The History of Battlegroup 9

About Me: Hello, I'm Trance aka Panda aka Trancez. I've played a priest since November 23, 2004 and I've been on Blackrock(US) since the beginning of WoW.

I currently play on Kil'jaeden, on my dwarf priest Trancez and my undead priest Trance on Tichondrius. I still actively play on my home server, Blackrock, as well. I've been playing on both Blackrock and Tichondrius since release.

I originally played an Night Elf Male Priest (/wrists) until TBC, named Panda where I made a handful of PvP vids including the original smite vid, Team Emi PvP Vids featuring BG9 WSG League matches and 5v5 fights @ 60 vs Nurfed and Insurrection.

For the last few months in my absense (I quit WoW since WSVG ended and recently returned) Nugsy from Ner'zhul & one of my close friends Getsu has kindly been playing for my team since 2005 (we r godzilla u r japan aka Eminence Horde)

I did play on Check-Six for LANs. The only WoW LANs I haven't been present for was Sweden & WSVG China.

Since the conception of Arena PvP, I've wrote articles for Amped, GR, CGS & Curse-Gaming to promote our 'eSport'. But I've been advocating and promoting Group PvP in WoW for a long time now, much longer then TBC. This is my PoV on how BG9 started.

Note: After reading this, this should be renamed to the history of competitive cross-server WoW PvP. This is why BG9 Exists, this is why people need to understand that BG9 didn't come from just air and word of mouth.

Timeline-

November 23rd, 2004 - Archimonde is chosen as the 'Beta' friendly server, where all original Beta players and PvP first MMO players will roll characters on. Nurfed[H] forms. MisFits[A] forms. Both guilds played beta extensively - MisFits, Dogma (now known as Death & Taxes), Exiled were the main Beta guilds afaik.

Tichondrius is the 2nd 'Beta' server where Exiled (aka Insomnia) choose to roll, also the Primary West Coast server of the original 13 WoW servers. This was also the unofficial chosen server of the Blizzard staff at the time.

Blackrock is chosen as the main oceanic server (not relevant but blame abos)

Early to Mid 2005 - Nurfed recruits Vhell & Noktyn, Vhell starts his run of successful roaming 5v5 events starting with Sunrock. He based the 5v5 Nights off of DAoC 8v8 PvP. MisFits becomes Relentless.

Vid: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7307314717274050028

This spurs other 5v5 events on numerous servers- Illidan, Arthas, Blackrock, Tichondrius, Frostmane, etc etc are known to host their own 5v5 events as well until the release of X-Server BGs.

April 2005 - PvP Honor System introduced into WoW.

June 2005 - Battlegrounds introduced, the honor grind begins.

From this point onwards, many servers began to develop PvP teams and on a few servers organized WSG flurishes especially on Tichondrius and Archimonde.

Would also mention around the summer to late autumn of 2005, the first cross-server WSG match took place on test server, as well as some 5v5 matches versus Ret(Arthas) and Nurfed. I don't know much of the details, outcome, but just to point out that the original Nurfed team (Vhell, Noktyn, Savor, Adamlol, Duds, Nisstyr, Uro, etc) were the first american team to be hungry for cross-server PvP, corresponding to dominating their home server.

October 28th, 2005 - 1st Blizzcon starts, Blizzard hosts an ArathiBasin competition for the public, a team of Notorious / Insomnia from Tichondrius sweeps the competition and the Blizzard team they faced in the finals as well. Tichondrius's PvP Ego begins.

Early 2006 - Nurfed transfers to Dethecus, along with Relentless. More Roaming 5v5 Vids, featuring Vhell of Nurfed, Uro of Nurfed, Sickness (Sck) of Relentless that will chart the fanbase of Team Nurfed proclaiming them to be the 'best PvP team in WoW'.

Around the same time, Warders of Stormscale-EU hosted their first of a few 5v5 Tournaments that laid the foundation of Eu-BG3/Cyclone's proclaim to be the 'BG9 of Europe', or the premier battlegroup of English EU.

March 2006 - Blizzard announces the Twink WSG competition, which will ultimately give TBC beta keys to the winners. of Tichondrius wins for Horde and of Dark Iron wins for the Alliance. More +epeen to Tich added.

May - July 2006 - During 1.10 and 1.11 Beta, Nurfed makes an open challenge to any alliance teams willing to compete against them in WSG. Numerous guilds put up to the challenge, including Impervious of Stormreaver, my team of Eminence of Blackrock and Vicious Cycle of Frostmane.

I can't remember who else played against them, but this was the precursor of BG9 because we organized this from IRC and the same crowd to this stay still idles #battlegroup9 irc.

July - August 2006 - Rumors of Cross Server BGs stir up, Easily assuming that the same clusters as the original 13 WoW servers will be in the same divisions, It was known before X-Server BGs were announced that Tichondrius, Blackrock, Frostwolf, Kil'Jaeden and the oceanic servers would be paired together.

This prompted the original BG9 chatter and the formation of the Battlegroup 9 WSG League.

