I don't think WvW should have been completely unlocked, spies were enough trouble as it is and it wasn't too hard to hit 60 if you were determined.
This just makes them more common.
Blackgate had their own server TS, even for PvE, WvW commanders talk with each other so we knew what was happening for the most part and didn't have to worry so much about spies being able to read map chat and such, but still annoying to deal with.
I read that my guild leader is still playing so they probably still have a server TS, he didn't run it, but I'm sure he has a hand involved in making sure there is one. Not sure about what the current server tussle is all about, main forums were not exactly correct about other shit. Tier 1 servers had more competitive types, lower tiered were pretty much for fights, tier 1 was about points, no matter what anyone else said. We all had round the clock coverage so we could play that type of game mode.
AoI was one of the reasons they changed the way points per kill were worked, showed how broken it could get. Mercs did night shift, some German guild(can't remember the name) ran day shift. Showed how it could be broke. Owned JQ and SOR by Sunday and points per kill got changed to just one point and I think it ended up going away completly, too bad because I liked having a reason to small team the center of all the maps, JQ had equal coverage, SoR didn't quite match but came real close. For some reason, they liked to 2v1 against JQ than against us with JQ. I think the first tournament changed that but I didn't last through the tournement, SoR quit after that one euro game came to day shift to cover 2 hours we didn't have covered with a guild present, helps to have some named guild along to rally the pugs, and I couldn't walk another Yak, just too fucking bored.
Anyway, the other 2 servers probably could have figured things out, but it took them longer to figure it out. JQ was always like that. They could learn, they didn't adapt as fast. SoR didn't quite have all the coverage that JQ and Blackgate post SoS(I think Blackgate had some coverage before SoS bumped them out of tier 1 though) I was on SoS before the move to Blackgate but after the migration from HoD to SoS, liked the server name, but then we split and mostly moved to Blackgate. The people that understood the points game better before were on SoS, JQ had coverage bu SoS didn't quite have the same round clock that JQ did and we all knew about that.
Tier 1 is the result of coverage wars. Anyone that wanted to play for points, you came to Tier 1. There are only so many players in other time zones that not all servers were going to have a crew all hours, most servers have some kind of prime time but there are not enough people to cover all hours.
JQ had maintained a lot of players, I think they have so many, people occasionally come back from a break and go away again that they don't get a big enough drop in players to notice.
I think WvW finally got a new map. Rewards still suck as I under stand it so you EOTM or you PvE Champ farm/dungeon run. I'd probably do EOTM just to rank my WvW ranks, I read they removed some nicer ones. Don't know the new traiting system, probably broke my character, hammer shout warrior, fun as fuck to wade in there and stun people and just be a frustrating fuck, and still survive. I think they changed stability also so not sure how well I can do that anymore.
The build couldn't 1v1 very well though, didn't do to bad swaping out to a double axe or mace combo but you can't have more than 2 weapon sets and can't swap out of the back pack in combat and too fast travel, you had sword/warhorn pretty much a given set, one thief comes along and puts me in combat, can't swap, they couldn't kill me, I wasn't worred about that in the least, but that build didn't 1v1 very well. Zerg/group oriented. 5 man it did ok, others to work with and DPS, but not very well 1v1. I forgot to get out the hammer too many times that I just stopped getting out the axe.
I did die quite a bit, got focused hard on a few occasions, I'm talking they all melted me before they melted anyone else, just didn't fuck with anyone else, just me. That was just delicious, utter bliss knowing that I pissed them off so much that they targeted me first and no one else. I never was a commander, just the war dog and very effective at that.

I may give it a whirl to check out the new map, not sure if I can stomach the yaks. I think there is a way to get a precursor without having to farm the fuck into insanity to earn enough gold or get out real cash, pretty much a legendary is the reason I needed to farm. Getting castle upgrade money wasn't too hard, really though, that gold cost shouldn't be there, and mats for consumables wasn't too hard to come by and they are not really too expensive, at least at that time. I never really understood how people make money off the TP, I'm surprised that some would actually buy some of that stuff or they must be breaking some shit down for mats.
I did get my monies worth, the PvE sucked balls but WvW was fun enough.