HotS teases BlackThorne as the new hero coming to Nexus

Update: It turns out this was just an elaborate joke by several members of the HotS Reddit community, and, at least for now, BlackThorne is not coming to Heroes of the Storm.

Original Story:

It has been 4 months since Heroes of the Storm got its latest hero Hogger, the leader of the Riverpaw gnolls and the Bane of the Elwynn Forest.

Since then, things have been unusually quiet for Heroes, and the game hasn't got even its regular winter event this year, an ominous sign many fans saw as "proof" that Blizzard is giving up on Heroes of the Storm. 

This foreboding was additionally fueled by the omission of HotS from February's BlizzConline event and rumours of Blizzard's Classic team dissolution.

Nonetheless, the relatively big player base is still passionately playing the game and developers did promise that future content is on its way, and now it seems that we are finally getting the first clues of what that future content might be.

Blizzard's classic BlackThorne was released in 1994, and recently reintroduced as a part of Blizzard Arcade Collection (Picture: Blizzard)

It looks like Heroes of the Storm might get another Blizzard Classic hero! Several teasers have surfaced today, all pointing towards Kyle "BlackThorne" Vlaros as a new hero in Heroes of the Storm.

If these leaks and teases turn out to be true, BlackThorne will be the second Blizzard character coming from "classic" Blizzard games, after The Lost Vikings.

The first leak is a loading screen from the PTR serves, which got updated briefly before reverted again. It was captured by Reddit user u/twinklesunnysun, and it shows a pixelated Heroes of the Storm logo on a background that matches perfectly one of the levels from BlackThorne.

The leaked loading screen and this BlackThorne level are almost a perfect match (Picture: Blizzard)

The second tease is coming from the live server. Blizzard usually adds some small elements before each game starts to randomly show up and do something, usually as a harbinger of a new hero.

This time around, a seemingly random "bomb" appears out of nowhere and drops on the gate right before it opens and the game starts.

r/heroesofthestorm - I just got sent this clip60 votes and 36 comments so far on RedditSpazzo965reddit

At first glance, this looks completely random, but people who have played  BlackThorne know that he has an ability called Hover Bomb.

Hover Bomb is a grenade that explodes on contact when thrown, but they are not as useful in combat as they are for one particular thing - destroying doorways! And that's exactly what the video implies.

If these teasers are indeed here to hint at the imminent arrival of BlackThorne in Heroes of the Storm, then we expect an official announcement sometime later this week, and his release on PTR servers next Monday.