BlizzCon 2026: The Night Before — Blizzard’s VIP mixer at ARTIC

The night before BlizzCon 2026 opened at the Anaheim Convention Center, Blizzard threw a VIP mixer at ARTIC — the Anaheim train station across Katella from Honda Center. They called it The Night Before. It ran Friday, September 11, 6 to 9 PM, and I was there to photograph it.

Guests came in past an eight-foot shag BlizzCon 2026 wall just inside the main entrance. Under the station’s arched roof there was an arcade — air hockey, pinball, driving cabinets, a Pac-Man machine — plus 360 video booths, a photo booth printing Night Before strips, a tarot reader in a cape, a candy bar, white lounges, and Kyle McDonald’s Blind Self Portrait drawing machine. DJ Miss Ninja played by the windows. Out on the patio: an In-N-Out truck, giant Jenga and Connect Four on the lawn, and a Bopomofo Cafe boba bar with a menu named after the games — Thrall’s Elixir for Warcraft, D.Mon’s MEKAberry for Overwatch, Innkeeper’s Concoction for Hearthstone, and a Blizzard Blue.

I was mostly on arrivals at the shag wall, plus the patio. Blizzard sent a VIP shot list — their own people, a few from Xbox, and one outside guest — along with a face sheet, and staff called out names as people walked in. There was a text chain in case someone on the list showed up while I was on the other side of the building. My call got moved up two hours so I could do a 4:30 walkthrough with the Blizzard team before doors.

I pulled the selects when I got home, and the full set went out on a shared Dropbox Sunday morning.

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