Wargaming.net League (WGL) is the global esports league for World of Tanks. It encompasses the four main regions of Russia/CIS, Europe, North America, and Asia/Oceania. To find out more about how competitive World of Tanks is played check out the the explanations on the 7/68 and Attack/Defense formats below.

"WGL gives a serious and competitive atmosphere that you can't get anywhere else in the game" - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Captain of WGLNA Gold Team Get Flanked

COMPETITIVE FORMAT

WGL follows the 7/68 format, which differs quite significantly from normal public matches to provide the best competitive experience. The team size is smaller, the gamemode is enhanced, and the maps have been changed to prevent stale gameplay. Some of this may seem confusing to new viewers but it is actually quite simple and everything will be explained below.

The 7/68 format is used as a shorthand for the team composition of each side. 7/68 stands for seven tanks and sixty-eight tier points per side. A tier point can range from one to ten depending on what level a tank is in the tech tree with ten being the highest. Only tanks ranging from eight to ten tier points are used in competitive play. This format leaves teams with two options on how they decide what tiers of tanks to bring. A team can decide if they want six tier ten tanks and one tier eight or if they would like five tier tens and two tier nines. An example of a tank composition a team would bring to a match would be four FV215bs, two Object 140s and one M40/43 artillery piece.

GAMEMODE

The gamemode used in WGL is called Attack/Defense. This simply means the attacking team has ten minutes to either kill all of the defending team’s vehicles or capture a point, commonly known as “capping,” or the defenders will win the battle. This is not too dissimilar from the assault gamemode in normal World of Tanks, but Attack/Defense has a couple added twists.

The map’s cap circles are changed so the defender has to defend two caps instead of the usual one cap. This makes the gameplay fast moving with both sides vying for the best positions depending on which cap the attacking team decides to go for. Since it was introduced several seasons ago, the Attack/Defense game mode has been regarded as the most exciting gamemode by many to date.

MAPS

The map pool in WGL consists of only eight maps. These maps were chosen for their quick moving gameplay and ability to be adapted to the Attack/Defense gamemode. The maps include Himmelsdorf, Steppes, Ruinberg, Mines, Ghost Town, Prokhorovka, Cliff, and Murovanka. These maps include a variety of locations that each have their own style.

Depending on what map is currently being played, there will be vastly different team compositions. A team composition is the makeup of tanks a team brings as their lineup. For example, on Himmelsdorf you will see mostly heavy tanks such as the FV215b or 113 to utilize their higher hit points (HP) and strong armor, as the map can be split down into more predictable corridors. However, on a map like Prokhorovka you should expect to see almost all medium tanks like the Object 140 or Bat.-Châtillon 25t to maximize mobility and damage per minute (DPM) on the unpredictable open terrain.

BEST OF NINE

Now that you know how the battles work in WGL, how do teams win a match? Each match, two teams face off in a best of nine battle. Both teams start with a coin flip, then alternate banning maps and deciding if they start attacking or defending for each map. After this process, which is usually done a few hours before matches start, the teams will play two battles per map with each team attacking and defending once until the winning team has won five battles.

If the teams are tied 4-4 at the end of eight matches, a sudden death tiebreaker will decide the winner. In the tiebreaker, the map is preset and is the same map for all matches that take place that night. The team with the fastest successful attack in the current match gets to choose their role, which means the team will decide if they want to attack or defend the tiebreaker map. The winner of the tiebreaker battle will win the match.

COMING UP

The upcoming WGLNA season will start next week on Thursday, August 4. You can watch the regular season on twitch.tv/wglna beginning at 5PM Pacific every Tuesday and Thursday.

If you can’t wait that long or want to check out some footage to get a better feel for the gamemode, you can check out the exciting 2016 Grand Finals championship match between Navi and HellRaisers and this Top 10 Moments video, as well as many other great matches on Youtube.

Be sure to follow the WGLNA Twitter and like the WGLNA Facebook page to keep up to date with the latest #WGLNA World of Tanks Gold League news.

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