Blizzard Squashes 3.2 Blizzcon Rumors, Competitors Respond With Mixed Feelings

At approximately 4pm PST yesterday Blizzard Entertainment sent an e-mail to all of the competitors in the World of Warcraft 3v3 tournament in regards to what patch it will be played on. The text of the e-mail is as follows:

Greetings Competitor,
This is an email to inform you that the Blizzcon Arena Tournament will be played on Patch 3.1.3.  The realm that we will be using for Blizzcon will not be updated to 3.2 so that competition can stay consistent between the regionals and Blizzcon.

We apologize for any confusion.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Regards,
Blizzard eSports Team

Succinct and to the point, it clarified the assumptions on how it would be played just a little over two weeks before Blizzcon. Reactions are mixed. Ocelote, the team captain of Whoa is certainly less than pleased. He even raised the question of whether or not his team would drop out of the tournament in lieu of the balance changes in the new patch which have only made his WLD even stronger. His exact words? "We may not play Blizzcon if this stupid decision comes out."

Though, Ocelote is still confident as ever. He said that no matter how "bad" his comp may be, he is still confident that they will have a strong showing at Blizzcon. "Thanks Blizzard for giving WOAH even more motivation," were his departing words on the subject.

There's a bit of speculation on just how much consultation Blizzard sought from the participating teams. The story is that Blizzard supposedly contacted only one team about the possibility of playing on 3.1.3 and it happened to be a cleave participating in the event. When other teams attempted to contact Blizzard in regards to the issue they were given the cold shoulder and told that their opinions didn't matter. No one knows if this implies nepotism on Blizzard's part, but some do find it a bit strange that only one out of eight teams would be contacted by e-mail in regards to the option of playing on either patch and that the one team happened to be a cleave.

The class balance of 3.1.3 favors the four cleave teams considerably while RMP and WLD would prefer 3.2. Did the fact that Blizzard only asked a cleave team for their opinion on it have anything to do with their final decision? Again, no one can be too sure. Though Veex had interesting things to say about the 3.1.3 versus 3.2, "I think it should be since that's what everyone's practiced on, but overall 3.2 is more balanced, I highly doubt it will be since regional qualifiers were just played on the EU tourney realm...Online qualifiers in one patch, regional qualifiers in another patch, tournament finals in another patch, absolutely retarded. Even if 3.2 is the most balanced can't do that to a tournament."

What's intriguing about Veex's words is that it implies that a lot of people have been practicing. While he has been, both on TR and Live, many other teams have been on vacation for the summer. Those teams who decided to travel, relax and do things with family and friends may have been caught with their pants down with this decision, since it was widely assumed that it would be on the current patch and not the previous.

The talents, glyphs, gems on both Live and TR are completely different and it will make training for 3.1.3 right before Blizzcon difficult. Ocelote confirmed this in some of the concerns he raised. "How can we train 'til Blizzcon now? Teams like our one were on vacation this month, and we would start training hard since 3.2 comes out. And now? How can we train with the other useless patch?"

Inflame suggested that they use the same specs, glyphs or gems as they used on 3.1.3 perhaps but the team realizes that practicing on the new patch when they're comp is so much stronger will make them ill prepared to go back to facing cleaves with their full strength at Blizzcon. However, other teams have similar issues. At this point, everyone's going to be used to 3.2 by the time the tournament gets here. Though, the four cleave teams will undoubtedly have the advantage of practicing on a patch where they are no longer as dominant.

Veex's final words on the subject: "...it'd be stupid to have a tournament decided by which comp could persist thru 3 patches the best....unless you're rmp lololol."