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81-514: The tournament format has varied in each year, with the most recent one involving a preliminary stage in which national teams competed against others in a single-elimination tournament system to claim the five qualification spots in the group stages, which also included five national teams who prequalified via ranking. Top-ranked teams from the group stage advanced to a single-elimination playoff bracket at Blizzard's BlizzCon event every November. The first three World Cups were won by South Korea , while

162-462: A bye is the preferential status of a player or team that is automatically advanced to the next round of a tournament without having to play an opponent in an early round. In knockout (elimination) tournaments , byes may be assigned either to reward the highest ranked participant(s), or randomly, to make a working bracket if the number of participants is not a power of two (e.g. 16 or 32). In round-robin tournaments , usually one competitor gets

243-550: A 21-week regular season. In most seasons, (from 2014 to 2017 and prior to 2007), each team has two bye weeks during the 20 week 18-game regular season. When the league had only 8 teams, the league usually had no bye weeks. However between 2007 and 2013, the league had one bye per team over in two weeks in August (4 teams would have a bye during week 6 and the other 4 teams would have a bye on week 7). In Australia's National Rugby League (NRL), each team has three byes each season. With

324-471: A PPV event ($ 39.95 for both days) for eight hours per day in both standard and high definition. All BlizzCon 2009 Pay Per View event purchasers received an exclusive "Grunty the Murloc Marine" World of Warcraft in-game pet. and had access to the online stream for no additional cost. New in 2009, BlizzCon was broadcast live via an internet stream, calling it a "Virtual Ticket". The site covered both days of

405-462: A Virtual Ticket for live online streaming of all of the events held at BlizzCon. The convention's online broadcast was watched by over 10 million people. Hearthstone' s third adventure, League of Explorers , was announced on November 6, 2015, which was later released on November 12. Overwatch was announced to have a Q2 2016 release date, later confirmed for May 24. The expansion World of Warcraft: Legion released its cinematic trailer and announced

486-420: A bye in each round when there are an odd number of competitors, as it is impossible for all competitors to play in the same round. However, over the whole tournament, each plays the same number of games as well as sitting out for the same number of rounds. The "Berger Tables" used by FIDE for chess tournaments, provide pairings for even numbered pools and simply state that "Where there is an odd number of players,

567-446: A bye to the second round, as it is generally seen as an advantage to be assured entry into a later round. In the NFL playoffs , for example, as of 2020 , the division-leader with the best record in each conference is given a bye to the second round. The Canadian Football League (CFL) also grants a bye to its two division winners, directly to the division finals as four other teams compete in

648-520: A bye week the next season through 2020 . Since 2021 , the season is 18 weeks long with a bye week and an additional 17th game. Between 1999 and 2001 , the NFL had an odd number of teams (31) as a result of the Cleveland Browns re-entering the league . Each week during these three seasons featured at least one team with its bye week, but the 2001 season also added an additional impromptu league-wide bye

729-447: A competitive mode and finally a league ." In June 2016, the esports organizer ESL announced that they would host the first international Overwatch competition in August 2016, called Overwatch Atlantic Showdown. The competition used four open qualifiers beginning in June, followed by regional qualifiers and then a final online qualifier. Eight teams then competed for a six-figure prize in

810-534: A new class-based multi-player shooter , was announced on November 7, 2014. The third part of Starcraft II , Legacy of the Void was announced. The first expansion pack for Hearthstone , Goblins vs. Gnomes , was also announced on the same day. The first Hearthstone World Championship was hosted at the event. The 2014 StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Finals was won by Lee "Life" Seung Hyun beating Mun "MMA" Seong Won. The World of Warcraft championship

891-509: A new expansion for World of Warcraft . Diablo III , StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm , and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria were playable. DirecTV once again offered both days of BlizzCon 2011 as a PPV event. The GOMTV Global Starcraft II League October final match took place in Anaheim alongside BlizzCon. Moon "MMA" Sung Won beat Jeong "Mvp" Jong Hyeon, 4–1. The closing concert featured

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972-492: A performance from Blizzard's own in-house band, The Artist Formerly Known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftains (TAFKL80ETC), who changed their name mid-concert to Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftains (L90ETC). The Foo Fighters performed for the closing concert. Blizzcon 2013 was announced to be held on November 8 and 9 in Anaheim. The tickets were sold in two batches, on April 24 and 27, 2013, and both batches quickly sold out. Blizzard also sold special tickets that include access to

