If this open, unscripted discussion with the developers is anything to go by:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hByqoWsnz-I&hd=1

GW2 is set for huge e-sport success.

They are very clear that they are not rushing it, but the announced balance changes, the pacing of changes, the way they are approaching their PVP game is fantastic.

I also LOVED the fact that this guy says clearly that some noobs just need to L2P. That kind of frankness only comes from someone who plays the game extensively himself, a developer who is also a competitive player = awesome.

No bullcrap, no marketing spin, just a skilled PVP developer with opinions and ideas who is open about discussing with the players.

You can tell this guy really cares about balance and competitive gaming above all, and that's exactly what you want.

Let's face it, PVP in other MMOs like SWTOR, WoW, Aion, AOC, etc is a joke. No one takes it seriously, and no MMO has e-sport PVP. It's too unbalanced.

GW2 has a very good chance at it because it's already the most balanced MMO, and about to become even more balanced in every little detail.

I think that with the mindset displayed in the video, they might have the biggest esport game of 2013. 

Anyway, just watch it in full and make up your own mind.

I think anet devs talk too much imo. Seems like every day, one of em is pushing something onto us.

Originally posted by Foomerang

I think anet devs talk too much imo. Seems like every day, one of em is pushing something onto us.

Originally posted by Greyhooff

If this open, unscripted discussion with the developers is anything to go by:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hByqoWsnz-I&hd=1

GW2 is set for huge e-sport success.

They are very clear that they are not rushing it, but the announced balance changes, the pacing of changes, the way they are approaching their PVP game is fantastic.

I also LOVED the fact that this guy says clearly that some noobs just need to L2P. That kind of frankness only comes from someone who plays the game extensively himself, a developer who is also a competitive player = awesome.

No bullcrap, no marketing spin, just a skilled PVP developer with opinions and ideas who is open about discussing with the players.

You can tell this guy really cares about balance and competitive gaming above all, and that's exactly what you want.

Let's face it, PVP in other MMOs like SWTOR, WoW, Aion, AOC, etc is a joke. No one takes it seriously, and no MMO has e-sport PVP. It's too unbalanced.

GW2 has a very good chance at it because it's already the most balanced MMO, and about to become even more balanced in every little detail.

I think that with the mindset displayed in the video, they might have the biggest esport game of 2013. 

Anyway, just watch it in full and make up your own mind.

Blizzard just had their WoW Arena World Championships a couple of weeks ago.  It had Arena teams from all over the world going head to head for an entire weekend.   Not sure where you're getting your facts from.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7831336/The_Battlenet_World_Championship_has_Concluded_VODs_Inside-11_17_2012

I'm a fan of GW2, but i don't see their conflicting ideals coming together at all.

IMO i think they should focus on general playerbase(where all their money comes from) and leave this 'e-sport' dream behind.

Originally posted by cronius77
i would seriously love to see how they can take probably one of the worst scanario based pvp systems out on the market today and turn it into Esports. Random teams even if you are in a group and bland scanarios with no point to pvp just ninja capping. I seriously do not understand the hype behind this title , their pvp is a step backwards not forward. I could even see Rift pvp being a better Esport than this . Please someone explain to me how this game could ever be esport as i would love to know because i love pvp.

I agree 100%. 

Originally posted by Syferus
Every dev talks the talk, hoping they can increase their numbers and keep up the visage of a bright future.  GW2 is no exception.  It is highly unlikely that GW2 will be the next big esport. By design the game was intended as a PvE experience first.  No matter the balancing changes or future plans for PvP, GW2 won't be able to compete with PvP based games like LoL or Dota2.  Their playerbases are focused on competition, while there is a large number of GW2 players that play GW2 solely for its PvE content.  If GW2 expands its playerbase so far that it's select PvP player base rivals WoW or LoL's then they might have a chance.  As of right now, it doesn't look like that will happen.

I wish they would stick to this, and stop changing everything for the sake of their PvP. They certainly seem more interested in PVP balance than PVE balance, which never go hand in hand. If 80% of your players came for the pve, yet only see constant nerfs and changing to their classes for the sake of pvp, it wont bode well. imo.

GW1 was big in esport - it even had a 1 million dollar championship one year. I don't see why GW2 can't do the same.

Example - http://www.guildwars.com/competitive/gwwc/

Originally posted by Syferus
Every dev talks the talk, hoping they can increase their numbers and keep up the visage of a bright future.  GW2 is no exception.  It is highly unlikely that GW2 will be the next big esport. By design the game was intended as a PvE experience first.  No matter the balancing changes or future plans for PvP, GW2 won't be able to compete with PvP based games like LoL or Dota2.  Their playerbases are focused on competition, while there is a large number of GW2 players that play GW2 solely for its PvE content.  If GW2 expands its playerbase so far that it's select PvP player base rivals WoW or LoL's then they might have a chance.  As of right now, it doesn't look like that will happen.

