Your entry fee will grant you access to the arena server for the entirety of the six-week qualifying tournament. You will be able to create up to three characters on the server. This tournament will be about skill rather than gear. You may select your weapons and armor from arena and raid epics. You will also be able to select honor-based rewards and enchantments for your items. If you don't like your original selections, respecs and gear will all be free of charge.
The first two weeks of each qualifying tourney will be reserved for practicing and solidifying teams. If you don't have two friends to play with, don't worry. You will be able to create arena teams on the server. Each of your three characters can be on up to three teams. That means you will have nine shots at the prize money for a single entry fee. However, in order to qualify, each team must play at least two hundred games in the four-week qualifying period.
There is no official tournament start date for the tournament, but Blizzard anticipates a start in April of 2008. We'll keep you up to date as further information is released. I'll see you in the tourney!
* Entry fee will be €15/£12 in Europe; 20,000 won in ; $20 in North America; and NT$450 in the regions of , Hong Kong, and
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-20-2008 @ 9:10AM
icer said...
wow that sounds awesome i wish i was good at pvp so i could enter but i'm not so i'm staying out of it
GL to everybody that enters
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2-20-2008 @ 9:11AM
Callandra said...
WOW.
This sounds too good to be true. I might just pay the $20 to make a bunch of characters to goof around with. Choice of weps? Armor? Hoo-fah.
I love to Arena as well, should be fun.
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2-20-2008 @ 9:15AM
Arnold said...
Quite frankly, this is how I think all lvl 70 PvP should be. Free gear that can only be used in arenas/BGs. That way it would be only about skill, and not about gear.
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2-20-2008 @ 9:25AM
Bob said...
It is nice to see them finally admit that gear > skill. Especially if they intend to just keep inflating stats each arena season. PvP is essentially an instance. You are already matched by level, there is no reason gear shouldn't be equal across the board in BGs and Arenas. World PvP is a different matter, but as long as BGs and Arenas are going to be separate affairs, let it be decided by skill, not gear/grinding time.
2-20-2008 @ 9:32AM
Charlie said...
@bob
i think you mean Skill>gear. Lol
But yeah, this sounds like loads of fun. I'm only so so at Arena, but I will definatley get in there with a good O'l disc priest and have at it!
2-20-2008 @ 10:42AM
Saldemora said...
Gear is what makes WOW cool. If you didn't have to work for gear WOW wouldn't be addicting and you would get bored quickly. There has to be that driving force to always get something better or more exciting. If gear is free and easy to get then there will be no separation between players. Good players have good gear, bad players do not.
2-20-2008 @ 11:31AM
Arnold said...
@Saldemora,
To a certain extent it is true that "Good players have good gear, bad players do not." But at the same time, it really is a matter of how much time one is able to invest, rather than how much skill one has.
If I am a new 70 in greens/blues starting arena for the first time, with about 6000 life, going against a team where they are in full S2/S3 with 12-14000 life, even if I am a "better" player, they are still going to win against me just by the mere fact that they will outlast me.
Also, I can loose every single game every time I arena, but still over time collect points and eventually get my "welfare epics," so that I can be the guy in full S3/S4 when that starts. Then I will be doing unto the new green/blue 70 what they are doing to me in my previous example. It doesn't mean that I am a better player....
Also, yes, I admit that gear is cool. It is fun. It is one of the reasons why we play. But not the only reason. Some of us play for the social aspects as well...
2-20-2008 @ 9:18AM
Callandra said...
In addition to what I posted earliar, I was banned from the forums years ago. Apart from that my account is in good standing.
Do you think that will prevent me from registering?
Reply
2-23-2008 @ 10:26PM
Naughton said...
I guess that would depend on what u did to get banned from the forums. If it was bad enough to get banned from the forums then you prolly have a blemish on your account that my limit you from being in it. Like a person with a DUI trying to get a job at UPS.
2-20-2008 @ 10:21AM
theRaptor said...
So Blizzard have just admitted that the current Arena system is a joke for tournament play. Can someone please explain why they are adding a broken tournament PVP system and then rigging it to hold proper tournaments? They may as well integrate Starcraft 2 poorly into WoW, and then claim they have REAL TIME STRATEGY, and still run the WoW-RTS tournaments so that the WoW part means nothing.
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2-20-2008 @ 12:07PM
Zarzuur said...
I agree, this virtually relegates the current system into a "practice" Arena. If it takes off, it may end up succeeding the existing Arena setup, especially if winners get exclusive stuff/titles that they can end up using on characters back on their normal realms.
IMO, as a PvE player I'm not bothered if they are changing PvP to be more based on skill-not-gear, because that's how all other games do it. The separation will still keep PvE distinctive, instead of the current gear mix-match.
2-20-2008 @ 10:32AM
Pzychotix said...
200 games? Isn't that a bit... much?
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2-20-2008 @ 10:35AM
theRaptor said...
Not to much to weed the non-serious people out quickly.
2-20-2008 @ 11:02AM
short_bus said...
No, it is over a 4 week time qualifying period. Thats only 50 games a week. I usually play about 200 games a week with all my teams combined.
2-20-2008 @ 10:38AM
Maarick said...
good point...my account was temp suspended like march of last year for like 5 days...
should have nothing to do with the tourny right?
cause i am winning it
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2-20-2008 @ 12:17PM
Aladek said...
I love this idea, and I like how the idea of just joining for the fun of it to test out gear and specs, have the chance to play with gear that I will probably never ever ever see.
On the other side I'm glad they are limiting the "free gear" to this specific tournament. There is a reason that Arena and BGs don't have free gear, you gotta grind/earn/get lucky to get sweet gear. Those that can go out there and do so should be rewarded for their efforts. Remember this is an MMORPG, not Unreal Tournament or HALO, grinding and upgrading are a primary factor.
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