1053-529: A pre-Blizzcon Benefit Dinner. Blizzard once again sold a Virtual Ticket for live online streaming of all of the events in BlizzCon 2013. The Heroes of the Storm "Cinematic Trailer" was presented with an alpha version of the game available for playing. Hearthstone was announced to begin beta testing and that the game would be released on iOS and Android. The fifth expansion to World of Warcraft , Warlords of Draenor ,

1134-484: A release date on or before September 21, 2016 and was playable. The Warcraft (film) released its first official trailer and revealed its release date of June 10, 2016. StarCraft II was announced to have upcoming single player mission packs, Nova Covert Ops , which each consist of three missions. The 2015 Heroes of the Storm World Championship and the second Hearthstone World Championship were hosted at

1215-411: A second round with five teams, meaning only two matches could occur. Thus, if the number of participants is not a power of two (e.g. 16 or 32), to make a working bracket byes are provided to automatically move certain participants into a later round without requiring them to compete in an earlier one. When participants are ranked, participants with the highest ranking going into the tournament are given

1296-411: A semi-final week. In other tournaments where teams are unranked, random draw may be used to determine the byes. The number of teams offered a bye is generally designed to ensure that the next round consists of a power-of-two number of teams so the tournament can proceed as a simple single-elimination tournament from that round onward. If the byes are all single first-round byes into the second round of

1377-486: A similar event outside the U.S. from 2004 to 2008, the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational . General admission tickets are considered to be the baseline experience for BlizzCon. It grants access to all of the panels on both days, ability to playtest new games, patches, expansions, etc. and ability to view as well as order exclusive Blizzard merchandise online before the convention. Since its inception in 2005,

1458-488: A sneak peek at the BlizzCon 2016 in-game item rewards and offered for the first time the "goody bag", normally only for physical attendees, was offered for sale to virtual ticket holders. The gaming announcements included the fourth expansion for Hearthstone , Mean Streets of Gadgetzan , expected to be released in December 2016. Overwatch had two big announcements: it confirmed the hero Sombra after teasing her via an ARG and

1539-503: A team having a "bye week" or a "second bye" if that team is playing an especially poor team, and is all but assured of a win. Ever since the NFL started Thursday Night Football, teams who play on a Thursday night are sometimes referred to having a "mini bye" until their next game, usually being about 10 - 11 days away. Traditionally, the CFL has had nine teams and required bye weeks. Beginning 2018, each team has three bye weeks and 18 games over

1620-475: A team which has a bye is awarded a win. In the Provincial Championships of Gaelic football , some teams receive a bye due to the irregular number of teams competing in each province. The different numbers resulted in different byes alignments in each Provincial Championship. For example, below is an assessment of the 2012 Provincial Championships, and their use of the "bye". Seven teams contested

1701-508: A tournament, the number of byes required is the difference between the number of teams and the next-highest power of two. For example, a 12-team tournament will require four byes (16−12) to ensure that instead of six teams in the second round, eight advance (as the four byes avoid two of the four teams being eliminated). In postseason tournaments sponsored by the Kansas State High School Activities Association ,

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1782-432: A weakened side. On the competition ladder, teams are typically awarded two points (equivalent to a win) during their bye week. The Australian Football League , which comprises an even number of clubs, gives each club a bye week in mid-season , as well as a bye the week before the finals . In 1915 , 1919 to 1924 , 1942 and 1943 , 1991 to 1994 and 2011 , when there were an odd number of clubs competing, each club

1863-463: Is placed on the team's schedule, usually falling between Week 4 and Week 12 inclusive. During the 1960 and 1966 seasons, the league had an odd number of teams due to expansion. Each week during those seasons, one team had a bye, including one team each in the first and last week of the season: thus, because they had to play all their games with no break in the middle, those two teams effectively had no byes. The American Football League (which at

1944-429: The 2012 Connacht Senior Football Championship , so a quarter-final was not played by Mayo . Mayo therefore advanced directly to the semi-final to await the winner of the game between Leitrim and London . Eleven teams contested the 2012 Leinster Senior Football Championship , so five teams were given first round byes. Three teams ( Carlow , Dublin and Wexford ) played winners of the three preliminary matches, while

