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Blood Sport: Arena Season 4 in early June?
V'Ming has freed himself from the duct tape and still thinks that gnome warlocks need to be KOSed. He shares thoughts and ideas on becoming deadlier at the Arenas and dabbles in the dark arts in Blood Pact. WoW players are ravenous. The dust of patch 2.4 has barely settled and we are already looking forward to the next thing on the WoW calendar before the expansion lands - Arena Season 4. If Blizzard thinks we'd ever be content with their content rollouts, they are seriously underestimating the appetite of 10 million subscribers. After Kalgan killed expectations of Season 4 coming with patch 2.4, the big question on the minds of many players, whether they're saving honor for S2 gear or waiting to replace their Vengefuls with Brutals, is: when is Season 4?
Blood Sport: Tournament Time
V'Ming - who thinks that gnome warlocks are travesties of nature and need to be KOSed has been bound with copious amounts of duct tape and is currently suspended by his toenails in the basement of the WoW Insider headquarters where he is currently serving as a practice piñata for the rest of the crew. Amanda Dean has temporarily hijacked his column to bring you this important announcement. The servers are live and Blizzard's $120,000 arena tournament has begun. This is your chance to prove that your team is the best in the world, or at least among eligible participants. The first two qualifying rounds are divided into Asian, European and North American Regions.* You have to place among the top four teams in one of these rounds to qualify for the big bucks. Before you sign up, be sure to check out the official tournament rules. Players must have their accounts upgraded to tournament status in order to view the tournament realms. Entrance into each of the qualifying rounds will run individual participants $20 USD. Qualifiers run from March 31-May 20, 2008 to June 3-July 15, 2008. Players may use user interface modifications in the qualifying rounds, but will be limited to the default UI and custom macros in the live stages of the tournament.
Write Blizzard an essay to PvP... if you're Canadian
Tipster Mike posted an unusual tip: apparently, to take part in the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament, residents of this great and potent land to the north, this utopia on Earth, this... Canada (I'm sucking up to my wife here, okay? She's Canadian.) do not have to pay for the privilege. No, no transactions of anything so tawdry as money need stain their hands. Rather than pay to play in the tournament, Canadians must simply write a small essay. No, seriously. Stop laughing. That's actually how they enter."Instead, Canadian residents may enter by submitting a 250 word typewritten essay comparing the video gaming culture in Canada to the video gaming culture in the United States on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper and mailing their essay to Essay Entry for The North American Blizzard Entertainment Arena Tournament, P.O Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92623." It's in section four of the legal for the tournament.
New Fury of the Sunwell preview page at the main US site
2.4's not out today, but Blizzard threw a nice little consolation prize our way: A new Fury of the Sunwell preview page, complete with a trailer and a very spiffy looking wallpaper featuring Kil'jaedan rising out of the Sunwell while Kael'thas looks on, as well as an in-game cinematic trailer in which Kael'thas tells the story of the destruction of the Sunwell and speaks of his plans to reignite it and summon Kil'jaedan. if you're a bit unclear on the Sunwell Lore, this page explains it succinctly as well. There's also a list of some of the new features, such as all the new daily quests, accompanied by screenshots. In what might be considered a bit of tease for WotLK, the screenshot for the Arena Tournament features a Warrior wielding the fabled Ashbringer (the corrupted version, but still!). It's also worth noting that we can add another Kralnor cookie to the growing list of them, the screenshot also features everyone's favorite staff-using Warlock. Blizzard's done a great job with this page, although I have to wonder if this is a harbinger of more PTR time. It seems strange they'd only release such a well done preview page a few scant days before the patch goes live, but we shall see. It's fun to have some new eye candy to keep us occupied until the patch drops.
Queue dodging: The latest in underhanded arena tactics
The arenas have been a nearly constant source of conflict for many players. It seems that many creative schemes have been used to inflate ratings in the pursuit of gear and glory. The developers implemented personal ratings to combat ill-gotten gains from a single slot buyouts and high-rated team sales. It seems that the latest fad for ratings boost may be queue dodging. Recently, Kenjiwing of Korgath brought this phenomenon to the attention of the official forums. There is currently no penalty for a team that fails to join an arena battle once the queue pops. The team that actually does show receives no reward and the match is recoded as a draw, which does not count toward the requisite games for the week. They are left to wait for another battle in hopes that the other team will show.
