BlizzCon 2011: Opening Ceremony Liveblog

We'll be live blogging the opening ceremony at BlizzCon 2011. The start times for this liveblog is as follows:

Pacific Time zone: 11:00 a.m.
Mountain Time zone: 12:00 p.m.
Central Time zone: 1:00 p.m.
Eastern Time zone: 2:00 p.m.

We're expecting a lot from this BlizzCon opening ceremony, including the Mists of Pandaria expansion, some StarCraft expansion announcement, and potentially an announcement concerning the Diablo 3 release date.

Stay tuned! We'll start liveblogging soon.

10:42 a.m. - Patch 5.0 will introduce a new talent system.

10:42 a.m. - Initial reports are that the expansion will be playable at BlizzCon today.

The rest of the liveblog after the break!

11:46 - It's Mists of Pandaria. Check out or announcement post for more information. Lots more coming up! That's all for this live blog and panel.

11:43 - Expansion video now playing. We'll have screencaps on our site very soon.

11:42 - "With all of our hate, violence, and factional conflict -- the war that is coming to the World of Warcraft will be fought in this place."

11:41 - "This next expansion is set in a place that has been lost in time to close to 10,000 years. It is a land of balance, harmony, and hope -- that is, until we arrived."

11:40 - Alliance and Horde will be fighting each other: "War is coming."

11:40 - "The past expansions have been predicated on a super vi that the alliance and horde have had to deal with. ... To give you a sense of what the next couple years will do to the World of Warcraft, the real enemy will be war itself."

11:40 - "This one is a little different. I want to set it in your mind." -- Metzen

11:39 - Expansion video coming up now!

11:37 - Kerrigan looks ... like a human/zerg hybrid? WTF. Wow. We gotta get more info on that.

11:37 - This is the StarCraft 2 expansion you all have been waiting 10 years to play. Absolutely amazing cinematic. The crowd absolutely loves it.

11:37 - "The girl you remember is dead." -- Kerrigan.

11:36 - New video now, StarCraft 2 Heart of the Swarm cinematic.

11:35 - Now we're watching a Blizzard DOTA cinematic. This is absolutely amazing.

11:31 - "You thought you were so clever. You thought you'd outwit us all. One by one our brethren fell into our trap. But not me. I defy you. I know the black soul stone is the key; it shall be mine. Soon my parties shall pour forth from the shadow mountain, ravaging this world and all of existence. My minions will find the stone where you choose to hide it. Then at long last, Azmodan shall reign as the prime evil." -- Big, badass demon to a hot girl. Diablo 3. Amazing. Watch this trailer when you can.

11:31 - "None of this makes any sense to me. What am I missing, uncle?" -- D3 cinematic.

11:30 - Black Soul Stone D3 cinematic now playing. It's been edited for "content" -- as to not give out too much about the story.

11:29 - "I didn't mean that [being a warcry] Alliance. I meant let's engage in a productive discussion." -- Lots of laughs.

11:29 - "For the Horde! For the Alliance!" -- Metzen

11:29 - Recently finished D3 cinematic is coming up.

11:28 - "In classic Blizzard fashion, it [D3] will be done when it's done. But baby we're in the home stretch. But I'm telling you guys, it's the tightest, sharpest, most ass-kicking Diablo game ever."

11:28 - Expansion announcement soon, but more teasing looks like it'll be first.

11:28 - "Today, you find out what the new expansion is." -- Metzen

11:27 - "What kind of jackass rolls out wearing an Alliance sweater and Doomhammer? The answer is this kind of jackass; I'm that kind of jackass." -- Metzen

11:26 - "The energy in this room is insane." -- Metzen

11:26 - "I am geeked out of my mind. I can barely stop shaking." -- Metzen

11:25 - Metzen is up! Here we go!

11:21 - It's been 15 years since Diablo started. We're getting a nice little reflection video.

11:20 - Tyrael's Charger mount coming to WoW.

11:19 - Buy the 12-month subscription and get access to the next expansion beta.

11:19 - 12-month subscription to WoW available to be billed monthly. Full digital version of D3 will be included. No strings. When it goes live, you get it for free.

11:18 - D3 available FREE to WoW subscribers on the 12-month plan. Crowd goes absolutely NUTS.

11:19 - CRAZY idea coming out for D3 right now.

11:18 - Crowd is cheering "BETA!" for D3.

11:17 - D3 collectors edition: in-game WoW and SC2 stuff, USB drive shaped like Diablo's Skull and D2, Art book.

11:16 - Diablo 3 box. "Massive development effort." Updated D3 available to play this weekend, D3 collectors edition.

11:15 - Blizzard has asked Red Shirt Guy to come back this year and has been asked to monitor everything. Crowd loves this!

11:14 - There are going to be a lot of really good StarCraft players here this weekend. They're really worth checking out.

11:13 - "I encourage you to find StarCraft 2 events in your city. And if you can't find them in your city, I encourage you, go to another city." -- Morhaime, crowd laughs

11:11 - Heart of the Swarm is playable. DOTA is completely revamped.

11:10 - "You are going to see some new things at BlizzCon this year." -- Morhaime

11:09 - $2.7 million donated to Make a Wish and Japan Tsunami relief

11:07 - 26,000 people at BlizzCon in Anaheim, Calif.

11:07 - 60,000 people have bought virtual tickets this year.

11:07 - Brazillian WoW port released in December.

11:06 - Every WoW player in the world is now playing the same version of the game, and that hasn't happened since The Burning Crusade.

11:05 - "Most epic raid content WoW has ever seen" -- Patch 4.3 according to Morhaime

11:04 - Mike Morhaime is out to StarCraft 2 music. He's always such a nice and passionate guy.

11:03 - Lots of people cheering "BlizzCon!"

11:03 - A clip of Metzen doing "Geek is." ... Geek is not doing that again.

11:01 - The opening ceremony has begun, and there's a video showing all the old Blizzard games and events from the past 20 years.