It’s no secret that Blizzard has been trying to get more people into their alpha tests for Heroes of the Storm, offering up 4,000 access codes on their facebook page in addition to a contest whereby anyone who hits level 20 in the alpha is entered in a drawing can potentially win the opportunity to have their entire friends list receive access.

It seemed pretty obvious to me that this was to stress test and ultimately lead into the second phase of testing — especially with the addition of a Heroes of the Storm item for this year’s BlizzCon — and as it turn out my suspicions were correct as today at BlizzCon it was announced that closed beta testing would begin on January 13, 2015.

It’s quite a ways off, but the sooner the game is out the better. Hopefully I can get my hands on it by then and let you know what I think of the game as a longtime fan of the MOBA genre. For now though, you can opt into their beta program and hope you’re chosen come next year.