After the initial chaos of Wednesday's 3.08 patch, Blizzard had to put arenas on hold, alongside Lake Wintergrasp. Although the latter of the two is now up and running again, arenas are still unavailable for the near future.

Speaking on the official forums today, Zarhym told players that "we [Blizzard] will be bringing the Arenas back online following off hours maintenance with the fix in place." Discussing the depth of the problem, he also said "the rating issues were extensive, we have decided to reset Arena team and personal ratings to last week’s status."

But those players whose ratings went up as an effect of these bugs might not be so happy as everyone else: "In addition, items and achievements which were gained illegitimately with incorrect ratings will be removed, and the spent arena points refunded."

Another Blizzard poster also went on to explain about the new system. On top of the old personal rating and team rating, there is now a third 'hidden rating', according to the well known blue poster. Exactly how this works is rather complicated but those who are interested can read the detailed mathematical discussion right here.

Whether or not the new system is based on gear was not overtly discussed, but Kalgan did confirm that "it is not like personal rating. The hidden rating uses a different approach to determining player ratings."

Sources: WoR | US Forum