To start out with:

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Q u o t e:
Please read these rules before entering the World of Warcraft Arena Tournament (the "Tournament"). By entering and participating in the Tournament, you agree to be bound by these Official Rules and represent that you satisfy all of the eligibility requirements in Sections 1 below.

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Q u o t e:
3. Tournament Period. The Tournament shall commence up the start of the First Qualification Round of the Tournament, which shall be February 16, 2007 (the "Commencement Date"), and shall continue through the end of the Arena Tournament Finals, which is expected to conclude on or about August 5 2007.

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So every team was uninformed of the rules of said tournament going into it, we only had basic information about the structure of post season and the restrictions.

Arena Teams setup their group without knowing these rules. Among the top issues are:

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Q u o t e:
If you are residing in the States of North Dakota, Vermont, Connecticut or Maryland in the United States, or Queensland, Victoria or the Australian Capital Territory in Australia, you are not eligible to participate in this Tournament

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Knowing this, the teams that are affected could have had the time to select different players to represent their team.

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Q u o t e:
All Arena Team members must be Eligible Participants and must separately enter in order to participate. Competition in the Tournament shall take place in the Arena Battlegrounds in World of Warcraft, and in accordance with the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and Arena Battleground rules.

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So we add in the rule above, and some teams right now aren't even allowed to continue play!

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Q u o t e:
Arena Teams. The Tournament shall determine the top "Arena Team" made up of no less than five (5), and no more than ten (10) Characters played by Eligible Participants who are of the same "faction," i.e., an Arena Team must be made up of all "Alliance" Characters, or all "Horde" Characters.

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Plus...

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Q u o t e:
In the event that an Arena Team qualifies for the Regional Qualifier (described below), the Team Captain must designate five (5) Team Members from the Arena Team who will be eligible to compete in the Regional Qualifier, and if the Arena Team qualifies, for the Finals.

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Teams went into this tournament knowing only one thing about this rule, and that is as stated above: The Tournament shall determine the top "Arena Team" made up of no less than five (5), and no more than ten (10) Characters . This is going to affect many of the top teams, and had they known this at the start of the season, could have adjusted their teams.

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Q u o t e:
Third party user interfaces compatible with World of Warcraft, and which do not violate the World of Warcraft Terms of Use may be used during the First and, if applicable, Second Qualification Rounds of the Tournament, but will not be allowed at the Regional Qualifier or the Finals. At the Regional Qualifier, and the Finals, Team Members will have fifteen (15) minutes prior to the start of the first match with each opponent Team Member to prepare the computer on which they will use to participate in the Tournament match.

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No UI's during regionals and finals. Understandable due to copywrite issues with mod authors, but Blizzard really needs to now take the time to update the UI so that especially healers can play without being hindered.



Our team is affected by at least one of these issues. Teams that are also affected I urge you to reply to this thread.


Iamvhell
Team Pandemic (formerly Power Trip)



Edit:

The following teams from your post on 3/27 ( http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=86914930&sid=1 )about the top 5v5 teams in each battleground have replied to this thread showing their support:

Bloodlust – “Power Trip” from Tichondrius
Rampage – “THE HUKHUKHUKHUKHUKS” from Illidan
Nightfall – “C A P S L O C K C R E W” from Kel’Thuzad
Shadowburn – “The Challenge” from Dark Iron
Reckoning – “Portable Hotdog Steamers” from Smolderthorn

first

Bump.

No arena finals for us. Warlock's in Queensland, Priest's a Chinese exchange student.

Thanks for the notice Blizzard~

sorry to hear about your troubles, but I'm sure blizzard is doing absolutely nothing to help you out and will offer no reasonable reason as to why the rules weren't explained in any form of advance.

Bumping this becuase it's retarded.

Day 1: Form your arena team, play to be the best, up to 10 players on the team!

Weeks before the tournament ends: LOL SOZ YOU'RE FROM HICKVILLE YOU CAN'T PLAY~ PZ

Fix this.

Bump

Pretty fail rules at this stage of the season...

Its ridiculous that such rules were forced into play so late in the season. If anything make them the rules for season 2, and stick to what everyone knew as the rules for season 1. A lot of teams will be hurt by this, and the finals will be a lot less exciting and lacking in variety if this is enforced. Not to mention that a lot of people's hard work will go to waste.

Silly as it is, the rules regarding state/location-specific eligibility are legal in nature, so it's probably not something that can be put off until the next season. However Blizzard owes a lot of people a mea culpa for introducing these rules so late in the game, and not providing people with potential ground rules such as this beforehand. When there were no such restrictions, the implication was that there would be no such surprises. People were led to believe they had entered a contest, and then they were told they were ineligible halfway through. There's something clearly unfair and misleading about that.

Bump.

Another lame turn of events for Blizzard; starting to become something to expect.

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Q u o t e:
In the event that an Arena Team qualifies for the Regional Qualifier (described below), the Team Captain must designate five (5) Team Members from the Arena Team who will be eligible to compete in the Regional Qualifier, and if the Arena Team qualifies, for the Finals.

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We have an active roster of 9 members and this hurts. If we were given more information about this earlier we would of handled our roster differently.

Edit:

Also at least 2 of our members are not "eligible" for the next round too. I think these rules are doing a better job of eliminating teams from the finals than actual gameplay.

first page.

YES

Bump

/signed

As glad as I am that blizzard is taking such steps to promote arena, they need a lot more time to fine tune all the said issues.

These changes will only affect a very small percentage of their player base (top players). But arena has so much marketing potential with competition, it's not a wise choice to deter ANY players (specially your top players) away. We already hearing about players who say they will play up to the qualifiers and not take the invite to go further. You must not allow the momentum to stop/slow at the beginning stages of tournament arena.

-Ask the qualifying teams what functions needed to be added to the base UI.
-Be adamant about your stance about not having substitutes in post season and only allowing a 5 man rooster. Top players on top teams don't mind playing 30 percent of games for points, but I doubt any top player would want to sit out on a chance to shine in the finals.

Postponed these events, the product is just not ready. There are things that will always change with class balance (again making it 5 man is faulty with 9 classes available). However, some of these rules come way too late for adjustments.

Either make arena the end all of pvp competition with these major events or just make it casual with its awards and titles. If blizzard decides to take the former route, I hope they plan on an easier way for players to follow and spectate the matches, via replay and announcement.

GL to all the participants who actually can make it.

Looks like season 1 will be a fluke. Hope that doesn't stop the competition for season 2 and onward.

bump for all the ppl who cant play, i wont be seeing u at regionals cause im a queenslander

thx blizz.

Bump ^_^b.

,

JACK SUCKS

BUMP

4 (or more) out of top 10 teams in Battlegroup Bloodlust don't get to play the offline events due to these new rules. A lot of teams will not be able to play their ideal set ups. Honestly Blizzard, this is quite a mess. Bump