2025-706: The CAA and Sun Belt in 2023, as well as the American in 2024, as each expanded beyond 12 teams. Various other conferences like the OVC offer "double byes" to the semifinals for their top two teams, while the WCC offers "triple byes" to their top two teams. While not yet confirmed, the ACC are likely to adopt "triple byes" starting in 2025, as membership for the conference will expand beyond 16 teams. In Esports , "double byes" are most commonly seen during

2106-611: The ESL Pro League event for the Counter-Strike series of games, awarded to the teams who won each of the groups during the group stage. "Triple byes" are currently used for China 's professional League of Legends league, known as the LPL , and are awarded to the top two teams during a split's regular season. Up until 2020, they were also used for South Korea 's LCK , with the top team in their split's regular season automatically making

2187-484: The National Football League (NFL). In a standard single-elimination tournament , each round has half the number of teams of the preceding round. Thus the finals will have two, the semi-finals will have four, the quarter-finals will have eight, etc. Thus tournaments with competitors numbering a power of two can have a standard bracket in which all teams are paired up with the loser of each match eliminated and

2268-834: The World of Warcraft arena championship, the Hearthstone third world championship, the Heroes of the Storm fall championship, and the Overwatch World Cup . Kristian Nairn , who played Hodor on the HBO series Game of Thrones , was the DJ during Blizzard's 25th anniversary party. The closing ceremony concert was performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic . On March 14, Blizzard Entertainment announced that BlizzCon 2017 would be held on November 3 and 4, with tickets being available to purchase on April 5 and 8 using

2349-628: The 2017 StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Finals won by Lee "Rogue" Byung Ryul, the World of Warcraft arena championship won by ABC, the Hearthstone Inn-vitational won by the Grimestreet Grifters, the Heroes of the Storm HGC Finals won by MVP Black, the Overwatch World Cup won by South Korea for the second time, and StarCraft: Remastered Ultimate Title Fight won by Bisu. Bye (sports) In sports,

2430-641: The Anaheim Convention Center. The gaming announcements included that the next expansion to World of Warcraft would be Battle for Azeroth , there would be official World of Warcraft Classic servers, a new hero for Overwatch named Moira was added as well as a new map called "Blizzard World", StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty ' s first campaign, multiplayer and other modes of the game are now free, and Hearthstone ' s next expansion Kobolds and Catacombs and it would be released in December 2017. The esports events at BlizzCon 2017 included

2511-720: The Blizzard games, and a performance including the Wrath of the Lich King music. In an attempt to reduce frustrations linked to lack of ticket availability for previous BlizzCons, there were four halls (increased from three) of space available. Blizzard implemented a new system designed to make buying tickets easier. The new system implemented an online queue, effectively creating an organized online "line" for anyone who wants to purchase tickets, an improvement on 2008's chaotic sale of tickets. As in 2008, DirecTV carried both days of BlizzCon 2009 as

Overwatch World Cup - Misplaced Pages Continue

2592-601: The Final as a result. In certain tournaments, the byes are somewhat disguised. When more teams are given first-round byes than actually compete in the first round, these first games may be referred to as "play-in" games and might not be a formally labelled as a tournament round. From 2012 to 2019 and 2021, the Major League Baseball playoffs has included ten teams consisting of six division winners and four wild card teams (the top-ranked non-division-winners). The first round of

2673-498: The Lich King , was officially announced and it was available to play. Comedian Jay Mohr entertained at the closing ceremony followed by Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain (who changed their name to reflect the new level cap in The Burning Crusade ) alongside Video Games Live performing at the closing concert. In the opening ceremonies, Blizzard president Michael Morhaime revealed the third playable class for Diablo III :

2754-682: The Portal Pass was added as an additional ticket option; effectively replacing the Benefit Dinner option with BlizzCon 2023. It is considered an upgrade over the General Admission ticket as it added several additional benefits. It cost $ 550 for BlizzCon 2019. This price was increased by $ 229 to $ 799 with BlizzCon 2023. It granted additional access to: BlizzCon is typically held every year. However, it has been cancelled five times in 2006, 2012, 2020, 2022 and 2024. Attendees were able to try one of

