Wednesday's TTR stress test was far, far more calm than Sunday's test. Lower Blizzard activity and the population levels seemed vastly lower than before. The lag was minimal, maybe nonexistent. Definite improvement from Sunday, but that probably has something to do with the much lower population.
I have no fantastic tales of speaking to Nethaera or private photoshoots with GMs, but I actually got quite a few arena games in. The WoW Insider gang didn't have a 5th for 5v5s, so I decided to let Adam, Zach and Amanda M. have the Hordeside fun in the 3v3 bracket, and I'd make waves on the Alliance-side. Many lamented my departure when I logged off of my Tauren Warrior, but the Alliance needed love, too! Sorry guys!
Blizzard is at it again and so are we! We'll be live blogging the stress test event part deux tonight, on the scene with both Alliance and Horde characters. Be sure to give a /wave to any "Insider" you see walking around. We'll be trying to stay where the action is – be it in arena's attempting to best our own 8-1 record, or watching the GMs hand out more 'phat lewts'.
Right now the server is up and running, quite smoothly actually. Keep an eye out here and we'll keep you updated with the latest!
What? Stress Test, Part Deux Who? Blizzard CMs, GMs, Devs, and the WoW Insider Arena Team Where? Tournament Test Server When? Tonight at 5:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m, PST
Got all that? Good. Drysc announced last night Blizzard will be holding another round of stress testing on the tournament test realm. Why? Because they want more attention. I for one, am going to give it to them. In fact, WoW Insider will again have a crew on the server covering all the action. We'll all be hopping around on toons named like "Insideradam", "Insideralex", and "Insiderzach". So be sure to drop by and say hello again!
If you missed the last stress test, it was a ton of fun. We have a huge gallery of screen shots of just about everything you could want to see. Blizzard devs were there handing out mounts, chicken and gnome costumes, and even teleporting the WoW Insider staff away for some quite alone time with a Brutallus disguised Englewood.
If you're lucky enough to see us, just give us a /wave or a /hug and we'll try to snap a screen shot with you for our upcoming Stress Test Part Deux gallery. We'll also be live blogging all the activity on the TTR during the event, so even if you can't make it - you can still see what's happening. Our live blog is also a really good place to check and see if the server is up or down.
Drysc has issued a challenge to the World of Warcraft community to meet Blizzard teams out on the Tournament Test Realm and compete in the 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 Arena brackets. This follows a relatively successful worldwide brawl over the TTR last Sunday, where WoW Insider fielded a team of its own, although most of the time was spent waiting for the realm to get back online. Blizzard reached record numbers for the TTR tournament, prompting hardware upgrades which will be put to the test on Wednesday, between 5:00pm and 8:00pm PDT.
Blizzard employees will make special appearances on the TTR near the vendors and Arena promoters, easily spotted as they will be the only characters with Guild tags -- <Blizzard Entertainment> for their Horde team and <Blizzard> for their Alliance team. If you can't spot the Guild tag, you still probably won't have trouble finding them and their gigantic mounts. Drysc says he expects problems to crop up -- it is a stress test, after all -- but that Blizzard is ready to resolve any issues that might arise.
If you haven't gotten onto the TTR, now's a good time to download the PTR client and make your own pimped out Level 70 characters. The more players log on to the TTR during the tournament, the better Blizzard will be able to test their new build and hardware. Plus, it's always good to see what crazy antics Blizzard employees will be up to.
As horrible as Barrens chat and the trade channel can be by times, one of my favorite parts of Sunday's tournament test realm stress test was reading through the chats. Although I'm sure the guys had some pretty great tells, considering their names were more obvious than mine (Insideradam, Insideralex, and Vehn), I did catch some gems of my own.
One thing that was rampant on Sunday was names that were clearly against the terms of service, and of course nasty language. So if any of the photos have blurred-out names, you'll know why! Before you jump through, keep in mind there are a few photos, so the load might be slow. Don't forget to check out my full coverage of the stress test!
