Blizzard announces global arena tournament
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 13th 2007 at 3:39PM
As far as I'm aware, this is totally out of the blue and hasn't been pre-announced. Blizzard announced on worldofwarcraft.com today that they are holding a global 5v5 arena tournament:
- We're pleased to announce our plans for the inaugural World of Warcraft Arena Tournament, scheduled to begin on February 16 in Europe and North America and March 3 in Korea. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade players in these regions who consider themselves to be among the best in the game at player-vs.-player (PvP) combat will soon be able to prove it to the rest of the world. Will you and the rest of your team be up to the challenge? If so, gather your cohorts and begin preparing for the largest World of Warcraft competition ever held.
- Make a 5v5 team and compete on your server.
- One or more teams per battlegroup will be selected to compete in the qualifiers, which will run from April 20 to May 4 and pit all the region's qualifiers against each other. The teams will be copied to a private server for this.
- Each region's top eight teams will compete in live regionals, date and location TBA.
- An uncertain number of winning teams from the regionals will compete in the global finals.
- One team will win, thereby winning the title of "bestest 5v5 team in the whole wide world."
Filed under: Ranking, Events, News items, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Smutcakes Feb 14th 2007 6:50AM
Isn't BC, and thus the Arena system only released in EU and US though but not Asia? Woudn't be all that global then.
Wasyl Feb 13th 2007 4:06PM
Wow thanks for waiting until everyone hits 70, assholes.
Eliah Hecht Feb 13th 2007 4:16PM
1: Presumably the March 3 Korea start date has to do with BC's release date in Korea.
Grimolfr Feb 15th 2007 9:08AM
@2
First of all, relax. Second, if you can't hit 70 after 4 months of playing, odds are you wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight in a global pvp tournament.
Chuck Feb 13th 2007 6:44PM
5 warlock team = UNSTOPPABLE
SymetriX Feb 13th 2007 6:23PM
#2:
I guess they assume that anyone with a chance of winning has probably been at level 70 for what--3 weeks now? ;-)
IamDexx Feb 13th 2007 7:51PM
This could be very cool, i hope there are vids of the battles avalable.
I am thinking that some of the hybrid classes may really be able to shine - 5 druids ooooh ahhh.
Though i do agree its pretty quick from the release of BC.
Breakfats Feb 13th 2007 9:34PM
would be nice, if they could broadcast the fights of the final rounds or even allow spectators in the arena on this private server.
Tigraine Feb 15th 2007 11:10AM
I guess they will do this not only for this first Arena Season but for all Arena Seasons in the future.
And ppl you should really check out some info on the old Warcraft 3 Matchmaking and Ranking System. They built that new Ladder System for the Arenas around their WC3 Ladder System and that System has kept the Wc3 community alive for almost 5+ years. It's just so damn good.. competitive and very challenging. I hope they got this somehow into WoW.
Deadhead Feb 14th 2007 12:45AM
This was done in Final Fantasy XI MMORPG. Best of each server to the best out of all the servers etc. FFXI at that time was out in Japan and America, but not Europe officialy. So that was world PVP champs in FFXI. Granted the PVP sucked in FFXI, but still was done before.
Gurei Feb 14th 2007 12:06AM
why not a 2vs2 team lawl.
jakk Feb 14th 2007 12:39AM
they might use this as a way to see what classes need to be balanced. if a team of all warlocks won they would instantly nerf the hell out of them. on the other side of the fence, if all warriors are wiped out in the first round we have a serious problem. i wanna see a team of arcane mages rape and pillage the other teams tho. AOE death x5
Aladek Feb 14th 2007 10:10AM
I'm going with the 5 lock team!
RogueJedi86 Feb 14th 2007 1:53AM
Too bad for that 70 requirement for the tournaments. I bought BC when my first toon was only level 30, so I won't get to try Arenas for actual rewards for a long time. It is good for testing your gear/talent-spec though. Hop in a Practice-2v2, and see how you do.
Does anyone play the 3v3 and 5v5? I smell a Breakfast Topic just for Arenas.
BigFreak Feb 14th 2007 5:07AM
This is the coolest thing ever announced for this game. They totally have to make this a regular event, like once every few months. Too few people will have the equipment to compete right now. Still, 'll be pretty cool.
multikast Feb 14th 2007 7:59AM
if they really wanted to determine the 'best pvp group', they'd ensure every member of each class got the same set of gear (ie. all mages have set X gear, all warriors set Y gear, etc).
this would be to level the playing field and focus on skill. of course you'd use whatever talent points you'd want to use.
Hiroshi Feb 14th 2007 5:34PM
I figured there'd be a quick statement made about gear-dependence.
Part of being a good PVPer is a good combination of spec and itemization. Rather than giving every class a "uniform" gear set, I'd prefer to see them given an array of pieces to build their set out of (similar to what was done a while back with the GM/BWL gear given to premades on the PTR, only with a few more options).
Then again, yet another aspect of PVP is what you can do with the gear you've pursued and aquired. I'm not talking about the old comparison of new-60 greens vs. Tier 2-3. Most of the 70's at this point have had ample opportunity to reach a healthy supply of blue gear that fits whatever their chosen spec, and nobody's going to be running around in full Tier 5.
I can respect the timing, and I wouldn't put it past them to rekindle the event again at a later date when Gladiator pieces have gotten some circulation.
mr_disco Feb 14th 2007 9:36AM
My first question is "Where will it be hosted?" I've not been involved in ANY arena, and even then, very little PvP... Can others come and watch? Like an arena event or something? That would be cool, get to see what it'd be like at 70...
tyger Feb 14th 2007 12:30PM
the winner is...Xzin
Etek Mar 5th 2007 11:28AM
Anyone know the best combo for the 2v2? I'm thinking a Warlock and a Priest.