The $100,000 Forever Open: what's confirmed, and what players are worried about

The Orgrimmar map from the WoW Forever client

2026-10-09 · ForeverDB

The "$100,000 tournament" is The Forever Open, a community-run level 30 Horde duel tournament on the WoW Forever beta on October 17 and 18. It isn't a Blizzard event. Here is what the organisers and Blizzard have said, what the press reported about streamers and gold, and the concerns players are raising.

The "$100,000 tournament" people are talking about is The Forever Open, an open-registration dueling tournament on the World of Warcraft: Forever beta. Tips Out announced it on X on September 27 with a $50,000 prize pool, and it is streamed on Esfand's and Xaryu's Twitch channels. A day later TimTheTatman added another $50,000. It is a community event, not a Blizzard one. Since then it has been pulled into the beta's gold-buying row, and some players now want it stopped. This article separates what the organisers and Blizzard have said, what the press has reported, and what players claim.

Live scoreboard: on October 17 and 18, follow the bracket with each player's class, the race for each class's $5,555 and both streams with their chat on ForeverDB's Forever Open scoreboard.

What the organisers say

Everything in this section comes from the tournament's official rules and the copy on Raider.IO, as we read them on October 9.

Prize pool: $100,000. $50,000 goes to the champion. The rest is split evenly between the best player of each class: $5,555 for each of the nine classes. For the champion's own class, that class's share goes to the second-best player of the class.
Who paid for the increase: Esfand thanked TimTheTatman on X on September 28 for doubling the prize pool to $100,000. Icy Veins reported the same. The rules don't name any other sponsor.
Who can play: a brand new Horde character on the beta's PvP ruleset, with the last name Foreverpvp, at level 30, with a 15 gold entry fee.
Registration is closed. It closed on October 2 at 10:00 a.m. PT, two days earlier than first planned. Icy Veins quotes Tips Out saying they had "4,000 registrations" and had reached the limit of what their staff could manage in the qualifiers.
Dates: qualifiers on October 17, finals on October 18, where the top four of each class play best-of-3 and best-of-5 duel series.
Not a Blizzard event. The rules say so themselves: "World of Warcraft Dueling is not an officially supported Blizzard esport."

What the rules say about gold

The official rules document lists "gold-buying during the course of the tournament" among the forms of cheating, next to account sharing, match-fixing and stream-sniping. Penalties for cheating can include losing the match, disqualification, losing the prize money and a ban from future events. The document doesn't say whether "the course of the tournament" includes the levelling stage (September 27 to October 17), and it says nothing about gold gifted by viewers or how gold would be checked. The copy on Raider.IO doesn't have the gold-buying words at all. Seramate reported on October 1 that a rules update had made gold buying "Explicitly banned".

A few other rules matter to the gold argument. Legacy points are allowed. Only a class's own buffs count, and world buffs and quest buffs are banned. Players must show their bags, talents and character panel on stream when inspected. The organisers can change the rules at any time.

What Blizzard has said

Blizzard has not posted about the tournament itself. We searched the US and EU forums and Blizzard's tracker of staff posts up to October 9 and found nothing on it. What Blizzard has said is about real-money trading (RMT) in general. On September 28 community manager Kaivax posted the same statement on both forums, on the EU side in a thread called "The $50k Duel Tournament" (its old address no longer loads; the same post is now in Perma Bans For Gold Buyers!). It ends:

We’re once again asking all players to be very cautious when it comes to accepting gifts from strangers or other one-sided transactions. If it becomes apparent that a recipient knew or should-have-known that gold wasn’t from a legitimate source, they may be subject to account actions as well. Kaivax, Blizzard community manager

On October 1 he followed up in Actions Taken Against Botting and RMT. Blizzard said it had been acting against botters and against accounts that bought or knowingly received illicit gold, and that a warning will appear when you trade with strangers:

Our stance on RMT in World of Warcraft is crystal clear: any account belonging to any player that is found to have participated in generating, selling, buying, or receiving illicit gold is subject to the gold being removed, account suspensions, or permanent account closures. Kaivax, Community Manager

Blizzard has named no player in any of these posts. Our full write-ups of the policy are Gold buying in WoW Forever and the crackdown's follow-up.

What the press reported

Reported, not confirmed by Blizzard. The two reports below come from Dexerto and GameSpot, mostly from what the streamers said on their own streams. Blizzard has not named either player.

