Hyjal Crater opens for the Forever Open duel tournament

On the WoW: Forever Podcast, Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield, known as Aggrend, said Blizzard will open Hyjal Crater, a part of the map normally off-limits to players, for the second day of the Forever Open duel tournament. Blizzard staff will help the organizers reach the area, and Aggrend said Blizzard also plans to add a couple of NPCs there selling soul shards and reagents, with a cooldown-reset vendor possible depending on what the tournament needs.

Wowhead reports the access had been planned for later, but Blizzard brought it forward into the beta for the tournament. The Forever Open, organized by Tipsout, runs October 17 and 18 with around 6,000 entrants, and streams through broadcasters Xaryu and Esfand.

Why it matters: this is access for the tournament’s second day, not for the wider beta, but viewers get an early look at a part of the map players normally can’t reach.