Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

We’re currently planning to end the third Arena season and begin Arena Season 4 on June 24, 2008. This exciting Arena season will introduce the Brutal Gladiator set, and will also allow players to purchase Arena Season 2 items using the honor system. Please note that we will be resetting all Arena team and personal ratings. Players will still retain their Arena points and teams with this reset. The team and personal rating will simply be reset to the default 1500, allowing all teams to once again compete for top honors with a fresh start.

Also, with the end of the third season, players on the top teams from each battlegroup will receive their end-of-season rewards. These include Arena-specific titles that they can display proudly until the end of the new season, and, for the best of the best, an Armored Nether Drake. Please also be aware that with the end of the current season, all previous end-of-season titles will be removed.

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

The seasons match PvE progression.

The final door in Sunwell Plateau just opened up on May 20th. We want that gear to begin circulating a bit before the next season starts. That’s how every season works, we wait until a reasonable number of people are able to grab gear from the highest raid before kicking off a season.

How much and when, we’re not saying yet.

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

We don’t provide release dates far in advance, this should come as no surprise really. We also feel that providing a 2 week warning is sufficient time for players to prepare for the end of the current season and the beginning of a new one.

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

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 your competition, please visit the World of Warcraft Armory and select the Coliseum 1 battlegroup. For more information on the tournament, please visit our Arena Tournament information page. Good luck, and may the best teams be left standing!

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.