Phase 2 of the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament’s second qualification round has begun. Tournament participants have had ample time during the practice phase to hone their strategies, try various team compositions, and gain experience playing with their team. It’s now time for the real games to begin again for the last chance to [...]

For those interested, Blizzard has announced the start of the 2nd qualifying round.
Phase 1 of the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament’s second qualification round has begun. Tournament participants have two weeks to hone their strategies, experiment with various team compositions, and practice their teamwork. To track the progress of your team and those of [...]

Hey once again, a day late on this but I’m trying to get back up to speed this morning before dredging back into fatherly and editorial duties take over. Besides it’s Tuesday you guys need something to look at right? Here are listed the US and the EU winners.
United States
We’re glad to announce the winners [...]

Round one is over folks, time to prepare for Round 2.
After several weeks of fierce competition, the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament’s first qualification round has come to an end. Registration for the second qualification round is now open, and you can check out the phase schedule for it. To register for the tournament [...]

Yeah it’s getting old already but there’s e-fame at stake here people! Arena is serious business right?
We are continuing to investigate these issues that players have reported. If you are experiencing latency issues specific to the Arena Tournament realms, please head over to our Technical Support forum, follow the instructions in the following thread, [...]

Registration for the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament’s first qualification round is now closed and Phase 3 of the tournament has begun. Participants have been battling it out on the tournament realms for the past two weeks while fine-tuning their team composition and strategies. Phase 3 of the tournament includes a lockdown of the [...]

And they’re OFF!
2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament Phase 2 Has Begun
Phase 2 of the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament’s first qualification round has begun. Tournament participants have had ample time during the practice phase to hone their strategies, try various team compositions, and gain experience playing with their team. It’s now time for [...]

Any where to see arena standings? Yes - characters, ladders, and all the regular stats you see on the Armory should be available for the Tournament Realms now. If something is missing, let us know and we’ll try to resolve it. (src) This is for those of you interested on checking the current standings directly [...]

Wait, seeing as tomorrow is the end of the practice phase, will we have to pay another $20 to keep playing after tomorrow? No. If you registered for the First Qualification Round you will play until the end of that round. You will only need to register again to continue playing after the First Qualifier [...]

As in the live realms, there is a problem with certain classes being extremely cookie cutter in the Arena Tournament. Frankly you’re going to see the standard rock/paper/scissors makeup with a resto druid, mace rogue, and so forth. Given that all players have the same access to gear and such it really is coming down [...]

Heres just some collected updates and information on the Arena Tournament realms for those interested.
What are all the extra servers for? We continuously prepare ourselves to meet the needs of our player base and part of this means having extra realms available if they are needed. We have put a lot of effort into the [...]

A lot of interviews going around, guess Blizzard wanted to get some face time with the associated press before Summer kicks in. This is more for all of my Gladiators out there, but very interesting to read as they also get a little bit into Wrath of the Lich King. Goes to show Arenas are [...]

It was reported as a bug that Tauren Druids (not all druids mind you only Horde ones) cannot cast the Cure Poison spell. They can however cast Abolish Poison and it has been classified as a known bug.
We have bugged this, but as for when it will be fixed, we have no ETA. I [...]

Bornakk posted this response to questions about the start date for the 2nd qualifying round for the arena tournament.
When we have dates for the second qualification round we will provide a schedule for it just like we have for the first qualifier.
We have not announced when and where the regional qualifier will take place. [...]

Here’s a little clarification from Bornakk regarding the 200 game rules. There’s been a little confusion since we have to get 200 games for qualification, but people didn’t know if they had to have the team as a whole getting 200 matches in or if each player had to get 200 games individually within [...]

Bornakk posted this on the EU forums regarding the Arena Tournament.
With the first round of qualification for the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament underway, we wanted to provide a schedule for the remainder of this qualifier and details on what each of the phases entails. This tourney is a big deal folks so if [...]

I went ahead and put the entire Q&A behind the cut as it’s long and causes some scrolling. Enjoy folks.

Not 100% sure if I already posted this but it’s been one really freaking crazy weekend so I might as well be safe than sorry.
People are not currently available to post on their Arena Tournament characters. It’s not currently possible to post using your arena character. We are looking into various posting options for arena [...]

The official forum for the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament is now live! We are very excited to launch this Tournament that allows our players to lay down their skills and battle it out in the Arena for fun and prizes!
All players are able to read this forum but you must have a [...]

People in Ireland were getting upset that their country was not listed as being eligible to partake in the Arena Tournament. Blue was quick to reply and quell any concerns.
The arena tournament rules (linked below) have been updated, and Ireland IS in fact eligible to enter the Tournament.
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/arena/tournament/rules.html (src)

People are having problems with the new Arena Tournament realms obviously, there is bad lag and problems registering for play. As well with time ticking away and all the issues going on it’s making a lot of players very upset. Ordinn has been working on reporting updates to the player’s concerns.
We will most likely extend [...]

The 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament has now officially begun lolcats. Players from around the world can compete on our special tournament realms using the new tournament format rofl. We have leveled the playing field by allowing participants to choose and customize their character and equipment and team up with fellow players to clash in [...]

I’m trying to keep people updated is all. The realms are online and a lot of people are creating their characters and logging in right now. (src)
As for season 4 starting soon…
We still intend to provide at least a two week notice before the start of a new season. We have not made that [...]

Blues across the pond are having some issues with getting the Arena Tournament started, here is the official word.
As we’ve moved into Daylight Saving Time since the publication of the Arena Tournament Official Competition Rules, we’d like to clarify that the intended opening time for the Arena Tournament is 10:00 GMT, i.e. 12:00 (noon) [...]

There were some massive QQ posts the other day since Canadians don’t need to pay the $20 fee to register for the Arena Tournament apparently, or something like that. Due to certain legislature they just have to write an essay… lol
Drysc explains.

The arena tournament has opened it’s registration and you can now sign yourself up to participate in the competition. It’s $20 per account for each 6 week online qualifying round which is played out on the Arena Tournament Servers.
Once you qualify you will be able to fight in the live tournament rounds for cash prizes. [...]

Blizzard is going at it again folks. I appreciate the fact that Blizzard keeps going back to these testing events since a lot of players never get the chance to experience them. Here’s the official notice.
The World of Warcraft team will once again be testing the WoW Arena Tournament on the Tournament Test Realm, [...]

There seems to be a misconception on the TTR servers where players are assuming the purpose of the servers is strict PVP. I would imagine this idea is backed up by the fact that the entire game world is empty, barren, has no NPCs in it at all aside from the vendor NPCs located at [...]

Now this is purely speculation, but I’m pretty confidant that Patch 2.4 is going to be coming out within the next two to three weeks.
The background downloader  has been active for a little while now which usually means that most if not all the art assets (models and such) are good to go and the [...]

We’re once again bringing the fight to the Tournament Test Realm (TTR) and challenging players in the 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 arena brackets. Blizzard will be out in force taking on any challengers and making personal appearances near the various vendor locations.
The Tournament Arena Battle will take place on Wednesday between 5:00 PM PDT [...]