Ghwrin and Vhell register every battlegroup channel from 1 to 10 on irc.gamesurge.net, BG9 forms. #battlegroup9 @ irc.gamesurge.net

September 2006 - 1.14 Test Begins, around this time tensions arose from TAO of Tich, Notorious of Tich, Insomnia of Tich and Nurfed about who was the 'better PvP guild'.

After Nurfed beats several teams, including my own, in WSG again on test, Notorious challenges Nurfed to an epic WSG match that probably started the hype around Tichondrius's dominance to this day.Notorious beats Nurfed in two WSG matches, 3-1 and 3-0. (Nitrana, Reznap, Malice of Team Pandemic were on this team)

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=646981A5A07262E6EB05364CA7587760?topicId=28353165&sid=1

After humbling Nurfed, TAO who considered themselves equal to Noto, especially Atomik their Druid, began proclaiming Tichondrius's dominance of Battlegrounds and offers challenges to every server in US-WoW. They spammed every server forum in US-WoW offering challenges on test as well as posting on their website about their 'dominance'.

Vicious Cycle begins to talk hella **** about every team in BG9 and offers challenges, there is a typeo on the Battlegroups list - Frostmane instead of Frostmourne is on the BG9 List. Adding more epeen to the list giving the amount of popular PvPers among VC and Militia (This includes Gnomecrusher aka GC, Injury, Foraan, Getsu etc)

A list is compiled on the US-WoW PvP forums during this time titled 'Best PvP Raiding Guilds in WoW' - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=28326317&sid=1

October 2006 - Someone from Militia of Frostmane starts Battlegroup9.com, acclaiming BG9's promising future. Notorious and TAO organize BG9's WSG League on the website and keep tally of their wins and losses.

After Battlegroups released Frostmane isn't apart of BG9 and eventually this will cause Vicious Cycle (Alliance) to transfer to Kil'Jaeden to be apart of the competition. Nurfed from Dethecus transfers to Blackrock. Pretty Pink Pwnies from Death Wing transfers to Tichondrius, renames themselves Insurrection. (Fnatic.WoW, my TBC horde guild)

Notorious goes undefeated during WSG League, including wins versus Nurfed and Insurrection. TAO beats all the Alliance teams, including Avant Garde, Eminence, Insomnia, Lost Anarchy, Artifice, Vicious Cycle, etc. I'll note though they lost once, 3-2 versus my team in an unofficial rematch.

October 2006 - Nitrana claims his WSG team is the Greatest of All-Time on the rogue forums (rightfully so) and Ming begans to jump the BG9 Band-wagon.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=34775844&postId=347828671&sid=1#0

Add more to the hype:http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=46216134&sid=1

November 2006 - Kint transfers from Hellscream and joins Notorious.

Winter 2006 - During TBC Beta, TAO/Noto do more then their fair share of promoting BG9 on Beta. Especially Corrz and Nitrana doing beta arenas with vids featuring them and Ming.
Vicious Cycle rerolls on Ner'zhul Horde along and Militia transfers from Frostmane to join Vicious Cycle.

Around this time a few more PvP centric guilds transferred to Ner'zhul and Tichondrius, they didn't do much in Arena so I won't bother to remember.

Noktyn and Vhell reroll alliance and join Notorious. Both dedicate themselves along with members of Notorious of forming an Elite PVP Team. This team would turn into Power Trip during Season 1.

January 2007 - TBC is released, along with the Arena System. Ghwrin is the first in BG9 to hit 70 (not relevant but more to the point)

My team, Eminence Horde, rerolls on Tichondrius and joins up with TAO & Insurrection. Note: Our WSG team would eventually split up to be the 2 of the 3 Teams that represented BG9 on Event Realms for S1 Arena tournament, along with Pandemic.

February to March 2007 – Team Power Trip forms and starts ripping up the competition in BG9 with their Hunter/Mage team.

March 18^th, 2007 – After Power Trip becomes the first arena team world wide to gain 2200 rating, 2300 rating and 2400 rating in the 5v5 bracket, they get offered many sponsorships from several professional organizations (Check-Six, Pandemic, Flow, etc) and they choose Pandemic becoming the first WoW team to be sponsored. Much help from their publicity from TeamPowerTrip.com, WoM and BG9 IRC.

A day later, Check-Six offers a sponsorship to Eminence the 2^nd place team in BG9, who decline, then offers ‘we r godzilla u r japan, the 3^rd place team in BG9 and they accept becoming the 2^nd sponsored team.

April 15^th, 2007 – For the Season One 5vs5 Arena Tournament, qualification for the Battlegroup round end with Team Pandemic 1^st, Eminence 2^nd, and a controversial ‘we r godzilla u r japan’ 3^rd.

During the last hour of April 14^th, Vicious Cycle’s ‘Not Even Good’ and VC’s 2^nd team ‘WE DID WE BRING A DRUID’ passed w r godzilla u r japan for the 3^rd spot.

Due to an error in Blizzard’s judgment, they took an armory from earlier in the day to determine the 3 spots. Resulting in many disqualifications throughout the remainder of the tournament which will ultimately question the rest of the tourney.

