It looks like it's looking to burst back onto the scene in a big way, though, as Blizzard announced the end of the 2nd qualifying round of the tournament today. The next round will see the winning teams from the 1st and 2nd qualifying rounds facing off in live matches in Boston, Madrid, Seoul, and Taipei in the coming months.
The list of first round winners has some familiar faces in it already. MLG San Diego winners Frag Dominant will be competing in the Boston event, WWI winner Council of Mages will be competing in Seoul, and WWI runner up Improved Clicks will be headed to Madrid. There's no word yet on which teams won the 2nd round, or when the next round's matches will take place, or whether we'll get live streaming from the events. We'll be sure to let you know all the details right here as soon as they're available though.
If you missed the WoW PvP action at the Worldwide Invitational, now's your chance to catch up. Selections from the 3v3 Arena Tournament action in Paris, including the final match between Council of Mages and Improved Clicks, are now available for download at the WWI tournament page.
If you're interested in improving your PvP game, it's amazing how much watching videos of good players in action can help. You learn a lot about how to use your class, and how other classes operate when you look at them from a 3rd person point of view and watch for patterns.
American arena's best of the best will be back in action this weekend as MLGs PC Circuit continues in Orlando.Once again, the winning team will be awarded $12,000 and three Blackbird Gaming PCs.There is a lot on the line with a total prize purse is $31,500.You can watch the tournament live on GotFrag TV.Broadcasts will begin Saturday and Sunday, July 12th and 13th at 9am Eastern time.
Many of the same teams from the San Diego event will be representing in Florida.GotGrat's Knitt Quinn posted a preview analysis of the teams to beat.The analysis describes the strengths and weaknesses of each team.You can expect to see some well known teams and a few newcomers to the MLG scene.Many of the teams have a pool of known compositions to draw from:
Happy Monday morning everyone! If you're a fan of World of Warcraft, chances are you heard about the big old shindig Blizzard threw in Paris this week. If you didn't a chance to get to Paris this year or catch any of the news over the weekend, you'll want to keep reading. We had a crack team on the convention floor, and more of us watching the live feeds all weekend, all working hard to deliver up to date reports and analysis. What that means for you is that this is the perfect place to catch up on all the WoW news from Paris. This handy list will direct you to exactly where you want to go to get the information you need.
Developer's Class Panel: There's a little something for every class in here. Find out what's coming for your favorite character!
Q&A Grab Bag Panel: See what WWI attendees had on their minds, and how the developers answered.
Dungeons and raids panel: See what's next in the Caverns of Time, Ulduar, and more. Don't forget to check out parts two, three, and four for the whole scoop.
PvP panel: Find out about Lake Winterspring, siege engines, Arenas, Battlegrounds, and pretty much everything except class balance. Includes pictures! Be sure to check parts two, three, and four as well.
The goodie bag: Even in real life, we like our epic loot. Let us show you the swag.
Of course, if the flood of liveblog information makes your head spin, no worries, we have analysis on every angle and every little tidbit discussed during the Invitational. Check them out after the break.
The Worldwide Invitational Arena Tournament spans both days of the convention. This year's competition consists of a double-elimination, 3v3 format.Top teams from all World of Warcraft regions around the globe have arrived in Paris to show their skills in hopes of winning glory and fabulous prizes. At the beginning of play the field consisted of sixteen teams:
In its previous two seasons , the Intel Extreme Masters (from the Electronic Sports League) focused on two main eSports disciplines --- Counter-Strike 1.6 and Warcraft 3. Now, however, that's changing. They've announced that World of Warcraft will take over the spot from Warcraft 3, based in part on the success of previous WoW tournaments. While ESL doesn't explicitly say it's an Arena tournament, I think we can safely assume that to be the case.
This is just part of the ongoing eSport effort, and I think we'll hear about a lot more tournaments in the coming months. I don't know if Blizzard meant to bump its own game from some rosters, but I suppose there's only so much room at each tournament. There's also $750,000 (US) in prize money for the victors. They've not announced how much will specifically go to World of Warcraft, but it'll definitely make it worth winning.
I'm actually a little excited. Phase 2 of the 2008 World of WarcraftArena Tournament has begun! Start your engines and speculations now, folks -- which comps will make it to the top this time? Are we going to see a winner that looks like Frag Dominant? Or will the new Phase 2 winners basically be the same as Phase 1's winners?
Vhairi's been tracking the performance of classes in the tournament so far. For the last week or two, this round's competitors have been honing strategies, experimenting with comps, and switching things around a lot. Now that the dust has settled, teams are what they are. As a result, the data should be fairly meaningful again pretty quickly, and hopefully Vhairi will put out another update.
I can't wait to see how the class performance distribution will look in Phase 2 -- it might teach us something more about what to expect in WotLK for class balance. I don't think Phase 2 will be much different from Phase 1 however -- a lack of holy Pallies, scarcity of Hunters and Mages, and so on.
MLG's PC Circuit Arena competition has come to an end, after an exciting weekend of coverage by GotFrag. The final round came down to a best of eleven showdown between Frag Dominant and Nihilum, first to six wins. Frag Dominant's Rogue/Warrior/Druid managed to get the best of Nihilum's Priest/Druid/Hunter after a grueling contest that never had a clear winner until the very end. After the first eight matches, they were tied at an even 4-4.
The Nihilum team's aggresive nature seemed to get the better of them when Frag Dominant caught onto their playstyle. More than once it appeared to me that their Hunter was left open to FD's double melee burst when the Nihilum Priest and Druid shifted their attention to take out Frag Dominant's healer. Nihilum's healers being focused on downing Frag's own forced them into reactive healing rather than proactive, and the deaths of their Hunter throughout the contests ultimately lead to their downfall. Very well played by Frag Dominant.