2835-943: The Storm , and Overwatch . The first BlizzCon was held in October 2005, and since then, all of the conventions have been held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California , in the same metropolitan area as Blizzard's headquarters in Irvine . The convention features game-related announcements, previews of upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games and content, Q&A sessions and panels, costume contests, and playable versions of various Blizzard games. The Closing Ceremony has featured concerts by The Offspring , Tenacious D , Foo Fighters , Ozzy Osbourne , Blink-182 , Metallica , Linkin Park , "Weird Al" Yankovic , and Muse . Blizzard also hosted

2916-747: The Storm , cosmetic wings & pets for Diablo III , skins for Overwatch , and portraits, unit skins & console skins for Starcraft: Remastered & Starcraft II . Starting with BlizzCon 2009, the BlizzCon Benefit Dinner, sometimes called the VIPs Dinner, was introduced as an additional ticket option. The dinner benefits the Children's Hospital Orange County (CHOC) Children's Foundation with all net proceeds going to them. Guests can meet and chat with game developers, artists, executives and other folks from Blizzard Entertainment. The tickets included

2997-545: The Wizard, as well as the major announcement that Starcraft II would be separated into three games. Playable versions of Diablo III , StarCraft II , and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King were available to test during the convention. As well, there were tournaments and competitions for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, World of Warcraft miniatures game, StarCraft , StarCraft II , Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne , and World of Warcraft arena. The Zerg race

3078-506: The closing concert with Dave Grohl . Recordings of the event were released for free as part of the Live Music Archive . The opening ceremony showcased a new Diablo III cinematic trailer titled "The Black Soulstone", a StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm reveal trailer showcasing new units and abilities, a " Blizzard DOTA " trailer for a new game made from StarCraft II and the reveal of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria ,

3159-415: The closing concert. A pre-release version of StarCraft II was available for play (the game would be released as StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty only in 2010), as single player or 2v2 as Terran or Protoss. Much of the game was revealed and explained as well as Q&A with attendees. The Zerg race was, however, not unveiled at that time. The second expansion to World of Warcraft , titled Wrath of

3240-586: The closing concert. The fifth playable Diablo III class was revealed to be the Demon Hunter and the StarCraft II modification called "Blizzard DotA" was presented, which later evolved into Heroes of the Storm . Diablo III , StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm were playable. Similar to 2009, BlizzCon 2010 was available live via an online broadcast on the "BlizzCon Virtual Ticket". The Virtual Ticket provided four live feeds from

3321-513: The competition expanding to an odd number of teams from the 2023 NRL season , one club is required to have a bye each round. During the representative period of the season (such as the State of Origin ), multiple byes are scheduled to the clubs that are expected to have the most players involved in the representative match, in the round preceding the representative fixture, to allow those clubs to sufficiently rest those players and prevent them from fielding

Overwatch World Cup - Misplaced Pages Continue

3402-671: The competition. Blizzard announced the 2017 World Cup participants in April. The 2017 World Cup experienced an issue with several players on the Chinese team being denied visas to enter the United States for the final round, causing four players on the team to be replaced by substitutes. The 2016 format had four qualifying tournaments to thin the field for the final tournament, while the 2017 and 2018 formats used an average skill rating of each country's top players to determine which countries qualified for

3483-435: The convention featuring exclusive interviews and commentary, main stage presentations including the opening ceremony and tournament coverage with team highlights. All purchasers received an exclusive "Grunty the Murloc Marine" World of Warcraft in-game pet. The third expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was announced. Diablo III , StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty were available to play. Ozzy Osbourne performed for

3564-514: The convention floor, offering 50+ hours of HD BlizzCon programming. DirecTV again offered both days of BlizzCon 2010 as a PPV event (US$ 39.95 for both days) for ten hours per day in both standard and high definition. Korean pro-gamer MVP_Genius won the StarCraft II BlizzCon Invitational The vinyl record Revolution Overdrive: Songs of Liberty was released for the event. Tenacious D ( Jack Black / Kyle Gass ) played for

3645-495: The creation of an official esports league for Overwatch . Diablo III also had two big announcements: it would be getting a remake of Diablo called The Darkening of Tristram which would reoccur every January and the necromancer class would be added in a DLC pack called Rise of the Necromancer. The gaming events at BlizzCon 2016 included the 2016 StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Finals won by Byun "ByuN" Hyun Woo,

