At the end of the First Qualification Round of the Tournament, the top thirty nine (39) Arena Teams in the North America Region, and the top thirty eight (38) Arena Teams in the European Union Region who have the highest ratings at the expiration of the First Qualification Round of the Tournament will receive invitations to compete in the Second Qualification Round of the Tournament.
So only the top 39 North American teams, by rating, will qualify.
This means that the #1 teams from Battlegroups with very low population (e.g. Emberstorm, Frenzy and Cataclysm) won't be able to qualify since they simply can't get enough rating to get into the top 39 teams.
But it gets better.
Third party user interfaces compatible with World of Warcraft, and which do not violate the World of Warcraft Terms of Use may be used during the First and, if applicable, Second Qualification Rounds of the Tournament, but will not be allowed at the Regional Qualifier or the Finals. At the Regional Qualifier, and the Finals, Team Members will have fifteen (15) minutes prior to the start of the first match with each opponent Team Member to prepare the computer on which they will use to participate in the Tournament match.
No UI mods in the Finals. Oohkay... Should have just disabled UI mods in Arenas, or something, because springing something like this this late is... well, going to screw over a lot of players.
But wait, there's more!
I hope you're not from North Dakota, Vermont, CT or MD...
If you are residing in the States of North Dakota, Vermont, Connecticut or Maryland in the United States, or Queensland, Victoria or the Australian Capital Territory in Australia, you are not eligible to participate in this Tournament
Yup, sorry, you can't come.
But that's alright, right, because hey, a 10 man team has to pick 5 and only five...
In the event that an Arena Team qualifies for the Regional Qualifier (described below), the Team Captain must designate five (5) Team Members from the Arena Team who will be eligible to compete in the Regional Qualifier, and if the Arena Team qualifies, for the Finals.
Rather interesting rules, especially considering they're coming out this late in the season :-/
Barring certain states from entry is probably part of some horrible thorny legal statute that Blizzard has no control over - kinda like how cereal companies need to provide you with free contest entries you can get without buying a box, except in blizzard's case they can't very well allow people to compete for free. I'm sure some lawyery person would know more about this though. It's not like Blizzard is denying people entry just to be dicks
Supposedly the UI mod thing is due to legal issues as well, according to some blue post I saw somewhere
Without going into it too much, we didn't create those mods, and in the tournament setting that the regionals and finals will be, there could be legal issues involved with allowing their use. With the knowledge of this rule I would recommend getting in practice time using the default UI if it looks like you're going to make it to the regionals or finals. Good luck to you and your team!
I would't get so worked up over the UI, Alcaras, it sounds like there's some external factors which contest organizers always have to deal with. I prefer it where only Tournament players are barred from using mods, rather than ALL arena players in the game, don't you?
EDIT: I'm from Vermont, and we have enough blizzards up there already, yuk yuk yuk.
DOT and rot.
Travian: Phased Weasel, -144 | 61, Damascus.
It's a level playing field at the end. All top arena teams use some mods, but all top arena teams will have to get used to playing without them. It makes sense in a formal tournament environment.
It's a level playing field at the end. All top arena teams use some mods, but all top arena teams will have to get used to playing without them. It makes sense in a formal tournament environment.
You think? I'm not sure I buy that. What's not level about allowing people to use mods? Especially after the 2.0 UI changes.
ehh, it actually hurts rogue teams I think - I've never played a rogue past level 5, but it seems like UI mods are a bigger deal with a shorter GCD, though I suppose you could probably get a lot of the same functionality out of macros
ehh, it actually hurts rogue teams I think - I've never played a rogue past level 5, but it seems like UI mods are a bigger deal with a shorter GCD, though I suppose you could probably get a lot of the same functionality out of macros
It affects healers more than anyone, I'd say. Healers have always had the hardest time with the default UI.
As for level playing field, well isn't that by definition what it is? Why open the door to accusations of people only winning because of some clever private mod they came up with, rather than pure playing skill? Plus, I suppose, potential legal issues where you have mods giving people real or perceived advantages in a competition for prizes with real monetary value, as alluded to. I think the idea is to distill everything down to the same hardware, same software, and leave it up to player skill and character/team setup to decide the winners.
No kidding, I honestly have no idea how I ever managed to heal anyone using the default UI. I'd never make it as a decent raid healer without my RDX windows now.
It only makes sense. Just yesterday, there was a post on the official UI forums from someone who was in a quandry about sharing his arena addon because he was worried about it being used by his opponent.
