65% fewer Arena teams in Season 5
by Zach Yonzon 
Mar 24th 2009 at 6:00PM
The numbers were, as Roma Victor put it, "not pretty". Actually, the numbers were downright ugly. Take, for example, the cutoffs for the Bloodlust Battlegroup, the notorious BG9 where Arena participation has historically been intense. Last season, the top 235 teams in 2v2, top 92 in 3v3, and top 27 in 5v5 brackets were eligible to earn the Gladiator title. This season, those numbers dropped to 93, 36, and 8 respectively. That's a whopping decline in participation across the board in the most active Battlegroup in the US! ArenaJunkies also has numbers from Europe, Korea, and Taiwan and all of them show the same thing -- there are fewer players participating in Arenas than probably ever.
As cool as the new Deadly Gladiator's Frost Wyrm is, significantly less players are going to get it this season which is great for bragging rights but somewhat bad for the game as a whole. Roma Victor broke down the numbers for US Battlegroups and showed how much participation has dropped, with some brackets losing as much as 75% participation from Season 4 to Season 5. He also gives some of his thoughts on how to make Arenas more appealing to more (read: the casual) players. Considering that Wrath of the Lich King made the game much easier and more accessible, it's kind of sad that more players than ever feel alienated by Arenas. It's a truly ironic turn of events in light of how much effort Blizzard invests in that aspect of the game.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
Vassal Mar 24th 2009 6:08PM
PvE content forever slaughtered Arenas when WOTLK was released.
RIP Shitty PvP
brucimus Mar 24th 2009 6:12PM
I don't think it's "Pvp" People LOVE Wintergrasp and that is pvp.
It's Arena.
Tobie Mar 24th 2009 6:19PM
PvE content is beyond stale now. I think its because people got tired of lopsided victories. Nothing fun about waiting 10min for a 3v3 to last 1 min.
Not to mention I have never personally gotten over 2000 rating. Only been close a few times just to get my ass handed to me.
Shulkman Mar 24th 2009 6:49PM
Yeah, I did arena's and BG's all through TBC... Then came the far too high burst damage and crap survivability, and ridiculous rating requirments.... FEH! I don't need that crap anymore.
Islander999 Mar 24th 2009 9:41PM
The column says "It's a truly ironic turn of events in light of how much effort Blizzard invests in that aspect of the game."
Arena PVP is not part of the game. It is an entirely different game that is embedded in the original game and it causes nothing but trouble in terms of balancing the original game. It's a good example of something introduced for a minority that unhinges the game the majority prefers.
I really wish Blizz would just split Arena PVP off as its own game, let the mouth-breathers enjoy it there, and let the other 80 or 90 percent of the players resume playing a balanced PVE World of Warcraft.
Plastic Rat Mar 24th 2009 10:49PM
What Islander999 said.
The influence of Arenas on PvE stuff vs. the number of players who actually play Arenas is pretty unbalanced.
Would be great if they just made a separate set of rules or a separate game for it. People who play in Arenas are generally not interested in questing or leveling. Let them go make characters at L80 that they can mess around with the Arenas and keep that aspect separate from the rest of the game.
Max Mar 25th 2009 2:21AM
incoming "OMG ARENA IS RUINING PvE OMG posts"
people of moderate intelligence are advised to duck and cover.
monkeyfoo Mar 25th 2009 11:06AM
I remember back in the early days of Arena. I played on my Enhance Shaman and after I got my resilience gear up and also made sure my dps was good, I could have a blast.
As times went with new seasons, we noticed that it started to become a lopsided bloodbath. Even after say a new season had been out for months.. we would run into the 2200 rated teams carrying a player when we were just 1500 rating. When season 4 hit it was so so bad and as the 3.0 patch eventually hit it only got worse for some, but of course greater for others.
Nowadays I do not do any arena due to the honest acceptance that my enhance Shaman is not good, except ok in a 5s team. It comes down to the actual class. DKs, Rogues and Ret Paladins own in their own respect. Many other combos like Warrior, Mage Priest in a 3s team or say rogue and resto druid in 2s.
The other annoying issue is that even after a new season launches and the player ability is supposed to even out... I still most often face 2000 plus rated teams when my own team is 1500. Even when we get close to playskill of say 1750 or higher... we face top tier teams repeatedly to get killed in less than a minute in 90percent of the matches.
