Guild Wars 2: World vs World Season One starts in October, will run for seven weeks

Guild Wars 2 is is gearing up for changes to its World vs World content, and ArenaNet WvW coordinator Devon Carver has written a blog post explaining some of the changes such as the addition of matchups.

According to Carver, this is a brand new concept to the game and is similar to a sporting season in that players will be broken down by region.

The North American region will be divided into two leagues of 12 worlds each, and the European region into three leagues of nine worlds each.

"It's very much our focus for this season to be a success, but also to improve how World vs World has existed up until now and how it will continue to exist in some fashion or another after this season concludes."

The worlds in each league will compete with each other over the course of seven weeks for a number of prizes based on their performances in each matchup and over the course of the season.

Leagues will be determined by world rating at the conclusion of the matchups prior to the start of the season. Once the season begins, the leagues will be locked and there will be no movement into or out of a league.

"Each world will be matched up with each other world in their league at least once over the course of the season," he wrote. "First place in each matchup will gain the world five points, second place three points, and third place one point.

"At the conclusion of the season, the worlds will be ranked in order of the total number of points they’ve acquired and all players who have completed the season long meta-achievement will be given prizes based on that ranking."

The winning world in each league will unlock a stack of supply dolyak finishers for their use in WvW and PvP, while first place in the gold league will get a gold dolyak. First place in the silver league a silver dolyak, and first place in the bronze league a bronze dolyak.

"Every player will be rewarded with WvW account bonus chests based on the weekly results," Carver continued. "This will continue once the season is complete and be a permanent feature of WvW going forward. The rewards for each week will only be available during the following week’s matchup. If you don’t log in during a given week you will not receive the bonus chests for the previous week."

New season Achievements will also be WvW specific and can be unlocked while the season is running. Players who complete the WvW Season meta achievement will receive a new title as well as a key to unlock a WvW season chest.

"Players will be tied to the home world they have set when the season begins, so regardless of transfers, you will receive rewards based only on the world you started on," Carver explained.

"In terms of how frequently these seasons will occur, it will just depend on what makes the most sense for the community and for our general release plans."

"This world is set the first time a character on an account loads into the game after the start of the season. This means you will be able to transfer worlds prior to loading in the first time and still be eligible for the rewards of your new world."

All spent World Ability Points of all characters in the game will be refunded at the start of the season which will allow players to choose a particular play style for the season and load your characters the way they wish to play them with all the points already unlocked.

Players will also be able to track their themselves through the GW2 leaderboards site.

Carver said in a call earlier this week, that the team is focused on "getting all its ducks in a row," with this first season, and once it is over the team will evaluate how well it did and how AreanNet wants to continue using the WvW season as a way to change up the WvW action.

"It's very much our focus for this season to be a success, but also to improve how World vs World has existed up until now and how it will continue to exist in some fashion or another after this season concludes.

"We're certainly not going to look at it as a situation to where when the season ends, WvW is just kind of 'hanging out'. Our Goal right now is to introduce the season, and we will not be making any significant content upgrades or anything else to WvW while the season is running. So the two week content updates for the WvW part of the game will be held up until the end of this season.

"In terms of how frequently these seasons will occur, it will just depend on what makes the most sense for the community and for our general release plans."

World vs Wold Season One starts on October 4 and will run seven weeks through November 21.