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EU Arena Tournament standings posted in anticipation of phase 4
Vaneras has posted the latest EU Arena tournament rankings over on the forums (after the latest phase ended), and it looks like PMR has found their way back on top across the pond: Priest/Mage/Rogue teams have taken over the top three spots. The Death Knight/Paladin/DPS teams, formerly dominating, have fallen down to just two spots out of ten, and two Shamans have made an appearance, one partnered with a Druid and a Mage, and the other with a Lock and Hunter. Very interesting.We should see the US standings posted soon. You can see the rest of the EU teams in the big listing over on the Armory if you want. Phase 4 of the tournament, Vaneras says, will be an invitational, and will start next week on April 14th. Congrats to all of the winners so far, and good luck in the rest of the tourney!
SK Gaming's Arena Ranking system revamped
SK Gaming sends word that they've updated their Arena Ranking system -- if you want to find out who the best players or teams are on your Region, Battleground or Realm, this is the place to go. You can see the top player or team rankings separately, or even check out the most popular setups by spec and class (and surprisingly, Hunters are on top! No, I'm just kidding, of course it's Warrior/Druid. What did you expect?).Very nice tool, and it's just been updated recently, so it's faster and more accurate than ever. Talents are new to the system as well, but they're integrated very well, so its easy to quickly pull up whatever group of players or teams you want to look at, and then pull all kinds of statistics out of there, including ratings, setups, and builds for everybody. And as someone who's done some web programming in the past, I'll say that whoever coded it knows their stuff -- those URLs are awesome.Plus, we hear that some of the Chinese team names are pretty funny, but considering we're not actually fluent in the language, we'd never know it. Anyone want to translate the better ones?
Arena points reset in Wrath for Season 5
If there was a question about how Blizzard planned to deal with Arena points in Wrath of the Lich King -- which seems so palpably close -- Wryxian explained their resolution to the problem of carrying over points from Level 70 to 80. The answer? They won't. Players who hit Level 71 will have all their Arena points reset to 0 and be removed from all Level 70 bracket Arena teams. New skirmish brackets will open up for those between Levels 71-75 and Levels 79-80. As mentioned before, Level 80 players will be able to participate in rated matches and be eligible for Level 80 Arena rewards that will, thankfully, look distinctively different from PvE gear. This means that players should be spending their Arena points now instead of banking the maximum 5000 points, as it will not carry over past Level 70. In this scheme of progression, Level 70 Arenas will conceivably die an eventual natural death.What does this mean for the current season? When the pre-Wrath content patch is released, we're likely to see a shake-up in class representation in Arena play, as more classes become viable. It is also highly likely that the current season will end when Wrath is finally released, and competitive or rated Arena play will be in a state of limbo as Blizzard is likely to allow several weeks for players to reach Level 80 before starting a new Arena season.
The Colosseum: Reflex, Vengeful Gladiator
The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into duelling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.At the time of this article's posting, Passive Enemies is the #1 team in the 2v2 ladder on the Reckoning Battlegroup. SK Gaming's arena ranking tool reveals that they have third highest rating in the USA region. So, Passive Enemies is indisputably a strong team, with a powerful showing in the 2-person Arena. And this isn't their first season doing so -- Reflex carries the coveted "Vengeful Gladiator" title.WoW Insider was able to catch up with Reflex while he was rocking out in Warsong Gulch, and he was willing to take the time to answer some questions for The Colosseum. Take a look after the jump to see what he had to say.