Sunday's Tournament Test Realm stress test was, in my opinion, a huge success. Despite the lag, the occasional crash or kick, and a one-hour maintenance downtime, the server held up quite well considering just how many people were bombing around on it. After maintenance, the lag improved quite a bit, and I'm guessing that Blizzard learned a fair amount that will help them to design the arena tournament realm.
Of course, interaction with the GMs, fighting spawned bosses dropping orange epics, being polymorphed into all sorts of things, receiving rare mounts, and reading through /general, /say, and /yell, not to mention tells, were the real highlights from yesterday. While Alex has already given a fairly detailed account of our adventures, I have some stories of my own to tell.
Englewood, a GM on the Tournament Test Realm, poised for some pictures today with the WoW Insider Arena Team covering the event. We were all pretty psyched to find us all teleported right outside Dalaran, with Englewood, to pose for some pics. He was in his Brutallus getup, and was lookin' pretty sweet.
Thanks Englewood!
It looks like the Blizzard staff is dwindling down on the TTR, and I've got a raid to run off to in 30 minutes. So while our live coverage is wrapping up, expect to see lots more commentary and analysis over the next few days.
And of course, the best part of the day for all of us was all you fans - I was getting so many tells at points I couldn't keep up! Thanks for saying hello!
We've been preparing for the stress test, are mostly gemmed and enchanted up, and are looking to fight! I'll be updating this post as things happen, hopefully with riveting tales of victory and triumph over Alliance Care Bears. (Kidding of course, my main is an Human warrior.)
Read on after the break for the updates! We'll keep this front page only for things that are affecting everyone.
Updated 5:23 p.m. PST: Live blogging wrapped up for the day. Many many thanks to all the fans and GMs out there! It was a great day with lots of cool stuff happening. More analysis over the next couple days!
If you're looking for us, we're playing under the banner "WoW Insider". My name is "insideradam", Alex Ziebart's name is "insideralex", and Amanda Miller's name is "Vehn". We'll be joined by other writers throughout the stress test. I'll also be live blogging the event in about 30 minutes from now.
The Tournament Test Realm outside of the Orc starting area.
We've been covering the Tournament Test Realm (TTR) lately, especially the stress test tomorrow between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. PST. It's going to be a lot of fun I'm sure – assuming the server can stay up.
And the best part about it all?
WoW Insider will be there in force! The TTR team from WoW Insider will include folks like myself, Amanda Dean, Amanda Miller, Alex Ziebart, and other writers. We'll be there trying to be king of the hill during the arena tests. Our team name is "WoW Insider" (creative, huh?) and we'll be fighting FOR the Horde.
So grab your sword and fight us Horde! Come on over and join the fun - and if you happen to hit us in battle, don't forget to take a screen shot of us standing victoriously over your dead bodies! ;-)
The Arena Tournament Test Realm (TTR) has been live for a few days now.It seems there have been some hiccups, which is to be expected during a stress test.Hortus has popped up in a few instances on the TTR forum to address some of the major concerns that players have brought up.
Lag is far and away the biggest issue on the TTR.Hortus indicated that one of the main functions of the TTR is measuring the best way to handle the massive number of contenders on the official tournament server.Blizzard currently has no plans for opening up any new TTRs to relive the stress.Logging into the server, I find the term "laggy" to be an understatement.Movement is dizzying, and players crowd around.
Blizzard is at it again and so are we! We'll be live blogging the stress test event part deux tonight, on the scene with both Alliance and Horde characters. Be sure to give a /wave to any "Insider" you see walking around. We'll be trying to stay where the action is – be it in arena's attempting to best our own 8-1 record, or watching the GMs hand out more 'phat lewts'.
What? Stress Test, Part Deux
We've been preparing for the stress test, are mostly gemmed and enchanted up, and are looking to fight! I'll be updating this post as things happen, hopefully with riveting tales of victory and triumph over Alliance Care Bears. (Kidding of course, my main is an Human warrior.)
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