A Peek at WoW eSports in 2018 - Both PvP and PvE Action Included

In today's WoW eSports live stream, Jeramy McIntyre and Josh Allen sat down to talk about how eSports will be presented during 2018. There are big changes in Arena Cup play, including an increase in the number of North American and European Cups that lead to qualification for the World Cup. In addition, prize pools will increase and the year will be divided into seasons.

Here are the main points:

• the number of championship cups for NA and EU will be Increasing. The first will kick off on February 1st.
• there will be 9 qualifying cups for NA and EU throughout 2018.
• Prize pools will increase to $10k per cup (from $6k).
• The year is broken into 3 seasons. Teams earn points per season. The top four in each region per season will be included in the multi-region finals. (not tied to in-game PvP seasons).
• Season Finals will grant a direct qualification to the World Championship. Two will earn their slot based on the 2 tournaments.
• more information will be revealed for other regions over the next several weeks

World of Warcraft players will also be able to take part in the newest eSports sector, PvE. You may remember the Mythic+ Dungeon Invitational and how successful it was in 2017. 2018 will be ramping things up.

• the first event will take place early in 2018
• players will progress from the proving grounds to time trials to regional finals to the global finals
• proving ground challenges will be presented (i.e. complete dungeons on XX levels). Each team that completes the challenge will be invited into the time trials
• in time trials, every second that a team takes to finish a dungeon will matter. It will be a cumulative time total. Only 8 teams per region will progress
• in tournament play, players will be able to select legendaries and gear from vendors. The philosophy is that it's about best play over best gear
• finals will be double-elimination rather than single
• larger prize pools 
• top teams will be placed in a bracket for the global finals
• live event with teams brought to a single venue from all over the world

Read more on the World of Warcraft community site.