The World Tournament Series is the pinnacle of Guild Wars 2 PvP competition, with the top teams from North America, Europe, and China going head-to-head in Boston with the goal of taking home the title of World Champion and the lion’s share of the $50,000 USD prize pool.

However, the road to the big stage in Boston is not one easily traveled. Teams will face many challenges along the way, putting their skills, mental fortitude, and endurance to the ultimate test. In order to secure a spot in the finals, teams will need to prove to the world that they, above all others, deserve to be there. On February 7, join us on the Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel as the world discovers which teams will represent each region at the World Tournament Series Finals in Boston.

North America, Europe, or China—who do you stand behind?

To celebrate this weekend’s event, we’ll be enabling the Call of the Mists effect, which grants each player in PvP an additional 100% magic find, 10% rank-point gain, and 15% reward-track progress.

Livestream Details:

European World Tournament Series Invitational Qualifier—February 7 @ 7 a.m. PST (15:00 UTC) Click here to view the European tournament brackets.

North American World Tournament Series Invitational Qualifier—February 7 @ 2 p.m. PST (22:00 UTC) Click here to view the North American tournament brackets.



We’ll also be giving viewers a sneak peek of our newly announced PvP game mode during both of this weekend’s broadcasts.

Brackets:





World Tournament Series Preview

In North America, reigning World Tournament Series Champions, the Abjured, will seek to defend the title they recently earned in China. Their performances leading up to this weekend seem to indicate that they’re just as—if not more—practiced than they were in Beijing. However, the Abjured’s roster has changed slightly since taking the crown in China, causing tension and uncertainty between key members of the community. Ostrich Eggs, well known for his engineer play, parted ways with the Abjured shortly after arriving back home from the championship event in Beijing and was replaced by Nos, a necromancer main. The addition of Nos to the Abjured’s roster helps ensure side-node domination as necromancer is easily one of the best roaming professions in competitive play, bringing tons of pressure to small skirmishes.

Determined to reestablish himself as a top contender in the PvP scene, Ostrich Eggs has been working hard to build a new team with the sole objective of dethroning the Abjured, his self-proclaimed archrivals. His new team, the Hail Mary, is doing fairly well for being so freshly formed, placing second in the February 1 ESL Go4GuildWars2 Cup, losing only to the Abjured in the finals.

Considering North America will send two teams to the finals in Boston, the goal of many teams in the invitational qualifier is no longer to take first place but rather to focus on clinching second. Between the other top teams in North America—Radioactive, the Dankening, Academy Gaming, and more—second place is far from guaranteed.

There’s a similar storyline in Europe, as the long-standing roster of the Civilized Gentlemen is seeing a significant shift with ROM, Denshee, and Tage jumping ship to join forces with Cheese Mode members Frae and Blackjack under the banner of Orange Logo. This move left the team captain of the Civilized Gentlemen, Helseth, in a rough spot, reducing his roster to just himself and Sizer. The Civilized Gentlemen have managed to fill out their roster with new blood for the purposes of the event, but their ability and readiness is relatively untested.

The Civilized Gentlemen are far from being the only story in Europe. Orange Logo themselves had strong showings over the past few weeks, with the exception of the February 1 ESL Go4GuildWars2 Cup where they were eliminated by newcomers Insert Guild Name in the first round. Fortunately for Orange Logo and everyone else involved, Insert Guild Name will not be playing in the qualifier this weekend.

Fifty Five Hp Monks will also be making an appearance this weekend, and while they consistently place in the top three in events, they’re already making short work of some of the more well-known teams, such as the Civilized Gentlemen. Although consistent and reliable, Fifty Five Hp Monks remain an unknown factor coming into this weekend, and we’re looking forward to any surprises.

We’ll see you on Twitch this Saturday!

Josh