Blizzard Announces WoW Team-Based Tournament With Over 200K in Cash Prizes

Blizzard Entertainment announced today that it is bringing online a set of new competitive World of Warcraft realms that will allow players to enter into a a worldwide team-based tournament. What is the prize for this you ask, why it is over $200,000 in cash prizes and allow the competitors to instantly create level-70 characters with epic equipment, placing the focus on tactics and execution rather than normal adventuring.The servers will offer 3 vs 3 team play events, with qualifiers in a number of territories and each entrant will have to pay an entrance fee of $20 to compete – Europe, South Korea and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau can also participate in the tournament – so it is global, not just North American exclusive.Competitive matches will start in April with two regional qualifying rounds and each will run for six weeks with the top four teams going to the regional finals with the possibility of winning $27,000 to feed their wallet. These teams will then be invited to compete in the global finals with the chance to win an additional $120,000 and a winner’s prize of $75,000. Gotta love those numbers folks!

The tournament will be separate from WoW’s live realms and the normal in-game Arena seasons will not be affected. Each team that plans on entering into the qualifying rounds will have to compete in at least 200 matches if they plan on trying out for the finals. So, clear your schedule and cancel your life if you plan on trying out.

Blizzard has yet to announce when or where the global final will take place, and a dedicated website for the event will be launched in the near future and will include all the specifics. In the meantime, if you need more information just go here, which is the official Blizzard site.

While you are there, you can check out the new Wrath of the Lich King trailer which shows off some of the environmental eye-candy of Grizzly Hills.

Via: Press Release