No Macros/Mods in MLG WoW: Good? Bad? Let's Discuss.

NINJA EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that they *may* mean specialized keyboard macros, ala G15. I'll be looking into it, to see if I wasted 30 minutes writing meaningless speculation. Interesting academic speculation, at least. Link to MLG WoW Rules.

Thanks to SabreB1ade's coverage, it has been brought to my attention that the recently announced MLG WoW circuit will not allow mods, or even macros, in the competition. Mod banning is unfortunate but somewhat expected, but the rule against using macros stunned me.

My initial reaction was a negative knee-jerk, an anger at the idiocy of the MLG and how little they probably understand competitive WoW. However, having calmed down a little, let's think through what kind of impact this ruleset would have on arena. Who knows, it might be for the best, raising the skill cap and rewarding truly outstanding players. Or it might turn MLG WoW into a mindless RNG clash of easy to play zerg teams.

On to the speculation. This is something so wide open that I'll probably end up being shortsighted and biased, so I'm hoping some people will argue with me in the comments

What You Lose:
This list will not be complete in the slightest, but just to give an idea...

Mods
No focus frame.
No party targets.
No Proximo to show HP/click to target.
No timers.
Cluttered, inconvenient and unfamiliar UI layout.

Macros
No focus CS/spell lock.
No focus macros of any sort, such as focus>CC ability.
No weapon swap macros.
No shield reflect macro (sup pressing 4 buttons within a split second window).
No teammate dispel macros.
No targeting macros.
No totemstomp macros.
No trinket macros.
This list could be very detailed and long, suffice to say, really think through all the macros you use.

What Might be Good

So let's think about what I have to do now without all my crutches. I have to be much more careful about optimizing my field of vision to see all my opponents, or at least as many of the critical opponents as possible. I have to be able to quickly click on said opponents in a rapidly moving display that might be filled with other targetable objects. I'll probably have to set up the hotkeys to target my party members for dispels, now 2 buttons instead of 1. I may have to demand teammate reports on opponent activity while out of LoS (especially for pet spell locks). All in all either an overwhelming number of new hotkeys, or a lot more clicking.

I'll have to get a 'feel' for the durations of teammate CC's such as my druid's cyclone, or of opponent buffs such as bubble (wait, there won't be any pallies, nevermind. Iceblock then). Even my own CCs that have a duration counter built into the debuff, I won't be targetting the CCed target so I'll have to get a feel for that too. I'll have to do the same for crowd control diminishing returns and for opponent cooldowns such as Blind and Psychic Scream.

Sounds pretty hard huh? What we're looking at is:
-a drastic increase in hard-coding game knowledge into your brain so that these timers become second nature.
-a large increase in APM (actions per minute, RTS term) required at the top, since all the macro shortcuts are gone.
-slightly more demanding hand-eye coordination in terms of PoV movement and clicking **** on your screen to target it.

That actually sounds kinda cool. It might actually take a lot of skill to play WoW? Unpossible!

Luckily for myself, and probably most good players, we did this stuff back in the day, still do some of it now, and can probably do it all again, no matter how soft and spoiled we've become in our beautiful palace of addons.


What Might Go Horribly Wrong

Confusion and incompetence initially rule the field at the first event (short notice ftl). Everyone watching laughs at how terrible everyone is as misplay follows misplay in a macroless world. People realize that instead of playing comps that might require finesse and skill in the place of their mods/macros, they can just run retarded facerollin' zerg comps instead. WoW becomes an even bigger joke as RNG rules the day.

That's worst case. More realistically, adjustment to the MLG ruleset will take time, and the first couple events might be rather rough around the edges in terms of match quality. A lot of things might look slow or incompetent compared to online matches.

I am quite worried about class/comp balance though. Is it possible that classes with more reliance on macros could lose power and viability in favor of those that require less awareness/target switching/finesse? As a warlock I know that no mods and macros will somewhat reduce the power of my class even if I play at a high level. I frequently need to spell lock things out of my LoS, whose casts I cannot possibly see without a focus frame. Pet abilities, off my own GCD, require higher APM than a player without a pet. Ranged attackers are going to sometimes have a ***** of a time rapidly clicking through the correct targets in a crowded field, something that is much less of a problem for melee classes (things take up more pixels when you're close!).

Combined with MLG's use of S3 gear, and the current trend towards double melee zerg teams...well...you see what I'm getting at.

In Conclusion...
...I really don't know what's going to happen, but will be watching with interest as things unfold. What are everyone's thoughts on this?