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First blood in the World of Warcraft Arena World Championship will be shed next week

World of Warcraft Arena World Championship

Even though Blizzard admits that World of Warcraft’s Arena PvP is “kind of hard to watch,” it’s there if you want it. The World of Warcraft Arena World Championship is part of BlizzCon 2014, with two groups of four teams duking it out in an attempt become the group champion. 

The first round kicks off next week, on October 31st, and while all teams will be heading to play at BlizzCon itself, the winners will secure two of the four spots in the semi-finals.

Six matches will be played in this first round:

  • Skill-Capped EU vs. 3 Amigos
  • Penny for Your Thought vs. Popped CD No Skill
  • Playing with Fire vs. Death Innovators
  • Push Push vs. Bleached Bones
  • Group A: Winner vs. Winner
  • Group B: Winner vs. Winner

You’ll be able to watch the matches from 20:00 CEST over on Blizzard’s Twitch channel.

Blizzard’s still exploring with eSports and World of Warcraft, recognising the problems with watching Arena fights.

“There’s a lot of different components to World of Warcraft, and eSports are really all about how you choose to spectate the game,” Kim Phan, Blizzard’s eSports head, told us. “PvP is just one way. That’s just the one that was adopted first.

“Ideas have been brought up like Battlegrounds. People enjoy watching live raids at BlizzCon. What makes something an eSport really depends on what people want to see. We are taking a close look into how we can better support eSports.”