THE WOW FOREVER COLLECTION · DISPATCH · RESEARCH CHECKED SEPTEMBER 29, 2026
Short answer: The Forever Open is a 1v1 dueling tournament on the WoW Forever beta, played by level 30 Horde characters on October 17 and 18, with a $100,000 prize pool. Tips Out organizes it, Esfand and Xaryu host it on Twitch, and anyone with beta access can enter. It launched on September 27 with $50,000. The next day TimTheTatman put in another $50,000. Sign-ups on Raider.IO close on October 4 at 11am PT (8pm CEST), and you need a brand new character with the surname "Foreverpvp" to take part.
It is not a Blizzard event. The rules say so themselves: "World of Warcraft Dueling is not an officially supported Blizzard esport."
The key facts
| Detail | The Forever Open |
|---|---|
| Name | The Forever Open (TFO) |
| Organizer | Tips Out, with partners Starforge Systems and RestedXP |
| Hosts | Esfand and Xaryu, on their Twitch channels |
| Dates | Qualifiers October 17, finals October 18 |
| Characters | New Horde characters on the PvP ruleset, level 30 |
| Prize pool | $100,000 (originally $50,000) |
| Sign-ups | Raider.IO, September 27 to October 4, 11am PT |
| Entry fee | 15 gold, paid at check-in |
| Finals format | Top four of each class, best-of-five duels |
The prize money
The prize pool started at $50,000. Tips Out announced the event on September 27 with "Prize Pool: $50k," and the rules on Raider.IO split it in two halves:
- $25,000 to the champion, who also gets the title "Death's Duelist."
- $25,000 shared by the nine classes, $2,777 per class. If two players of a class tie, their class money is split between them.
On September 28 Esfand posted: "MASSIVE THANK YOU TO @timthetatman for DOUBLING the Tournament prize pool to $100k!!!" As of September 29 the official rules page still shows the $50,000 split, and the organizers have not published a new one. If the doubled pool keeps the same shape, which is how ForeverChanges reports it, the champion takes $50,000 and the best player of each class takes $5,555. Treat those two numbers as likely rather than confirmed until Tips Out updates the rules.
Winners have to send the organizers an invoice before they get paid.
How to enter
- Get into the beta. The Raider.IO page says anyone with beta access can register. Access comes from the opt-in on the Forever website or from pre-purchasing the Skyborne Epic Pack or the Warcraft Forever Collection. Our beta guide covers both.
- Make a new Horde character on the PvP ruleset after 11am PT on September 27. Anything created before that is not eligible. The surname must be Foreverpvp. That is a hard requirement.
- Register on Raider.IO before October 4 at 11am PT. Late registrations are not accepted. Join the tournament Discord and the tournament guild as the sign-up steps tell you.
- Reach level 30 by October 17. See the next section, because right now you can't.
- Check in on the morning of October 17 through Raider.IO and pay the 15 gold entry fee.
- Send in your talent build at least 24 hours before each stage. You can use a different build in the qualifiers and the finals, but you can't change it once a stage starts.
- Stream your own duels on Twitch, YouTube or Kick, including any bag or talent inspection, and keep the VOD. No stream means you forfeit your matches and any prize money.
One catch on step 2. On the PvP ruleset an account can only have characters of one faction, as Icy Veins and others have reported. If your account already has Alliance characters on the beta's PvP ruleset, you can't make a Horde one there. You may need to delete them or use another account.
You can register more than one character during sign-ups, but you compete with one and can't swap once you check in.
The format
Qualifiers (October 17). Every checked-in level 30 player who paid the fee plays. The organizers have not published the qualifier format yet and have said it will be set closer to the event. The top four finishers of each class go through.
Finals (October 18). Those 36 players play best-of-five duel series. Raider.IO's event page gives 17:00 to 22:00 UTC as the competition window, but the rules page still lists start times as to be confirmed.
How a duel works, from the rules:
- Both players start 20 yards apart, and a referee counts down 10 seconds before you accept the duel.
- You get one to two minutes between duels to heal, buff and drink.
- More than three minutes offline in total and you are disqualified.
