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World of Warcraft $75,000 contest starts in April

February 15th, 2008 by Sonya Smith

Many World of Warcraft players would dream of being able to just sit around and play the game for a whole year. A life free of strife from a job with only worries of how to finish quests and level up.

That’s a possibility if a player is good enough at WoW, with a new tournament announced today. The grand prize is $75,000 - which just also happens to be just over the $73,895 average Orange County household income.

The Irvine company, Blizzard Entertainment, unveiled today plans for a new type of tournament competition using the in-game Arena System. Tournaments will take place in special realms that allow competitors to instantly create level-70 characters with epic equipment, placing the focus on tactics and execution rather than normal adventuring. “We’re pleased to expand World of Warcraft’s tournament options for players who want to focus mainly on the competitive aspect of the game,”said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment.

According to Blizzard:

The tournaments are scheduled to start in April with two rounds of online qualifiers in Europe, South Korea, North America, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
Each qualifier round will have a per-competitor entry fee — €15/£12 in Europe; 20,000 won in South Korea; $20 in North America; and NT$450 in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau — and will run for six weeks. During this time, teams will play 3-vs.-3 matches on the tournament realm in their region, with the top four teams from each round advancing to the regional finals to compete for more than $27,000 in cash prizes.
Winners from each region will then be invited to a global championship event to compete for $120,000 in cash prizes, including a $75,000 grand prize.

The site is not yet set up so you can’t register yet. But, you can watch this Blizzard page for more details as made available.