Later this month, PAX, one of the most popular pop-culture and gaming convention series, will be returning to the West for 2018. With so much hype and buzz about the convention, the event organizers have an exciting announcement ahead of the start date. Ion Hazzikostas, most famous for being World of Warcraft‘s director, will be delivering the event’s opening keynote.
Since joining Blizzard in 2008, Hazzikostas has been a figurehead of the WoW community. Nicknamed “Watcher”, Hazzikostas has been designing raids encounters, balancing classes, and he even maintained the achievement system in Wrath of the Lich King. All of this hard work lead him to step up as the game’s director in 2016. After assuming the role of director, his first major order of business was to head development of the newly released World of Warcraft expansion, Battle for Azeroth. While the launch wasn’t without its hiccups, many dedicated fans still enjoyed the expansion as a whole, and one even hit the new level cap in only a matter of hours after release. With such an influencial figurehead in the gaming community, Ion opening with PAX’s keynote will be a real treat.
“There really are two worlds – one before World of Warcraft, and one after,” said Jerry Holkins, co-founder of Penny Arcade and PAX in a press release. “I can’t wait to hear Ion Hazzikostas share some stories from the early days of WoW all the way up to the release of Battle for Azeroth.”
PAX West will begin on August 31, and it will run past the weekend until September 3 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington. While most of the event is currently sold old, Monday passes are still available, although those passes are currently running low. In addition, PAX South 2019, which will be held in San Antonio, Texas, now has tickets officially on sale. That event will take place January 18 through January 20, and tickets range from $42 – $85.