Eight teams have qualified for the 2015 World of Warcraft Arena Americas Regionals tournament—one from Latin America, one from Australia and New Zealand, and six from North America. On September 12 and 13, three of those teams will advance to the WoW Arena World Championship at BlizzCon 2015 . . . and five will be heading back home.

You’ll be able to watch the carnage unfold live on Twitch.tv/Warcraft on September 12 and 13 at 12 p.m. PT—but in the meantime, let’s meet the contenders who’ve risen through the ranks over the past few months.

The Teams

Method

Under their original moniker "Is Butter a Carb," this was the first North American team to qualify, beating out Luminosity in the Grand Finals of the first North American Online Qualifier Cup back in July. Since then, the group has reunited under the Method banner to prove that their run in Cup 1 was no coincidence and that they deserve a spot in the World Championships at BlizzCon.

• Team Captain: Chanimal – Affliction/Demonology Warlock
• Gorecki – Restoration Shaman, Balance Druid, Beast Mastery Hunter, Affliction Warlock
• Rositajonez – Frost Mage
• Psytrix – Holy Paladin

Juveniles

This team claimed victory under the name "Rise of le Sock" in the second North American Online Qualifier Cup, and eliminated many well-known players to get here. As the only team in the Regionals with only three players on their roster—and only one playable composition—they must prove that numbers don’t make might if they want to advance to BlizzCon.

• Team Captain: Roastyz – Subtlety Rogue
• Wealthysockx – Frost Mage
• Kubzy – Restoration Druid

Tempo Storm

The name Tempo Storm has inspired fear in opponents in many eSports events, and the World of Warcraft Arena is no different. Tempo Storm has proven time and again that they’re a force to be reckoned with in online tournaments, but can they hold up under pressure at the Americas Regionals?

• Team Captain: Elite – Holy Paladin
• Pikaboo – Subtlety Rogue, Arms Warrior
• Jahmilli – Frost Mage, Subtlety/Combat Rogue, Shadow Priest, Enhancement Shaman
• Starship – Restoration Druid, Survival/Beast Mastery Hunter

Luminosity

Luminosity had a very competitive showing in NA Online Qualifier Cups 1 and 2, but it wasn’t until Cup 3 that they secured their position at Regionals. Now they’re out to prove that those defeats were merely a setback and that they’re destined for the Arena stage at BlizzCon.

• Team Captain: Vanguards – Enhancement Shaman, Retribution Paladin, Mistweaver Monk
• Maldiva – Affliction Warlock
• Smexxin – Arms/Fury Warrior
• Dannycarry – Restoration Druid, Mistweaver Monk

Dream Deferred

In the third NA Online Qualifier Cup, this team (previously named "World of Warcats") showed just how much of a threat they can be right out of the gates, scoring two wins in under 60 seconds. Are the other teams prepared for Dream Deferred’s opening onslaught?

• Team Captain: Blackjeff – Frost/Unholy Death Knight
• Beatsbydrake – Affliction/Demonology Warlock
• Sychzy – Feral Druid
• Vincentwong – Holy Paladin

FolloweSports.com

Formerly known as "Carlos’ Bandidos", this team fought to the bitter end to secure their spot, beating out Dream Team 3–2 in the third-place match at NA Online Cup 3. They’re going to need to keep that same determination and tenacity to fight through the other teams in the Americas Regionals.

• Team Captain: Absterge – Restoration Shaman
• Jellybeans – Beast Mastery Hunter
• Vosil – Affliction/Demonology Warlock
• Walterbare – Feral Druid

Hype

Hype (previously "Bang Bang AU") emerged victorious as the winners of the Australia & New Zealand qualifying tournament in July. Although these players are relatively unknown, they had an extremely solid showing in the qualifiers. How will they stack up against the best teams from the Americas?

• Team Captain: Nyz – Unholy Death Knight
• Oyx – Arms Warrior
• Ymcmshred – Restoration Druid
• Creepinbrah – Restoration Druid

Santos Dexterity

Santos Dexterity, originally known as "This is Brasil", dominated the Copa America, winning four out of five play days and not dropping a single game in the finals stage. Consistency was the name of their game, as they won every single game with their preferred composition of Enhancement Shaman, Affliction Warlock, and Restoration Druid.

