After seven weeks of build up, the Guild Wars 2 ESL Pro League Final arrives tomorrow. The stage is set for Ranky Fifty Five Dragons, The Abjured, Vermillion (GO TEAM!) and Team PZ to duke it out for a whopping $100,000 prize pool. Think of all the Gem store items you could buy with that haul! 

Available to watch on the official Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel on Saturday, February 20 at 8:00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-8), players, fans and everyone in-between will be able to see the conclusion of the inaugural season. You'll also be able to watch the broadcast in Chinese, French, German, and Spanish. I think that's pretty amazing. 

If you want to learn more about the teams, you can visit their page here and if you've never watched a Guild Wars 2 "professional" match I'd highly recommend you tune in. They're nervy, exiting and brilliant to watch. On that note, I also managed to steal a few minutes of Joshua Davis' time. As the Competitive Brand Manager for Guild Wars 2 he's a busy man but was kind enough to spare a few moments. Here's how we got on. 

The Abjured are Guild Wars 2's reigning champions. 

Ten Ton Hammer: Why do you think that such a large prize pool is important for Guild Wars 2’s competitive scene?  

Josh: Our prize pool is at a level that is right for where we are at in the growth of our competitive scene. Our first tournaments were entirely community-run, from that they grew into the Go4 Cups, then the World Tournament Series in China, Boston, and Cologne. Now that we’re on the verge of our first ever season finals for Pro League with ESL and the prize pool is where it needs to be given the interest and participation in the Guild Wars 2 competitive scene professionally and from what we’re seeing within the game itself.

Ten Ton Hammer: Rank Fifty Five Dragons and Vermillion fighting off Team Orange Logo and The Civilized Gentlemen might come as a surprise to some but it’s also good for the competitive scene. Why do you think these two, relatively unknown teams (compared to The Adjured, OL and Civilised Gentlemen), have found success? 

Josh: It all comes down to adaption, execution, and team stability.  55 Dragons has been a team that has always been competitive in the European Guild Wars 2 competitive scene, and three of their members used to be part of The Civilized Gentlemen and played during the last WTS event in Cologne at gamescom this past August.  Now, as Rank Fifty Five Dragons, they’ve dominated the EU Pro Leagues this season with an amazing 7-0 performance only dropping two games, one against the “new” Civilized Gentlemen (TCG) and the other against Vermillion. Their ability to work so well as a team and their amazing rotations really set them apart from the other teams this season. Vermillion was a strong team that I knew a little bit about going into the first season of pro leauges, but I didn't expect to see them to perform as amazingly well as they did.  On paper, their roster was strong and their team composition was pretty standard, but their execution is what set them apart from the rest.  Their execution during the bunker meta (for example, only letting other teams score an average of 200ish points a game) is unheard of.  However, that is behind us now, so they will need to test their adaption and execution skills at learning some new classes and new team compositions for the finals on Saturday.

Ten Ton Hammer: Despite its popularity amongst existing fans of Guild Wars 2’s structured PvP, competitive Guild Wars 2 is somewhat niche. How are ArenaNet attempting to encourage more of its player base ­ and players from other games ­ to tune in?  

Josh: PvP is the fastest growing part of Guild Wars 2. We’ve seen high levels of engagement since Heart of Thorns released, and since we introduced the in-game leagues in December. ArenaNet is known for iterative development, and we are committed to making it the best possible for our community. Not many MMOs have been as ambitious as we are with what we’re trying to accomplish on this scene.

Ten Ton Hammer: The last balance patch made significant changes to various professions, builds and amulets. Has watching competitive teams get to grips with them uncovered any potential issues or improvements you’d like to make?

Josh: Overall we want to make PvP in Guild Wars 2 enjoyable to play while maintaining it's competitive nature.  We saw the bunker meta play out this season and really wanted to shake things up with a more damage-orientated meta and make the downed state really mean something.  In the last meta, being "downed" was as much of a risk as we would have liked it to be, so we’ve made some changes to bring back the mind set of risk/reward for reviving or stomping a downed player.  As we move forward we will continue to watch and groom the Guild Wars 2 competitive scene to maintain the goal of keeping it fun, competitive, and entertaining to watch.

Ten Ton Hammer: Finally, how do you think PvP Leagues nurture the growth of new structured PvP teams and those who aspire to be truly competitive? Is there more you want to achieve in this area?

Josh: Our in-game PvP League system offers a clear path for amateur PvP teams to progress and grow and eventually take on our most competitive teams. For example, teams who rise to the top of the Guild Challenger Leaderboard system at the end of a season can face-off in a cup against the lower-ranked teams in Pro League for a chance to take their spot in the regular Pro League system. One fan favorite team, Orange Logo, is at risk of not making it to the Pro League in Season Two for exactly this reason. We love Orange Logo, and we want to see them compete, but having a system like this in Guild Wars 2 is what’s going to keep the scene fresh, evolving, and fun for the whole community.

Ten Ton Hammer would like to thank Joshua Davis and Elizabeth Stewart for taking the time out to answer our questions (and organize the discussion!) during a very busy period! Be sure to tune in to the Guild Wars 2 ESL Pro League Final tomorrow!