Arena Terms and Conditions for US! LOL!

[Majestic_Clown]

LMFAO! THIS IS REAL !

1. Entry; Entry Fee.
   To enter, simply go to the Account Management page of www.worldofwarcraft.com, log in, using your account name and password, click on the link for the Tournament, and pay the applicable entry fee. The Entry Fee for the Tournament is $20.00 USD for the First Qualification Round of the Tournament, and $20.00 USD for the Second Qualification Round of the Tournament. Canadian residents are not required to pay an Entry Fee in order to enter. Instead, Canadian residents may enter by submitting a 250 word typewritten essay comparing the video gaming culture in Canada to the video gaming culture in the United States on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper and mailing their essay to Essay Entry for The North American Blizzard Entertainment Arena Tournament, P.O Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92623. Essay entries must be received no later than March 31, 2008 in order to be eligible. Essay entrants represent and warrant that the essay is their original work and does not infringe the rights of any third party. By entering, essay entrants hereby grant, without further consideration, all right, title and interest in and to their essay to Sponsor.

WTF is all I have to say!
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/tournament/legal.xml
I find this hilarious tbh.

[Eteocles]

Actually I believe that's due to some silly laws you Canucks have up there preventing most of our US contests from allowing you to enter; PCGamer made a big article explaining about it a few years ago when Canadian readers complained about not being able to enter their contests lol; I'd assume the whole essay bit is a loophole Blizz found around it while still making you "earn" the spot ;p and/or generate free content/publicity for them lolz

Also, you should rename the topic to "For Canadians/for us canadians", I came in here expecting to see the Arena Tournament rules being amended to allow Multi-boxers to use their keypassing programs so they could compete lol

[Eteocles]

From what I read and how I understand it technically yes, technically no. The rules don't specifically state it, but the tournaments are done on a 100% default, no mods WoW installed-PC provided by Blizzard or something like that, in an attempt to keep it purely skill-wins vs UI/mod advantages etc, or at least even the playing field a little. Pretty sure they wouldn't allow you to install anything extra on there let alone the time it would take to configure or if you use keyclone, it'd take too long to switch the systemids over and then switch them back post-tournament lol

[Mudd]

I came in here expecting to see the Arena Tournament rules being amended to allow Multi-boxers to use their keypassing programs so they could compete lol

Its kind of true, you can always multibox a word processor and create N essays at once.

[Crucial]

Actually I believe that's due to some silly laws you Canucks have up there preventing most of our US contests from allowing you to enter; PCGamer made a big article explaining about it a few years ago when Canadian readers complained about not being able to enter their contests lol; I'd assume the whole essay bit is a loophole Blizz found around it while still making you "earn" the spot ;p and/or generate free content/publicity for them lolz

Also, you should rename the topic to "For Canadians/for us canadians", I came in here expecting to see the Arena Tournament rules being amended to allow Multi-boxers to use their keypassing programs so they could compete lol

As a Canadian this is the first I've heard of these silly laws, usually the wierd contest and lottery laws are restricted to Quebec. Maybe this is a just a blanket approach to cover all provinces?

[Diamndzngunz]

lol @ canada

[Eteocles]

Quite possible Crucial, I'm not privy to the details but either way yeah it's those silly Quebecs' fault :p

[Mudd]

For those that really want to know more about this.

http://www.gaminglawmasters.com/juri...nceOct2004.htm

Snippet from link:

Canadian courts are likely to take a common sense approach when dealing with contests and games that are part of commercial promotional activities. The gaming provisions of the Criminal Code were mainly drafted to curb illegal gambling and protect against “loss”, not to burden modern commercial marketing activities. In most cases, the provision of a free entry alternative should satisfy the basic purpose of the statute in eliminating the factor of contestants being forced to make a purchase or otherwise pay consideration as a condition of entry.

The more closely a contest or game resembles classic “gambling” activity, for instance contests that use machinery resembling slot machines or video lottery terminals, the more care should be taken in ensuring that:

(1) “skill-testing questions” are applied in a stringent fashion, requiring prospective winners to answer sufficiently difficult mathematical questions in a controlled environment to ensure that they have answered the question unaided; and

(2) “free-entry alternatives” are provided that carefully adheres to the “equal dignity” principle, such that disparities in treatment between paying and non-paying entrants are minimized to the greatest extent possible.

Sounds like the essay was the 'easy' way to avoid legal overhead for the tournament.

[Eteocles]

Woot I was right it was a loophole :p lol

[Mudd]

Actually I believe that's due to some silly laws you Canucks have up there preventing most of our US contests from allowing you to enter; PCGamer made a big article explaining about it a few years ago when Canadian readers complained about not being able to enter their contests lol; I'd assume the whole essay bit is a loophole Blizz found around it while still making you "earn" the spot ;p and/or generate free content/publicity for them lolz

Also, you should rename the topic to "For Canadians/for us canadians", I came in here expecting to see the Arena Tournament rules being amended to allow Multi-boxers to use their keypassing programs so they could compete lol

As a Canadian this is the first I've heard of these silly laws, usually the wierd contest and lottery laws are restricted to Quebec. Maybe this is a just a blanket approach to cover all provinces?

You may not have heard of it, but you have probably been in a contest affected by this law before (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skill_testing_question). Basically it is illegal to win a prize in a contest that requires you to pay for entry, because that is gambling. That is why Tim Horton's, McDonalds, etc.. instant win prizes always have that skill testing question. The 'contest' is now based on mixed skill and chance.