Two Bosses Enter: Brann Bronzebeard wins the exhibition season

In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches, bosses, leaders, and powerful figures of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title.

The votes have been tallied and Brann Bronzebeard, greatest explorer in the history of Azeroth, takes the championship title in the first exhibition season of Two Bosses Enter. With a clear win and holding almost 700 more votes than his opponent, Brann decisively took this match on the road to victory. Not only was Brann a popular contestant on this season of Two Bosses Enter, but commenters were drawn to his haphazard approach to danger and his affinity for unleashing horrors onto Azeroth that will one day need to be slain for loot.

There were some wonderful responses to the final matchup last week in the comments. While I'm not going to be talking about all of them, since many are too long to appropriately format here, I have to highlight all of the spectacular effort in the comments coming up with the fan-made scenarios of these fun matchups. Thank you guys for making Two Bosses Enter fun each and every week.

Now, it's time for the event you've all been waiting for. Brann Bronzebeard takes a decisive victory against his brother, Muradin -- but how does the young dwarf out-drink his older and more resilient brother?

The rules of the ring

• The WoW Insider Ring is considered neutral territory, where both combatants are able to access their usual encounter mechanics and abilities. If you can't visualize it inside the squared circle, visualize it someplace else -- but you must take into consideration all of each bosses' abilities and mechanics.

• Assume that each opponent is intelligent and capable of strategic thinking.

• All of the competitors' abilities, including crowd control and other effects to which bosses are usually immune, work on their opponents (with apologies to considerations of lore on this point).

• Assume that the opponents share similar levels, health pools, and comparative overall damage output.

• Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.

• Don't neglect style, story, and scale. Everything is a factor; seeking balance is your goal as a spectator and judge.

Some additional rules:

• There is an unlimited amount of beer and ale present in the arena.

• None of said beer or ale is enchanted, haunted, Old-God-corrupted, or contained in any ancient barrels, flasks, casks, or other magic vessel.

• Whoever passes out first loses.

Two Bosses Enter Exhibition Season 1 Champion: Brann Bronzebeard

Brann's popularity amongst WoW fans is known far and wide. Alliance and Horde alike know the trials and tributlations that accompany Brann on eat and every one of his adventures into the unknowns of Azeroth. Voting was clearly in Brann's favor this season ever since wis first match, where the stout explorer easily bested his opponent, Vereesa Windrunner. It was not the most stressful tournament for Brann. The young dwarf was more interested in the Nerubian artifacts, ruins, and other wonders that were lost beneath the surface of Icecrown. Oh, how fortuitous, that the very location of our tournament is rife with magical, ancient treasures!

When I put the two of the three Bronzebeard brothers in this exhibition season as combatants, I had a pretty good feeling that they would be at the finish line together. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked. First, both are dwarves. Dwarves have little representation in WoW as per heroes, but with Cataclysm, the number of dwarves at the forefront of the story has skyrocketed. Players love voting for the underdog.

Second, whether you're Horde or Alliance, you have a special connection to ol' Brann. Everyone has to walk with Brann into forgotten tombs and Titanic fortresses. Remember, we move at his pace, not ours. Nostalgia at its worst, people. Never wish for that time again.

Since there is no way to properly give these two dwarves the combat that usually punctuates the final matchup of the season, a drinking contest was in order. Readers took this unorthodox rule set and ran with it, coming up with some awesome accounts of the contest. I'll be linking some of my favorites, even if they are not quoted here.

Sarah Bee tells it to us straight -- Brann is the explorer and Muradin is the fighter. Muradin's strength and resilience would carry him through the tournament and easily best his brother in a drinking contest.

Ballmung seemed to think that it was the fact that the Old Gods were happily absent from the final matchup and not the fact that Brann was mega-popular to coast him to victory. However, it is usually bad for Brann when there isn't some Old God artifact around that will make some poor adventurers' lives hell for another zone or two. Thanks, Brann.

I don't have the room to quote the entirety of mibu.work1's awesome account of the drinking contest, but you should all go here and read it. Not only does this story have action and suspense, but it offers a good serving of that goofy dwarven humor. This has to be one of the best reader submissions for a matchup account we've ever seen.

Finally, James and I share the same belief: Muradin would win a drinking contest based solely on the fact that his resilience and battle-hardened body would be able to defeat any amount of alcohol at any pace, no matter the challenge.

Congratulations to Brann Bronzebeard for going down in Two Bosses Enter history as the first winner of the first exhibition season. Now, we look to the future of Two Bosses Enter and the beginning of Season 3!

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Season 3 begins next week

Now that patch 4.3 has been out for a little while and players have gotten their hands on the new content and bosses, Two Bosses Enter will return to the action-packed, community-driven battle royale it always strives to be. Bosses from the new 5-man dungeons, End Time, The Well of Eternity, and Hour of Twilight, will face off against each other in fictional battles in the WoW Insider tournament ring, a sacred place of duty, honor, and sacrifice.

Next week, we'll have the bracket information and some information on what makes this next season the best Two Bosses Enter season yet. Stay tuned, faithful readers. There is much planned in the near future.

Set aside the world order -- let the WoW Insider Ring determine who's the champion! Your votes determine the outcome in WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches, Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves.