With the spirit of the Olympics, there’s no better time to take part in WoW TBC’s Spirit of Competition.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics has become a hot-button topic due to the CoViD-19 pandemic. At the same time, despite that snag, it’s become a hyped event that players all over the world are following. As for WoW Burning Crusade Classic players, they’re going to have an Olympics of their own, and it has a rather interesting history. The Alliance or Horde better start competing for the WoW TBC gold medal in this one.
What is WoW TBC Spirit of Competition
The rather fitting official name of Azeroth’s answer for the Olympics is Spirit of Competition. However, unlike the Greek-themed long-running tradition, there is only one competition in Azeroth’s biggest sports event: PVP Battlegrounds. The teams go along faction lines – Alliance and Horde – and will be fighting for prestige, bragging rights, and two rewards. First is the one-of-a-kind tabard that is very reminiscent of the Olympic rings, and the other is a medal that shares the name of the event.
When used, the item summons a dragon. Given how unique the method of getting this item is, it should be no surprise that it was rare and in demand. Thankfully, when they relaunch Spirit of Competition this year, the medal comes back as one of the WoW TBC Classic items along with it.
Read More: How to Make More Gold in WoW Classic TBC
The Dragon and The Olympics
Given WoW’s culture of players’ looks playing a huge role, it should be no surprise that the dragon mount is a more coveted prize. After all, it’s a status symbol on one’s WoW TBC Classic account. However, the dragon isn’t just an ordinary dragon, but a Chinese-inspired one. A rather thematic fit, considering that the original Spirit of Competition was launched back in 2008 with the Beijing Olympics as the inspiration. It’s been a long thirteen years since then, so it’s only fitting to give a few readers that were too young back then a lowdown about it.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics is known for many things. Among them, the Bird’s Nest, a colossal 91,000-seater stadium, often comes to mind. Apart from the giant construct, this particular Olympics is known for having some of the most decorated athletes not just in the history of the event, but also of their respective sports. There’s the legendary Usain Bolt, who became dubbed as the fastest man in the world, and Michael Phelps, his counterpart when it comes to swimming.
The Absence of the Spirit
Now, if you do the math, it should be obvious that the Olympics happens every 4 years. The Spirit of Competition, however, only happened in 2008, and Blizzard didn’t bother replicating the spirit of sportsmanship into Azeroth on both 2012 and 2016, which were respectively held in London and Sydney, Australia.
A grand prize, which would have likely been a WoW mount, inspired by these countries would have been cool and unique. A classical European dragon, perhaps? Or better yet, a kangaroo in 2016. Whatever their reasons may be for not handing out WoW TBC Classic gold medals during both seasons is a missed opportunity.
Thankfully, Blizzard managed to remember that Olympics season is upon us again this time. Then again, it’s hard not to keep it in mind when this year’s games, which should have been last year’s, are literally plagued with a lot of problems but still beautifully and impressively pushed through. If sports are about overcoming obstacles, odds, and limitations, then the Olympics happening in a time of pandemic is very much like a sport unto itself.
Inequality in Sports
Going back to Azeroth, it seems like a rather strange time to have the Spirit of Competition. This is because Battlegrounds is besieged with one big horde of a problem of its own. Pun intended because there has been an imbalance between Horde and Alliance players when it comes to PVP, with the former dominating the number of participants.
While it may seem like a good thing for one faction to be dominant, it also had a huge downside: matchmaking taking too much time to give Horde players an enemy. As a band-aid solution, Blizzard has allowed same-faction matchmaking. This means instead of Horde players waiting until they get paired with an Alliance opponent, they’ll be squaring against their fellow Horde mates.
As an added comedic effect to this problem, Blizzard also dresses up one Horde team with Alliance cardboard cutouts. If you think about it, this can be a tongue-in-cheek meta joke about how same-faction matchmaking is just a temporary fix.
Good thing Blizzard is already coming up with an equally short-term but more helpful solution: better rewards for Alliance players, and smaller teams, which in turn means shorter matchmaking times. Hopefully, these changes actually make the Spirit of Competition an enjoyable and meaningful event.
So, ready to be the champion in Azeroth’s biggest sporting event that only happens every time Blizzard remembers? You better be. Go get that medal, winner.
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