Quote from: GotFrag (Source)

The idea of “eSports” has been a big part of Blizzard’s corporate strategy, what impact do you think eSports has on the success from a business side for Blizzard and other game developers? We understand that Blizzard has established a dedicated eSports group. Could you comment on what that group is chartered to do?

For our company, eSports has been a key to the longevity of several of our titles. With StarCraft celebrating its 10th anniversary, there are still active communities and eSports organizations that support it along with our other titles. The Blizzard eSports group is responsible for developing Blizzard Entertainment’s presence in the increasingly popular eSports scene. Its main role consists of preparing and operating tournaments around the world. Additionally, it provides third-party support for various eSports leagues and communicates balance feedback to the developers.

Has Blizzard considered adding an HLTV type program to WoW that would allow people to view any person’s point of view and unlimited 3rd person views from around the arena? And what about making this public so people could watch their favorite arena teams play each other, ie making WoW potentially spectator friendly?

We are continuing to explore spectator options for viewing Arena games. Our current focus is increasing the broadcast quality that we use for our tournaments and tournaments that we support. We’ll continue to explore methods to make Arena games more accessible to our players.

Has Blizzard considered the idea of adding Match-making functionality to the current queue system to allow teams to focus practice and play against specific teams? Beyond fixes/bug issues, is there anything new expected before WotLK?

This has been something that’s been brought up and is currently in discussion. As for new content prior to the release of the second expansion, we haven’t made any announcements.

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

We currently do not plan to open the Tournament Realms for the 2nd Qualification Round until June 3rd. We are happy seeing all of the people who have registered in advance, so now when June 3rd rolls around everybody should be ready to rumble right from the start.

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

We’re keeping an eye on the new queue mechanics for exploits, but there is some critical information missing from this example. If the two players in question had not been exploiting, what rating would they be capable of maintaining?

The Elo system doesn’t actually rely on same-rating matchups to work, meaning if you’re only skilled enough to maintain a 1800 rating, but you play 1600 rated opponents all day and night, you’ll still hang around the 1800 rating mark regardless.

So, in the example above, the exploit should only work if the players in question were 1850 quality players anyways, in which case their exploit didn’t actually change their chances to get 1850 (or reduce on average the number of games they’d have to play to get there), it only changed who they played against to get there.

The exploit would only work if you were able to consistently play against opponents that were actually worse than their rating said they were. So, for example, if players at 1500 rating on average were actually worse than 1500, than it might work. However, if anything I think players feel that playing 1500 rated matchups is just as likely (if not more likely), to put you up against a team that is actually much better than 1500, in which case this exploit is hurting your chances more than helping. This only becomes more true the more players attempt to use this tactic (since more high-rated players would actually be queuing at lower ratings).

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

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 or for more information, please visit our Arena Tournament information page. Thank you to all of the participants and good luck to everyone in the second qualifier!

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

If you registered on May 20th or after you are registered for the 2nd qualification round which will begin on June 3rd. The 2nd qualification round begins on June 3rd, you are simply allowed to register in advance.

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

The Championship Gaming Series (CGS) has announced its second annual World of Warcraft Arena Tournament. The top 1,000 3-vs.-3 Arena teams from North America and Europe will be invited to participate in an open-ladder competition running June 9 to June 22. The top two teams from each region will compete in a live final in Los Angeles, California for a top prize of $25,000. For more information, please check the FAQ. Good luck to all of the participating teams!