As hardcore Starcraft fans will notice, Tychus becomes a non-smoker in Blizzard’s MOBA “Heroes of the Storm”. Blizzard cuts off his cigar.
It is one of the iconic images from Starcraft: The visor of a Space Marine lifts and a cloud of cigar smoke wafts out. The distinctive cigar gave “Tychus Findlay”, an avid cigar smoker, a personality, as some fans believe.
In the MOBA “Heroes of the Storm”, Blizzard reuses all heroes. Here, Tychus, a Gatling gunner, is depicted as a non-smoker. This was seen in a new skin “Prisoner Tychus”, which was briefly visible in a trailer. Ironically, the act of smoking a cigar was prominently featured in the now 8-year-old teaser trailer for Starcraft 2, clearly used as a stylistic element and identifying feature. Something that cool tough guys do. But times change.
The idea that one could do without a cigar must have only recently occurred to Blizzard. Apparently, a cigar was initially planned for Tychus in this skin. It was later removed. At Kotaku, an expert in such pop culturally significant questions, they believe it might be because Blizzard does not want a “tobacco reference” in the ESRB rating and therefore opted out.
In a thematically closely related news, the absurdly large nipple rings of Azmodan stand out: They have clearly been enlarged compared to D3.
All of this sounds amusing, but for some it is indeed a reason for excitement. The related thread on reddit has been quite active. There is even an official statement from Blizzard. It states that showing this cigar would be banned in some “countries”. So, they would have to make “two versions” of Tychus to make everything fit. They didn’t want that. Therefore, they removed it. The “multi-nationality” of the game has thus led to the need to pay attention to the different regulations here.
