World of Warcraft news » Arena World Championship Spring Season: A Viewer’s Guide
Welcome to Season 1 of the 2019 Arena World Championship (AWC). As the Battle of Dazar’alor reaches fever pitch, the most battle-hardened PvP-ers of the Horde and Alliance are preparing to showcase their skills, kicking off this Friday, February 8. Here’s what you need to know!
Enter the Arena
The AWC is a seasonal tournament taking place across five regions globally. For North America and Europe, each season features six Cups per region, which are played weekly. Each Cup will have points on offer, which will be used to determine who will participate in the end-of-season, cross-region LAN finals of both seasons. For more information about competitive Arena globally, check out our 2019 WoW esports overview, and for more information about AWC in North America an Europe, see the official ruleset.
Schedule
Beginning February 8 through March 24, we will be broadcasting every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with a one-week break the weekend of March 15-17. Each broadcast day will begin at 10 a.m. PT/7 p.m. CET, live on Twitch.
| Fridays | European Top 8 |
| Saturdays | North American Top 8 |
| Sundays | European Top 4/North American Top 4 |
Check out our schedule page for a full list of broadcast days and times. The broadcast will be available in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.
Casters
Sid "Supatease" Compston studied music performance in college, and he draws parallels between his love for music and his love for World of Warcraft. “Playing in a band is a lot like playing in an Arena team, dungeon team, or raid team—coordinating a diverse set of classes to conquer great foes,” he said. Inspired by casting greats like Isaac "Azael" Cummings-Bentley, Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski and Sean “Day9” Plott, Supatease began casting community events in 2014 before graduating to professional live events the following year. When he’s not casting AWC, you can find him on his personal channels, where he focuses on entertainment and education for all skill levels, dispersed with random flute interludes.
An avid WoW player since Classic, Rich Campbell used to pass the time drawing pictures of his Druid in Latin class. “I wanted to be a Moonkin and ride on a tiger,” he said, “but my first level-capped toon was my Warlock. It’s always been my main, although I’m an alt-aholic.” After going to college for game design, his start in casting came as a surprise opportunity while working at MLG as a cameraman. “Chris Puckett was getting married, he needed a fill-in to cast and that was how I got started,” Rich said. “When WoW came to MLG, I lost my mind.” Rich is inspired by his parents, whose work ethic he tries to emulate in his everyday life. “I try to always work as hard as them even though I have a job a lot of people want. I try to always get better, because there are so many deserving people out there who don’t get chances,” he said. “I had to fight for all my chances, too, and I remember that every day.”
Elliott "Venruki" Venczel began his life in the WoW esports space as a professional Arena player, maining a Mage. The highlights of his career include playing at BlizzCon 2010 and winning the 2012 Battle.net World Championship in Shanghai. Today, he is a caster for the AWC, but you will often find him streaming World of Warcraft Arena for Method on his Twitch channel. His advice for people looking to get into Arena is to read your abilities, set up your key binds, watch streams, and have fun dueling outside your capital city of choice—he thinks it’s an important and fun way to learn how your class interacts with others.
The Swedish Mage with the mellifluous voice, Mohamed "Ziqo" Beshir rounds out the casting talent for the Spring Season of the AWC. He has played World of Warcraft since his early teens and is well-known for his deep knowledge and analysis on the desk. Ziqo is an avid streamer for Method, where you’ll often find him in his downtime. Being a Mage isn’t the only thing Ziqo has in common with Venruki: they also are both dedicated vegans. Ziqo loves his vegan burgers and encouraging good-natured vegan copy-pastas in his stream chat, so be sure to give him a visit.
This group will be your storytellers for the first 2019 season of the Arena World Championship. Set aside some time to kick back, relax, lay out your IRL mage tables, and join us for the next chapter of WoW PvP esports. We can’t wait to see you there!
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