It's a level playing field at the end. All top arena teams use some mods, but all top arena teams will have to get used to playing without them. It makes sense in a formal tournament environment.
But this comes back to whether using mods makes you a worse player, or more importantly, whether not using mods makes you a better player. There could be many reasons that you're a great arena player, on the one hand, you could read the game really well, use your moves perfectly and control a fight really well, this sort of player will adjust relatively easily to a mod-less arena. But you've also go the players who can absorb nearly all the data coming into the fight, they'll realise how much mana the enemy has used by watching their casting bars, SCT and a variety of other mods, they'll know when someone has blown a CD etc. These people rely on the mods to operate, because let's face it, the Blizzard default UI isn't the most informative out there, but are they worse players because they rely on it, or are they just different players? Some will be disadvantaged more than others, certain classes will be disadvantaged more than others, and it's a pretty drastic thing for a tournament. It's arguably a level playing field right now, changing that can only make it less level a playing field in my opinion.
I guess in the end, if they need to do it for legal reasons then there's really no point arguing it, it will happen no matter what is said, and we can only watch to see the outcomes. But if it's not purely a law standpoint, then the teams got where they are in a modded environment, they're now competing in a mod-less environment, if they've gotten to it with mods and playing against people with mods, it would seem intuitive to leave that as is.
In the end, i think the exclusion of certain team members or even entire teams will provide much more debate about how fair the tournament is than the mods.
I personally think they should allow teams to show up with 6 players such that you could "sideboard" in something against another team to use a Magic the Gathering term
I personally think they should allow teams to show up with 6 players such that you could "sideboard" in something against another team to use a Magic the Gathering term
I think the problem is that at the tournament you're going to either know who you'll be playing, or have a much better idea of who you'll be playing, and having all 10 people there, or even just a sideboard would mean that the teams would be building teams around beating the other guys. This isn't something that Arena is currently designed for, you specifically don't have any idea of who you'll be facing until the doors open so that you can't adjust your group.
It seems fair enough to me to limit it to 5 people, means you'll see more balanced groups (although every group i've seen that high is already pretty balanced) and you hopefully wont see it marred by people complaining about being beaten by stacked teams. Also means Blizz have to pay for half as many people to attend :P
It's a level playing field at the end. All top arena teams use some mods, but all top arena teams will have to get used to playing without them. It makes sense in a formal tournament environment.
In every other major video game tournament (WCG, CPL, etl. al.), none of the players are allowed to use mods / ui enhancements / plugins etc.. It's a completely level playing field in the most uniform and equal environment for everyone. As I recall, this was brought up with the CPL when they first had to address the issue and it came down to them having to personally inspect each and every mod/add-on the player was going to use to make sure it was not only acceptable, but also to make sure there weren't any "hidden" portions that would give the player an even better advantage. I don't believe Blizzard has ever allowed any add-ons or plugins for any of their Starcraft games during their official tournaments, so I don't see why WoW should be any different.
The one excluding players from certain states is a real head scratcher though. I'd like to hear from some lawyer types as to why those states specifically would be barred from the tournament.
I personally think they should allow teams to show up with 6 players such that you could "sideboard" in something against another team to use a Magic the Gathering term
Between match respecs become your sideboard. Would be funny to hear about a team that respecs pure dps potential before a match to completely throw off any scouting reports people had on them.
State rules against contests involving cash prizes, or perhaps requiring special licensing to operate such contests in those states, etc. It's standard stuff that you see all the time in national contests. I'm not about to go research the specific state regulations, but I can guarantee that they exist.
State rules against contests involving cash prizes, or perhaps requiring special licensing to operate such contests in those states, etc. It's standard stuff that you see all the time in national contests. I'm not about to go research the specific state regulations, but I can guarantee that they exist.
But if the tournament isn't being held in that state why does this matter?
Gambling is illegal in most states but I can still win money in Vegas and bring it back to NY with me.
Skill contests are a promotional marketing tool requiring participants to use specific skills to solve or complete a specified objective in order to qualify for an award. As with sweepstakes or games of chance, many states have their own sets of statutes and regulations governing skill contests. In addition, there is relatively little guidance from the courts to help interpret the provisions. Therefore, when setting up a skill contest it is important to consult with legal counsel familiar with the area to avoid violating state gambling laws.