3726-499: The dinner, a signed print of Blizzard artwork and a BlizzCon ticket. In later BlizzCons, reserved seating for the Opening Ceremony and Community Night on the first day of the show were added as additional benefits. These tickets usually had their own sale date separate from the main ticket. The price for these tickets were: The Benefit Dinner was neither offered nor returned as part of BlizzCon 2023. Beginning with BlizzCon 2019,

3807-452: The division winners. The FA Cup also has certain teams compete in up to 6 preliminary rounds to qualify for the first round "proper". Another example is the NCAA basketball tournament , which since 2011 has had 68 teams, effectively granting 60 byes, while eight teams compete in the "First Four" games for remaining four spots in the round of 64. From 2011 to 2015, the "First Four" was considered

3888-399: The event. Hearthstone was won by Sebastian "Ostkaka" Engwall and Heroes of the Storm was won by team Cloud 9 again. The 2015 StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Finals was won by Kim "sOs" Yoo-jin beating last year's winner Lee "Life" Seung Hyun and becoming the first two-time StarCraft II World Championship Series world champion. The World of Warcraft arena team championship

3969-410: The final "Super Six". In each of these nine sextets, each team competes during four of six "rotations" with the other two as byes – scheduled before the uneven bars and the floor exercise. For example, Semifinal II of the 2018 championships operated as follows In a Swiss-system tournament with an odd number of players, one player gets a bye in each round, but not all players will get

4050-634: The finals to be held at Gamescom 2016 from August 20–21. Turner Broadcasting 's ELeague announced the first Overwatch Open tournament, starting in July 2016, with a total prize pool of $ 300,000, with plans to broadcast the finals on Turner's cable channel TBS in September 2016. In August 2016, Blizzard announced their own Overwatch international tournament, allowing users to vote for teams to represent their nation or region. Over 3 million votes to decide national teams were cast. The inaugural Overwatch World Cup

4131-405: The first round; the round of 64, played on Thursday and Friday, was called the "second round"; the round of 32 was then called the "third round", consisting of games played on Saturday and Sunday. In 2016, the naming reverted to the round of 64 being the "first round" once again, and the round of 32 being the "second round", though the play-in round and all eight of those teams are officially part of

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4212-424: The game for a long time. Bryant Francis writing for Gamasutra noted the speed and short match times of Overwatch make the game highly favorable for viewership, further supporting the title as an esports. Overwatch ' s progression into esports was described by Rolling Stone as a "strategy [that] involved carefully rolling out the game in steps – first a closed beta, then open beta, then full release, then

4293-410: The group stages. The Group Stages took place on November 1, 2019. The ten countries competing in the group stages were split evenly into two round-robin style groups. The top three countries from each group advanced to the knockout stage on November 2, with the top-ranked country from each group receiving a bye to the semifinals. The four other countries that advanced from the group stage would play in

4374-441: The highest number counts as a bye." Similar to the round-robin context, in league sports with weekly regular-season play such as gridiron football or rugby , a team not scheduled to play on a given week or fixture (competition period) can be said to be on its "bye week". Byes are necessary if there is an odd number of teams, but may also be used with an even number of teams, for example to provide rest breaks, as has been done in

4455-406: The ladder. This is different from a double elimination format, in which a team has to lose both in the tournament and the repechage to be eliminated. The A-League Men also had bye rounds in the 2019-20 season and the 2024-25 season due to an odd amount of teams being in the competition after expanding the amount of teams in the league. The top two placed regular season teams earn a bye into

4536-422: The league's top two seeds, while the next two seeds got first-round byes for their playoffs . In NCAA Division I basketball, the 2009 Big East men's basketball tournament introduced "double byes", as the conference invited all 16 members to participate for the first time (previously only the top twelve were invited). To limit the number of games each round to four, the four highest seeded teams were advanced to

4617-490: The most recent one was won by Saudi Arabia . According to former lead game director Jeff Kaplan , Overwatch was not developed with any dedication towards esports . Dan Szymborski of ESPN stated that Overwatch was poised as the next big esport for having a sufficiently different look and playstyle from established esports games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty , enough variety in maps and characters, and strong support from Blizzard to maintain

4698-628: The official Overwatch World Cup team page. Prior to the third edition of the event, Disney and Blizzard Entertainment announced a multi-year deal for coverage of Overwatch esports. Source: OWWC An MVP award for the Final Round of the OWWC had been awarded since the inaugural tournament in 2016 . BlizzCon BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including Warcraft , StarCraft , Diablo , Hearthstone , Heroes of