Ziqo. Dexerto reported on September 30 that clips showed Ziqo accepting 380 gold from a level one character, then 175 more from another, after remarking on stream that the gold couldn't have been earned naturally. It says Blizzard then wiped the gold from his mage, leaving him with nine silver, and that Ziqo confirmed Blizzard "did sweep up all my gold on that mage". According to Dexerto his account was not banned or suspended, and some players asked the organisers to bar him from the tournament.
Payo. GameSpot reported on October 2 that Payo said on stream "I never hid the fact I want my chat to use their credit cards to fill my bags", and that his account was banned a few days later. GameSpot says he apologised, said he had never bought gold himself, was allowed to make another account, and said "I learned from my mistake, and I will never ever promote gold buying again". GameSpot describes him as "looking to participate in the game's upcoming tournament".

Neither outlet reports a statement from Tips Out, Esfand or Xaryu, and we haven't found one on whether these players can still enter.

What players are worried about

Player reports and opinions, not Blizzard statements. Below is what players are saying on the official forums. Claims about named players are their claims; we cannot verify them, and the game files can't either.

Gifted gold as a head start. In Tourney or Streamer lottery? (October 1) a player argues that streamers taking gold from their viewers is "absolutely no different than a player going to a website and buying gold", and that organised groups and viewers farming for them leave ordinary entrants no real chance.
Real money, like GDKP. Threads such as GDKP is Banned, shouldn't a tournament for Real Money be as well? (September 29), Wouldn't a $50k dueling tournament (October 2) and, on the EU forums, Why are real money tournaments allowed? (September 30) argue that a cash prize pushes people to buy gold, the same reason they give for gold-bid raids being banned. That premise is theirs: we have no Blizzard post about GDKP rules in WoW Forever.
The entry fee. Tournament Gold Fee (September 30) asks who controls the gold from the 15 gold entry fees and whether it will be checked for RMT. The rules set the fee but don't say what happens to the gold.
Favouritism. Blizzard has made their stance on RMT very clear (September 29) says streamers get "a slap on the wrist and a finger-waggle". GameSpot also notes players saying Blizzard is still too lenient with streamers.
New claims about another streamer (October 7 and 8). Several player threads, among them Streamer warlock post wool cloth for 120g, claim that a third streamer accepted large amounts of gold on stream, sold cheap items on the auction house for far more than they're worth, and was let into the tournament after registration closed. These are forum claims only: we found no response from the streamer, the organisers or Blizzard and can't confirm any of it, so we aren't naming him.
Gatecrashing. Is there anything to stop players from gatecrashing this $50,000 tournament (September 29) worries that angry players will disrupt it, and threads like Attack on PvP Tournament openly suggest Alliance raids on it. The rules say a duel disrupted from outside is redone later in the round, and a competitor behind the interference is disqualified.
Horde lock. In $50k Horde duel tourney + I literally cannot make a Horde toon (September 25) a player says "the game said no because of faction imbalance" when they tried to make a Horde character for it.
Calls to stop it. Ban the tournament and This Tournament Needs To Be Shut Down (both October 8) ask Blizzard to halt it. Many replies disagree; one says "It’s just a beta, calm down, it ultimately has no impact on WoW: Forever so don’t let it impact you."

What it means for you

Nothing changes for launch. It's a community event on the beta. Blizzard hasn't announced any change to realms, rules or the November 4 launch because of it. Dexerto and GameSpot report that the beta runs until October 21, three days after the finals.
The gold rules are the same for everyone. Blizzard's posts don't make an exception for streamers or tournament players. Be careful with large gifts from strangers: by Blizzard's own words, a recipient who "knew or should-have-known" can be actioned too.
On the beta's PvP ruleset on October 17 and 18? The duels happen in the game world, at places the organisers pick, so you may come across them. The qualifiers and finals are streamed on Esfand's and Xaryu's channels.
Entered? Read the official rules: they can change at any time, and the organisers say it's your job to keep up. Our tournament guide covers the rules, and the consumables page helps you prepare.

What's confirmed and what isn't

Confirmed (organisers): the prize pool is $100,000, registration closed on October 2, the qualifiers and finals are on October 17 and 18, and the rules call it not an official Blizzard esport.
Confirmed (organisers): the official rules list gold buying "during the course of the tournament" as cheating. Not clear: whether that covers the levelling stage or gifted gold, and the Raider.IO copy leaves it out.
Confirmed (Blizzard): RMT is banned on the beta and at launch, and accounts that buy or knowingly receive illicit gold can lose the gold, be suspended or be closed.
Reported by the press, not confirmed by Blizzard: that gold was removed from Ziqo's mage, and that Payo's main account was banned. Both accounts rest on the streamers' own words as Dexerto and GameSpot report them.
Not confirmed: the forum claims about a third streamer, and that any player was let in after registration closed.
Not said by anyone official: that Blizzard will step in to stop, change or police the tournament.

Sources

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