Adventures on the TTR told in pictures
We've added a gallery of screenshots just in time for the worldwide Arena battle. The battle will take place tomorrow, Sunday March 9 from noon until three PM Pacific time (GMT -8). The latest patch gives players full sets of merciless gladiator gear for each spec for their given class. This change should reduce some of the frustration in gearing up a character. Each player is given 5000 gold. You must still purchase you gems, enchantments, and accessories. These are available for purchase from vendors as there are no trade skills on the TTR. If you want alternative armor and weapons, you will have to buy those from their respective vendors. It's still crowded, but it seems more manageable than earlier in the week.
How to get on the TTR
The Tournament Test Realm or TTR is now live and it's where players can create up to three max-level (70) characters of any class and have a cool selection of epic gear. Some readers have written in about having a little trouble actually getting on the server itself. It's really a simple process, and we'll show you how. In order to access the TTR, you first have to download the PTR client on Blizzard's download page. You don't need to have copied any of your characters over to the test realms -- the TTR is a completely different realm with various armor and other item vendors located at each race's starting area. As long as you have the PTR client, you should be able to access the TTR (although all test realms are down as of this writing).Once you've finished downloading the PTR client, you should find it nestled within a folder called WoWTest inside your World of Warcraft folder. It's pretty much the same as the normal World of Warcraft application but with a bunch of extra files that include the changes to the game. You shouldn't have trouble identifying the client as it will be clearly labeled 'TEST', just so you don't confuse the two (those Blizzard folks are so clever!). When you log on, you can access the TTR by toggling the "Select Realm" option which will open up a selection window with two tabs: Test Server and Tournament. Simply toggle the Tournament tab and you will see the Realm named "Arena Tournament" -- select it, press Okay, and you should be good to go. If you have trouble logging in, note that the PTRs remember your password around the time when it went live, so if you changed your password within the last few weeks, try using your old password. Have fun with on the tournament server!
Forum post of the Day: Arena Realms
I couldn't be more excited about Blizzard's official 3v3 tournament. The arena test realm is active and the accessible gear is available for potential challengers to ogle. The server is inhabited by only level 70 characters. There is absolutely no PvE content. Havick of Shattered Hand suggested that Blizzard should open permanent arena-only servers. Many responders agreed with this suggestion. This is partly to do with a stark divide between PvE and PvP players. Many raiders would love to see PvP eliminated from the game or at least separated. Frustration over arena queues and boredom with the PvE environment increases the desire for arena-only servers. Blizzard has long said they were working on additional realm types. Roirrawcro of Jaedenar believes that arena realms are an inevitability if Blizzard intends to make World of Warcraft into a viable e-sport.
Prettiest in public
My favorite part of the Public Test Realm is pre-made characters and gear vendors. Not because it's "free epics" or anything like that, not because it's particularly anything out of my reach, but because I get a fun little preview of what my characters may look like down the road.I'm very picky when it comes to style. I adore the style of Warcraft, but other games(and even some cartoons and movies) have turned me off from them by not having an art style that grabs my attention right away. So that being said, I'll admit that even in the highest points of the Black Temple, my upgrade choices are sometimes dictated by what looks the coolest. If the ugly items are a massive upgrade for me, I'll just put them at the end of my list and hold off from looking like a freak as long as possible.Being able to toss on full Tier 6 the last time they did pre-mades on the Public Test Realm wasn't about being super powered for a week or two for me. It was a glimpse into the future. How cool will I look a few months down the road? What if I'm going to be wearing a clown suit!? That'd be horrible! Let's log onto the PTR and find out!Sure sure, you can always use the dressing room feature on the live servers, but nothing is quite the same as actually putting it on and running around in it. I spent a little time on the Arena Tournament PTR doing this with clones of my lower level alts, but I was disappointed to heart all of the PvE content, including mobs out in the world, have been deactivated. How am I supposed to look awesome without level 1 boars to slaughter?
Arena tournament PTR live
Well, this is an unexpected pleasure. A new public test realm just opened up, and it's an arena tournament server. This means you can go create level 70 characters there of whatever class you wish, and grab neat gear off the vendors, and go fight each other. That's about all you'll be able to do, because the PvE content on that realm has been disabled, as it will be on the actual tournament realms.This actually implements something I've been thinking about in the context of WoW for a while: god wars. God wars was a type of MUD where all the characters were maximum level, and the fun of it was being a super-powerful character -- a god -- going around killing other super-powerful characters. No PvE to speak of, no story, no grinding, just PvP all the time, or at least that's how I remember it (it's been a while since my MUD days). Here's your PvP minigame, folks. Wouldn't it be nice if these types of realms were part of the regular game, separate from the tournament, but perhaps with a ladder?
