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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.
Another arena team goes pro: The Fighting Mongooses of Mug'thol
This is getting to be a habit-- maybe WoW will thrive in the professional gaming arena yet. Curse is reporting that Enervate Gaming has picked up The Fighting Mongooses, an Arena team on Mug'thol (they've got a 2536 rating, which I guess is kind of good and stuff). They're currently first in their battlegroup Vengeance (and Overrated is running second place, so they may get picked up soon as well). AmpedeSports has a short piece up about both TFM and Power Trip, who we reported a little while ago were one of two other teams who've been picked up by progaming agents.There's a few interesting things to be learned in the sound bites of the Enervate guy as well. As for actual tournaments, he says plans are still up in the air, but he confirms that Blizzard will supposedly be "paying for some of the top teams to attend Blizzard sponsored events." (Enervate says they'll be paying to send the sixth man along.) And when asked how he chose The Fighting Mongooses, he says Power Trip and ZERG IT DOWN just weren't available that he spoke with players and "community leaders" to find out which were the teams to watch, and then listened in on some of TFM's matches. The team is a group of close friends-- two of them have known each other since elementary school, and there's a pair of brothers as well.So grats to The Fighting Mongooses for picking up a sponsor. With all this support flying around, we're going to have to get these guys together in an arena pretty soon and see what they can do. How about it, Blizzard?
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]
