Well, that wasn't expected. The new HOTS hero is Probius, a Probe.
Update March 2, 2017: New teases have given us a glimpse of the next addition to Heroes of the Storm ahead of tomorrow's now-scheduled reveal.
A tweet sent from the Heroes of the Storm has confirmed that the new character revealed tomorrow will be based on StarCraft – and likely the Protoss race. The official timetable for tomorrow has also informed fans when they should tune in for a glimpse at the new.
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Here's the tweet, which features a Protoss pylon on the way to warping in:
Spin up your warp drives, Heroes, and tune in tomorrow for an exciting announcement during the #HGC Western Clash!
>https://t.co/BrzJfp4LWq pic.twitter.com/BTyizv0x9Y
— Heroes of the Storm (@BlizzHeroes) March 2, 2017
Karax, the Protoss engineer from Legacy of the Void's storyline and recent addition to SC2's surprisingly popular co-op mode, is the most obvious choice and freely predicted by the community. Before this Stukov, another StarCraft mainstay, was the next rumoured character.
However, it may be a rather clever double-tease by Blizzard, especially as they do enjoy revealing more than one Heroes character at once. "Warp drives" as mentioned there are also present in Terran battlecruisers, in which Stukov could easily arrive. It's somewhat of a stretch, but would fit previous Heroes of the Storm announcement models.
We'll find out at 6:20pm CET tomorrow, which is 10:20am for west coasters, 1:20pm for easterners and 5:20pm for anyone in the UK. Every Time Zone is your best bet if you want to check that in local, and the relevant Reddit thread is over here.
Original story February 28, 2017:It's eSports season. ESL will be running one of their larger tournaments, IEM Katowice, this weekend. As part of the celebrations, Blizzard will be on-site to show off a new hero for Heroes of the Storm, as well as the end of the first phase of the competitive season with Western Clash #1. It s StarCraft 2's first major event of the WCS season and ESL's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive World Championships to round out a weekend of action.
The Heroes, er, hero will be shown off on the official Twitch channel at some point on Friday, presumably just before the competition kicks into high gear. The tournament itself is an eight team double elimination bracket with a $100k prize pool on the line. It won't have an impact on the rest of the season, but is one of the few opportunities to see international competition between European, American and Oceanic teams.
For StarCraft 2, a spot in the global finals at BlizzCon this year will be given to the winner, as well as $100,000 out of the $250,000 prize pool. Again, international competition is the sell, so expect plenty of Korean dominance while talented westerners like Neeb and ShoWTimE try to bring some glory our way. It's happened before and it can happen again. Qualifier games for that are already ongoing over on Twitch.
Finally, the CS:GO action is a part invitational, part qualified-for tournament featuring every big team. Astralis, recent winners of the Eleague Major, will be the defacto favourites, though Virtus Pro beat them at a recent Dreamhack event. It should be as exciting as always, and will likely be the weekend's main event. Stream is here.
As always, Liquipedia is your best bet for keeping track of everything going on. We'll also be attending this event, so expect all the news as fast as we get it, plus interviews from the ground.