As noted above, a sweepstakes or other chance promotion can avoid being considered an illegal lottery by eliminating the element of consideration. In a bona fide skill contest, it is the element of chance that is eliminated. Therefore, it is often possible to require consideration, such as an entry fee for participation. However, note that the states of Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska, North Dakota and Vermont do not allow consideration in a skill contest. Additional states, such as New Jersey and Tennessee, have Attorney General opinions in which the AG has opined that consideration in a skill contest is unlawful. So if your contest is on the internet or is otherwise a national contest, no entry fee or other consideration may be charged, or else these states should be specifically excluded from participation. Because state laws in this area are always subject to change, this list may not be complete.
You cannot participate in the WoW Arena Tournament without paying to be a WoW subscriber. Thus it seemingly runs afoul of these laws.
But if the tournament isn't being held in that state why does this matter?
Gambling is illegal in most states but I can still win money in Vegas and bring it back to NY with me.
Because you entered the tournament or qualified for it from your home PC in your state?
I used to be an avid online gambler and poker player (when I had time, before WoW...). EVERY state has different rules. Why would a gambling company in Gibraltar, with a server located in Canada, care about state #26 of 50 in the US? I don't know. But there were a ton of times where you could sign up for Casino A, B, and C from a group, but affiliated Casino D, part of the same family/corporation of the casinos would state "Resident from NJ, NV, and ND are excluded." And typically the "excluded" list of 2-3 states weren't even the same from onling gaming company to online gaming company.
There typically wasn't a very solid explanation to the reasoning behind it, but it always came down to how a company's lawyers interpret that particular states' laws. Blizzard isn't doing anything here but covering their tails.
If you go to those listed states' .gov websites, I'm sure you could dig through some laws in regards to receiving prizes or entering competitions and what is and isn't legal when you cross state lines.
Clearly the solution is to trim the mods as much as possible and type them in during the 15 minute prep time. Something simple like just reformatting the unitframes would easily be doable in that time frame.
Originally Posted by Gearman
I don't believe Blizzard has ever allowed any add-ons or plugins for any of their Starcraft games during their official tournaments, so I don't see why WoW should be any different.
Well, for one there weren't any addons or plugins for Starcraft that didn't violate Bnet's ToS.
The base gui is pretty abysmal for dispels and healing. You can't even see the debuffs/buffs properly (can you see them without mousing over?) and reaction time will be really slow.
You can still sort of "mod" yourself a spell alert by making a new chat window with only the appropriate combat log messages tagged. Make it large and in a good location and you are set. You can easily do that in the 1 minute before an arena match, let alone the 15 minutes you get before hand.
maybe the incoming complaints about having to use the default ui for the tournament will push blizzard to make their UI give more information more clearly?
The mods thing sounds like a huge issue. The default UI is missing some fairly BASIC information, like a clear indication of when you are out of range on a spell, or what class you are fighting, that's really crucial to pvp. That's not even considering the issues healers will have...
I appreciate that Blizzard does what they can within the bounds of the law, but unfortunately this excess of restrictions has made the tournament a complete farce imo. How many top teams will be disqualified because some of their players are from the wrong state? I think it'd be better to just do some other kind of competition rather than deal with the hailstorm of drama over something like that.
The mods thing sounds like a huge issue. The default UI is missing some fairly BASIC information, like a clear indication of when you are out of range on a spell, or what class you are fighting, that's really crucial to pvp. That's not even considering the issues healers will have...
I appreciate that Blizzard does what they can within the bounds of the law, but unfortunately this excess of restrictions has made the tournament a complete farce imo. How many top teams will be disqualified because some of their players are from the wrong state? I think it'd be better to just do some other kind of competition rather than deal with the hailstorm of drama over something like that.
It does, though, it's just less accessible. Player classes are in the tooltip. Range issues are indicated by the shortcut number going red on the hotkey. Debuffs do show up, though pitifully. Portraits glow with a color appropriate to the debuff type, as well. People will have to adapt to using the default UI, but that's fine because everyone will have to adapt. If you're unable to adapt as well as your opponent, isn't that an indication of skill?
I think calling it a farce is quite excessive. The exclusion of certain states is par for the course, just like having to pay tax for mail orders if you live in X state. Look at any contest, whether on a cereal box or a at a TV station and you will see restricted states. Do you really think that many top teams will be disqualified due to this? There may be a few teams that lose a player or two, but I doubt more than one team will be completely excluded from the tournament on that basis.
03/29/07, 11:32 AM
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