We’re pleased to announce our plans for the inaugural World of Warcraft Arena Tournament, scheduled to begin on February 16 in Europe and North America and March 3 in Korea. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade players in these regions who consider themselves to be among the best in the game at player-vs.-player (PvP) combat will soon be able to prove it to the rest of the world. Will you and the rest of your team be up to the challenge? If so, gather your cohorts and begin preparing for the largest World of Warcraft competition ever held.
All teams participating in 5-vs.-5 Arena System matches in each battlegroup will be competing for a chance to participate in the qualifiers (see below) for each region. This initial phase of the tournament will last from February 16 to April 15 in North America and Europe and March 3 to April 15 in Korea. Soon after the tournament begins, we will begin posting the rankings for each battlegroup on the regional community websites so players and spectators can track each team’s progress. Determination for the qualifiers will be based on the total number of realms in an individual battlegroup and the number of players in the battlegroup. It’s possible that there may be more than one team selected per battlegroup to compete in each region’s qualifier.
Following the end of the ladder phase of the tournament on April 15, the top-ranked team(s) from each battlegroup will be selected to participate in the qualifiers, as discussed above. Each of these teams will be copied to a private realm in the corresponding region (Europe, North America, and Korea), where they will compete with the other qualifying teams from that region’s battlegroups. The qualifier round will run from April 20 to May 4 and will utilize the same ranking system as the ladders. At the end of the qualifier round, the top 8 teams from each region will be chosen to participate in live regional events for Europe, North America, and Korea (see below).
Separate live regional events will be held for Europe, Korea, and North America. The actual dates and venues for the events will be announced at a later time. As discussed above, each regional event will consist of the top 8 teams for the region, as determined by the final rankings after the qualifying events. The winners of each regional event (more than likely a different number of teams from each region) will be invited to the World of Warcraft Season 1 global finals event.
A global finals event will be held to determine the best World of Warcraft PvP team in the world. The final combatants from each region will compete against each other in this event, and the team that comes out victorious will be crowned the undisputed world champion of the inaugural World of Warcraft Arena Tournament.