- Sixty seconds of inactivity in a duel earns a delay-of-game penalty. Running away or stalling on purpose can get you disqualified.
- Warlocks must check in with an admin before leaving to farm Soul Shards. They can leave once, and they can't touch other players, banks or vendors while they are gone.
What is allowed and what is banned
Allowed: every baseline class ability and your own class buffs, buffs from other players that last two minutes or more, Legacy points, and every consumable that is not on the banned list.
Banned:
- Magic Dust.
- Fire, Nature, Frost, Arcane, Holy and Shadow protection potions.
- Holiday buffs and treats, such as the Wickerman buff and Candy Corn.
- Buffs from other players shorter than two minutes.
Having a banned item in your bags during a match is grounds for disqualification, and referees can inspect your bags and talents before or during the event. Clear them out before check-in.
The level 30 problem
The tournament needs level 30 characters by October 17. The beta is still capped at level 20. Blizzard said at launch that the cap would rise to 30 "a couple of weeks" after September 17, and has not given a date. Some sites say mid-October, but we found no Blizzard post that says so. The beta itself ends on October 21.
If the cap goes up in the first days of October, entrants have around two weeks to level, gear and farm consumables. If it slips, the whole schedule gets tight, and the organizers have not said what they would do if it did. Watch our beta page for the cap change.
In the meantime you can get the character to 20 and set it up. The BiS lists cover every spec at the current cap, and the library books give every class a free neck.
The row over gold and Legacy
The tournament had been public for about a day when two forum threads took off. An EU thread titled "The $50k Duel Tournament" and a US thread called "Gold buying rules" (231 posts by September 29) made the same complaints:
- Gold showed up fast. Posters said streamers were traded large amounts of gold right after the announcement. One pointed to a streamer receiving more than 500 gold across two level 1 characters on stream, on a beta where the cap is 20.
- Legacy points are allowed. The EU thread argued that the Legacy system favours people who can level several characters and professions before October 17, which most players with jobs can't. The rules permit Legacy points.
Blizzard's community manager Kaivax answered in both threads on September 28:
Real money transactions (RMT) are not acceptable in World of Warcraft, and we're taking steps to address RMT in the WoW: Forever Beta, and of course, when WoW: Forever goes live and beyond. It's important to know that while we have always actioned RMT seller's accounts as quickly as possible, we will increasingly take action against buyers' accounts.
He added that players should be "very cautious" about accepting gifts from strangers, and that recipients who "knew or should-have-known" gold was not legitimate could face account action too. The post is about gold buying in general. Blizzard has not said anything about the tournament itself. It fits what Blizzard said at the September 17 Q&A, when it banned GDKP and warned gold buyers.
Who is behind it
Tips Out runs dueling events. It organized the Classic Duelers League and OTK's Hardcore Mak'gora in 2023, which the Raider.IO page says drew more than 2,500 players. Esfand and Xaryu hosted that one too. Registration is on Raider.IO, and Starforge Systems and RestedXP are listed as partners.
Before the official announcement, a post on X on September 24 previewed the event and said "there are already plans for a Level 60 tournament" if this one goes well. The organizers have not said so themselves, so file it under rumour.
Where to watch
The main broadcast is on Esfand's and Xaryu's Twitch channels on October 17 and 18. Every competitor has to stream their own view, so there will be plenty of co-streams, and our WoW Forever live page lists every Forever stream that is on at any moment. If you want to know which classes Forever buffed before picking one to duel with, start with the class tier list and the talent calculator.
Sources: Raider.IO, The Forever Open event hub, format and rules, regulations and code of conduct (read September 29); Tips Out on X, official announcement (September 27); Esfand on X, announcement (September 27) and prize pool doubled (September 28); ForeverChanges, duel tournament guide (updated September 29, source of the reported $50,000 and $5,555 split); ForeverDB, The Forever Open (September 27); Blizzard forums, The $50k Duel Tournament (EU) and Gold buying rules (US), including Kaivax's September 28 replies; Icy Veins, WoW Forever's PvP realms come with a major faction restriction; Hozitojones on X, tournament preview (September 24).