The Forever Open Duel Tournament in WoW Forever

The Forever Open is over, and an Undead Warlock won it. Warlockguy, the 20th seed and a small streamer, came back from 0-1 in the grand final to beat fellow Warlock Neepzen 3-1 on October 18, taking the $50,000 champion's prize and the Death's Duelist title. The community tournament run by Tips Out, EsfandTV and Xaryu drew 1,380 players to the level 30 qualifiers on the WoW Forever beta, and the 36 best, four per class, fought a nine-hour finals day in Hyjal Crater, a zone Blizzard opened just for the event.

Below you will find the final standings and every class prize winner, how the grand final was won, how the qualifiers and finals worked, the duel rules and banned items, which classes came out on top compared with the predictions, and where to rewatch the duels.

Forever Open Results

Warlocks took the top two places, and two Shamans finished third and fourth. The table shows the four players who reached the last rounds of the finals bracket.

Half of the prize pool went to the best finisher of each class. Because the champion was a Warlock, the Warlock prize passed to Neepzen as the second-best Warlock, exactly as the rules said. All four Mages went out in the same lower bracket round, so the Mage prize was split four ways.

How the Forever Open Grand Final Was Won

Neepzen went through the upper bracket without losing a series and beat Warlockguy 2-1 in the upper final, a game Warlockguy lost after forgetting to make a Healthstone. Warlockguy dropped to the lower bracket, where he beat Cdewx 2-0 in the best-of-three lower final. Cdewx had already won four lower bracket series in a row, and in one of them two Windfury Weapon procs and a Stormstrike killed the Druid Minpojke almost instantly.

The grand final was a best-of-five with no bracket reset. Neepzen won the first duel, and Warlockguy then ran out of water. A request to trade him food and water was refused before game two, which he won anyway, and before game three the admins gave both finalists a stack each. Warlockguy took games two, three and four, the last one with a Fear followed by a Mithril Frag Bomb. Both finalists played the Demonology build with Soul Link, and both are on Twitch: Warlockguy and Neepzen.

The Forever Open at a Glance

The key facts about the tournament, from the hosts to the final result, fit in one table.

It was the second big community duel event from the same hosts, after the Hardcore Mak'gora tournament three years earlier. Warlockguy also won Tips Out's level 30 duel tournament back in 2019.

Forever Open Format and Schedule

The event ran in three stages, and only one character per player made it through all of them.

• Leveling (Sept 27 to Oct 17). Players created a brand-new Horde character on the PvP ruleset with the last name "Foreverpvp", registered it on Raider.IO, joined the guild and leveled to 30.
• Qualifiers (Oct 17). 1,380 players checked in at level 30 and paid a 15 gold entry fee. They were drawn into 48 pods, each pod played 6 Swiss rounds, and the top 4 of every class across all pods qualified. Players tied at the qualification line played a single-elimination playoff.
• Finals (Oct 18). The 36 qualifiers played one double-elimination bracket in Hyjal Crater. Upper bracket series were best-of-three, lower bracket series a single duel, the lower final best-of-three and the grand final best-of-five with no bracket reset. The winner was crowned Death's Duelist.

The finals ran far longer than planned. The first duel started at 10:31 a.m. Pacific time, the upper bracket finished around 4:30 p.m., and from about 5 p.m. the broadcast went split-screen with two duels at once to finish before midnight. Players in Europe were still dueling at 3 or 4 a.m. local time.

How a Duel Worked in the Forever Open

Admins ran every duel the same way, and most of the rules existed to stop stalling and cheap tricks.

• Duelists stood on the duel flag, walked 10 yards directly apart (20 yards total) and stopped. Only a stealthed character could move after that. No mounts.
• An admin counted down 10 seconds, then both accepted the duel.
• 1 minute maximum between duels to heal, buff and drink, with no waiting for cooldowns.
• In the finals, a duel that hit the 15-minute duel timer went to sudden death: a replay with only 3 food and 3 water per player for the rest of the series, and Goblin Sapper Charges allowed. When one sudden death also timed out, the players replayed it a second time with their armor taken off.
• Fleeing the duel area on purpose, or chain-fearing someone out of it, meant disqualification. In the finals a player standing out of bounds during the countdown lost the duel.
• Talents could not change once a player was summoned to the finals dueling area. Legacy points were allowed. Transmog had to be off.
• Every competitor streamed their own view on Twitch, YouTube or Kick and kept the VOD. Referees could inspect bags and talents on stream.
• In the finals, Warriors could start a duel with at most 20 Rage, and pets had to stay in the default follow position before the duel.

Banned Items in the Forever Open

All consumables were allowed unless listed below. A banned item in your bags during an inspection meant instant disqualification, so players left them in the bank. The finals rules added several items to the qualifier list.