• Team Captain: Rynd – Restoration Druid, Restoration Shaman, Holy Paladin
• Shapis – Affliction Warlock
• Murmindz – Enhancement Shaman, Shadow Priest
• Xadin – Arms Warrior

The Prizes

The teams at the Americas Regionals will be competing for their share of a massive $100,000 prize pool—the largest of any regional event in World of Warcraft history. Every team will receive a portion of that money, but the amount increases dramatically the further the teams advance through the tournament.

• 1st place team: $50,000
• 2nd place team: $20,000
• 3rd place team: $10,000
• 4th place team: $8,000
• 5th–6th place teams: $4,000
• 7th–8th place teams: $2,000

Of course, that’s not the only prize at stake. The top three teams will also advance to the WoW Arena World Championship at BlizzCon 2015, where they’ll join five more teams from around the world to compete for $250,000 in prize money.

The Event

The World of Warcraft Arena Americas Regionals will be broadcast live on Twitch.tv/Warcraft starting at 12 p.m. PT on Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13. You won’t want to miss a second of the action.

Of course, an epic event needs an epic crew, and we’re pulling out all the stops with a collection of some of the best shoutcasters and analysts in the World of Warcraft Arena scene:

• Sid ’Supatease’ Compston
• Elliott ‘Venruki’ Venczel
• Jared ‘vhell’ Coulston
• Josh ‘Lore’ Allen
• Jackson ‘Bajheera’ Bliton

These guys will be talking spectators through every match, ensuring that you don’t miss any of the high-level strategic play we know we can expect from these amazing teams. We’ll see you there!

Bonus events have been expanded to now start on Wednesdays and runs through the end of the day on Monday.

Timewalking is back. Take a trip to Northrend and experience these five Heroic dungeons:

Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom
Gundrak
Halls of Lightning
The Nexus
Utgarde Pinnacle

Don’t forget to pick up the event-only quest “A Frozen Path Through Time” before you queue up for Timewalking, as it rewards a valuable Seal of Inevitable Fate.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft Patch 6.2.2. Hotfixes are updates made without requiring a new client-side patch. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

• Official 6.2.2 Patch Notes

September 10

Creatures and NPCs

Tanaan Jungle

• Harbormaster Korak should no longer go into evade mode if more than one player is engaging him.

Raids and Dungeons

Hellfire Citadel

• Xhul'horac
  • Voidscribe Aathalos is no longer susceptible to Charm, Possess, or Banish effects.
  • Weaponlord Mehlkhior, and other creatures around Xhul'horac are now immune to Charm effects.
• Archimonde
  • We have made a number of changes aimed at reducing the difficulty of the Archimonde encounter for smaller raid groups on Normal and Heroic difficulty, with a focus on the final phase of the encounter in particular. These changes are offset by increased scaling with respect to raid size, so that the experience for larger raid groups will be mostly unchanged.
    • Infernal Doombringer's health has been reduced by up to 15%.
    • Shadowed Netherwalker's health has been reduced by up to 15%.
    • Living Shadow's health has been reduced by up to 15%.
    • Reduced the damage of Wrought Chaos by up to 20%.
    • Reduced the damage of Shackled Torment by up to 20%.
    • Living Shadows now spawn from each Nether Tear at a reduced rate for smaller raid sizes.
  • Added a 3-second cooldown to the periodic healing of Eternal Flame, preventing Infernal Doombringers from healing other Infernal Doombringers until 3 seconds after spawning on all difficulties.
  • Archimonde's health has been reduced by 10% on Raid Finder difficulty.

Collections

Toy Box

• Will of Northrend's cosmetic transformation now persists and is usable in combat.

Items

• Timewalking 2-handed caster weapons now have bonus Spell Power equal to that of 1-handed caster weapons.
  • Bloodfire Greatstaff
  • Epoch-Mender
  • Grand Scepter of the Nexus-Kings
  • Spellfire Longsword
  • Staff of Polarities
  • Staff of Sinister Claws
  • Staff of Wayward Principles

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Vicious War Kodo and Vicious War Mechanostrider were not correctly converting into the opposite faction equivalent while performing a Faction Change.
  

September 8

Garrison

Shipyard

• Horde characters that have unlocked the carrier for their Shipyards should now be able to visit the carrier without having it phase out.
• Progress bars have been added to a number of naval achievements.
  • Naval Bonus Specialist/Expert
  • Naval Combat Specialist/Expert
  • Naval Siege Specialist/Expert
  • Naval Training Specialist/Expert
  • Naval Treasure Specialist/Expert

Bonus Events

Timewalking

• Fixed an issue where Frigid Timewarped Prism incorrectly required an account to be flagged for Warlords of Draenor to start or complete the quest, The Unstable Prism.

