1up posted an article yesterday titled “How Pro Gaming Will Change World of Warcraft” that, frankly, I find pretty ridiculous:

On March 18, both Team Pandemic and CheckSix announced they each had signed deals to sponsor a WoW Arena team. They sponsors plucked the top two teams from the Bloodlust Battlegroup. “Bloodlust is home to many competitive PvP guilds both from past games and WoW itself (Nurfed, Vicious Cycle, Eminence, etc.),” said Joseph Romano, the leader of Power Trip. “It [the sponsorship] is only going to attract more teams to come to the cluster.”

The article raises a couple of interesting points about the differences between sponsoring a WoW team vs. other games, but overall the potential impact of sponsored Arena teams seems way over played to me. Also, you’ve got to chuckle at the ridiculousness of gems like this:

Ladies and gentlemen, WoW is no longer just a game or a social phenomenon — WoW is serious business.

So, the biggest MMO in history didn’t amount to anything until a couple of low-rent e-sports outfits decided to get involved? I have a feeling that Blizzard, who’s raking in $15 a month from 8.5 million people regardless of what Team Pandemic or CheckSix do, would beg to differ.