Day 1 Recap: BlizzCon 2010 World of Warcraft Invitational

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After dominating the competition at Regional tournaments held around the globe, eight teams have been invited to compete for $120,000 at this year's BlizzCon 2010 World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational.

compLexity.Red - North America

Kelvin "Snutz" Nguyen (Human Warlock)
Alex "Sodah" Ringe (Night Elf Druid)
Elliot "Venruki" Venczel (Human Mage)



When the Stars Align - North America

Rodney "Talbadar" Pare (Undead Priest)
Kyle "Novoz" Mckitrick (Orc Shaman)
Alexey "Diziet" Malafeev (Tauren Druid)



*aAa* - Europe

Romain "Hrk" Neveu (Draenei Shaman)
Alexis "Enigmz" Martin (Night Elf Druid)
Fabio "Jamesbond" Nardelli (Human Warlock)



LightZ CaMerA ActioN - Europe

Anton "Dayliex" Kudryavtsev (Draenei Shaman)
Patrick "Inflame" Costales (Human Warlock)
Jenõ "Lopaay" Tanis (Night Elf Druid)



Loaded - South Korea

Nae-Hyun "Orangemarmal" Kang (Undead Mage)
Seoung-Ouk "Numberone" Oh (Undead Priest)
Min-Kyu "Satz" Cho (Undead Rogue)



MLS - South Korea

Dong-Kyu "Fascinate" Kim (Draenei Shaman)
Hyung-Seob "Lonewolf" Kim (Human Warlock)
Dong-Jin "Gasper" Moon (Human Mage)



Tt eSports - Taiwan

Chieh-Hao "KEK" Teng (Blood Elf Paladin)
Chi-Shing "GUCCI" Cheung (Orc Death Knight)
Hui-Chung "Mistake" Chen (Tauren Druid)



ROC - Taiwan

Chien-Cheng "Wanfu" Kuo (Orc Warrior)
Peng-Pan "Pan" Fung (Undead Warlock)
Yu-Hsien "Cky" Huang (Tauren Druid)

The first round of upper bracket matches will begin this Friday, October 22, at 12:00 p.m. PDT on the WoW Tournament Stage in Hall A of the Anaheim Convention Center. If you're travelling to BlizzCon this year, we hope to see you there! We also encourage those of you viewing from home to tune into DIRECTV or the BlizzCon 2010 live Internet stream so you don't miss out on any of the excitement.


BlizzCon 2010 Schedule: http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/events/schedule.xml
Floor Map: http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/events/map.xml
DIRECTV: http://www.blizzard.directv.com/DTVAPP/index.jsp
BlizzCon Internet Stream: http://blizzcon.rayv.com/


Congratulations to all of our World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Arena competitors, and good luck!

The first round of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Arena matches will begin today at 12 p.m. PDT on the World of Warcraft Tournament stage. If you're joining us at BlizzCon 2010, be sure to stop by! You can also catch all the action streaming for free at http://blizzcon.rayv.com

If you're interested in watching these in high def and accessing over 50 hours of BlizzCon coverage including developer panels, the costume contest, the closing concert with Tenacious D, and more, you can still purchase a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket (http://blizzcon.rayv.com), which also includes this year's exclusive World of Warcraft pet and StarCraft II in-game items.

An audience of eSports enthusiasts took over Hall A of the Anaheim Convention Center today to witness the first round of the World of Warcraft Global Arena tournament. With eight teams representing over nine countries and $120,000 at stake, we saw an incredible display of knowledge, skill, and teamwork from all our competitors -- but who will be moving on to compete in Day 2?

Check out the final Day 1 results to see how your favorite teams placed:

Upper Bracket Round 1

Match 1: *aAa* vs. MLS
Winner: *aAa*

Match 2: tt eSports vs. When the Stars Align
Winner: When the Stars Align

Match 3: Loaded vs. ROC
Winner: Loaded

Match 4: compLexity.Red vs. LightZ CaMerA ActioN
Winner: compLexity.Red



Upper Bracket Round 2

Match 5: *aAa* vs. When the Stars Align
Winner: *aAa*

Match 6: Loaded vs. compLexity.Red
Winner: compLexity.Red



Lower Bracket Round 1

Match 1: MLS vs. tt eSports
Winner: MLS

Match 2: ROC vs. LightZ CaMerA ActioN
Winner: LightZ CaMerA ActioN

For the full Day 1 tournament bracket, head on over to the eSports page at BlizzCon.com (http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/tournaments/index.xml).

There's still another day of World of Warcraft Arena action to come, though, so stay tuned! Matches begin again tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. PDT on the World of Warcraft Tournament Stage. Be sure to grab a seat in front row if you're in attendance or settle down into your favorite chair to watch the live tournament stream if you're joining us from home.

See you there!

Day 2 of BlizzCon 2010 is about to begin, and that means more World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Arena matches are on the way! Starting today at 10 a.m. PDT on the World of Warcraft Tournament stage, we'll kick off a series of lower bracket elimination matches. Who will persevere and earn the right to compete in the World of Warcraft Grand Finals for a chance at $120,000? Tune in to find out!

Don't forget: All BlizzCon 2010 tournaments can be viewed in standard definition for free at http://blizzcon.rayv.com . A high-definition stream is also available for purchase through the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, which also grants you access to all of our panel stages, the epic closing concert with Tenacious D, and the exclusive World of Warcraft pet and StarCraft II in-game items.

Congratulations to *aAa*! After fighting their way through the upper bracket and making it all the way to the Grand Finals, they are now the BlizzCon 2010 World of Warcraft Global Arena champions. These talented players will be taking home $75,000 in cash prizes, as well as commemorative Blizzard Championship rings specially crafted for this event.

The road to victory was a long one, and yesterday's matches were a testament to our players' skill and dedication. Let's take a look at how Day 2's matchups played out:

Lower Bracket Round 2

Match 3: Loaded vs. MLS
Winner: Loaded

Match 4: When the Stars Align vs. LightZ CaMerA ActioN
Winner: LightZ CaMerA ActioN



Lower Bracket Round 3

Match 5: Loaded vs. LightZ CaMerA ActioN
Winner: LightZ CaMerA ActioN



Upper Bracket Finals

Match: *aAa* vs. compLexity.Red
Winner: *aAa*



Lower Bracket Finals

Match: compLexity.Red vs. LightZ CaMerA ActioN
Winner: compLexity.Red



Grand Finals

Match: *aAa* vs. compLexity.Red
Winner: *aAa*

For the full tournament bracket, check out our eSports page at BlizzCon.com (http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcon/tournaments/index.xml)

In addition to our accomplished competitors, we'd like to thank our smooth-talking shoutcasters, Luke "Virulence" Bodenheimer, Jared "Vhell" Coulston, and Isaac "Azael" Cummings-Bentley for making the BlizzCon 2010 Invitational so great. A special thank you also goes out to everyone who joined us at the Anaheim Convention Center or tuned in at home through the BlizzCon 2010 Virtual Ticket.

We hope you had a great time! See you at the next event!