The tournament was definitely a good watch, and the highlight of my day was my roommate shouting obscenities about drainteams. WoW arena tournaments don't quite have the strangely entertaining glitz and glamour of Starcraft tournaments yet, but it's only a matter of time. I'm fairly confident that I'll tune in for the Circuit's tournament in Orlando on July 11th, and many others after that.
Today is the second day of GotFrag's live coverage of their 3v3 arena tournament. If you didn't tune in and see the action yesterday, I definitely recommend giving it a look for at least a little while at some point today. I'm not exactly the arena type, but even I watched for an hour or two yesterday afternoon with one of my current roommates. It's just plain interesting to watch some of the top players in the world go head to head, and see some of their reactions in person, not just the written word.
Plus, there's another bonus for watching the tournament. As Amanda Dean mentioned yesterday, the first player to post the top four teams and the final score in the comments of GotFrag's post will win an A40 MixAmp and A40 Headset.
If you get the chance, be sure to tune in to GotFrag's coverage of the MLG's PC Circuit' Arena competition this weekend.The action will be going on throughout the day today and into tomorrow.I can think of five great reasons to watch this event:
Get to see stunning arena action by the best players
That's right, you don't even have to be an arena champ to take home the goods today.Heck, you don't even have to be in San Diego.GotFrag announced a prediction contest on their website.The first player to post the top four finishing teams and the final score in the comments of GotFrag's post will be granted an A40 MixAmp and A40 Headset. Take a look at some of the teams that will be playing and post away. Check the post at GotFrag for more details.
The best of the best will be going head to head next weekend, June 14 and 15 in Major League Gaming's $22,500 tournament.Members of the winning team will each receive a Blackbird gaming PC in addition to a $4,000 cash prize.The arena action will be live in San Diego, but for those of us who can't be in "'s FinestCity," the events will be broadcast on GotFrag TV.Broadcast coverage begins at 9AM (Pacific) each day and will be hosted by Rob "voice" Simpson and Jared "vhell" Coulston.
This event, inaugurating MLG's PC Circuit, promises to be action packed.Registered participants include: fnatic Frag Dominant Frag Dominant (Duelists going for Glad) MoB TurtleForce MoB TurtlePower Pandemic SK Gaming
If you've never viewed any of GotFrags web-based programs, you will need to prepare your computer.Viewing the tournament will require installing GotFrag's Octoshape Plug-in which operates in the Java runtime on a PC. You can also use an external Octoshape player. Mac and Linux users are not excluded from the broadcast. It'll be almost as much fun as watching the Wings win the Stanley Cup.
According to Nihilum, Blizzard has now sent out the first round of emails to the qualifying teams for the North American regional finals for the 3v3 arena tournament. They'll be barred for competing in ranked matches for the second qualifying rounds, but will be allowed to fight skirmish matches to pratice their skills. The following teams, according to Nihilum and the official ladder page, made it to the next round:
Dude I got it on FRAPS at 2,182 points. Their team consisted of 2 Warlocks, a Shaman, a Druid, A Priest, and a Hunter.
duelist going for glad at 2,181 points. Their team consisted of 2 Rogues, a Mage, A Druid, and a Priest.
Frag Dominant at 2,179 points. Their team consisted of 2 Rogues, a Druid, and a Warlock.
Dynamo Gaming at 2,178 points. Their team consisted of a Warrior, a Druid, a Rogue, and a Warlock.
In The Shadowplay at 2,178 points. Their team consisted of 2 Shamans, a Rogue, a Priest, and a Warlock.
gc and his DAD at 2,178 points. Their team consisted of a Druid, a Warrior, and a Warlock.
They'd first sold out back in March. Then, like sweet, sweet relief, Blizzard announced that more tickets were available yesterday. Now, less than 24 hours after the additional tickets were made available, the Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational is sold out again. Of course, the news blurb on the official site encourages you to keep checking back, so it's possible they'll announce more ticket availability yet again. There had been some payment problems, so maybe this round of new tickets were a concession to that issue.
Here's one more reason to make it out to Paris on June 28th and 29th this year: Blizzard's announced a 3v3 World of Warcraft Tournament. It's even open to most residents of the US, so if you're an American arena junkie with 2 friends planning a European vacation, here's your chance to participate in the contests. You will, of course, be competing for prizes: A Frostmourne replica for first place, a Logitech G51 Surround Sound Speaker System for 2nd place, and a free year of WoW for 3rd place. You can check out the complete information here.
As a reminder, those extra tickets we told you about are now on sale, so if you were planning to buy some, now is your chance. It'll set you back 70 euros (which is currently $108.53 in US dollars), but for everything you'll get, the price is probably worth it. If you still need a little convincing of that, check out our previous World Wide Invitational coverage.
Slorkuz has posted some information of interest for European PvPers. The first qualifying round of the Arena Tournament is over, with the second one beginning today, May 21st, and lasting until June 2nd. You can sign up at the European Information page (for Americans, our information page is here). Ranked matches for this round will be starting on June 16th and last until July 16th, so you should have plenty of time to prepare and practice, and plenty of time to get in your matches.
Remember, if you win, that's a good 25,000 dollars in the bank. Not bad for a bit of 3v3, if you're already into it. Good luck to all competitors!
In the midst of the hubbub over the Worldwide Invitational 3v3 Arena tournament and the MLG PC Circuit tournaments in San Diego and Orlando, the official 3v3 Arena Tournament seems to have fallen by the wayside -- At the least, people don't seem to remember it much. 
American arena's best of the best
In its previous two seasons , the Intel Extreme Masters (from the 
If you get the chance, be sure to tune in to 
The best of the best will be going head to head next weekend, June 14 and 15 in 
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