5v5 Arena team gets a sponsor, goes professional
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 19th 2007 at 11:27PM
One of the top 5v5 teams has become one of the first groups of WoW players to become professional gamers-- Curse reports that CheckSix Gaming, an e-sports agency (or should that be promoter? sponsor?), has picked up ZERG IT DOWN as
ZERG IT DOWN is made up of players in Insurrection, a guild on the Horde side of Tichondrius (the team is currently second place in the Bloodlust battlegroup). As part of the deal, CheckSix is sponsoring the whole guild-- they've put up a new website and are running a Vent server for them. In return, ZERG IT DOWN will serve as CheckSix's official team at future Arena tournaments. If there are any, that is-- the only real competition is currently the ongoing ingame season, but it's not a stretch to think that in the future, gaming tournaments will set up shop in Azeroth and pit certain arena teams against each other. In fact, Blizzard could probably benefit from helping them do that-- one of the team's leaders speculates that some Arena matches would benefit from seeing a normalized gear system, which currently only Blizzard could implement, if they even wanted to.
But it's awesome that these guys were able to pick up a sponsor, and even more awesome that a company like CheckSix was willing to take a chance and bring WoW into the growing realm of professional gaming. Congrats and good luck to both of them.
Update: Almost simultaneously, Boubouille sent a tip (thanks!) that Team Pandemic, another gaming sponsor, has also picked up another Arena team-- it's Power Trip, currently the first place team in Bloodlust. Looks like we've got our first professional rivalry.
Update2: Curse has an interview with Power Trip.
Filed under: Ranking, Guilds, PvP, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vince Mar 20th 2007 12:55AM
personally i think this is kind of dumb, and i'm not just jealous.
Kerni Mar 20th 2007 1:55AM
WOW! A free vent server and a website! Thats what? $30 a month? wooo!
FadedReality Mar 20th 2007 2:01AM
ugh a digg it link... I hope this is not going to be standard... I hate diggers slowing down the sites I like.
Chouclac Mar 20th 2007 2:48AM
Oh my god FadedReality you just say it all, this comment is just to reinforce what he/she wrote. Its the first thing I noticed.
hahaha Mar 20th 2007 8:43PM
well, what a wonderfully lucrative situation for everyone..... O.o /sigh
Boubouille Mar 20th 2007 7:17AM
@Kerni : Sponsorship will be useful if they reach future stages of the Arena tournament, Team Pandemic confirmed in an interview that their sponsors would pay for full travel/lodging/registration to all events. The interview is available here :
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=45.0
Jason Mar 20th 2007 7:30AM
@FadedReality: Yea, Digg pretty much fails at life.
As to the whole Arena sponsor thing? Whoop-dee-doo. I'm not terribly impressed with the whole sponsored gamer thing to begin with; This makes it that much less so. Granted, Blizzard gets credit for making this something that got noticed, but who's betting on this leading to Pro Clans from other games taking a shot at WoW Arena Ladders?
Savok Mar 20th 2007 7:43AM
I'd be more worried about this taking off personally. Blizzard completely reworks balance every other day, you start throwing money like this around and fair few of the "change this" and "change it back" voices get a rather lot more hostile.
multikast Mar 20th 2007 8:34AM
The arena system will never prove who has the best players until everyone (read each class) goes in with equal gear. as it stands now, the best teams have such better gear than the middle-road guys, that skill means nothing. sure, when you get to the top, they all have similar gear, but come on, no one else stands a chance even if they are better skilled...
Seper Mar 20th 2007 9:29AM
The first season will be... who has the best gear.
2nd season is when people will be fairly equal and THATS when the fun starts.
I know alot of people who hit 70 like 2-4 wks after the arena tourny started... now they join a team.. but they are behind pts wise. So season 1 will be a trial run in my opinion. Obviously the 1st place team deserves the drake if they were willing to grind the gear, money, and lvls.
Todd Mar 20th 2007 9:35AM
Won't be long before people are making in game bets, which will eventually lead to outside the game with real money. Eventually you'll have whole pools made. Instead of March Madness, it'll be Blizzard Blitzkrieg. ;)
Romnious Mar 20th 2007 11:04AM
For the final matches there should be a live feed via ingame wow. would anyone else like to be able to go the arena battlemaster be able to view the final matches? kinda like the sweet sixteen of wow? or just beable to go the battle master and be able to watch any match? i think that would be awesome.
Argent Mar 20th 2007 11:06AM
welp, this is the beginning of the end of WoW.
Roguerhunter Mar 20th 2007 2:41PM
Vegas will open something for this to be gambled on because sports sell and make tons of money and also they aren’t stupid they know GAMERS sell and spend money. DUDE there making money now. A Sponsor brings in proceeds and etc. We are talking like 5k signing bonus each and a set up of what ever PC system by the best they can ever have and also what ever sponsors they bring in will also pay into it as well.
These kids who got picked up will now be the poster boys for WoW just wait and watch!!!
Roguerhunter Mar 20th 2007 12:40PM
Vegas will open something for this to be gambled on because sports sell and make tons of money and also they aren’t stupid they know GAMERS sell and spend money. DUDE there making money now. A Sponsor brings in proceeds and etc. We are talking like 5k signing bonus each and a set up of what ever PC system by the best they can ever have and also what ever sponsors they bring in will also pay into it as well.
Onetwo Mar 20th 2007 7:45PM
I wonder what their poon rate will be now that they're sponsored ;)