Arena Season 4 set to begin on June 24th
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/World_of_Warcraft_Arena_Season_4_set_to_go_live_on_June_24th'; We were expecting it to take just a little while longer, but it looks like Blizzard surprised us. That's right, Arena junkies rejoice, and get ready to make the final push for your titles: Season 4 is on its way! Eyonix has just given the promised 2 weeks notice on the new season, and announced that it is now scheduled to begin on June 24th, 2008. As usual, teams will be allowed to keep any accumulated points, but all team and personal ratings will reset to 1500, and all titles from Season 2 will be removed. Also, the top rated teams from Season 3 will receive their titles, and for the very top, Armored Netherdrakes. It is also worth noting that this season will herald new Arena ratings requirements on most Season 4 gear, including many of the new honor rewards. In addition, Season 3's shoulder and weapon Arena rating requirements will drop slightly, all season 3 gear will cost fewer arena points, and the Season 2 gear will be purchasable for Honor. Season 1 gear will be gone forever (unless you buy it with T4 tokens, thanks Thorn), so buy it now if you want it for looks. This is also very likely to be the last season before WotLK comes out. There is still no word on what will happen to the gear after that - whether it will be discarded completely for new level 80 gear, or left as an option for people who prefer to stay at level 70 or do not buy WotLK. We'll keep you updated if the start date of Season 4 changes, or if any other news comes up, so keep it tuned here into Season 4 and beyond.
Blood Sport: Yup, still broken
PvP in its purest form is a beautiful thing. Amanda Dean, always obsessed with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat brings you news you can use in the Arena. The World (of Warcraft) seems to be full of arena lovers and arena haters. I suppose somewhere out there you might find some folks that are completely indifferent to the arena. The recent changes to the Personal Rating system seems to have brought out a furor in both camps. Suince the dawn of the Burning Crusade Blizzard has made many attempts to balance the arenas, now I find that the arenas are still broken, just broken differently. In a sarcastically titled thread "New PR system is cool" Camelvendor of Korgath explained his situation. He played on his 2200 rated team with his old partner, who obviously had a lower rating for 33 games. Boasting a record of 29 wins and 4 losses for the day, the end result was a rating change of 56 points lost. Since the team rating was considerably higher than one of the personal ratings on the team, they found themselves playing in the 1500 bracket.
CGS announces WoW 3v3 Arena Tournament
The Championship Gaming Series is set to kick off its second annual World of Warcraft Arena championship. The top 1,000 Arena teams from North America and Europe will compete June 9 to 22, on an independent ladder with the fierce competition taking place on the CGS tournament realm sanctioned by Blizzard. The two teams remaining at the top in each region will be flown to Los Angeles, California where the final matches will take place on the CGS League set and broadcast live on thecgs website. First place nets a cool $25,000, second place walks away with $12,500, and the last two teams will each net $6,250. This blogger can't stand the Rogue, Mage, Priest comps that kill my more casual random pickup team so I'll be watching from the sidelines. Good luck to all the pro qualifiers and hopefully you weren't banned for win trading before qualifying.
Championship Gaming Series announces Arena Tourney with a $25k prize
The Championship Gaming Series has announced its second World of Warcraft Arena championship, to be held in June and July later this year. It'll be a 3v3 tourney, and CGS is taking its cues from Blizzard -- they've got their own Arena realm to hold it on, and all the options on the official tournament realm will be available on theirs, too.In fact, it sounds like the tournament is actually starting on the live realms themselves -- CGS says that they're going to invite the top 1,000 Arena teams from North America and Europe, so if you're one of those, you can probably expect an email with an invite. The actual tournament takes place in June, with the finals in Los Angeles on July 19th, and the winner netting a $25,000 purse. The second place team gets half of that ($12,500), and the 3rd and 4th place teams will each take home $6,250.Nice work if you can get it. Good luck to everyone out there.
Tracking the Tournament Realm rankings from the armory
If you're interested in keeping track of the 3v3 Arena Tournament, You can look at Vhiari's breakdowns, sure, and good ones they are. But there's also another resource that should come in handy: The official ladder listings right on the official Armory. By choosing the Coliseum 1 battlegroup, you can see the rankings for the Tournament Realms. The current top 3v3 team, Outrageously Better Pros, Is a Priest/Rogue/Druid team, although the Druid has no games played. Maybe they used to be Priest Mage Rogue, which is a pretty strong combo these days. It should be fun to watch these rankings as the tournament progresses, both to see what class and spec makeups stay near the top, and to see what outrageous and silly names people can come up with for their teams -- without breaking the naming policy, that is. What's interesting to me is that despite the fact that the Tournament itself is 3v3 only, the 2v2 and 5v5 brackets are still in full swing, with quite a few teams. I suppose this is a sign that people really do like the idea of a good solid PvP only realm to duke it out with high powered characters to prove their worth. I have to wonder if Blizzard is watching those brackets as closely as they're watching the 3v3 bracket, or if this is a sign that they may make these arena practice realms more permanent in the future. Either way, all this activity should be fun to watch. Keep your browser pointed to WoW Inside for all the latest Tournament Realm news, including the escapades of our own WoW Insider Arena Team. Here's some arena page trivia too, while we're on the subject: Mike pointed out to me that the blade that Draenei chick on the arena ladder page is holding is known as The Hungering Cold. Its model was used for the Infamous "Sword of 1,000 Truths" in the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft." It currently drops in Naxxramas, so chances are we'll see it again come Wrath of the Lich King.
