Blizzard removed Tychus's cigar in Heroes of the Storm and fans are not having it

Legendary StarCraft character Tychus Findlay appears to have lost his signature cigar in Heroes of the Storm, and caused fan uproar in the process.

"YES. We know smoking is bad, everybody does. BUT! it's not Blizzard's job to make sure we don't do it anyway" is the title of a massive Reddit thread on the Heroes of the Storm sub-Reddit.

If you've ever played a StarCraft game, you'll know that the cigar is a huge part of Tychus' personality. So why was it removed? In the same Reddit thread, a Blizzard developer explained in great detail why it, and plenty of other things, have been removed.

"Heroes of the Storm is a multi-region game with a teen rating. There are a magnitude of guidelines we have to be aware of," he began. "From a development standpoint we prioritize making Heroes and Skins as utilitarian as possible, if a single model can be used in all regions, that's a huge win for development.

"In the case of Tychus' cigar there were regions where he wouldn't be allowed to smoke. We have two options: Make 2 versions, one smoking, one non-smoking, or Remove the Cigar."

Naturally, they went with the second option. The developer adds that going with the first one would've meant more development work for what is essentially the same character. He also went on to list a number of other examples that most players may not have even noticed.

Heroes of the Storm is currently in open beta.