Tournament F.A.Q. How do I sign-up or join a tournament? "Signing up" for a tournament is as simple as hitting the Play Tournament Game button that appears in the upper right-hand corner of the Battle.net chat screen. There are no forms to fill out; just start playing games when the preliminary round begins. Note that new players or teams may only join the tournament during the first half hour of the preliminary round. So, if you do not start playing a tournament game during the first half hour, you will not be able to play games in the rest of the tournament. Can anyone join an automated tournament? The regularly scheduled automated tournaments are open to any player, regardless of record or level on any of the ladders. I was on Battle.net but I never saw the Play Tournament Game button appear? Why? The Play Tournament Game button is only available if you are in a Battle.net chat channel. If you are playing a game of Warcraft III, viewing a profile, or checking ladder statistics, you will not see the button. The schedule on the Web site said the tournament started at 5:30, but when I logged onto Battle.net at 5:30 the tournament had already started? Why? Before you browse the tournament schedule, make sure you set your local time zone on the tournament Web page. If the wrong time zone was selected, the tournament page would display incorrect times for your local area. Also, make sure that you are viewing the tournament schedule for your appropriate Battle.net gateway. How can I see how well I'm doing in the tournament? As a tournament progresses, the results of the games are posted on the Battle.net Tournament Web page for your Battle.net gateway. There will be a link to the current ongoing tournament available, where you can view the current status of the tournament. You can view your current standings in the preliminary round, as well as the records of the top 1000 players or teams. After the preliminary round is completed, the single-elimination bracket for the tournament finals can also be viewed. How fast does the tournament status update on the web? It can take up to 15 minutes for results to appear on the web servers, but the results usually appear much faster than that. Why do I want to play in tournaments if I'm not going to win? You can earn special tournament icons by winning tournament games in either the preliminary or final rounds. These icons are unique to players who have participated in tournaments, and are themed around the members of the Burning Legion. Every time you play a game in the preliminary round of a tournament, Battle.net also attempts to match up players with similar preliminary records. So, even if you lose your first few games of a tournament, you'll soon be playing other players of similar skill and increase your chances of winning a game and earning a new icon. The Archimonde icon requires 500 tournament wins to earn? No one will ever be able to attain that! The numbers listed are for tournament game wins, not winning the entire tournament. Players can thus win up to 8 games in the preliminary round, as well as 4 games in the final round. In addition, players who reach the finals receive bonus wins depending on how they place, according to the table below: Round of 16 - 3 bonus wins Quarterfinals - 5 bonus wins Semifinals - 10 bonus wins 2nd Place - 15 bonus wins Winner - 25 bonus wins I was undefeated in a tournament but I still did not qualify for the finals. Why? Battle.net determines the top 16 players who will advance into the finals by converting the preliminary round record into points. A win is 3 points, a draw is 1 point, and a loss deducts 1 point from a player's total. By this method, a player who is 6-1 will have a better point total than someone who is 5-0, and would advance over the player with the 5-0 "undefeated" record. I had the same record as another player, and he qualified for the finals but I didn't? Why? If there are not enough open spots in the final round to allow all the players with the same record to advance, Battle.net then tries to "break the tie" to determine who advances. The first criterion used to break a tie is a comparison of the strength of the opponents faced by each player. Opponent strength is determined by averaging the point totals of all the opponents that the player has faced in the preliminary round. Players with the highest opponent averages will advance to the elimination round. If the first criterion still results in a tie situation, then Battle.net will randomly determine who advances to the elimination round from the pool of players with the same point total and same strength of opponents faced. Where can I view how many tournament games I've won? The in-game player profiles viewable on Battle.net currently do not show your tournament record, but a player's Web profile will have detailed information about a player's tournament play. Are there any special prizes for tournament winners? We have no plans for prizes to be awarded to the players who win automated tournaments at this time. However, the status of having competed against some of the best players on Battle.net, winning one or more tournaments, and receiving special tournament icons will certainly make for a rewarding tournament experience. Will you change the tournament maps for the standard tournaments? Yes, we can change what maps are offered for tournament games and may make adjustments over time. Why are there no automated four-vs.-four or FFA tournaments? While these game types have a respectable following on Battle.net, they are not as popular as solo, two-vs.-two, or three-vs.-three games. Therefore our automated tournament system does not provide support for these game types at this time. We will possibly add this support in the future. Why are there no automated random-team tournaments? While randomly matching players up into teams can be a very fun and enjoyable way to play a single game, this does not work as well for an entire tournament. How Long Do the Tournaments Last? Tournaments typically last a total of five hours, from the beginning of the preliminary round to the conclusion of the final match. But, since only the players with the top 16 records will play in the finals, the vast majority of players will finish their tournament games after 2.5 hours. Where can I view how many tournament games I've won? An in-game player's profile on Battle.net currently does not show your tournament record, but a player's Web profile will display this information in the "Overall Reports" section. Summaries of your tournament games are also be available in the "Full Game Listings" section. If I win a tournament game with a specific race, do I also receive credit towards that race's special profile icons? Yes, if you win a tournament game with a specific or random race selection, that win will help you earn your next racial icon in addition to earning the special tournament icons. Example: 150 Orc wins in tournaments would allow you to choose either the Shaman icon or the Doom Guard icon for your profile picture. Are there plans to host additional automated tournaments during the week? Yes, we hope to soon host another weekly automated tournament on Thursdays. We will also be changing the tournament formats to include more Three vs. Three tournaments in the rotation. Can you add more time to the Preliminary Rounds? Along with the addition of the Thursday tournaments we will also be adding an additional half hour to the preliminary round. The preliminary round will be a total of three hours long when this change is made. Check your gateway's tournament schedule for full details. Will you change the tournament maps for the standard tournaments? Yes, we plan to periodically change the maps used for the standard tournaments as new maps become available. Are any replays of tournament games available? Replays from each tournament's final match are available for download. They are easily located by navigating to the "Tournament Finals" bracket, then clicking on the small blue orb representing the details of for that game. Clicking the orb will take you to the details page for that game; at the top of the page is a link labeled "Download Replay". Right-click on the link and use the "Save Target As" command to download the replay to your local system. Be sure to not rename the replay when downloading the file. Also, note that a major patch release will "break" replays prior to the patch's release and make them unviewable.