Blizzard Entertainment have announced a Warcraft 3 invitational tournament. Slated to begin February 27th, the event will will see 14 veterans face off in a variety of different events including Free For All and 4v4’s. This announcement coincided with a new balance patch.

This announcement came as a surprise to Warcraft 3 fans and the gaming community at large. World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Battle for Azeroth; does focus on the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde. On the surface it would seem this event would in line with Blizzard’s continuing efforts in synergy between their various titles. Anyone that’s played a Blizzard game recently can speak to their own experiences playing any Blizzard game and unlocking a reward for a completely different game that you may not even have installed (looking at you Heroes of the Storm). This explanation fails when you consider the effort put into the balance update and the improvements to the World Editor.

There’s no need for a balance update for a one-time event. Even more curious are the updates to the World Editor; there’s honestly no reason for Blizzard to update the World Editor unless Blizzard have future plans for Warcraft 3. The World Editor was an incredible tool that allowed anyone who owned Warcraft 3 to create any custom map or custom game mode they could imagine. The World Editor arguably gave birth to the entire MOBA genre. It’s these updates that make fans wonder if Blizzard are considering an HD remaster of Warcraft 3 a-la Starcraft: Remastered.

We’ll all just have to tune-in on February 26th to find out. The Warcraft 3 Invitation will begin February 26th on https://www.twitch.tv/back2warcraft.