Two more bans were announced on the morning of the finals: leather balls and items bought back from vendors. Green Tea Leaf appears as "Green Leaf Tea" in the finals rules.

Rule Changes Before and During the Tournament

The organizers tightened the rules several times after sign-ups began, mostly around openers and buffs, and made a few more calls on finals day.

• Buffs: only your own class's self-buffs; consumable buffs only if they don't come from another class. Non-Warlocks could not use a Warlock's Healthstone.
• Openers: rogues and druids always got an uncontested opener - the opponent stood still and didn't turn. Warriors got one too, except against a stealth class. Stealth vs. stealth: nobody did.
• What counted as an opener: your first offensive action - an ability, a racial like Blood Fury, an item or a trinket. A druid opening with a cast (Entangling Roots, Starfire) freed the opponent when the cast started.
• 25-second limit: waiting longer than that after your opponent turned hostile lost you the opener.
• Shamans: could start with up to four totems down, but not totems that would break an uncontested opener.
• Before the duel: no pre-HoTs, no Hunter pre-trapping, no Warlock pre-sacrifice. Power Word: Shield before the duel was fine, and Hunters were allowed to dismiss their pets.
• Gold buying: explicitly banned, after the real-money-trading controversy around the beta.
• Food and water in the grand final: first refused, then a stack given to both finalists before game three. It was the most debated call of the event, because the rule was made on the spot.

Forever Open Prize Pool

Half the pool went to the champion; the other half rewarded the best player of every class, so a strong player on a weaker class could still get paid.

If the champion was also the best of their class, that class's $5,555 went to the class's second-best finisher, which is how Neepzen received the Warlock prize. Ties within a class split the money evenly, as happened with the four Mages. Prize money is paid only after the organizers have reviewed the tournament VODs.

Which Classes Won the Forever Open

Warlock was the class of the tournament. Every Warlock finalist played Demonology with Soul Link, a Voidwalker soaking part of the damage while Fear and Curse of Tongues controlled the duel, and Warlocks finished first, second and seventh to eighth. Shamans were the other winners: Enhancement Shamans took third and fourth on Windfury Weapon and Stormstrike burst.

The table shows how many players of each class checked in for the qualifiers and how far each class got in the finals.

A few results stood out against the predictions made before the event.

• Discipline Priest was not the monster everyone expected. The consensus favourite before the tournament placed its best player, Nieze, only 9th to 12th, although Priests still won long sudden death duels.
• Warriors struggled, as predicted. All four had to play the first round, and only Bcw won it. Mag, a Protection Warrior, became the top Warrior.
• Undead dominated the race picks. 17 of the 36 finalists were Undead, mostly for Will of the Forsaken against fears, followed by 7 Orcs, 7 Trolls, 4 Tauren and a single Skyborne.
• Sodapoppin was the story of day one. He went 6-0 in the qualifiers as the top Druid, then lost to Neepzen in the upper bracket after pressing his dispel instead of a trinket, and went out in a lower bracket sudden death against Nieze.
• Mages had the worst day. All four finalists went out in the same lower bracket round. The Arcane Mage Teleporter, whom few had rated, still beat a Protection Warrior and took the top Paladin to a long game three.

Before the event, duelist Supatease ranked every spec after his own beta duels on October 6. It is kept here as a record of the pre-tournament view.

The finals were played on the October 15 beta build, after racials and many class talents had changed, and the level 30 cap makes these results a poor guide to level 60 PvP. Our WoW Forever tier list ranks every spec for level 60.

How to Rewatch the Forever Open

The full qualifier and finals broadcasts are saved as VODs on twitch.tv/esfandtv and twitch.tv/xaryu. Every competitor also streamed their own view, so you can watch a favourite player's duels from their side. Some lower bracket duels ran on a second screen during the split-screen part of the finals and are easier to follow in the players' own VODs.

The Forever Open FAQ

These are the questions players ask most about the tournament.

Who Won the Forever Open?

Warlockguy, an Undead Warlock. He beat Neepzen, also an Undead Warlock, 3-1 in the grand final on October 18, 2026.

How Much Did the Forever Open Winner Get?

$50,000 and the Death's Duelist title. Another $50,000 was split between the best player of each class, $5,555 per class.

Which Class Won the Forever Open?

Warlock. Demonology Warlocks with Soul Link took first and second place, and Enhancement Shamans took third and fourth.

Where Was the Forever Open Finals Played?

In Hyjal Crater, a zone Blizzard opened on the WoW Forever beta for the finals day, with vendors for soul shards and reagents.

Will There Be Another Forever Open?

Nothing is announced yet. The hosts ran a similar event before Hardcore Classic, so a follow-up after the November 4 launch would fit the pattern.

More WoW Forever PvP Guides

The tournament ran on the beta. These guides explain how PvP will work once the game launches on November 4.