4779-410: The other two played each other in the quarter-finals without playing a game in the preliminary round. Six teams contested the 2012 Munster Senior Football Championship , so two teams ( Clare and Cork ) were permitted to advance to the semi-finals without playing a game in the quarter-finals. Nine teams contested the 2012 Ulster Senior Football Championship , so only Cavan and Donegal played in

4860-468: The playoffs consists two wild-card games : single-game matches in which the four wild-card teams are reduced to two. The winners move on to the Divisional series with the six division winners for an eight-team, three-round tournament. Although this is billed as adding two extra "one-game showdowns" to the post-season, it could also be viewed as adding a fourth round to the ten-team tournament with six byes for

4941-399: The preliminary round, while the other seven advanced via bye to the quarter-finals without playing a game in the preliminary round. While less common, byes can be offered for multiple rounds (e.g. a "double bye" directly into the third round), or starting in a later round (e.g. the top-ranked team in the first round is given a bye straight to the third round). A bye granted in a later round of

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5022-411: The previous World Cups. Any country wishing to participate was eligible to play in the preliminary rounds, a single-elimination , seeded bracket. The top five countries based on their national ranking were not required to play in the preliminary rounds and received a bye to the group stages. The seeding was based on the national rankings, and the top five countries from the preliminary rounds advanced to

5103-451: The prices have changed drastically as its scope and number attendees have grown with it. Each general admission ticket includes a goody bag that has contained items such as beta keys for upcoming Blizzard games, exclusive Blizzard paraphernalia and in-game prizes. The in-game prizes have ranged from pets, transmog & mounts in World of Warcraft & Heroes of the Storm , exclusive card backs for Hearthstone , heroes for Heroes of

5184-616: The quarterfinals. The winners of the finals would be awarded a gold medal, while the losers would be awarded silver. The two teams that lost in their respective semifinals match would play each other for the bronze medal. The World Cup was broadcast through live stream channels via the Twitch platform. Official live stream broadcast channels were provided in English , Chinese , Korean , French , Russian , German , Japanese , and Thai . Other languages were broadcast through community–run channels on

5265-486: The semi finals of the A League Finals . In a variation of the round-robin case, at certain high-level competitions in artistic gymnastics , teams cycle through the apparatuses in an "Olympic Order" with scheduled byes in between. As an example, the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships has 36 teams with six teams apiece at six regional sites, with 12 advancing to two semifinal rounds of six that decide participants for

5346-660: The third round of competition, the 5th-8th seeded teams given byes to the second round, and the bottom eight competed the first day. Due to the realignment of major conferences , "double byes" were no longer needed by the Big East after 2013, but were added by the Southeastern Conference in 2013 , the Atlantic Coast and Atlantic 10 conferences in 2014, the Big Ten in 2015 , and after another round of conference realignment ,

5427-469: The ticketing service Universe. A third round of tickets were sold on July 5 due to the convention center adding a new hall. On September 13, 2017, Virtual Tickets began being sold; this ticket included a faction-specific flying mount in World of Warcraft, and other special items in the various Blizzard games. Blizzcon 2017 had a record number of more than 35,000 attendees due to a recently completed expansion of

5508-653: The time was a completely separate league, but later became the American Football Conference ) also had an odd number of teams in 1966 and 1967 following the addition of the Miami Dolphins , leaving each team with two bye weeks. The NFL returned to the use of the bye week in 1990 so as to extend the 16-game regular season schedule to span 17 weeks to increase the number of viewable games for television contracts. The 1993 season spanned 18 weeks with each team having 2 bye weeks; it went back to 17 weeks with

5589-643: The tournament eliminates the need for two byes in the previous round. In the English FA Cup , the football clubs in the top two league divisions receive two-round byes and enter in the third round "proper" (of eight); the two next-highest divisions' teams will have entered in the first round. Another example is the UEFA Europa League , where teams from the highest-ranked nations enter the group stage directly without having to go through qualification. The WNBA , from 2016 to 2021, had granted double byes to

5670-408: The tournament. Certain professional rugby and gridiron football leagues use the term "bye week" for any week during the regular season in which a team does not play a game. (School teams may also have non-competing weeks, but these are scheduled by individual schools/conferences and more commonly termed "open dates" or "idle weeks".) Each NFL team has one "bye week" during a normal season; this