Arena tournament items revealed
You remember that 3v3 Arena tournament we told you about? The one with $200,000 worth of prize money, that's going to be played on private servers full of premade characters and paved with free epics? Well, today Blizzard announced which items you're going to be able to choose from, should you decide to cough up the $20 entrance fee. Let's take a look.First off, there's high-quality ammo, reagents, bandages, poisons, food, and water. Boring enough. In case you feel the need to look really bad-ass, or to get from place to place faster, you can grab Reins of the Black War Tiger/Horn of the Black War Wolf. All that is fine, but what about actual gear? All the Season 2 Merciless Gladiator gear is available, and all the Tier 5 class sets. There are also selected other items from the tier 5 raids (SSC and TK), as well as some badge loot to fill in the gaps. I'm even seeing the odd T4 raid item, like the Eye of Magtheridon and of Gruul, and some Heroic drops like the Scarab of the Infinite Cycle (these seem to be limited to the accessories).
Arena Tournament details
Blizzard provided further details on the much anticipated 3v3 tournament. A mere $20* entry fee per player will give you a shot at the $75,000 grand prize. That's $25,000 a piece (unless you have more players on your team), which is not too shabby. Second place will net your team $30,000 and the third place team will get $15,000. There will also be monetary rewards for regional finalists. Your entry fee will grant you access to the arena server for the entirety of the six-week qualifying tournament. You will be able to create up to three characters on the server. This tournament will be about skill rather than gear. You may select your weapons and armor from arena and raid epics. You will also be able to select honor-based rewards and enchantments for your items. If you don't like your original selections, respecs and gear will all be free of charge.
Blizz announces WoW arena tourney with $75,000 grand prize
Do you have a hot 3v3 team in WoW? Do you want to win some money? If so, this news is for you. Blizzard announced a new global 3v3 arena tournament yesterday, starting in April with two qualifier rounds. The tournament events will run on specialized realms where players can create level 70 characters and choose epic gear from vendors, to level the playing field. The vendors will be stocked with Arena and honor gear as well as "a selection of raid epics with the approximate power level of the Arena gear." Characters will also be given access to gold, gems, enchants, and class-specific items like ammo and soul shards. There will be an entry fee to compete in each qualifier round of $20/€15/local equivalent per competitor.The qualifiers are broken down by region: Europe, North America, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, and run for six weeks. After this, the top four teams in each of the two qualifying rounds for each region advance to the regional finals, competing for "more than $27,000 in cash prizes." The regional winners will then compete in the championships, with $120,000 in cash prizes available. And the grand prize? $75,000. Who's going to take a stab at it? For more details, see the tournament FAQ.[via WoW Insider]
60 days until BlizzCon
It's 60 until BlizzCon, and there isn't much news yet. No news on when we'll get tickets, what fancy pet might be available to attendees. Really, not much news at all. That is unless you're a follower of the WoW tournaments. At the close of the first day of the Blizzard North American regional arena tournament in San Diego, CA WorldofWarcraft.com announced that the world finals tournament will be held at BlizzCon. This is actually pretty exciting news, since aside from the panel discussions, the tournaments were my favorite part of BlizzCon. I certainly hope they set up seating this year for spectators that are interested in watching the Global Finals. So now we know that in addition to whatever announcements may or may not be made, and most likely a Starcraft 2 demo station, there will be some pretty hefty competitive gaming at BlizzCon in August. Check back with WoW Insider for the latest on BlizzCon.
Ready... set... Arena qualifiers, round 2!
Those of you who have been working hard in or following the Arena Tournaments will be glad to hear that Blizzard has just posted the listing of American, European and Korean region second qualification round Arena teams! The dedication that all the folks competing in the Arena qualifiers have shown towards their theory-craft and tactics thus far has been quite impressive. (And hey, let's not forget about the sponsorships!) From here, however, things heat up. After this second qualifying round, we move on to the live regional tournaments, which should prove to be a real test of skill under stress. I'm sure that many of these players have their gaming space set up just so. I'm curious to see what happens when you move them out of that comfort zone into live competitions, on potentially unfamiliar rigs, and then give them an audience. I have to admit, for all that I might not personally be too into PVP (primarily because I'm really lousy at it) it's going to be a lot of fun to see how this all turns out. Especially when it comes to the finals, which will be the first time in WoW history that we'll get to see the different regions pitted against one another in a global contest of wits, talent, skill and sheer determination.Congratulations to all the teams who made this round!
