Major League Gaming, which is apparently the parent company of WoW Insider favorite MMO-Champion, have announced that there will be a new PC gaming circuit, featuring our favorite MMO. The circuit will have events in San Diego, from June 13th–15th; Orlando, July 11th–13th; and Dallas, October 3–5. Each event will have $22,500 in prizes -- it's no Blizzard Arena Tournament, but that's still a lot of money.
The circuit will be played on HP Blackbird 002 computers, so I guess you won't have to worry about frame rates (that thing has 1 GB of VRAM). The competition will be 3v3, just like Blizzard's tourney. Only 32 teams will be allowed to register, and you need to have an account set up on MLG's site first; registration opens May 15. They say "more details on rules and the official format will be released on May 15th" -- maybe Blizzard will let them use a special tournament server? At any rate, it looks like Blizzard may have been more successful at turning WoW into an esport than we thought.
So a while back, Tom Chilton talked about turning WoW into a "viable Esports platform" in an interview with Gamespy, and lots of players did not take it well. Some time later, the fire has still not died down. Darqchild of the Perenolde server posted another complaint about this the other day, expressing a belief that the creation of a 2nd rule set and the domination of the esports concept had already gone with the implementation of a Tournament server.
Last night I posted why I feel that the PvE game has been, is, and always will be the real game in WoW. One of the interesting inferences that people made was that I don't like PvP, and that I don't do it. Nothing is further from the truth. It was interesting to read the number of comments on that article, and I think it might surprise some folks that save for this introduction paragraph and a few edits I made, this article was written before I wrote my PvE piece.
So, why do I PvP? What attracts me to the PvP game, and why is it a worthwhile thing to do in WoW? There are three primary reasons that PvP is a game worth playing. First, it provides a critical and necessary change of pace from the PvE game. Secondly, it gives those with limited play time an opportunity to enjoy the game and succeed at what they do. Finally, PvP is beginning to turn into a legitimate eSport, and provides some good entertainment there in. Let's look at each of these reasons individually.
Chilton meant that Blizzard has solid ties into the community, but should it worry us at all that those ties might be a little too close-knit? We already know that Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan has major ties to a guild in the game (he was actually hired by Blizzard from his Everquest raiding guild), and quest designer Alex "Furor" Afrasiabi also comes from a guild that is still active in World of Warcraft. In fact, we've already seen Blizzard get in trouble by their own admission for treating the devs' guilds differently -- is it right for them to keep their guild associations anonymous?
On the one hand, obviously it's much easier to keep the developers' ingame identities anonymous, otherwise they wouldn't be able to play the game at all without getting approached with questions and complaints every time they log on. But on the other hand, not only is there the potential for favoritism in terms of game design, but what if the PvP guild mentioned in the article was one that won an eSports or the Arena realm tournament? Is it right for Blizzard's developers to keep their guild associations anonymous?
I had the opportunity to play on the Tournament Realm with Amanda Miller and Adam Holisky on Friday night. Yes, we got schooled but we had a great time. As Amanda mentioned I rolled a Resto Druid, but I specced short of tree form. I was most interested in mobility. I usually heal arenas as a Resto Shaman. I really enjoy the mobility of the druid, and I'm afraid I would lose that in tree form. Take a look at my spec, for those of you who know Druid better than I, tell me where can I improve?
I absolutely love the tournament realm. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to play Druid, and it encourages me, and I may very well level one on my live realm. I think I will try a Warlock next. I've enjoyed the tournament server so much that I haven't even logged into my home realm. I would probably get bored with just playing WoW as an E-sport full time on an arena realm, but I've found the realm to be worth the price of admission.
V'Ming - who thinks that gnome warlocks are travesties of nature and need to be KOSed - shares thoughts and ideas on becoming deadlier at the Arenas. He also dabbles in the dark arts in Blood Pact.
Looking at some of the upcoming class changes in patch 2.4, I can't help but feel that many of them are driven by PvP - particularly Arena - issues. Blizzard is undoubtedly trying to level the playing field for the classes before the 3v3 Arena Tournament, tentatively set to begin in April. That's a very short time to iron out problems and further imbalances that the patch will bring.
A design philosophy that Blizzard has insisted on from the beginning is that each class should play similarly in both PvP and PvP. Tom Chilton (Lead Designer, or Kalgan) said at last year's Blizzcon that the game "shouldn't have significantly different rules for spells in PvP vs PvE."
"Slower" water in Arenas is the latest change that depart from this philosophy, in addition to PvP-only diminishing returns, and PvP-oriented stats like Resilience and Spell Penetration. However, since many class changes apply to both PvP and PvE, PvE players seem to be "dragged" along by changes meant to tune their classes' PvP performance. Shamans and druids seem to be most affected this patch with changes to Nature's Swiftness, Elemental Mastery, Call of Thunder for shamans, and Lifebloom for druids.
Blizzard announced today that they will be hosting a 3v3 Tourney beginning in April with international qualifiers and some pretty hefty cash prizes at the end. After paying an entrance fee, teams will compete in qualifying tournaments with other teams from their region for cash prizes totaling $27,000 before proceeding to the global championship, where the grand prize will be $75,000. The twist is that this tournament will take place on dedicated servers in which participants will play with pre-made level 70 characters. You can read the FAQ here.
It sounds like this Tournament will be something that PvP Enthusiasts will want to watch with interest. The entrance fee should ensure that most of the field is made of dedicated players, or at least players who are somewhat sure of their ability, and the establishment of pre-made characters to ensure a "level" playing field should definitely lead to some exciting matches in which we'll see how differences in skill can make or break an arena match. However, It may also bring to light class and talent discrepancies as we watch which team make-ups rise to the top and which fall. Since we already know that additional class changes will be coming to 2.4.0, we certainly have to wonder if Blizzard will try to make some last minute class adjustments to this patch in preparation for this tournament, or if they'll use data from this tournament in making further decisions on class balance.
But either way, if you fancy yourself to be pretty decent at 3v3 Arena play and think you're willing to part with a bit of money to try and win a lot MORE money, it sounds like you'll want to keep an eye out for the sign-ups for this.
This story comes from the somewhat unusual source of Amped eSports. They have an interview up from Blizzard's Paul Della Bitta, whose title is Senior Community Manager. He says he "oversee[s] our community teams for all franchises as well as the eSports team," so that's who he is in case, like me, you hadn't heard of him before.
The interview mostly talks about "how did WoW become an eSport" (with the introduction of the Arena system in BC) and "how do you feel about the tournaments this year" (very excited). If you're interested in WoW as a sporting event, you should definitely give the article a read. However, there is at least one juicy item of interest in there for all WoW players: We know that pro players need to practice for hours a day; they can't practice and grind out levels and farm for items It is something we're aware of and we're going to hope to address in the future.
Is this a sign that there will in the future be a meaningful way to participate in PvP without leveling a character to 70? How would you feel about that? Personally, I think I'd welcome it, as it would give further distance between the PvE game and the PvP game, which BC already does pretty well and which I think is very needed. I see the argument for rewarding players who put in the effort to level (as does Paul Della Bitta: "we wanted to reward the players who had taken their characters from 1 to 70"), but on the other hand I don't see why it should take hundreds of hours spent in PvE in order to compete in PvP. Your thoughts?
[1.Local] serves up a smattering of reader comments from the past week, from the sublime to the ridiculous. 
So a while back, Tom Chilton talked about turning WoW into a "viable Esports platform" in an 
Last night 
Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, in his interview 
Blizzard announced today
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