World of Warcraft is now an online sport!

E-sports (electronic sports) have been around for quite some time. Quake and Counter-Strike were the two most popular E-sports, with online leagues and tournaments with tens of thousands of dollars in prizes. Starcraft is another popular E-sport in Korea where the top players earn over 200k a year! With World of Warcraft growing larger and larger, it was only a matter of time before competitive gaming came to it, in the form of Arenas.

When Blizzard released the first expansion for World of Warcraft (The Burning Crusade) they introduced a whole new aspect of PvP (Player versus Player) called Arenas. Arenas were special locations where organized teams of 2, 3, or 5 faced each other in order to get more gear. Arenas use an advanced rating system, similar to chess, that instantly made it the most competitive part of the game. Teams fought against each other day after day trying to get to the top 10 (out of thousands of teams). Blizzard then announced that they would be hosting a tournament for 5v5, and the top 3 teams from each bracket would be invited. This not only ignited the spark in some teams to climb even further but it also drew interest from many top E-Sport sponsors, such as Pandemic and Check-Six. Now not only were teams competing for a $10,000 grand prize but also to be sponsored by many of the top teams. It was a very competitive tournament, with Power Trip winning and Pandemic coming in 2nd, and really opened the doors for WoW to become an E-sport.

Very soon after, Blizzard made an agreement with the E-Sport tournament company WSVG (World Series of Video Games) to allow them to host 3v3 tournaments at their events. With $10,000 first place prizes, many teams practiced all season in World of Warcraft and then would travel to these WSVG tournaments. The 3v3 bracket is often the most popular one for spectators as it is very fast paced and there are fewer players on the screen then a 5v5. There have been 3 tournaments so far with many more scheduled and WoW is only getting more popular because of this. WSVG recently signed a deal with CBS to bring their tournament onto national TV.

A little over three weeks ago, Blizzard signed a deal to allow CGS rights to their last Arena Bracket, 2v2. CGS is a competitive gaming league that pays salaries (yes, real money) to professional gamers in their league. A player can currently make 30k a year just playing in this league. The CGS tournament is currently underway and there are many top contenders vying for a spot. CGS has a contract with Comcast and is often shown on their channels.

World of Warcraft started out as an online game with a very nerdy appeal to it but has very rapidly turned into a very well known game, growing not only in membership but in the E-Sports area. With the prizes dwarfing those of other E-sports, many players are crossing the river over to World of Warcraft.