Today is the first day of the European Regional Finals at the Congress Center in Hamburg, where the best European World of Warcraft Arena teams and the best European Warcraft III players will fight for the chance to compete in the Global Finals at BlizzCon. If you are not lucky enough to be in Hamburg to witness this exciting event live, you can tune in on the official site of GIGA 2, either in low-quality and for free or in high-quality with subscription to catch all the excitement of this tournament. See all Warcraft III results on our brackets page and check out the gallery for the latest pictures directly from the venue. You can find information on the players and teams as well as the schedule of the event on our European Regionals page!

The European Regional Finals are fast approaching! From June 22 to 24 you can witness the excitement of Player vs Player action at the highest level. Join us at the Congress Center in Hamburg to watch the best eight European World of Warcraft Arena teams fight for the very first time for the title of European Champion and a ticket to the Global Finals at the BlizzCon in August. At this event you won't only be witnessing Arena matches: the Warcraft III Battle.net Season 5 tournament is coming to an end as well and renowned players like ToD, the winner of this year's Worldwide Invitational, will compete in world-class matches with seven other amazing players for the European Championship. Three days of tense competitive gaming await you!

The first day of the Blizzard North American regional tournament is finished, and after many exciting matches, we've narrowed the field down to 3 World of Warcraft Arena teams and 3 Warcraft III players. The teams and players listed below will now compete for a trip to the Blizzard Global Finals, to be held August 3-4 at BlizzCon.

Warcraft III Finalists: (View current bracket and replays)

mTw-nilk
mTw-KiWi
mTw-PaTo

World of Warcraft Finalists:

THE HUKHUKHUKHUKHUKS
Power Trip
We lose cuz Daorok sux

Check back tomorrow to see who claims top honors for the American region and secures a place at the Global Finals at BlizzCon!.

The World of Warcraft and Warcraft III American regional finals will be held at the House of Blues on Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3 in San Diego, California. Players will compete for cash prizes and a chance to attend the global finals at BlizzCon 2007. Check out the World of Warcraft and Warcraft III brackets to see who's playing who. If you are in the area, come and watch some epic competition. The event begins at 11 a.m. and admission is free.

Missed the excitement of the Worldwide Invitational? Now you can see the replays from the matches as well as photos taken throughout the event. See the exact match-ups on the new WWI Tournament Brackets page and then check out the complete StarCraft and Warcraft III tournament replays.

Here are the tournament results from WWI. The winners of the respective tournaments in ranking order are

Warcraft III Season 5 Asia Regional Finals
1. Moon
2. Remind
3. Shy

World of Warcraft Asia Regional Finals
1. Notorious
2. D E R tenacity
3. MYTH

Warcraft III Invitational
1. Tod
2. Fov

StarCraft Invitational
1. Bisu
2. Savior

For more information about the tournaments visit the tournament section on the WWI page. Replays from the StarCraft Invitational, the Warcraft III Invitational, and the Warcraft III Season 5 tournament will be posted on www.battle.net.

The Worldwide invitational 2007 was particularly exciting: the event opened with Mike Morhaime's announcement of the Blizzard's newest project, StarCraft II.

During the event, people who attended were able to enjoy performances from Korean singers such as the famous Psy, Lee Hyori, as well as Ivy, Maximum Crew, and Super Junior. Moreover, the famous Video Games Live orchestra made a special appearance, doing a live performance of music from Warcraft, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft!

Besides the tournaments, a many events were prepared for the attendees, including a cosplay contest, a trading card demonstration, discussion panels with developers, among others. If you want to catch a glimpse of the atmosphere during the Worldwide Invitational, you can find some photos of the events here.

World of Warcraft Arena Tournament: Notorious Dominates
The World of Warcraft Arena Regional Finals in Korea have been very impressive. Moreover, the last rounds of the competition have been particularly exciting. During the upper bracket finals, D E R Tenacity faced Notorious. In the end, the Notorious team proved its superiority, winning the first place. The top three teams were:

First place: Notorious
Second Place: DER Tenacity
Third place: Myth

All of these teams will participate in the Global Finals and will go on to face the top players around the world.

Warcraft III Tournament Finals
The Worldwide Invitational Warcraft III tournament is finished! The best players in the world faced each other in this exciting competition. During an incredible 3-match battle, Tod (Yoan Merlo – France) faced Fov (Cho Daehui – Korea). The Humans, lead by Tod, prevailed against the Undead, lead by Fov.

