Ready... set... Arena qualifiers, round 2!
by Krystalle Voecks 
Apr 24th 2007 at 7:30AM
Those of you who have been working hard in or following the Arena Tournaments will be glad to hear that Blizzard has just posted the listing of American, European and Korean region second qualification round Arena teams! The dedication that all the folks competing in the Arena qualifiers have shown towards their theory-craft and tactics thus far has been quite impressive. (And hey, let's not forget about the sponsorships!) From here, however, things heat up. After this second qualifying round, we move on to the live regional tournaments, which should prove to be a real test of skill under stress. I'm sure that many of these players have their gaming space set up just so. I'm curious to see what happens when you move them out of that comfort zone into live competitions, on potentially unfamiliar rigs, and then give them an audience.
I have to admit, for all that I might not personally be too into PVP (primarily because I'm really lousy at it) it's going to be a lot of fun to see how this all turns out. Especially when it comes to the finals, which will be the first time in WoW history that we'll get to see the different regions pitted against one another in a global contest of wits, talent, skill and sheer determination.
Congratulations to all the teams who made this round!
Filed under: News items, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
samba Apr 24th 2007 8:01AM
What happened to the rss feed? Please dont tell me you intendedly shortened it to just a headline?
samba Apr 24th 2007 8:03AM
Argh, forget it. A strange bug with my feedreader Sage. Sorry.
Brian Apr 24th 2007 8:18AM
There won't be that much competition. I know that a large majority of the teams listed have core Canadian players who are not eligible. My team has to go on without me due to this messed up situation. (Both messed by canadian law AND bliztards inability to compromise)
Ugata, Argent Dawn Apr 24th 2007 9:08AM
"move them out of that comfort zone into live competitions, on potentially unfamiliar rigs"
So what if you're used to using certain addons? Will they be allowed to install them? I'd imagine the best of players have pretty custom UI's that they rely on.
And I also know people who use external peripherals, like a SpeedPad, would they be allowed to bring those too?
I can't say that I RTFA, but I was just curious.
k4f Apr 24th 2007 9:08AM
go huks!
Krystalle Voecks Apr 24th 2007 9:10AM
Samba: No worries. :)
Brian: Yeah, that's really harsh. There again, I live in Florida, and I know the bonding issues cause them to skip us too. As I recall, the State of Florida requires any company to pay a bond (I believe it's for any contest item with a declared value of more than $250, but don't quote me on that) with the State Attorney's office due to all the fraudulent "contests" that have been run specifically to bilk the elderly out of money. Blizzard doesn't seem to want to deal with the bonding issues and jump through the hoops of the declaration paperwork, so we get excluded a lot as well.
That said, I'm not familiar with Canadian law. But for what it's worth, I feel your pain on getting bumped out of Blizzard's contests. :(
bliSSter Apr 24th 2007 10:01AM
@ugata: blizz has stated that using some third-party addons would be allowable up to some level of qualifiers in the tournament, but none will be allowed in the finals, so teams should get used to playing without them...or at least with the standard (and arguably lackluster), default WoW UI.
just what I read...iirc, i believe it was naethera (sp?) who made a blue post along these lines.
with restrictions like this in place with the UI, i'm guessing that third-party peripherals aren't going to be allowed either.
Krystalle Voecks Apr 24th 2007 10:04AM
Ugata: To be honest, that's one of the things I'm curious about. I know I have several macros set up that are pretty much my daily bread and butter, and I'd be lost without my custom UI.
I figure on local/regional level they might allow the players to bring their own rigs. But at the finals, I suspect there will be cross-promotion from hardware/build companies, so I see some unfamiliar setups likely to occur.
I suppose if that does happen, this is where WoW's lack of dependency will have to shine. Considering you can just copy and paste any normal PC install to an external drive, and then copy and paste it to the destination drive and have it fire right up, I can see simply copying the player's software and transferring it.
Mind you, this is pure conjecture on my part. I'm a wee tiny bit of a hardware geek too, and how that plays out interests me almost as much as watching the competition.
Krystalle Voecks Apr 24th 2007 10:09AM
bliSSter: Thanks for the clarification on that! That's going to make this interesting to watch. I certainly hope the finalists are prepped to go back to the (largely) basic UI and no special hardware!
Fizzyboom Apr 24th 2007 12:52PM
I have a hard time agreeing with forcing the players to use foreign hardware / ui... Becoming intimately familiar with your setup, whether it be a trackball, mouse, or some strange device is part of the game. Without getting to the point where you think "Counterspell" as opposed to "T button", takes time and is absolutely crucial to the success of a player and/or team. Changing what players have become familiar with over the years is like changing game mechanics at the last second. It would be possible to overcome, but I still believe it would definitely change the outcome of the tournament.