World of Warcraft to launch eSports event

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it is bringing online a set of new competitive World of Warcraft realms that will allow players to enter a worldwide team-based tournament, with over USD 200,000 in cash prizes on offer.

The servers, which will allow users to create top-level characters complete with fully epic level equipment, will offer 3 vs 3 team play events, with qualifiers in a number of territories.

Players will have to pay a cash fee to enter - GBP 12 or EUR 15 in Europe, KRW 20,000 in South Korea, USD 20 in North America and TWD 450 in Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau.

Competitive matches will then begin in April with two regional qualifying rounds, which will run for six weeks, and the top four teams will qualify for the regional finals, and a potential USD 27,000 in prize money.

Winning teams from the regional finals will then be invited to the global finals, with a pot of USD 120,000 up for grabs and a winners' prize of USD 75,000.

The tournament will run completely separately from the game's existing live realms, and normal in-game Arena seasons won't be affected, but each team entering the qualifiers will have to compete in at least 200 matches in order to stand a chance of making it through to the finals.

The company didn't announce when or where the global final might take place, but a dedicated web site for the event will be launched shortly, according to information posted on the main World of Warcraft site.