The Season 5 ladder finals also took place during this tournament. Spirit_Moon won the first place. The top three performers of these finals will participate in the Global Finals.

WWI StarCraft Tournament Finals: Bisu Wins!
We're pleased to announce the winner of the StarCraft WWI tournament: Bisu[Shield] (Kim Taekyong - Korea). Bisu's Protoss won in the final's third match thanks to an incredible rush against Savior's Zerglings. Both Korean players won one match, before Bisu finally won the third one in only a few minutes.

May 19-20, 2007 – Asian Regional Finals – Seoul, Korea
The Asian regional finals will be held at the Olympic Fencing Gymnasium and the Olympic Gymnastic Arena in Seoul. Home to the 1988 Summer Olympics, these two venues will host the Worldwide Invitational StarCraft tournament, the World of Warcraft Asian regional finals, and the Warcraft III Kalimdor regional finals.

June 2-3, 2007 – American Regional Finals – San Diego, California
The American regional finals will be held at the House of Blues in San Diego. The House of Blues is known for exciting live music and southern-inspired cuisine. This popular entertainment center will be transformed into a top-tier gaming arena to host the World of Warcraft American regional finals and the Warcraft III Azeroth regional finals.

June 23-24, 2007 – European Regional Finals – Hamburg, Germany
The European regional finals will be held at the Hamburg Messe and Congress center. Located in the heart of one of largest cities in Germany, this national convention center will host the World of Warcraft European regional finals and the Warcraft III Northrend regional finals.

August 3-4, 2007 – Global Finals at BlizzCon 2007 – Anaheim, California
BlizzCon is a celebration of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises and the players who have helped make them so popular around the world. In addition to many events and activities, we are proud to present the global finals for World of Warcraft and Warcraft III. The top players from each regional competition will be flown in from around the world to compete for the 2007 world championship.

We are pleased to announce the top two performers from Season 4 for each region!

• Americas: KiWiKaKi, SonKiE
• Europe: Grubby, ToD
• Asia: ReMinD, Lucifer

The Warcraft III Season 5 invitational ladder has begun. We have invited the top players from each regional ladder to compete in the invitational ladder. Please refer to the Season 5 FAQ for new information and guidelines about this season's competition. Good luck!

We are pleased to announce the fifth edition of the Battle.net Warcraft III ladder seasons. Based on the positive feedback we received for Season 4, we will be using a similar format for Warcraft III Season 5. Be sure to check out our complete coverage of Season 4, which concluded with an awarding of $10,000 and the Season 4 Global Champion Trophy to ReMinD for his comeback victory in the Global Finals event held in Cologne, Germany this past January.

The upcoming season will once again contain three elite ladders hosted on the Kalimdor, Northrend, and Azeroth gateways. These ladders will initially be populated on an invitation-only basis and feature the world’s most established and successful Warcraft III players. Each ladder will function as a standard Battle.net solo ladder, with its own web interface displaying rankings, and its own map pools.

To ensure that all players eventually have the opportunity to compete for seeds in the final events, we’ll be refreshing the player pool for each of the ladders at the end of the season. Inactive and low-ranking players from these tournament ladders will be replaced with top-ranked players on the standard Battle.net solo ladders. We intend to use this overall format for future Blizzard tournaments as well.

Ladders

For Season 5, each participant will play on the gateway closest to his or her own geographical location. The ladders for these gateways will have roughly 100-150 players on them, and there will be no restrictions for the AMM (automated matchmaking system). This means that the top player could be pitted against someone much lower on the ladder, but it also means that search times should be faster, as AMM searches will only be impacted by player availability.

Players

Each Season 5 player will receive a unique icon and will be able to view and play on the new ladders through Battle.net. Also, six players from Season 4 will be invited by Blizzard to participate in the Season 5 regional qualifiers based on their success in the Season 4 Global Finals.

Season

Season 5 will last approximately one month, and upon completion, Blizzard will arrange for the top players from each ladder to participate in the offline regional qualifiers. Those who succeed in the regional qualifiers will then go head-to-head in the global finals. Similar to Season 4, the Season 5 finals will be hosted at a dedicated event set up solely for the purpose of closing out the season with a bang. More information will be released in the future, including details on rules, scheduling, and prizes, so please stay tuned to www.battle.net.