World of Warcraft Esports Plans Announced for 2021

The Arena World Championship

The Arena World Championship is Blizzard’s long-standing competitive esport of World of Warcraft, dating back to World of Warcraft’s first expansion, The Burning Crusade. A typical arena season has several cups, followed by a big quarterly event to conclude that section of the event. While 2021’s season is not much different at the start, the season will evolve into a League. There will be a new promotion/relegation match, offering two up and coming teams the opportunity to qualify for the next major season via success from amateur cups.

The first leg of the Arena system kicks off in January, with Arena Cups for both EU and NA happening once every two weeks on weekends. There will be four cups, with teams qualifying for the NA and EU Circuit through March and April. By May, both regions will host the Finals. The bottom two teams from each Circuit will then battle two teams from an Open Cup to defend their spot in the Circuit.

Season Two of 2021’s Yearly schedule will begin in July, with the teams competing in the NA and EU circuit battling from July to August. The Grand Finals of the event will occur over the same period, with the best teams from each region earning the title of the 2021 Shadowlands Champions.

Each Arena cup will have a $10,000 USD prize pool, with every Circuit Season valued at $160,000 USD. The Season Finals Season 1 is worth $200,000 while Season2’s is worth $300,000.  The total prize pool for WoW arena is valued at $900,000 USD. Furthermore, each Circuit will consist of a four-week Round Robin format to determine the teams. It is a huge shakeup for WoW Arena.

Mythic Dungeon International

The MDI is getting some changes. Since the end of World of Warcraft: Legion, the newly featured Mythic+ content found itself earning significant attraction as a competitive game mode. Throughout Battle for Azeroth, teams have formed to compete in their cups and make their way to an esports status.

In 2021, the MDI will continue to evolve as it finds its path into rivalling Arena as a competitive World of Warcraft Esports. The new 2021 season is going global, with China getting its own Mini league and every other competing in Global Cups. Every season has four cups, with each cup promoting teams to the Seasonal Grand Finals.

To compete in the cups, teams will compete on a time trial basis in different Dungeons. The six best teams from the four MDI Cups will qualify for the Season Finals. Over in China, the two best teams from the Chinese cups will enter the Season Finals, rounding out eight finalists.

Also, the MDI Is beefing up its prize pool, with the total for the year massing to $750,000 USD. The new MDI season will also feature new modes and rules, with class stacking banned for competitive viability. Furthermore, Blizzard will host two one-off events, with one idea suggesting how far teams can push dungeon difficulties, instead of racing on a time trial basis.

Schedule

With World of Warcraft developing two esports in the same game side by side, it has been tricky to plan its esport season correctly. The 2021 season is looking to change that, with the Arena and MDI rotating different gamedays.

The Arena will kick off the WoW Esports season on January 15th through to January 17th, with the MDI beginning on January 22nd to the 24th. Each event will then rotate on a two-week basis until the cup leg of the season concludes for both esports.

All of this is a big step up frow WoW Esports as PvP and PvE teams take on Shadowlands content. For those eager for esports content, the Race to Word First event kicks off on December 15th, with NA getting entry into Mythic Castle Nathria. Throughout the coming days, top raiding guilds will compete for being the first raiding team to down the final boss, Sire Denathrius. A lot is going on for WoW Esports, making it a fun time for the game.

Teams interesting in competing in either World of Warcraft esport can follow sign up information here.