Although Blizzard may have cut back on esports support for Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft’s esports scene is back and bigger than ever in 2019, and the studio has recently announced its plans for this year’s Arena World Championships and the rebranded Mythic Dungeon International. Both esports events will be boasting even larger prize pools, which will be augmented by the sales of two new in-game toys that will go on sale this spring, with the final prize pools set to be announced “later this year.” Yes, you read that right: Blizzard will be taking a page out of Riot’s book and crowdfunding part of the prize pools.
As for the tournaments themselves, there have been a few changes to way things work. For would-be AWC competitors, there will be two arena seasons each for NA and EU, with six cups per season. In each cup, teams will vie for “their share of a $10,000 [US] prize pool,” with each cup awarding the players points that will determine who will move on to compete in the spring and summer finals. As for the AWC itself, the competitors will be organized as follows: The first-place teams from NA and EU season 1, the first- and second-place teams from the NA and EU summer finals, the top point-earners from NA and EU, and the winners of the China, APAC, and Latin America finals. Players can sign up to compete in the first cup now, until registration closes on January 28th.
Meanwhile, the event formerly known as the Mythic Dungeon Invitational has been renamed as the Mythic Dungeon International “in order to better reflect its increased scope and global search.” Competitive dungeon delvers will get their first shots at securing their places at the MDI by taking part in the Proving Grounds qualification period from February 26th to March 12th. Those who qualify will be granted access to the Tournament Realm, where they’ll go head-to-head against other teams in a series of weekly cups, each of which carries a $12,000 US prize pool. The MDI will come to its riveting conclusion when the best teams of MDI’s East and West divisions will meet to compete in a LAN tournament for a share of the $100,000 prize pool.
Although some details are still forthcoming at a later date, if you want to check out all the details on this year’s WoW esport events, you can find the full announcement post over at the game’s official site.
