Arena World Championship & Mythic Dungeon International 2020 Plans

[Lumy]

Arena World Championship & Mythic Dungeon International 2020 Plans

As the final season of Battle for Azeroth gets underway, we’re planning something truly spectacular for 2020 with some of the largest LANs we’ve ever held. The Mythic Dungeon International and the Arena World Championship are both bound to provide some of our best esports action yet.

The Big Change

World of Warcraft Esports is moving to YouTube! This means that all the content for the Mythic Dungeon International and Arena World Championship—our live broadcasts and our VODs—will be hosted on the same great platform to make it easier for esports fans to watch.

Tune into our MDI broadcasts starting April 11^th here: https://www.youtube.com/warcraft

• Mythic Dungeon International
  
• Arena World Championship

Welcome Back the Mythic Dungeon International

We are happy to announce the return of the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI), with a new dungeon to challenge competitors and put them through their paces. Things are going to be a little different this year with some exciting changes.

Format Changes

• The Europe and Asia (EU/Asia) division includes players from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Korea, China, and Taiwan.
  
• The Americas (AMER) division includes players from The Americas, Australia, and New Zealand.

Teams will participate in the division based on where the majority of their team’s players reside.

It wouldn’t be one of the most exciting MDI seasons yet without an in-person LAN. This season’s final will have a massive $300,000 prize pool that our elite teams will compete for.

Moving forward, we’re also going to consider all MDI seasons as standalone events with a LAN final to cap each event. This provides us the ability to iterate quickly on changes and upgrades that we think the community will love.

Stay tuned to our MDI esports page for more information on the season beginning in April.

New Dungeon: Operation: Mechagon

We’ve added a new dungeon to the rotation this year with Operation: Mechagon. This dungeon provides 8 challenging bosses split in two separate wings—Junkyard and Workshop.

New Affix: Awakened

With the Visions of N'Zoth content update comes a new season of competitive play and a new Affix to contend with—Awakened.

While the Awakened affix is active, players will discover obelisks throughout the dungeon, which will pull players through the veil to the shadowy world of Ny’alotha. There, players will confront a powerful servant of N’Zoth which they must defeat, or the servant will join forces with the final boss in the instance.

Teams will have to push themselves to their limits (and beyond) to prove they’re the fastest team around.

Looking Ahead

We can’t wait to see how the competition this season unfolds; in the meantime, we’re preparing for future MDI seasons in Shadowlands. We’ll have more news to share as we get closer to the release of the expansion.

A new year waits for the Arena World Championship

Embarking on the thirteenth year of the Arena World Championship (AWC), we felt it was a good time to shake some things up and will be hosting one final season to close out Battle for Azeroth. There’s even more on the line than ever before.

Format Changes

Beginning in Spring, registration for the AWC’s online qualification cups will open. All eight online Arena cups will award a $10,000 prize pool and AWC Points. Anyone can sign up and test their mettle for glory and cash prizes.

Teams with the most AWC points after all four North American and European cups will be invited to compete in the AWC Battle for Azeroth Finals. There, the eight best teams in the world will compete for a share of the $500,000 prize pool—the largest AWC Prize Pool to date.

Looking Ahead

Shadows of the imminent future loom. The Arena World Championship will start up once World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has released, and Azeroth’s fiercest gladiator’s will be tested more than ever before.

The first AWC Tournament Series in Shadowlands will host two crucial competitive seasons with online cups and two in-person tournaments, including a mid-year LAN and a finals event which would occur in the Summer, similar to the Battle for Azeroth Finals this year.

All of these changes to the Mythic Dungeon International and Arena World Championship mean changes to WoW esports events that have typically taken place toward the end of the year, such as BlizzCon 2019. Don’t worry though, we still have plans in the works, and we’ll have more to share later.

This year proves to be an exciting one for World of Warcraft esports and we look forward to sharing all of the exciting news and action with you.

Be sure to follow and bookmark the Battlefy Page in order to be the first to sign up for the first cup. The upcoming schedule and current point standings can be tracked at the official esports AWC website.

Warsong Gulch Exit Portal Removal

In approximately two hours, we will deploy a hotfix to all WoW Classic realms that disables the exit portals from Warsong Gulch. Thereafter, players who need to exit the battleground will have to use the other means of doing so: /AFK.

We’ve seen an increasing number of reports of these portals being used in unfair ways, and we feel that taking this step eliminates the potential for unfair gameplay while making no change to the intended, legitimate flow of the battleground.

