Details on the Tarren Mill vs Southshore 10th Anniversary Battleground

Blizzard has filled in a few more details (and thanks to MMO-Champion as usual for catching... basically all WoW information.)

Tarren Mill vs. Southshore will be a 100vs100 battleground.

You read that correctly. not 10v10. 100v100.

Unlike most battlegrounds, that have some kind of mechanic or game that determines who wins, TMvSS is going to be more of a straight-up deathmatch. Yes, this is going to be pure chaos.

But it won't be pure chaos (I know what I said!) Not only will this recreate the carnage of Vanilla Hillsbrad Foothills, but it will also recreate the old PvP ranking system.

Way back in the day, I got myself "Scout" level in Warsong Gulch, and to this day, I can select that title on my Rogue. Scout is of course the first rank for Horde players. As you rack up more kills, you'll gain a higher rank, eventually hitting Grand Marshal for Alliance and High Warlord for Horde.

But as cool as those badges of pride will be, you also become a more attractive target. The higher your rank, the more points you are worth to the opposing faction (and presumably the higher the guy who kills you will gain in rank.)

And that's it! No flags to steal, no bases to assault, and no mine carts to escort. TMvSS is a deathmatch, pure and simple.

The battleground will be available during the 10th anniversary festivities, which will presumably be a few weeks (maybe a month.) Right now, the developers are pretty confident that while this should be a fun novelty, it's more about letting players experience a burst of nostalgia. If it proves popular, they might implement it as a yearly anniversary tradition, but it will not become a permanent addition to the battlegrounds of WoW.

Now here's a bit of speculation: the map for TMvSS is in the Beta files. Could that mean that they expect the expansion to have launched by then? The anniversary is in November, which actually seems like a pretty reasonable time for it to be out. Still, this seems to be evidence that swings the projected release date closer to October than December. I still doubt we'll see it this month or next, but it's a nice bit of encouragement (and of course, we'll know a week after tomorrow.)