The 2020 Arena World Championship is Changing
Covid-19 has made a huge impact worldwide and with that brings a new way that e-sports will be handled in the future. This is intended to protect competitors and spectators alike. In response Blizzard has taking charge of this growing threat and has announced changes to this summers Arena World Championships.
Before the epidemic Blizzard planned on hosting regional LAN competitions but has instead chosen to host to convert the competition to online-only play.
There will be 3 major stages to the competition as outlined below:
The AWC Cups
“There will be eight open-registration online tournaments, four in North America (including ANZ and LatAm) and four in Europe, with a prize pool of USD $10,000 each. From May 22 through June 14, teams will compete for AWC points which determine the top eight teams in both Europe and North America, each of which will earn invites to compete in the AWC Circuit.”
–Blizzard Entertainment
The AWC Circuit
“The top eight teams will be invited to compete in a round-robin tournament for their respective region, with a guaranteed prize for qualifying and participating. Each team will play against every other team once in a best-of-five series, awarding one point to each winning team. These matches will be played over four weekends—we’ll let you know those dates when we get closer.”
–Blizzard Entertainment
Finals
“The top four teams from each region will be seeded into two double-elimination groups, where they will battle through the final weekend of the AWC Battle for Azeroth Season. Only two teams will come out on top, each in their respective region to be crowned the regional champions of Battle for Azeroth and earning the lion’s share of the prize pool.”
–Blizzard Entertainment
Prize Pool
The North American and EU Circuits will have a prize pool of 150k for the winners of these Circuits and the finals will bring in 100k for each final.
Will you be watching the Arena finals? Will you be participating? What are you most looking forward to for these competitions?
