Anyone heading to Germany for the WoW Arena Tournament?

My brother-in-law's PVP team won a regional tournament in WoW and is heading to Cologne, Germany to play in the finals this June. I'm thinking of going with him as his guardian since I'm the only gamer in the family and he's never flown before. I'm curious if any other GWJers might be heading there as well.

Guess its time to start learning some conversational German... "bier"

Does Blizzard pay for the plane tickets for people in the tournament, because that is quite a commitment to expect for a game.

Does Blizzard pay for the plane tickets for people in the tournament, because that is quite a commitment to expect for a game.

Yeah, they're paying for him and a guest (parent/guardian) to fly there and for two night at a hotel. Not sure what the prizes are he's pretty excited to go.

LockAndLoad wrote:
Does Blizzard pay for the plane tickets for people in the tournament, because that is quite a commitment to expect for a game.

Yeah, they're paying for him and a guest (parent/guardian) to fly there and for two night at a hotel. Not sure what the prizes are he's pretty excited to go.

Ok, then that is pretty awesome then.

seriously that is all sorts of liquid awesome. grats to your brother in law!

Can you give any more details? I'm stationed only a few hours from there, and might jump a train if it's a big thing.

Can you give any more details? I'm stationed only a few hours from there, and might jump a train if it's a big thing.

Honestly, I have no idea.... I got over my WoW addiction a while ago. I know his team won a 3v3 Arena tournament in the US and that they are flying in the other regional teams (Europe, Asia) to compete against each other. There are cash prizes, and the players earn the title "Vanguisher" as well as an armored Murloc pet. I'm not sure if its open to the public though. I was sort of hoping it was related to Leipzig or BlizzCon Europe but it doesn't look like its the same dates at all.

I'm planning on enjoying some beer, cheering him on and if I'm lucky get some demo time with Diablo3/Starcraft2.

Troll, do you have any suggestions on food/dining/event/local beers for the area? I've never traveled to Europe before and like having as much info as possible beforehand.

LockAndLoad wrote:

Troll, do you have any suggestions on food/dining/event/local beers for the area? I've never traveled to Europe before and like having as much info as possible beforehand.

I've been assigned to Stuttgart for nine months, and haven't made it to Cologne yet, but go to this site to see some of what they have to offer (most German cities have their own tourism sites, and I've found them very useful so far).

As to food and beer, expect to find a little pork in pretty much everything you order (Germans love their schweinefleisch), and the local beer for Cologne is Kölsch (a friend from the region swears it's ambrosia from the gods).

Seriously, while you can undoubtedly find a McDonalds that serve beer there, you'd be a fool not to sit down to a good jaeger schnitzel drowned in brown gravy. If you prefer dark beers, order a dunkel (the brewery won't matter) and you won't be disappointed.