As always, we really appreciate and value all of the player feedback that raised the issue. Thank you!

[barrsftw]

Good stuff. Great to see WoW esports is still very much on their radar, and even making efforts to improve it. You love to see it.

[Phagelives]

so amazon said blizzard game was not making enough money? well if u don't try and push ur own product.

[Vandamonia]

Youtube, great way to lose many viewers

[Kayze]

I wondered if they kept the Warsong exit portals in Classic lol. Prime trolling with priest mind control.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Not sure why they'd want to be on Youtube tbf, they'll just get downvoted to hell regardless of the content they put up.

[Neotart]

#nochanges @Classic

[Rucati]

I guess the esports stuff sounds a little interesting, but since it's gonna be on Youtube I'll never watch it anyway. Really weird change to exclusively stream on a platform most people who watch streams don't use.

[Relapses]

I guess the esports stuff sounds a little interesting, but since it's gonna be on Youtube I'll never watch it anyway. Really weird change to exclusively stream on a platform most people who watch streams don't use.

I wish they would have been more clear in their announcement but this is a direct result of Blizzard teaming up with Google for use of their cloud storage solutions.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...300993016.html

Blizzard isn't just switching to YT for the lulz. Hardly anybody ever watched MDI on twitch anyway; and those that did likely found their way there through the launcher anyway. Let's not pretend this will have huge negative impacts on viewership.

[Walkerbo]

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
In approximately two hours, we will deploy a hotfix to all WoW Classic realms that disables the exit portals from Warsong Gulch. Thereafter, players who need to exit the battleground will have to use the other means of doing so: /AFK.

We’ve seen an increasing number of reports of these portals being used in unfair ways, and we feel that taking this step eliminates the potential for unfair gameplay while making no change to the intended, legitimate flow of the battleground.

As always, we really appreciate and value all of the player feedback that raised the issue. Thank you!

#nochanges

[Nikkej]

#nochanges

Would have been ok if ppl didnt start to make full grief grps to MC ppl out.

Blame blizzard for ppl beeing mongos. #mongoloidppllogic

[Kikazz]

#nochanges

Yes becuase MCING alliance/horde out of the WSG to get them deserter is clearly intended gameplay.

a change for the right thing.

mcing an entire team and just funneling new people into a premade to farm, then mcing them through the portal one at a time, while farming honor.
is not intended gameplay, and ruins it for the people you force a deserter debuff on for 30 mins./

if you want even shitter ques as horde, or alliance keep the portals in, but when blizzard are actually trying to fix things.

people like you with no clue how bad it is, reply with #NUHCHANGUESSSSSSSSS

aka come up with some actual fucking evidence on why it shouldnt be changed.

[Mendzia]

Contestants or comentators like Cdew, Jdotb, Frangance, Sloot or many others that are on Twitch will no logner have chance to promote themselves and the game overall. Players no longer will be happy to waste their time on arenas or M+ since they can obtain more money by just streaming and playing casually. That means overall skill level will sink down so much in both events...
GL with 2k ppl watching on peak your 'amazing' esports on youtube, Bli$$ard. Another horrible decision made by you. Short term gain for long term lose.
I wonder if rumors that their games will be avaiable to buy AGAIN on Stadia are true, lol.

[crewskater]

Please Blizzard, these events aren't nearly as entertaining as the Mythic World First Race. Make this a thing!!!! These comps are usually the same which makes it rather boring.

[Jowany]

Let me guess, method will win

[Kharill]

People actually still bother to watch any competitive waste Blizzard attempt to market as an "esport"?

[mtr]

Hardly anybody ever watched MDI on twitch anyway; and those that did likely found their way there through the launcher anyway. Let's not pretend this will have huge negative impacts on viewership.

Citation needed.

It's been 2 to 10k viewers depending on how major the event. Is this "hardly anybody"? Will the move to youtube not have huge negative impacts? What percentage of these people visited the stream because it showed up in their twitch follows? I don't think you can provide conclusive answers.

Additionally, this move negatively affects the WoW streamers, specifically of the tournament-related kind, as any cross-pollination is removed.

From what I've seen, the youtube streams of basically anything are about 9 viewers strong. Youtube doesn't do a very good job at advertising the streams (the only thing you get is a small red dot next to the channel name in subscription list, next to an alphabetic list of a million channels most of which don't even provide streaming content). Youtube doesn't do a great job at Vod's either, which is supposedly the main reason to switch.

