Activision Blizzard kicked their esports plans for World of Warcraft into overdrive by announcing their 2020 roadmap for Arena World Championship (AWC) and Mythic Dungeon International (MDI), which will see higher prize pools and increased development commitment from Blizzard.

Shortly after announcing their US $160 million deal with YouTube Gaming, Activision Blizzard unveiled their plans for World of Warcraft (WoW) competitive scene, which will see further development of its two main competitions in AWC and MDI.

Earlier this week, Activision Blizzard made a media-rights deal with Youtube, which is said to be valued at around $160 million over three years, according to several sources. Google and Activision Blizzard announced their new partnership in January with before the start of the inaugural season of Call of Duty League (CDL).

With the new $160 million deal, YouTube Gaming will get exclusive streaming rights for Call of Duty, Overwatch and Hearthstone. The exact breakdown of how much each property contributed to the pay-out is not known, yet there are rumours claiming the deal for Overwatch League alone is valued at $90 million.

The deal also includes a large number of incentive clauses, mostly directed to ad sales and viewership targes. This is so that the money that will come from the league and other teams could go up considerably. The clauses are unknown to the public, however, as stated by reliable sources all of them are achievable, which is also why most of the teams involved in that esports have been excited with the YouTube deal.

While the deal with YouTube was a massive leap forward for Activision Blizzard and its esports titles, the prominent developer and publisher of some of the most popular video games took another step forward with the announcement of the expansion of its World of Warcraft esports scene in 2020.

Arena World Championship 2020

As revealed by Activision Blizzard, the registration for 2020 online qualification cups will open sometime in spring. There will be a total of eight online Arena Cups; four in each region, each with $10,000 prize pool and AWC Points. The team which will accumulate the most Arena points after the four North American and European cups conclude will get a pass into the Battle for Azeroth Finals – the culminating LAN Tournament which will feature four of the best WoW Arena teams (four from NA and four from EU), who will compete for the lion's share of $500,000 prize pool – the largest AWC prize pool in history.

The registration is open for anyone who wishes to test his skill against the best PvP players in the world. While the registration is open for anyone, players who wish to compete have to meet all the requirements stated in the official AWC rules. The first competitive week will begin on May 22 and May 23 in EU and NA respectively.

The Arena World Championship will start up once more following the release of the newest WoW expansion – Shadowlands- The first AWC Tournament Series in Shadowlands will host two competitive seasons with online cups and two in-person tournaments, including Mid-Series LAN tournament and Finals event, which will take place in Summer.

The Mythic Dungeon International 2020

The fourth year of the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) will see a significant boost in the prize pool, from $100,000 to $300,000. As it's the case with AWC, the teams will be divided into two divisions – North America and Europe, before the best eight teams will get a pass into the MDI LAN Finals.

With a 300% boost in prize pools, MDI is expected to draw in more people, who will look to compete against the best in the new dungeons, which will offer new challenges. While still in its early stages, the PvE side of WoW esports is slowly gaining more audience, mostly thanks to Method and Limit – two of the best teams in the world, who play a pivotal role in the growing popularity of MDI.

The 2020 MDI will see some format changes, the biggest one being made to the divisions. While there will still be two divisions, they won't be separated strictly by West and East.

The European and Asian division will include players from Taiwan, China, Korean, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The Americas division, on the other side, will include players from New Zealand, Australia and the Americas. The teams will compete in the divisions based on where the majority of their players come from.

What's more, the MDI season will be considered as a standalone event with their own LAN final in a bid to continue growing its popularity and appeal to the general public. This will also provide WoW teams with the ability to quickly iterate on changes and upgrades.

The Open Cups for MDI will begin on April 11, 2020, for Europe & Asia, while the American Open Cup is slated to take off a week later.

The future of competitive WoW seems to be bright, seeing how Activision Blizzard are implementing the needed changes to help the esports scene grow. There are also some rumours, suggesting that the esports event will move away from BlizzCon and find a new venue, in a bid to keep BlizzCon as a showcase for their future projects, while keeping the competitive side of their prized MMORPG separate. As it stands now, Blizzard have yet to unveil the venues for this years' AWC and MDI, with more information, said to be available soon.

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The much awaited and much expected 15th Anniversary of the World of Warcraft event that was to be held in Taiwan had to be postponed. An announcement to this effect was made on Facebook and it was made public on October 15, 2019. The event was supposed to be held during this weekend but it was pushed to a later date perhaps because of the ongoing Hong-Kong protests. It would be pertinent to mention here that the famous World of Warcraft was first released on November 23, 2004 and it has since been extremely popular because of a number of reasons. When we look at the most popular games not only in this country but across the world, there are reasons to believe that this is perhaps one of the most sought after and widely played game. There are many reasons for this and therefore the decision to postpone the 15th anniversary of this game is indeed a bit sad and for many it also is quite shocking.

What Was The Reason?

According to Blizzard Entertainment, the anniversary to commemorate the 15th year of World of Warcraft event was taken because of some unavoidable reason. Though the company did not give any specific reason for cancellation of the event, it is quite obvious that there are some important reasons behind its cancellation. People by the dozens have swarmed the Facebook page of Blizzard’s Taiwanese Page that caters to the World of Warcraft. Most of them have extended their support for the pro-democracy movements and protests in Hong Kong. That perhaps is the main reason for Blizzard Entertainment to cancel the event abruptly. However, Blizzard Entertainment is trying to play it safe. They have gone on record with Polygon and have refused to give an official statement at this point in time.

Suspension of Hearthstone Player

It would also be pertinent to mention here that Blizzard came under severe attack and faced quite a bit of criticism because it has suspended the Hearthstone player. His name was Chung Ng Wai or Blitzchung. He was presumably suspended because he was seen backing the demonstrators in Hong Kong who were demanding the restoration of democracy for it. There are some images of Chung that are quite telling. He is seen appearing in a video stream and is seen wearing a gas mask. This is a symbol of protest and solidarity with those who are demanding for freedom and democracy in Hong Kong. He also is seen shouting for the liberation of Hong Kong. This perhaps led to a situation where Blizzard had no other option but to suspend Chung. Further, he also was deprived of the money that he won in an event that was held recently. He also was suspended for a year. However, later the one year suspension was reviewed and it was reduced to six months by Blizzard. His prize money was also returned and this helped unruffled many feathers and might also help to defuse the situation.

Blizzard Is Having it Tough

It would be pertinent to mention here that fans and players have started to boycott Blizzard products. This could hits their revenues quite badly unless it is corrected and rectified immediately. There are others who have also started large and organized protests against BlizzCon. This is the annual convention specifically devoted to the fans and it is supposed to be held at Anaheim, in California. As we pen this article, the protests still continue in Hong Kong. The demonstrators are now becoming quite bold and are perhaps seen asking for what is referred to as universal suffrage in the entire city of Hong Kong and surrounding areas.

Hence it is quite obvious that these are extremely trying times for Blizzard Entertainment. On the one hand they cannot be seen antagonizing the players and there are thousands of players who form the backbone of the entire movement for freedom in Hong Kong. On the other hand, Blizzard Entertainment is also bound by certain rules and regulations covering operations in countries like China and Taiwan. They are right now adopting a wait-and-watch attitude and it will take some time before the actual picture becomes clear. However, as things stand today, it is obvious that emotions are running quite high and there are thousands of diehard fans of World of Warcraft who are ready to sacrifice their love for the game for what they consider as a large cause for democracy for Hong Kong.

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