Sadly, after this takes place VC’s ‘Not Even Good’ quits WoW entirely, so does the majority of Vicious Cycle and their teams. VC ended up 4 of 20 Gladiator teams in S1 BG9 5v5. Also VC had the most ‘ranked’ teams in the World under one guild tag according to an earlier armory mining site, source needed.

April 23^rd, 2007 – The Second Round of Qualifiers for S1 Arena Tournament end:

Results:

Team Pandemic 1^st BG9

The HUKS (Team EG) 2^nd Rampage

The Fighting Mongooses 3^rd BG6

Clan HeX 4^th Vindication

Overrated 5^th BG6

Team Eminence 6^th BG9

We lose cuz Daorok sux 7^th BG6

We r godzilla u r japan 8^th BG9

The first WoW tournament is also end in the same weekend, WSVG China.

Pandemic faces a field of inexperienced Chinese WoW players for 1^st place finish with an unorthodox comp of Warrior Paladin Mage. With Fnatic finishing 2^nd and MoB Gaming finishing 3^rd.

June 4^th 2007 – Blizzard American Regional Finals finish, with all 3 BG9 teams having suffering disqualifications, as well as Clan HeX and Overrated, Blizzard is forced to gimp their tournament.

The finals conclude with The Huks(Team EG) finishing 1^st, TFO (MoB Gaming) 2^nd and Team Pandemic 3^rd without a priest. J

1^st Pandemic BG9

2^nd Insurrection BG9

3^rd MoB TurtleBeach BG6

4^th MoB TurtleForce BG9 (From Reckoning)

5^th Check-Six BG9

Season 1 Arena Ended, Hall of Fame lists the Arena Teams that received Gladiator. However, I won’t agree that it lists the teams in order in which rank the teams should have finished in.

Season 2 Starts, Many teams including MoB TurtleForce (Rag Dolled, Transcendence) from Smolderthorn, Team Rupture from Mug’Thol, Overrated from Korgath, Merciless from Coilfang, etc transfer. I’ll make a list of transfers in my next article.

July 2007 – WSVG Dallas takes place, similar results. Team Rupture finishes in the top 6 (BG6 Team that transfers to Blackrock after WSVG is over.)

1^st Pandemic BG9

2^nd Insurrection BG9

3^rd MoB TurtleForce BG9

4^th Check-Six BG9

5^th MoB TurtleBeach BG6

6^th Team Rupture BG9 (From BG6)

CAPSLOCK CREW from Kel’Thuzad, the #1 Team in Nightfall transfers to BG9.

August 2007 – The last WSVG event takes place, WSVG Toronto. Although not that many BG9 teams outside of the previous teams to participate in LANs were present, it was the most competitive event and the most fun.

I’ll have to say from personal experiences, the BG9 community bonded together well and we hung out, had lots of fun outside of the event. Although our teams still placed, it proved that WoW eSports has the potential to be very competitive when the circumstances will allows everyone from around the country to participate.

1^st Pandemic BG9

2^nd Mob TurtleBeach BG6

3^rd Team EG Rampage

4^th Yea We Lift BG5

5^th MoB TurtleForce BG9

6^th Check-Six BG9

7^th Insurrection BG9

8^th Some Team from BG5?

Neilyo, Mattyo, Pronne now known as SK-Gaming transfer to BG9 from Dark Iron.

‘Blessing of Skill’ or ‘Team Z’ from Mannoroth transfers to BG9 as well. (Will put together more references in my next article from all the teams transferred into BG9)

September 2007 – Big blow to the WoW eSports community and BG9 community as WSVG closes down. Many BG9 teams that participated in LANs either quit WoW or take breaks from WoW.

November 2007 – Season 2 WoW Arena Ends, Hall of Fame lists the BG9 Team receiving Gladiator. CAPSLOCK CREW from Tich, Avant Garde from KJ(Hoodrych, Gclol, Zilea) and Serennia/Spoh from Tich receive Merciless Gladiator. (#1 in 2s, 3s, and 5s)

December 2007 - ESL announces an invitational tournament (basically the WSVG finals with all the top WSVG teams invited).

1st Pandemic

2nd MoB TurtleForce

3rd Insurrection

4th MoB Gaming including Hamchook from BG5/GG

I’ll keep this updated sparingly, however I wanted to note the history of BG9 started well before Cross-BGs existed and the reasons certain individuals and teams were ‘glorified’ or given +epeen was due to the rivalries, battles and history of the PvP past of this battlegroup and its servers. As long as the will to compete strives among the residents of BG9, it will continue to be the premier battlegroup of US-WoW.

This battlegroup was created by transfers, the 'native bg9ers' from prior to TBC laid the foundation - but transfers will continue to make our battlegroup dominant and desired.

Ps. Thanks to Vhell, Ghwrin, Noktyn, Anenga, Nitrana, Atomik, Idejder, Renew, TAO, Notorious, Eminence, Nurfed, Insomnia and whoever else contributed to the founding of BG9 possible.

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