Warlords of Draenor Cinematic Premiere liveblog

Today's Warlords of Draenor Cinematic Premiere event will begin at 9:30 a.m. PDT. In addition to the reveal of the cinematic, we are expecting the announcement of the Warlords of Draenor release date and the debut of the new Lords of War animated miniseries.

We will be covering the event live. In the meantime, get hyped while you watch that countdown tick away. Liveblog timestamps are in Central time.

Update: The livestream has concluded. You can still find all of our updates, as well as the cinematic and the first episode of Lords of War, in the post below.

12:19PM The end! Time to go home, everybody.

12:18PM That means Warlords of Draenor won't release until the week after BlizzCon.

12:17PM Warlords of Draenor releases November 13.

12:17PM Shot of them building the Dark Portal.

12:16PM Orc-in-hood who is probably Garrosh saves Grom from being incinerated.

12:15PM The Iron Horde begins firing on Mannoroth. They were prepared. Grommash is going all action hero.

12:14PM 35 years ago. Grommash approaching Guldan. Guldan hands him horn of kool-aid. Gul'dan tells him to drink. Grommash asks, "What must we give in return?" Gul'dan: "Everything." Mannoroth says "sup."

12:12PM Metzen gives recognition to the time travel concerns. Says "you're in good hands." Warlords of Draenor begins around 30 years in the past at a specific point in its history. Hinting the cinematic relates to the drinking-of-demon-blood event. It begins!

12:10PM Cinematic incoming!

12:09PM This zone overview is actually pretty cool; isn't lingering on any one thing too long. Quick glimpses. Would have made a more exciting opening to this event than the interview.

12:07PM A teaser trailer for the Draenor environments is playing. Short flyovers of each zone. Won't be new to players following the beta, but likely offers much to those who haven't. A ghost gnome gave a spooky laugh, which I've decided is notable.

12:05PM Warlords to be featured: Kargath, Grommash, Durotan, Kilrogg. Personally, I can't wait to see Kilrogg stab himself in the eyeball.

12:04PM Teaser for the full series is playing. "To defeat your enemies, you must first know them."

12:03PM Metzen: "The age of the whimsical panda is over." Four more episodes of Lords of War to come. Not every Warlord will be featured, only pivotal ones.

12:02PM Maraad: "This was the birth of the Shattered Hand."

12:02PM Kargath kills number one-hundo and is betrayed, locked up beneath the arena. Severs his own hand to escape. Encourages other prisoners to do the same. "Take your vengeance."

12:00PM Kargath fought in the arena as a prisoner to ogres. "One hundred orc lives is the price for freedom."

11:59AM Art style is completely different from Burdens of Shaohao in the opening, but transitions into that style. Looks like a stylized machinima at first. Varian and Maraad debate how to handle the orcs; Varian down in the dumps about it. Maraad insists they can be defeated. Maraad is the storyteller here.

11:57AM First episode of Lords of War focuses on Kargath Bladefist. Metzen says those characters were created over twenty years ago. Most World of Warcraft players have no idea who they are. Lords of War tries to show players who these characters are, why we should care.

11:56AM Personal anecdote: Burdens of Shaohao seemed popular when it was releasing to Youtube, but the audience in attendance in LA didn't give a big pop to the namedrop. Wrong audience?

11:55AM Metzen asks how many watched the Burdens of Shaohao. Response seemed underwhelming.

11:53AM The Lords of War miniseries is being introduced. The human hype machine Chris Metzen is taking the stage. "What up!"

11:52AM Interview has concluded.

11:52AM What sets Draenor apart from other places we've seen? Change to explore the civilizations and societies of Draenor at its height; effectively a brand new world compared to what we saw in Burning Crusade.

11:51AM Discussion of a world event! In patch 6.0, the Iron Horde vanguard lays waste to the Blasted Lands. Nethergarde keep in ruins (as seen on the beta.) You're part of the first group sent to see what's what. Further more, the Iron Horde moves into Blackrock Spire to join up with Warlord Zaela. A preview, level 90 version of Warlords of Draenor's updated Blackrock Spire will be available for play.

11:49AM An overview of the story. Paraphrase: What the dealio with the Dark Portal? The Iron Horde bust through.

11:48AM If you kill a player, you can loot half of their Ashran currency.

11:48AM Holinka: "One of the classic parts about world PVP" is finding unusual advantages -- really good items, advantageous terrain, etc. The new spell tomes, which can be used only in Ashran, are intended to evoke that. Paladins can send opposing players to an Ashran jail, which we've already seen in the beta.

11:45AM Similar basic overview of PVP zone Ashran. Island off the coast of Tanaan, people fight, and so forth. Hearkens back to Alterac Valley, hoping to bring that gameplay back with a world zone. Can earn Ashran currency that lets you buy items for yourself/your team, encouraging roaming battles in the zone. Server infrastructure allows them to pull players from Horde-heavy realms and Alliance-heavy realms to balance the battle as necessary.

11:43AM Nostalgia for RTS gameplay used as lead-in to garrisons. Hazzikostas provides basic overview of garrisons. Again, nothing current players haven't heard before through BlizzCon and Battle.net blog posts. So far, event seems aimed at a much broader audience, aimed for those who haven't touched World of Warcraft in a long time. Or ever.

11:40AM Watters asks Hazzikostas about level 90 boosts. Nothing new revealed here for current players who already have experience with the system. Mention of streamlined action bars and new character models.

11:38AM Ion Hazzikostas and Brian Holinka have taken the stage for an interview.

11:37AM Watters calls for shouts from Alliance and Horde -- you can guess how that went.

11:35AM I believe Mike Morhaime has worn the same shirt in every public appearance.

11:34AM Blizzard CEO and Cofounder Mike Morhaime has taken the stage.

11:33AM The stream has begun! Gamespot's Chris Watters is hosting.