[WoW] mlg... dark omen or bright horizon

ohhaythar

It was announced that mlg inducted WoW arena into its 08 circuit. For those of you unfamiliar, mlg stands for major league gaming, and is a way for pros and amateurs to compete in a few chosen video games. I’m split on how I should feel about this. I always believed WoW had a lot of depth, but is WoW the type of game that can be played as strategically as Halo or R6V? Another concern brought to my attention was mlg’s usually overly competitive community, but is there already a hardcore community within WoW that will embrace them? Let us discuss why this is good or bad. These are the settings
http://www.mlgpro.com/2008pccircuit/wow
(right now I am neutral)

Accualt

Here are the rules for those who don't like to click links.

General Rules
1. No leaving the normal boundaries of a Map.
2. No wall jumping.
3. No looking at an opposing Team’s monitor or projected screens by Players or Coaches.
4. Breaking any of the above rules will result in a Forfeit of the Game.
5. Any sign of cheating may result in a Forfeit of the Game and possible ejection.
6. Players must use their registered MLG Login Name during all Games. No Team Name abbreviations are allowed.
7. No Warm-Up Games may be played outside of scheduled Warm-Up periods.
8. During scheduled Warm-Up periods the winners can stay, but the losers must get up.
9. During scheduled Warm-Up periods, Teams still active in the Event have priority over open Stations.
10. In the case of a Computer/Monitor malfunction or a Character falling below the Map, the Game will be restarted from the beginning unless one Team had 2 more living Characters than the opposing Team.
11. Games started without the approval of a referee will be restarted.
12. If a Team fails to report to their Station within 5 minutes of the announcement, they will Forfeit the 1st Game. 10 minutes after the announcement, a Team will Forfeit the 2nd Game. 15 minutes after the announcement, a Team will Forfeit their Best of 5 Game Match.

Equipment
1. Players may bring their own mouse, keyboard, headphones, and mouse pad.
2. All Players must submit their mouse, keyboard, and headphone driver requirements by 11:59 PM ET on Monday, June 9th. No drivers, that have not been previously submitted, will be installed at the San Diego Competition.
3. All Player equipment is subject to approval.
4. Players may not use 3rd party Add-ons.
5. Players may not change the Computer/Monitor sound and video settings.
6. All User Interface setups will be confined to the Blizzard default options.
7. All interface changes must be supervised by a WoW Referee or the WoW Tournament Director.

Championship Bracket
1. The Championship Bracket is a Best of 5 Game Match, Double Elimination Bracket.
2. After losing a Match, Teams will fall into the Losers Bracket.
3. A Match loss in the Losers Bracket will result in elimination from the Event.
4. Teams may consist of 3 or 4 Players.
5. Teams must submit their Roster of Players/Characters to the Referee prior to the start of Games 1, 3, and 5.
6. Before Games 3 and 5, Teams will be given 5 minutes to change Players, Characters, Settings, redistribute Talent Points.
7. Teams will be seeded randomly.
8. All Gear will be standard Season 2 Arena Gear.
9. Arena 3v3 will be used for all Games.
10. Maps will be randomly selected, for each Game by Blizzard’s Matchmaking system.
11. No Game Type may be played more that two times in a Best of 5 Game Match.
12. No Game Type may be played more than four times in a Best of 11 Game Match.
13. If Teams meet for a 2nd time in the Championship Bracket, their Match will expand to a Best of 11, include the previous Match, and pick up where that Match left off. For example, if Team A beat Team B 3 Games to 0 in the Winners Bracket, the Best of 11 will resume with Game 4 and Team A leading 3 Games to 0. Before Games 7, 9, and 11, Teams will be given 5 minutes to change Players, Characters, Settings, and redistribute Talent Points.
14. If the Teams meeting in the Finals have not yet faced each other in the Championship Bracket and the Team coming from the Losers Bracket wins a Match, another Match must be played to break the tie since both Teams would only have one Match loss.

Personally I think MLG is dumb, it drives me to anger when contestants are referred to as athletes, but they can do whatever they want. Not like I have to watch them.

From a business perspective it makes sense to use WoW in MLG since it is such a huge blockbuster.

Wren

I at least hope these "athletes" don't take themselves seriously.

DisruptorX2

So basically its a place for druid and rogue players to fight against each other?

Tav

MLG sucks because the only genre that is actually in any way to watch is FPSs, and they are generally to hectic in order to follow the action from an audiences perspective.

e: also, referring to gamers as athletes. Seriously, sitting in front of a computer for 14 hours a day on a constant basis does not make you an athlete, it makes you a pathetic fuck.

Dhalphir

I don't know about this whole "must use default UI and no 3rd party mods" business

i don't know a single high level arena player who plays compeletely barebones, without even Proximo

Little Jim

people that are involved with "major league gaming" are almost assuredly ornery douchebags

Rizzi

Little Jim wrote: »

people that are involved with "major league gaming" are almost assuredly ornery douchebags

Correct.

tehmarken

bringing the douchebaggery of jocks to videogaming. man i love mlg.

Saban

I would be more enthused if they actually had any sort of class balance in Arena.


WC3/SC/CS:S and most of those other games have pretty good balance, WoW has druids.