I’m excited to introduce a major change to World vs. World, a World vs. World season! Starting on October 4th and running seven weeks through November 21st.

We love WvW at ArenaNet and we are excited to bring a brand new concept to the game: a season of WvW matchups. The basic idea is similar to a sporting season. We’ve broken the NA region into 2 leagues of 12 worlds each and the EU region into 3 leagues of 9 worlds each. The worlds in each league will compete with each other over the course of 7 weeks for a number of prizes based on their performance in each matchup and their performance over the course of the season. The leagues will be determined by world rating at the conclusion of the matchups prior to the start of the season. Once the season begins, the leagues will be locked and there will be no movement into or out of a league.

The Leagues

Each world will be matched up with each other world in their league at least once over the course of the season. 1st place in each matchup will gain the world 5 points, 2nd place 3 points, and 3rd place 1 point. At the conclusion of the season, the worlds will be ranked in order of the total number of points they’ve acquired and all players who have completed the season long meta-achievement will be given prizes based on that ranking.

The winning world in each league will unlock a stack of supply dolyak finishers for their use in WvW and PvP. 1st place in the gold league will get a gold dolyak, 1st place in the silver league a silver dolyak, and 1st place in the bronze league a bronze dolyak. Every player will be rewarded with WvW account bonus chests based on the weekly results. This will continue once the season is complete and be a permanent feature of WvW going forward. The rewards for each week will only be available during the following week’s matchup. If you don’t log in during a given week you will not receive the bonus chests for the previous week.

New WvW Season Achievements

The season will come with a brand new achievement category containing WvW specific achievements that can be unlocked while the season is running. Most of these will be familiar to anyone who has played much WvW and all provide a great deal of reward for playing on behalf of your world. Players who complete the WvW Season meta achievement will receive a new title as well as a key to unlock a WvW season chest that will be delivered on completion of the season based on world rank.

Players will be tied to the home world they have set when the season begins, so regardless of transfers, you will receive rewards based only on the world you started on. This world is set the first time a character on an account loads into the game after the start of the season. This means you will be able to transfer worlds prior to loading in the first time and still be eligible for the rewards of your new world.

Re-Spend Your World Ability Points

We will also be refunding all spent World Ability Points of all characters in the game at the start of the season. This will allow you to decide on a particular play style for the season and load your characters the way you wish to play them with all the points you’ve already unlocked. To further incentivize spending your points we will not be introducing any new ability lines during the season, nor shall we be making any other changes to WvW, with the exception of bug fixes, until the season concludes. This is to ensure that the playing field is as level as it can be at the start and the finish of the season.

You will be able to track your progress as a world on the GW2 leaderboards site and your participation will be vital to the success of your world. I hope you are ready to climb to the top of the charts and dominate WvW! Onward to victory!