotlight videos and having his own in-game announcer pack, it’s difficult to imagine a world without him having his hands on the title.

Although his physical presence will be missed, as he famously says, we’ll still see him (or hear him) in the nexus.