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Two Bosses Enter: Announcing the exhibition season

Mathew McCurley
Updated ·5 min read

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

Last season ended with an epic victory by gun-toting Undead maniac Lord Godfrey's firing a bullet through readers' hearts and securing a slick victory over all who challenged him. With patch 4.3 on the horizon, we'll have a bunch of new dungeon and raid bosses to add to the third season of Two Bosses Enter. Until then, I've got a fun series of exhibition matches lined up for readers while we wait for the patch to drop and let players have some time with the new bosses before they enter the ring.

Exhibition season one will pit faction leader against faction leader with a twist. You see, these faction leaders aren't coming from the Horde or the Alliance. No, readers, these faction leaders are from the secondary and tertiary factions. Hit the jump to hear Tirion, our faithful Two Bosses Enter benefactor and facilitator, announce this exhibition season's lineup.



Tirion Fordring cordially invites you to the Argent Tournament for a mid-season series of exhibition matches between high-ranking leaders and representatives of the various factions, organizations, tribes, clans, groups, and consortiums on Azeroth and beyond. Please exercise caution when traveling to the Argent Tournament grounds, still located on the northern cliff face of the frozen wasteland of the Icecrown glacier. The Kirin Tor mages of Dalaran shall open portals on a first-come, first-served reservation basis.

While attending the tournament, please be aware that the tournament grounds and the stadium itself are considered a neutral place, and factional conflicts will not be tolerated. Any infractions will be met with swift ejection from the tournament and subsequent disqualification.

Thank you for your support, participation, and patronage of the Argent Tournament.

Tirion Fordring

As a reminder, here are the rules of the WoW Insider Two Bosses Enter ring:

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.

The combatants

For this exhibition season, there will be a total of eight participants from all different factions in World of Warcraft and the expansions. Here are your combatants for the first exhibition season of Two Bosses Enter:

  • Tae'thelan Bloodwatcher, The Reliquary

  • Brann Bronzebeard, The Explorer's League

  • Ishanah, The Aldor

  • Voren'thal, The Scryers

  • Archmage Aethas Sunreaver, The Sunreavers

  • Vereesa Windrunner, The Silver Covenant

  • Roanauk Icemist, The Taunka

  • Yorg Stormheart, The Frostborn

This is a pretty esoteric list of characters, especially if you aren't a super-huge WoW lore nerd like I am, but I figured it would be an awesome way to introduce people to some of the lesser-known characters in the lore and give you a greater appreciation of the varied cast of characters out there. The first matchup in exhibition season one will begin next week after I've randomized the list and made sure it's going to be plenty of fun.

Some of these matchups hide deep-seated hatreds between two factions. Many Alliance players, for instance, have no idea who Tae'thelan Bloodwatcher is, but you soon will have a newfound fire in your belly against the devious Reliquary. Later on down the road, we will pit Sunreaver versus Windrunner in an epic fight that will finally put an end to all of that Dalaran squabbling from the last expansion. And which among you would not like to see a showdown between the leader of the Aldor priests, Ishanah, face off against the Blood Elf defector Voren'thal, newcomer to the Light and A'dal's blessings? Rev up those engines and get excited, readers. It's time for some awesome matchups.

Participation

As usual, we heavily encourage readers to voice their opinions about each matchup in the comments below. Many readers enjoy writing their own fiction for how each match would play out, which can be included in the following week's post about the match's outcome. Some awesome descriptions and retellings have come out of the comments, and you guys totally sway the vote with great stories. So please, come join in on the fun and write your own outcomes to the fights as they happen.

Voting

A poll will be active on the current week's match up post where readers will select who they think should win the fight. After the poll closes, the combatant with the most votes moves on to the next round of the tournament. Two Bosses Enter is single elimination, so once your favorite hero is out, he's out for good. We've had some amazingly close calls in the past season, especially the Corborus versus Jan'alai match and the incredible upset in the Vanessa VanCleef versus Zanzil fight. Check out those links and tell me your vote doesn't count.

See you guys next week with round 1 of the Two Bosses Enter exhibition season.

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.