We delved deep into Guild Wars 2's instanced PvP to see how ArenaNet has prepared their competitive PvP for the world of eSports,

Guild Wars 2 Levels the Playing Field

Way back in the day, when Blizzard was just beginning its eSports experiment with WoW arena, there was no such thing as a "tournament realm," and players had to make do with whatever characters they had in order to compete. This ultimately benefited those who had the time to raid for high-impact items (the legendary Warglaives of Azzinoth come to mind) and could level alternate classes to swap in for stronger team compositions. For those who only had time to casually play one character, this made climbing to the top a very difficult task; in Season One, I barely got my first Gladiator title by playing a Feral Druid / Ice Mage 2v2 team, while others had a much easier time with stronger team compositions like Rogue / Warlock.

In this regard, ArenaNet has done it right by giving all players access to every ability and every piece of equipment they'll need in order to play competitively. I spent most of my weekend experimenting with every class, and changing my fundamental character build was as easy as switching out my traits and abilities before picking up the proper gems and equipment from the NPC vendors. My apologies to anyone who ran up against my tanky dagger-wielding Elementalist whose sole purpose was to sit on objectives while being a nuisance. 

One more thing I did appreciate (although it wasn't implemented during the weekend beta) was the accumulation of "glory" for players who participated in instanced PvP. Guild Wars 2 is, at its core, an MMORPG, and one of the fundamental aspects of any MMORPG is character growth and the pursuit of shiny things. From what has been revealed thus far, glory can be used to purchase cosmetic PvP gear, like armor, but there is great potential to also draw players into Guild Wars 2's expansive World vs. World PvP system and extensive PvE content by introducing items that can be used in these settings. This will allow GW2 to retain its MMORPG feel by giving players a good reason to try new things, even if they initially came for the PvP.

Community Support

Here is where ArenaNet's big plans for the future are still a bit hazy. While Jon Peters did confirm that although ArenaNet would - like with Guild Wars - have sponsored tournaments for players, there hasn't been much discussion on implementing more tools for community support. The fact is, there is simply no way a company can match the enthusiasm of a large, passionate community, and allowing players to host their own tournaments would be vital for pushing Guild Wars 2 into the eSport spotlight. A strong competitive community is important for keeping an eSport alive, and if a player only has a few developer-sponsored tournaments to look forward to, the motivation to play while supporting the community just won't be there.

Spectators Drive eSports

This is a huge factor that determines whether a game will rise or fall in the eSports scene. A game might be incredible to play competitively, but if a new player can't quickly understand what is happening, your chances of becoming a popular eSport become that much smaller. Here ArenaNet needs to make sure they have a solid spectator mode implemented when they push forward with competitive PvP, or they might find themselves without a strong audience to build upon.

In this regard, I do have one major complaint against Guild Wars 2, and that would be the presentation of combat information. Currently, it is very difficult to keep track of health bars and who is taking damage. While this relates to ArenaNet's stated goal of focusing the action on your character and movement - as opposed to "watching numbers and health bars" - this hurts my ability to understand, precisely, what is going on in the moment. Identifying who is a major threat in fights is very difficult, and even something as simple as understanding who was in range of my AoE abilities requires me to pay close attention to what numbers appear on the screen. This lack of precise information (and the inability to access it easily), while not a deal breaker, might be a problem for players (and spectators) who like knowing exactly how each teammate is contributing to a fight.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, if there is any MMORPG out there with the potential to push a viable competitive eSport scene, Guild Wars 2 would be it. ArenaNet has extensive experience pushing a competitive community in their original Guild Wars, and it's clear that they've learned a lot going into Guild Wars 2. World of Warcraft may have started the MMORPG eSport scene with 3v3 arena (does anyone remember when it was 5v5 arena back in the day?), but if ArenaNet plays its cards right, Guild Wars 2 will be the one that brings competitive PvP to the main stage.

Chris "Pwyff" Tom, Editor-in-Chief