All in all, seems like a move requested and approved by people who have little grasp or interest in promoting the tournament scene.

[Relapses]

Citation needed.

It's been 2 to 10k viewers depending on how major the event. Is this "hardly anybody"? Will the move to youtube not have huge negative impacts? What percentage of these people visited the stream because it showed up in their twitch follows? I don't think you can provide conclusive answers.

Additionally, this move negatively affects the WoW streamers, specifically of the tournament-related kind, as any cross-pollination is removed.

From what I've seen, the youtube streams of basically anything are about 9 viewers strong. Youtube doesn't do a very good job at advertising the streams (the only thing you get is a small red dot next to the channel name in subscription list, next to an alphabetic list of a million channels most of which don't even provide streaming content). Youtube doesn't do a great job at Vod's either, which is supposedly the main reason to switch.

All in all, seems like a move requested and approved by people who have little grasp or interest in promoting the tournament scene.

When the WF streams easily get 100k concurrent viewers and other eSports events on twitch routinely garner more than 500k concurrent viewers, yes, 10k is comparatively nothing.

Also, I find it mildly ironic that you want me to provide proof of an easily verifiable fact then you introduce an absolutely absurd hyperbole in your assertion that YT streams are "9 strong." YT isn't quite as primordial to gamer DNA as twitch is but it's hardly an infantile streaming platform as you seem to think. eSports simulcasts on YT frequently hit the 100k viewer mark. (Most business-tier VPNs will block a website like twitch but they'll allow YT so there is a demographic there.) Seeing as MDI was never a hugely popular eSports event and YT is looking to expand its relevance as a streaming platform, the benefit (Blizzard gets access to Google's cloud) is a win-win since simply breaking even with the twitch MDI viewership would be a win for both companies.

[mtr]

proof of an easily verifiable fact

I don't see how "most people who watched came through launcher" is easily verifiable or a fact.

When the WF streams easily get 100k concurrent viewers and other eSports events on twitch routinely garner more than 500k concurrent viewers, yes, 10k is comparatively nothing.

Similarly shaped SC2 scene gets 10-20k viewers these days, which is reasonable in comparison to WoW given it's richer tradition and loyal following.

eSports simulcasts on YT frequently hit the 100k viewer mark

I was not aware of that, which might or might not be because I do not follow the esports that have this luxury. How relevant it is for the niche events in a struggling game is not something that's to be taken unquestioned.

YT is looking to expand its relevance as a streaming platform

This is currently not immediately obvious from a user standpoint, and given their track record of streaming being a second-class citizen it doesn't seem particularly genuine.

the benefit (Blizzard gets access to Google's cloud) is a win-win since simply breaking even with the twitch MDI viewership would be a win for both companies

This seems to assume that using Google Cloud for Blizzard game services comes for free with the only drawback of having to switch to Youtube.

I stand behind it being a move requested and approved by people who have little skill or interest in promoting the tournament scene.

[Relapses]

This seems to assume that using Google Cloud for Blizzard game services comes for free with the only drawback of having to switch to Youtube.

I stand behind it being a move requested and approved by people who have little skill or interest in promoting the tournament scene.

I'm not going to bother breaking this down any further because it's clear you didn't read the article I linked in my first post. Blizzard partnered with Google for access to their cloud computing network. This means that Blizzard is offloading some of their current infrastructure to Google so they can reap the benefits of things Google does much better than anybody else in the industry. (I think it's difficult to argue that there's another tech company with more raw computing power than Google.) Google owns YouTube so it makes sense that as part of their deal to get access to these AAA-cloud computing solutions Blizzard would move its eSports broadcasts to a platform that has, as you've correctly observed, largely been a non-starter. MDI is just one small piece of a much larger puzzle as this move also means that the more popular Overwatch and Hearthstone-themed content will also be moving to YT. This content is currently mostly advertised through the B.net launcher. Since the B.net launcher can (presumably) seamlessly switch from twitch to YT, the end user experience will remain largely unchanged; while the backend benefit is a win for both companies. YT as a streaming platform gets more exposure and all the people who click-through the launcher to watch the stream will be served YT advertisements.

There's a separate argument to be made that this is a David-vs-Goliath type move and twitch is already far too established to be rivaled but we're living in a peak capitalistic society and YT challenging their dominance will likely result in more benefits for both the platforms themselves as well as their content creators.