PvP

Mercenary Mode

• Fixed an issue where the score board would incorrectly display a character's original race.

Bug Fix

• Fixed an issue where newly created Goblin and Worgen characters were incorrectly receiving their racial abilities instead of learning them through the starting experience.
  

September 4

Raids and Dungeons

Timewalking

• Gundrak
  • Fixed an issue where the loot tables for Gal'darah and Eck the Ferocious got swapped while Timewalking.

PvP

General

• Fixed an issue where players were not transforming correctly into the opposite faction in Mercenary Mode.
• Players with the Mercenary Contract effect should now be able to use faction mounts while in an Arena Skirmish, Rated Arena match, or Rated Battleground.
• Fixed an issue where Rated Battleground faction auras were incorrectly applied while in the Arena.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some characters were unable to complete bonus objectives.
  

September 2

Raids and Dungeons

Siege of Orgrimmar

• Spoils of Pandaria
  • Spoils of Pandaria can now be started by 1 player (down from 5) on Raid Finder difficulty.

PvP

General

• Winning an Arena Skirmish match now award 40 Honor Points and 25 Conquest Points (up from 20 Honor Points). Skirmishes continue to award bonus Honor if a match goes on for an extended period of time.
• Mercenary Mode is now only available to level-100 characters.

Bug Fixes

• A number of Gnomish NPCs should no longer be unfashionably early in dressing up for Feast of Winter Veil.
• Fixed an issue with a patch of ocean between Tanaan Jungle and Ashran that could cause characters to disconnect if they fly or swim over it.
  

September 1

Creatures and NPCs

Gorgrond

• Bloodfang Grub has been removed from Gorgrond, a level 92-94 zone.

Raids and Dungeons

Hellfire Citadel

• Gorefiend
  • Players that perish to Digest or suffer fatal damage while in Gorefiend's stomach should now be able to be seen and resurrected once their bodies have teleported back out.
• Fel Lord Zakuun
  • The Befouled debuff should now clear immediately when Foul Explosion is triggered.
  • Exhausted Soul should now be correctly removed from players at the end of the encounter.
• Archimonde
  • Archimonde's Source of Chaos ability should no longer be summoned without having a target on Mythic difficulty.
  • Raid Finder Difficulty Changes
    • Doomfire Spirits now produce Doomfire patches at a reduced rate on Raid Finder difficulty.
    • Doomfire Spirit health has been reduced by 30% on Raid Finder difficulty.
    • Archimonde's Shadowfel Burst now only knocks the primary target of the ability into the air on Raid Finder difficulty.
    • On Raid Finder difficulty, if less than 7 players enter the Twisting Nether while there are more than 7 players alive in the encounter, additional players will be pulled into the Nether based on role.
    • Shadowed Netherwalker health has been reduced by 20% on Raid Finder difficulty.
    • Infernal Doombringer no longer cast Eternal Flame and take 45 seconds to reach full energy (up from 30 seconds) on Raid Finder difficulty.

PvP

General

• Battle Fatigue should now be correctly applied to player pets in a PvP environment.
• Players placed into the opposite faction in a Rated Battleground should now be able to receive the quest, Battle Hardened.
• Fixed an issue where players can carry the incorrect faction flag in an Arena Skirmish.

Ashran

• Mercenary Mode should now be correctly enabled for the faction with the longer queue times.

Items

• Aviana's Feather should no longer incorrectly require the character to have obtained Draenor Pathfinder in order to function on Draenor.
• Felfume Cloth Armor 4-piece set bonus for damage dealers should no longer incorrectly trigger from Polymorph.
• Tiny Abomination in a Jar no longer incorrectly has a chance to trigger from extra Blade Flurry hits.

Bug Fixes

• The flight path offered by Tina Kelatara to take players from Warspear Outpost back to Stormshield Hold should no longer go through a wall.
• Fixed an issue where Seer Kazal could sometimes not appear correctly in the Garrisons of new level 100 characters.

Class

Monk

• Mistweaver
  • Healing Sphere no longer has an excessively loud sound effect.

Priest

• Discipline
  • Divine Aegis should no longer have its damage absorption reduced by an incorrect amount through Battle Fatigue.