WSVG coming to Dallas this week
The World Series of Video Games is making their stop in Dallas, Texas starting tomorrow, July 5th and ending on Sunday, July 8th. And as always, World of Warcraft 3v3 arena tournaments are on the agenda! I'm afraid registration for the event is closed (though if you show up you can register for a chance at a competition spot opening up), but if you're in the area, you can certainly attend and watch some skilled arena players at work (for the $10 cost of admission). The real question is whether the pros at Team Pandemic will win again: so far, they've won both of the WSVG's WoW arena tournaments. And remember -- one lucky arena team will be winning an all-expenses paid trip to BlizzCon 2007!
This year's World Series of Video Games to include WoW
The games to be included in the 2007 World Series of Video Games competition have just been announced, and it's an eclectic mix including World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero II, Quake 4, and Fight Night Round 3. Wondering what place World of Warcraft has at a competitive event like this? Diverging from Blizzard's 5v5 tournament format (where multiple teams have professional sponsorship) WSVG is going to be sending its competitors into the 3v3 arenas. The WSVG is a world-wide event that's making stops in Wuhan, China (May); Louisville (June); Dallas (July); Rome or London (October); and Sweden's Dreamhack event (end of November/beginning of December). Registration is currently open for Wuhan and Louisville, so if you think you're ready to dominate in the 3v3 arena bracket, here's your chance.
Will professional gaming change the World of Warcraft as we know it?
With the arena system introducing a new kind of competitive PvP to the World of Warcraft, we're seeing our first professionally sponsored WoW arena teams. While Blizzard continues to market WoW to a core casual audience, the introduction of paid professionals into the arena brackets is anything but casual friendly. (Not that I've ever been a good enough PvPer to hit the top levels, but it was always nice to look at the arena gear and dream!) And the truth is we've probably only just seen the beginning of such sponsorships. Says Stephen Schoder of Check Six (sponsors of team ZERG IT UP):In the future you will soon find that Blizzard has tweaked the game to near perfection [in regards to game balance] in preparation for mainstream eSports competition.There's a whole new world of gaming out there, and Blizzard is only just getting its feet wet. [Via 1up, with thanks to Dave for the tip!]
Arena teams fight for the top spot
This week, Blizzard has highlighted the top US 5v5 arena teams (one from each battlegroup). These teams are currently competing for spots in the first ever arena tournament. Included are Power Trip from Bloodlust/Tichondrius, Fuddruckers from Cataclysm/Auchindoun, Outplayed from Cyclone/Daggerspine, Front Line Assembly from Emberstorm/Tortheldrin, ATM from Frenzy/Area 52, C A P S L O C K C R E W from Nightfall/Kel'Thuzad, Dejthstoneibilyfunecima from Rampage/Cho'gall, Portable Hotdog Steamers from Reckoning/Smolderthorn, Rerolled from Ruin/Azgalor, The Challenge from Shadowburn/Dark Iron, Yea We Lift from Stormstrike/Mal'Ganis, The Fighting Mongooses from Vengeance/Mug'thol, Clan HeX from Vindication/Lightning's Blade, Game blouses from Whirlwind/Cenarius. In the end, the tournament will determine the best PvP team in the world (of Warcraft and otherwise) -- so good luck to all competitors![Thanks, Dark Yoshi]
