Two Bosses Enter Season 3 Finale: Murozond is your champion

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 are tallied and the poll is closed -- Murozond is your Two Bosses Enter Season 3 champion! The maddened aspect took the win over fan favorite Echo of Sylvanas by about 320 votes -- pretty close, all things considered. Murozond emerged as a strong contender early in the voting and never let up, soundly defeating each foe he was paired up against. Congratulations!

Did your horse win the race? Are you outraged that the mere embodiment of twisted time and dark knowledge could lay a hand on even a sliver of fair Sylvanas' soul? Hey, I love Sylvanas too, but lately I've been wondering where the heck her story is going, besides trapped in a dragonshrine in a preventable future. Let's see some movement on the Sylvanas story front.

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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.

Season 3 Champion: Murozond

Murozond has faced the odds and come out the champion. Congratulations, and thank you to all of the readers who voted this season, wrote your own reports about the fights, and campaigned for your personal favorite. While some of those campaigns might not have panned out the way you had hoped (sorry, Michele), the fighting spirit was within us all during this trying and important time in fake Warcraft battle internet polls.

Why the hell was Murozond so popular? What many people feel was a gimme fight at the end of End Time turned into a juggernaut of fan and community support. Why? I discussed my reasonings in a previous Two Bosses Enter about Murozond, but I think it bears repeating here. Murozond is a spectacularly designed encounter -- raid-worthy, even -- that takes an established character and gives him new lore and a fantastic send-off. Couple all of the lore implications with a memorable, remarkable fight that players will look back on fondly, and you have a lasting memory. Murozond's encounter is a lasting memory because of the good feelings and positive experiences associated with it.

How powerful and awesome do you feel fighting Murozond? The Hourglass ticks, and the world changes. Everything miraculously moves before your eyes. The mechanic was seldom used or ever seen in WoW by the playerbase before, and it blew us away. Well, I liked it at least. And I'll remember it fondly.

Take a look at this loser: Echo of Sylvanas

Did you really think that this would happen? First, Vanessa Van Cleef gets booted out of the tournament, much to Alex Ziebart's chagrin. Then, the Echo of Sylvanas loses to the Loot Dragon. This paragraph exists primarily as a comment instigator for Sylvanas fans (and Michele Morrow as well), so let's put all the concentrated rage right here with a few choice comments.

Lemons agreed.

Wow, Moruzond is winning...where are all of Sylvanas' rabid fans? Is there a sale at Hot Topic?

Insight from sjames:

Sylvanas isn't winning?!?!?!

KazCaz, you card, only if the glass is half undead:

So, this vote really comes down to Sylvannas or Not Sylvannas.

chaoswolf1982 is just as stumped as the rest of us:

...Arcurion's a boss?

Murozond's Reign

Let's take a look at Murozond's fighting history throughout the tournament and figure out what made this dragon so special in people's hearts and minds. Was it the fight's inherent "fun-ness"? Did Nozdormu have more to play than we suspect? Was Murozond just such a cool concept that it really just jibed with people?

Honestly? All of the above.

Murozond's first fight was against Archbishop Benedictus, and since no one knows who that is or cares (and he definitely isn't a cool dude), the fight was a blowout. More than 2,000 more votes were cast for Murozond, ending any chance the Archbishop had of being as awesome in this tournament as he was in Christie Golden's Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects. What a shame.

In his second match, Murozond went toe-to-toe against Queen Azshara and her minions from the Well of Eternity 5-man. A decisive 61.5% of the vote went to the corrupted aspect, with the commenters and readers making fun of the Queen's flunkies, giving Murozond the win and comparing her court to every moron you've ever grouped up with. Murozond, in that case, has to be the victor.

I expected Murozond's end to come at the hands of Mannoroth, the pit lord general responsible for the culling of worlds, damning of civilizations, and herald of the Legion's future. Instead, Murozond sailed forward with 64% of the vote, knocking my expected winner out of the race. Thanks a lot, dragon.

And here he stands, champion of the champions. Murozond takes his place in the winner's circle and will come back next season as a contestant, much like Lord Godfrey did for this season.

What did you have to say?

As usual, we ask the fans and readers to come up with their own versions of the fight and post those stories in the comments. We get great responses each and every week, showing off the creativity of our community. Here's what you had to say about the Murozond versus Echo of Sylvanas fight and who should have taken the win.

Commenter peritustyrionmograine didn't want to type up a wall of text (and didn't have to, in the end) about why the lovely and talented Echo of Sylvanas just wasn't going to be able to beat down Murozond.

While the Echo of Sylvanas would most likely be agile and intelligent, especially when using the Hourglass, I feel like Murozond would be able to slow her down enough -- or at least compensate with magic time magic or something insanely dumb to keep her in his sights. From there, it is only a matter of time (LOL) as the charges on the Hourglass run out, the arena fills with time bombs, and the Echo of Sylvanas has no choice but to sucumb to the might of Murozond.

After checking out dragontide's comment, I was reminded of my old MMO days traipsing around Brittania in Ultima Online. You see, some nefarious, no-good scoundrels might offer to open up a portal for you to another land and instead dump you into the deepest, darkest dungeon or a land full of hostiles. You could not see the portal's destination, unlike World of Warcraft. Murozond proves that, apparently, everyone is descended from a troll.

How dirty. How evil. How dastardly. I love it. Congratulations, Murozond.

Next week, we reveal Two Bosses Enter -- potentially a beta season? Hmmm? Stay tuned.

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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.