Hear all about the Flyff World Championship (and get a Flyff gift pack too!)

If you like flying, tournaments, and cash (and who doesn't!), then you might be interested in participating in the Flyff World Championship. Flyff, which is short for "fly for fun," is a fantasy, free-to-play MMO, and right now, over 250 teams from around the world are competing in a $100,000 tournament to decide which guild is top dog. The regional preliminaries are already underway, and later in the fall, qualifying teams will battle it out for cash prizes and special in-game items.

Massively talked to a couple of participants to learn what it takes to compete in the Flyff World Championship. Ozmix, leader of Snails of Doom, and Reyals, from Invictus, are two of the top guilds in the competition, and they talked to us about their experiences in the tournament so far. And if you're interested in trying out Flyff, you're in luck! Massively is giving away coupon codes for a Flyff gift pack, which includes several handy items for new players and veterans alike. Read on for the interview, and claim your gift pack key using the button below!

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Massively: First off, can you tell the Massively readers a little about your guild? How did you come together, and how long have you been around?

Reyals: Invictus has been around since December '09. SmackDragon started the guild with a few friends, and over time, we grew to be one of the largest guilds. Invictus means unconquerable in Latin. We create special activites for our guild members via our forums and special in-game events that are normally not done by others. Rarely do members of our guild quit from "boredom."

Ozmix: SOD was born a long time ago. At the beginning, there were only a few members -- five, to be exact. We called it SOD (Soldier of Denmark) because we were all from Denmark. After a while, we split up, so the guild was pretty dead. But luckily a few people wanted to create a family guild, and SOD became active again. We changed the meaning of SOD to Soldier of Darkness, but after a while guildies started to talk about what else SOD could stand for. After we heard our guildmate JointNage's suggestion -- Snails of Doom -- we fell in love with it. That's why we are nowadays called the Snails.

Can you explain a bit what the Flyff tournament is all about? What is the event like, how many teams are competing, and how long does it last?

Reyals: The first part of the Flyff World Championship tournament is a test of our capabilities in PvM versus other guilds in eFlyff, the English-speaking servers. It's basically a competition against most of the highest-level monsters in the game in order, and it's a race to get the best time for beating them all. I'd say that there are about five major contenders from eFlyff with competitive run-times. Perhaps more, if they are waiting till the last second to attempt it. The whole colosseum took about one to two hours to do at the start of FWC, and as time went by, it was simplified. Now, it takes under 10 minutes to complete. The second part is a battle against other countries in a PvP competition.

Ozmix: This Flyff tournament is brand-new and includes players from around the world. We have to be the fastest team on eFlyff to kill a few mobs. After that, we have to beat 16 other Flyff teams in PvP for the top prize, which is $50,000 and a trip to Gala Lab. Second place wins $20,000, and third place wins $10,000.

As a guild, how do you go about practicing for the tournament? What sorts of things do you focus on together?

Reyals: At the moment we are just doing practice runs, focusing on strategy and seeing if there's any subtle improvements we can make to speed runs up. Also we have been focusing on improving our equipment as far as it can go before we start doing some final runs.

Ozmix: To be honest, we don't practice that much. We focus on getting better teamwork so the time will decrease. We didn't really go that far for the PvP part yet.

What's the most difficult thing that you need to prepare for?

Reyals: Getting everyone ready. A lot of people are busy and can't always be ready to come at all times, but we try our best and make it work.

Ozmix: So far, the most difficult thing for us is to collect or buy the rare consumables needed to squeeze out that last second of our Colosseum time for the regional preliminaries.

What's your assessment of the field so far? Who is your biggest competition?

Reyals: We have yet to see everyone's full potential, so it would be hard to come to a good conclusion. On the Lykan server, SOD has had some very good race times and is likely to be our main competitor.

Ozmix: At the moment, it looks like Invictus, TheCraZy88s, and Reminisce are the biggest competition in the regional preliminaries. But I'm quite sure that many new guilds created for the FWC will appear in the final week of the regional preliminaries.

Is this your first time competing in a tournament? How would you describe the experience so far?

Reyals: For me, no. I've competed in other Flyff tournaments. This is our first guild tournament, however. Our members are excited to hopefully move on to the finals and perhaps win the whole tournament. It's a one-of-a-kind opportunity to finally compete against other servers and other countries.

Ozmix: Well, there have been two Tournaments of Champions (to find the best player for each of the eight Flyff Classes) on eFlyff so far, but I dont think you can compare them to the FWC. It's a whole new experience. Flyff has never seen such a big tournament before, and we are proud to be part of it.

Do you have any tips for guilds that are competing in the tournament (without giving away your playbook, of course!)?

Reyals: I don't think there's much to be said that isn't already obvious to other teams. Someone wishing to start his own team would need a good damage Mentalist and some Seraphs/Arcanists to accompany him for buffing, Holy Cross, and Cursed Mind. With the rest of the party slots, you can play around with that, trying different setups and seeing what works best for your team.

Ozmix: Bubblzz are stonger than swords. (That's SOD's way of saying we're not giving anything away!)

Finally, for those who are thinking of giving Flyff a try for the first time, what advice would you give them to get them started on the right foot?

Reyals: Buy gPots.

Ozmix: I think if you want to give it a try, do it on the recently created Mocomochi Cluster.

Thank you and good luck in the tournament!