Blizzard EU introduces cross-language battlegroups
by Mike Schramm 
May 27th 2009 at 4:00PM
Now you can yell at people for not fighting at the flag in all kinds of different languages: Blizzard's EU staff have announced that they're breaking out the first cross-language battlegroups. Actually, that's not quite true -- players who speak different languages will only be playing as opponents (so the Horde you're fighting may speak a different language, but your allies will still understand you). But it is good news for some EU players who've been suffering long queue times. The English language battlegroup Nightfall will be combining with the Spanish language Crueldad (to form Cruelty/Crueldad), and the French battlegroup Némésis will be battling Germans in Hinterhalt to make up Embuscade/Hinterhalt.Arena ladders on all of the realms will be combining as well (but of course even there, opponents will still be from different languages, so you'll never have to worry about crossing translation lines). The change is in effect right now -- have any of you been playing on Cruelty or Embuscade and seen faster queues yet?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Battlegrounds, Arena, Europe
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Beli May 27th 2009 4:07PM
Is anyone else concerned that Embuscade/Hinterhalt is going to make BG's a cakewalk for the Germans? Afterall, the first rule of French warfare is "France's armies are victorious only when not led by a Frenchmen."
niko May 27th 2009 4:13PM
I c wut u did thur
/approve
pantear May 27th 2009 4:16PM
Time to hear some good auld french battlecries.
Vladeon May 27th 2009 4:17PM
Well, I was just going to say that the French will have to watch their flanks in Warsong Gulch, though I could see them putting their heavy hitters in the middle of the battle ground as a sort of Maginot line to keep the opposite faction from getting their flag. Sounds fail safe, right?
All kidding aside though, this is a great way to open up more opportunities to BG. Afterall, who cares what the other faction's native language is since you can't understand them anyways.
Agerath May 27th 2009 4:31PM
Ha ha thinly-veiled racism
Yeng May 27th 2009 4:52PM
The french are not a race.
Endless May 28th 2009 7:27PM
As the old saying goes: "Going to war without France is like going to deer hunt without a xylophone."
It's not racism, it is a past experience applied to current events. :P
Futue May 27th 2009 4:16PM
They will still say kek though right?
BulletzBill May 27th 2009 4:24PM
i kek'ed
Taelisa May 27th 2009 4:29PM
Woot! Nightfall got a mention on wow.com!! Yeah!! Go Nightfall! (Or Cruelty as it is now known)!!!
Kay May 27th 2009 4:43PM
Casual racism and shoutouts to ma homies on Nightfall aside, i have noticed a significant improvement in queue times. I had 2 instant (2-3 secs after signup) bgs and none i had to wait more than a minute for. a vast imprvement. Wow, blizz did something clever, don't tell the trolls.
thebvp May 27th 2009 4:33PM
How I wish we could do this on the other side of the pond. It could make BGs so much more fun.
Tolkfan May 27th 2009 4:58PM
Crueldad? Cruel Dad! Great name! :D Kinda reminds of the Joker's line "My father was a fiend... and a drinker..." :P
Bubsa May 27th 2009 5:18PM
I'm guessing I'm still going to be stuck with gnomes shouting "SWE? SWE!" etc at me, aren't I?
meme May 27th 2009 5:31PM
pretty bad for spaniards, their realms are younger than the english ones, even high level pvpers from spain use to play in english realms
chris.nicola89 May 27th 2009 11:51PM
Germany vs the French. A battle of epic proportions.
Rizuli May 27th 2009 7:36PM
Come on blizz, no English-german BGs?
We Englishmen still want more revenge for the blitz!
Alpheias May 28th 2009 5:57AM
I think this should be done for the European realms in general... I can only encourage a thing like that... why let language be a border for a game like this, with people connection from all over europe anyways... it's not like we actually take the time to chatter along in arenas!
GG blizz, now expand this fancy feature!
kala May 28th 2009 1:11PM
The change is all good and been waited for some time now since they started testing it.
But what is puzzling, that they Blizzard did not include Ruin bgroup from the start.
It is common knowledge that Ruin is pretty much broken.
2 lowpop pvp servers combined with RPrs, and to add insult to injury,
the server Hakkar is almost completely made from arrogant Italians who cant or wont speak a word of english besides few swear words, what makes them pretty much useless in bg-teamwork.