I will say this.. I play as i love the fact that if we win, since we are better than average PVPers,.. it feels that much better, but we know that in the current game... getting to Gladiator is only for certain classes and of course.. players who do nothing but pvp.
Manatank Mar 24th 2009 6:08PM
Some of us never cared about PvP and only participated in those annoying matches for free epics. They aren't free epics anymore (at least not compared to the ease of access to PvE epics). I have no interest in actually specing for PvP, or spending gold on enchants to be competitive so I will continue to avoid them.
If arena didn't cost me anything to participate I might occasionally run one for a diversion much like I currently do with battlegrounds.
Evaline Mar 24th 2009 6:19PM
This, exactly this. I did arenas with my main and 1 alt in tbc for 'easy' gear, and now I haven't bothered because the gear isn't so great and has pretty steep rating requirements. Whereas running naxx is pretty easy. Hell, I even do Naxx 25 pugs weekly with 50% guild alts and the rest picked up from trade chat, and 8 out of 10 times we down everything up to KT.
Schadenfreude Mar 24th 2009 8:06PM
This. I hated Arena, it's not fun, and my 3v3's 10 games every week usually ended with us logging off in disgust or yelling at each other.
Schadow Mar 24th 2009 9:39PM
back in the day I was going for the S2 weapons for my rogue. My wife and I did 2v2 to generate the points. It caused stress and made both of us not want to play.
So we changed tactics. Each week we bought a new 5v5 charter with 3 other like-minded people, lost our 10 matches, and banked our 390-ish arena points. We didn't care about the results. I stealthed around with non-combat pets following me around.
We got points, other teams got wins, I got my welfare epics. No pixels, or marriages, were harmed in the process.
Telwar Mar 24th 2009 11:00PM
Yeah, we did the same thing as Schadow. It was kind of lame, but I could work at it and get a slightly higher rating and slightly more points for vastly more time spent at it...or we could lose 10 games, get our points, and get on with our lives.
What was truly amusing was seeing another team doing exactly the same thing, and it became a race to see who would quit out first.
The Claw Mar 25th 2009 2:38AM
So, the question is, does "65% fewer arena teams" actually mean any less people are PLAYING arena?
Or does it mean that 65% of participants in previous seasons were losing their way to free epix, and now they're all gone because there are no epix to be had. Whilst the same number of people continue to contest the arenas.
Eisengel Mar 25th 2009 6:43AM
Sure the gear was an attraction, but I had all the point-buyable gear and continued to arena with friends of mine because they enjoy PvP. It was incredibly frustrating to no end, to the point where I just could not play with them any more.. at least in arena. I haven't been in arena since.
I enjoy a fair contest to test players' skill and knowledge of their class in small battles, and that's why I played BGs and not arena. Now PvP is... ick.
numberonestunna Mar 24th 2009 6:10PM
i didn't read anything on exactly why or even a hint as to why the decline is taking place..mabye the DK?!
Plan Mar 24th 2009 6:58PM
I'm sure the reasons range from imbalance, to the ratings requirements even on honor gear, to the fact that it's been increasingly more difficult for the average player to compete against the "elite" because of ever-widening gear gulfs.
And just for the record, in a post a few months back which both Yonzon and Rossi took exception to, Yonzon called me out on my claim that arena participation had dropped drastically in this xpac. He pointed out I didn't have the numbers, and I pointed out no one did, but the anecdotal evidence was overwhelming. Now we have the numbers, and it turns out I was right -- people have abandoned non-WG PvP and arenas en masse, because the balance and gear issues have become progressively worse.
Durango Mar 24th 2009 7:37PM
"and compared the numbers to Season 4 -- a season already notable for having low participation due to its proximity to Wrath of the Lich King and steeper ratings requirements on gear."
there were no death knights in S4
Durango Mar 24th 2009 7:40PM
"and compared the numbers to Season 4 -- a season already notable for having low participation due to its proximity to Wrath of the Lich King and steeper ratings requirements on gear."
there were no death knights in S4
Durango Mar 24th 2009 7:43PM
"and compared the numbers to Season 4 -- a season already notable for having low participation due to its proximity to Wrath of the Lich King and steeper ratings requirements on gear."
there were no death knights in S4