Wrath of the Who?
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 3rd 2009 at 2:30PM
I love this comic from the very talented miggy over at WoW Ladies, not only because it's funny, but because she's got a point. Back when the Battle for Mount Hyjal instance in the Caverns of Time appeared in game, we all wondered why we were going there in the first place -- unlike the other CoT instances, there were no dragons to fight or strange factions messing with the continuum. All that could happen in there is that we'd screw everything up and ruin time as we know it (and given all the wipes that went on in there, we probably did). But with the Argent Tournament, Blizzard seems to have gone even further: not only is there no clear reason for us to do it, but we're actually ignoring the threat at hand.As you know if you've read Sacco's excellent (and completely spoilerrific) guides to the Coliseum raid and the Tournament 5-man, there is a tacked-on reason we're doing all of this stuff, and it's that the Horde and Alliance want to send their strongest people to go after Arthas, and the Tournament is a way of sussing out who's most worthy. But though that makes for some great lore cutscenes, doesn't it still undermine Arthas' strength? How powerful can the guy be if there are so many people lining up to kill him we have to fight over it?
Don't get me wrong, we're definitely looking forward to the Coliseum, and it's definitely brought some interesting things and rewards to the game. Just like CoT, in the light of the lore and the MMO genre at large, it's a great addition. But it is funny that the great Lich King's main tactic seems to be to have us fight it out between ourselves way before we ever bother taking a shot at him.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Instances, Expansions, Raiding, Lore, Bosses, NPCs, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Laughtrey Jul 3rd 2009 2:37PM
There actually is a reason for the tournament. It's to send the 'strongest' of each faction up to icecrown with the Argent Crusade.
It's like attunement for fun. You don't have to do it, but it explains why you're even allowed to take it on.
kabshiel Jul 3rd 2009 3:13PM
I'm sorry, but this ranks right up there with Draenei for "lorelol". The benevolent, Light-following Argent Crusade decides the best way to fight the Lich King is by setting up a gladiator arena where only the strong will survive? It just doesn't make sense.
TheMediator Jul 3rd 2009 4:01PM
The guy who posted this article is one of those guys who acts like he knows about lore when he doesn't. We've already tried raiding icecrown before and now all our heroes were turned against us - if you did the quests and icecrown you'd know that. Now we have to train an army strong enough to resist the power of the Lich King's corruption, so that we aren't overwhelmed by his legions. While it might not seem like it, according to lore we're close to losing the war, and anymore failure hands the world over to the Scourge.
Karilyn Jul 3rd 2009 4:25PM
As far as I'm concerned, the tournament makes perfect sense.
Let me ask a question... "Why is the Lich King so dangerous?"
The answer is very simple... "Every soldier that dies, adds to his army"
It's a cascading effect. The Argent Crusade realized that they can't simply throw a massive army at the Lich King and hope to win, because every soldier that dies is recruited to Arthas's side.
Via the Tournament, they are filtering out the weak, so that we won't have weak people dying in the war and adding to the Lich King's armies in the process.
Siddaru Jul 3rd 2009 5:48PM
@ kabshiel
If you're killing enemies of the Lich King in the Argent Tournament, I think you're doing something wrong. The only people I've killed are Scourge, and even in the 3.2 dungeons there's only one fight to the death against a non-monster, and Tirion specifically says it's stupid and not what they're there to do.
The Tournament is a completely friendly competition devoted to bringing the various forces that oppose the Scourge together. It's not some kind of blood orgy to kill off the weak.
M Jul 3rd 2009 5:57PM
The Argent Tournament is really weak. It's a nice idea, and the PvE-style arena is awesome to have. But I was -really- hoping the secret raid instance in 3.2 was some continuation of Azjol-Nerub. I mean, we just wasted Yogg'Saron in 3.1, so in 3.2, we go and kill sme of the Nerubians he managed to corrupt to clean up his mess, and find and kill some of the scourged Nerubians as well, leading up to Arthas.
THAT would have been good lore.
This tournament? Meh. I'll go cause the gear will be good and it's something to do. But it's completely underwhelming.
agnoster Jul 3rd 2009 7:18PM
I'm a recent convert to the tourney - at first, I felt much like some of the nay-sayers here. But after a tiny bit of research, there are actually many good reasons for the tournament. I will only list the three that I think are most relevant:
1) The reason stated above, namely that throwing masses of untested/weak soldiers at the Lich King makes him more powerful, because everyone who falls returns to fight for the Scourge. Winnowing out those who are likely to bolster the Lich King's ranks is of pressing military interest.