1. it's working, GW2 player base grows by the day as evidenced by constant server capacity increases. so either theyre fooling everyone every time, or there's actually something to it

2. too soon to tell whether GW2 will be the next "big" esport. they have a lot of work to do. they have a fun foundation in place, but they need to introduce ranks, custom arenas, team DM, and fix all the bugs. if this stuff doesnt cut it by Feb 2013, then we can start calling it

3. GW2's PVE was built around the PVP mechanics actually, get your facts straight. GW2 was designed from the get-go to improve on GW1's pvp and rival pvp in other MMO's. 

4. as many people play LoL and DOTA2 (myself included), it will always be a borefest compared to good, properly balanced ARPG combat. even though dota is at its peak now, it's getting old and fast. personally, i cant log into dota2 any more...been playing dotas for years. 

unfortunately, GW2 released with zero SPVP polish. hundreds of trait and ability bugs, no matchmaking, and horrible imbalances. these problems are actually easy to fix, but they require time. theyve already fixed dozens of bugs and balance is way better than it was 2 months ago, with another balance patch just around the corner. as small as the pvp team is, theyve proven that they know what theyre doing. 

Originally posted by hikaru77
LoL, E-sport in GW2. at the moment is probably the worst Spvp game in the market but we have people talking about how it will be the big e-sport game of 2013. 

well, esport leagues seem interested in the game, so there's proably more to it than you think. problem is lack of esport support, given that the game released with pvp in an early beta phase. 

Originally posted by fat_taddler

Blizzard just had their WoW Arena World Championships a couple of weeks ago.  It had Arena teams from all over the world going head to head for an entire weekend.   Not sure where you're getting your facts from.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/7831336/The_Battlenet_World_Championship_has_Concluded_VODs_Inside-11_17_2012

E-sports leagues are interested in and following GW2, with even more interest than GW1. It will take a while but it has a good chance to succeed, starting off slow and carefully building a solid meta.

WoW has tried to be an e-sport for 5 years and failed utterly.

No one in the esports community takes WoW seriously, it is seen as a joke.

MLG, ESL, IGN, etc - all have been asked to host WoW events and all have refused because arena is unbalanced trash pvp for kids that no competitive PVP gamer cares about.

There are no professional WoW players, even Reckful has to beg on twitch for $1 donations.

GW2 is starting off on the right foot. It isn't there yet but it is much more balanced and competitive than WoW arena ever was.

I don't see how people can stay interested in the current state of the PvP in this game.  I always loved and played PvP in GW1 for almost 3 years straight, GvG leading with my guild, top 100, and Hall of Heroes, getting higher ranks for my showoff /rank emote, random arenas we're awesome to play with random builds, even the PvE/PvP maps where the turtles would siege the castle, or the Jade Quarry map that released with Factions were amazingly fun.  What does GW2 have?  Like 4 maps and are all capture these points on the map, 5v5 with no real competitiveness to it in my opinion. 

That's exactly what team arenas were like in GW1, and team arenas was the least popular PvP pasttime to do in GW1 because it was premade teams with a good build that could dominate other teams, but it got boring.  Unlike random arenas where you didn't always have healers, or had 4 rangers sometimes due to the randomness, it was fun.  I miss GvG's, Hall of Heroes and everything else GW1 PvP had, and when playing GW2, I was saying to myself along with a lot of my PvP guildmates, that we wish we could just go back to GW1 how it was so popular and PvP centric all those years ago.

Even if eSports can become of GW2, I don't see it being the most popular, or fun, or entertaining to watch.  I've already seen every build there is in the game, I've seen everything there is to see with the current PvP maps, nothing new has come as of that. 

If they can bring into GW2 what GW1 did with PvP, maybe then I would come back and play, Hall of Heroes was great, GvG's were amazing, yet none of that exists in GW2.  I couldn't be more disappointed with their PvP.

As much as I would like GW2 to become an eSport, the chances are lower and lower as time goes by. Just look at the viewership of streams, terribly low compared to other games. They have a lot of stuff to work on and the fact that they release more PvE content than doing some work on the sPvP and even WvW have me worried a little bit. Hoping that I'm wrong and that GW2 could become a legitimate eSport.

The community of top players is also not really good. They think they know everything about the game and when some random dude (my friend) comes to fight them and show them how a certain build for a certain profession could be VERY GOOD compared to theirs and he even owned them totally, they don't say anything and just ignored him... They also loved to play the easy way of changing professions right in the middle of an sPvP tournament just because some professions are better for certain map (something that needs to be changed ASAP if its not already fixed if they want a real eSport).

Nway, they have a lot to work on and hope they can deliver.

Originally posted by Foomerang

I think anet devs talk too much imo. Seems like every day, one of em is pushing something onto us.

bah..people around here complain if they talk or not. Too many agenda's not enough good discussions.