The WSVG Dallas Event opened on Thursday to rainy weather, tournament delays, upset on-site registrants turned away, general confusion and anxious teams waiting to play. An unexpected two hour crash of the World of Warcraft event servers added to the already daunting task of running a large tournament. Spectators and unlucky players alike were ushered from the venue at 6:00 PM sharp before many competitors had even played their first games of the tournament.

After falling so far behind in the early afternoon, event staff could understandably not risk the further distraction and congestion of spectators. The spectacular vendor area was to be closed at that time regardless, and the tournament had only advertised that it would run until 6. Still, fans lamented waiting for hours to see their favorite teams play just to be turned away in the minutes prior. Could this have been avoided, and what caused the delays?

One culprit may have been the many rules changes, adjustments and inconsistencies between the listed rules on the website and the actual practiced rules at the event. For instance, online registration for the WoW tournament ended on July 3rd, however the website advertises that on-site registration at the event could still occur. Several teams traveled to the event to find that they could not be worked into the event even though they had arrived on time prepared to play.

Another possible explanation for the Day 1 Delays could be the new rules for class and talent specialization changes during matches. Players must now have all potential character setups they intend to play prepared in advance of the event to allow for shorter downtimes between matches. While this will substantially help the flow of the event in days to come, teams who showed up late today were still preparing their characters past the 3:00 PM start time.

Furthermore, many changes were made to the actual game play of the game that raised concern for many players. Here's a quick breakdown:

Rare gems have been added for socketed equipment. Each character was only given 2-3 of each gem to prevent stacking of particular stats. However, crafty players can create multiple characters and trade preferable gems to the mainly played character.

Arena water has been added and given to all casters! This vastly changes the balance of class compositions in the 3v3 format and will no doubt effect the outcome of the tournament.

Many classes had flat out incorrect gear lists. Horde mages could not select the Caster version of the Sergeant's PvP Cloak. Only the melee version was available to them.

Deep Thunder, an amazing weapon for warriors, was finally added to the gear list of the tournament. Ironically, only enhancement specced shaman have been given the Master Hammersmith skill to make use of it.

Weapon Chains, a valuable off-hand weapon addition for Disarm-vulnerable Rogues, have also finally been added but again only the blacksmithing Shamans can craft and apply them.

Despite the confusion of the delays and tournament adjustments, players spent the downtime chatting about class compositions and considering the teams to beat. As the top teams become increasingly familiar faces at these events (all of the main contenders at Louisville have returned for Dallas), the growth of a community is clearly seen. When a top team plays, everyone gathers to watch even if it's a 3-0 blast through the early rounds of the bracket. And almost everyone can offer a chuckle or snicker when the MoB Godfather starts up a rant while watching his teams play. It's one of the few sounds at the event that can be heard over the epic rock of Guitar Hero 2.

Day Two will offer several high profile games unlike Day One's usual suspects performing as expected through the lower rounds. SK Gaming's team, unconventional and relatively new to the format, has a tough match early in the event against the Insurrection team that placed #2 at Louisville. This is a definitely a match to watch as it will give us our first real glimpse of competitive play between US and European teams.

TAO will be facing off against Pandemic and are expected to lose, though most are simply anxious to see if they can hang in there for a few rounds and compete at the highest level. The 519 and Team EG match up will also be entertaining, as some playful trash talk has started to float between the two concerning who's knocking who out of this tournament. 519 defeated Team EG in the lower bracket at Louisville to knock them out of that event.

Keep up with us for player interviews, galleries, scores and continued coverage as Day 2 unfolds.