2) Training, not only to fight well (let's be honest, we won't be jousting with Arthas) but to fight for the Argent Crusade. Yes, there are plenty of Argent Crusade quest hubs, but a prestigious tournament is a recruitment strategy *and* a way to get people to pledge their strength for the Argent Crusade. Remember, most WoW players are effectively mercenaries - we don't belong to the standing forces of any army. The Argent Crusade is trying to involve these soldiers of fortune directly.
3) Finally, and what I see as most importantly, the Argent Crusade has a vested interest in getting the Horde and Alliance to work side-by-side. They are giving their faction pride a non-lethal outlet (and don't forget, you champion a specific city against the others, not just Alliance vs. Horde, so competitors from other factions are no more "enemies" that champions of other cities - or indeed, of your home city). The spoilers from the 3.2 instances make it clear that the goal - whether successful or not - is actually to bring Horde and Alliance closer together.
So, to sum up, the goal of the Argent Tournament is to provide a high-profile recruitment tool to find and select the strongest soldiers with the lowest likelihood of becoming Scourge minions in battle, to enlist their aid to fight for the Argent Crusade against the Lich King, and to help the Alliance and Horde duke it out in a chivalrous way to make room for a concerted effort, without which any attempt to dethrone Arthas will likely fail.
(Incidentally, consider that much of this - apart from the zombie resurrection thing - is exactly why tournaments have existed historically. We tend to think of them as entertainment now because, well, we only see them in entertaining movies, but they served vital military and political purposes.)
Bottom line is, if your only response to the tourney is "lorelol", you need to do some thinkin' - and I suspect patch 3.2 may make some of this considerably clearer.
Clevins Jul 4th 2009 2:19PM
But it's not an attunement - you won't have to have Champion rank to fight Arthas. So that reason falls flat on its face. And... really? You need a massive colosseum in the middle of nowhere to figure out who's good? I'll figure it out for you - the guys who died? Not good. The guys who are alive? Good.
jbodar Jul 6th 2009 6:41AM
@Clevins
-- and the guys who just showed up to the party (a.k.a, Us) are???
Think of it this way: the Argent Crusade wants us to prove we aren't terribads (and gear up) before we wipe on the first trash pull in Icecrown Citadel. Make sense now? No, it's not an attunement per se, but it is the next step in progression.
atree496 Jul 3rd 2009 2:41PM
We are not powerful enough yet to fight him so they are training us to become stronger.
kabshiel Jul 3rd 2009 3:20PM
There's a difference between training and playing some twisted "only the strong survive" game. Somehow real life militaries are able to train their troops without handing their new recruits weapons and having them fight to the death.
Alanid Jul 3rd 2009 6:32PM
@Kabshiel they don't fight to the death
CyberKender Jul 3rd 2009 2:42PM
Divide and Conquer, a classic tactic. Why expend your energy and resources when you can let your enemies do it for you. That, at least, is smart on Arthas' part.
Laughtrey Jul 3rd 2009 2:44PM
Unless Arthas is behind the Argent Crusade/Tournament, it doesn't seem like he even has to do anything. The Horde and Alliance are doing it all for him.
You'd think they'd recall the burning legion attack, and realize that Arthas is much more powerful than that.
Itchy Jul 3rd 2009 2:52PM
It's not dividing people, it's bonding them in competition, and pushing them to out do each other.
Sindragosa Jul 3rd 2009 2:46PM
"We are not powerful enough yet to fight him so they are training us to become stronger."
And giving us gear.
Kaorael Jul 3rd 2009 2:54PM
I see the tournament rather as a try by the Argent Crusade to show the Horde and the Alliance that none of them is stronger than the other, and remind them that the true threat is elsewhere.
Telak Jul 3rd 2009 2:57PM
The Argent Crusade is all about preserving life. They don't want to send a bunch of Blue-wearing scrubs after the big bad when all they will do is die/get in the way. It a basic soldiering concept, You'd rather have a well trained soldier in the foxhole next to you then a couple dozen who couldn't get through Basic Training
kabshiel Jul 3rd 2009 3:14PM
So instead they kill them in their own arena. Nice.
Mynarc Jul 5th 2009 6:45PM
This is true, especially when your enemy can then raise the dead and send them right back at you.
The whole point of this tornament is to find the best of the best to become a small strike force to hit the heart of the icecrown and if it the all goes tits up the worse that happens is you have 10/25 ghouls sent back at you rather than a small army.