5751-431: The tournament. Qualified teams were divided into round-robin style groups – 4 groups in 2016, 8 in 2017, and 4 in 2018. In every year, teams that made it past the group stages moved on a single-elimination playoff bracket. The 2019 World Cup took place across three stages: preliminary rounds, group stages, and playoffs. A country's national ranking was determined by a point-ranking system based on final placements in

5832-539: The two new playable races, the Blood Elves, for upcoming expansion based in Outland which was released as World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade in 2007. Playable demos of the single and multiplayer modes of the since canceled Starcraft: Ghost were available. A songwriting competition was judged by Jonathan Davis of Korn . Level 60 Elite Tauren Chieftain, comedian Christian Finnegan , and The Offspring performed at

5913-581: The weekend after the September 11 attacks . The league returned to having an even number of teams (32) in 2002 with the addition of the Houston Texans , and implemented the current bye week system. In the rare case of a game postponement that cannot be made up within the same week, the NFL may revise bye weeks assignments in order to reschedule the delayed game, making the postponement week those teams' new "bye week": The media may also sarcastically refer to

5994-405: The winner moving on to the next round until only one champion remains. However, if the number of teams is not a power of two, a simple elimination tournament would eventually produce a round with an odd number of teams (if the number is not odd to start with). For example, a tournament of nine teams could only have four matches in the first round, while a simple tournament of ten teams would produce

6075-549: Was given two byes. In both leagues, and under many other professional and amateur sports leagues in Australia, higher placed teams do not earn byes during finals , but instead the opportunity not to be eliminated by losing their first-round match (also called a double chance). This practice is common in Australia, but it is not used in most other countries, to earn an easier passage to the Grand Final as reward for finishing higher on

6156-447: Was now playable in the StarCraft II demos. BlizzCon 2008 was broadcast live on both days as a PPV event on DirecTV for US viewers only, for eight hours per day in high definition. Official Blizzard fansite WoW Radio broadcast live audio via SHOUTcast . For the closing ceremonies on Saturday, comedians Kyle Kinane and Patton Oswalt performed. The closing concert was performed by Video Games Live, playing arrangements from all of

6237-530: Was officially announced and a trailer was shown. The Warcraft film concept art was shown. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls was announced to be released on PC, Xbox One and PS4 . The gaming events included the finals of the 2013 StarCraft II World Championship Series as well as the Hearthstone Innkeeper's Invitational, a Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft tournament featuring a handful of prominent Twitch streamers. The StarCraft II competition

6318-632: Was watched by 100,000 people at BlizzCon 2016 . The South Korean team won the tournament, defeating the Russian team 4–0 in the final round. In March 2017, Blizzard announced Overwatch World Cup 2017 . The selection of national teams for the 2017 World Cup was different from 2016 in that participating nations were required to vote for an Overwatch World Cup National Committee. The National Committees were based upon nominations chosen by Blizzard; according to Blizzard, "analysts, coaches, statisticians, and other authorities" recommended rosters for all stages of

6399-483: Was won by Kim "sOs" Yoo-jin , World of Warcraft arena was won by team Skill-Capped and Hearthstone was won by Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski . The closing concert was performed by Blink-182 . The tickets went on sale May 7 and 10, 2014. For 2014, tickets were sold via Eventbrite instead of the Blizzard Store. Blizzard once again sold a Virtual Ticket for live online streaming of all of the events. Overwatch ,

6480-499: Was won by SK Gaming. The closing concert was performed by Linkin Park . BlizzCon 2016, also known as BlizzCon X, was the tenth BlizzCon event. Its tickets were sold on April 20 and 23 using the ticketing service Universe. Blizzard offered a Virtual Ticket for live online streaming of all of the esports events and major panels, remaining at the $ 39.99 price. Other panels and interviews in smaller rooms were not included for streaming. In September 2016, Blizzard Entertainment released

6561-484: Was won by team Bleached Bones. Hearthstone was won by James "Firebat" Kostesich and first official tournament in Heroes of the Storm was held at the event that was won by team Cloud 9. The closing ceremony concert was opened by Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftains (changed their name during the show to Elite Tauren Chieftains) and closed by Metallica . The tickets went on sale on April 15 and 18 using Eventbrite, and were sold out nearly instantly. Blizzard once again sold

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