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WoW TCG North American Continental Championship is now
Cryptozoic Entertainment is hosting its first-ever World of Warcraft TCG event in Las Vegas, and it's happening now! The WoW TCG North American Continental Championship runs from today through Sunday, but even if you're not in Sin City, you can follow the events online via Cryptozoic's liveblog. What's at stake at the championship? Only $80,000 in prizes for challenge winners, and those who participate in any of the numerous side events have a chance to win iPads, Macbook Pros, iPods, gift cards, and (of course) loot cards. They're even giving away prizes all weekend to fans who watch live video coverage of the event here. Good luck to all the competitors and to Cryptozoic for their first big event!
Wrathgate TCG set overviews on official site
If you're curious about the Wrathgate expansion for the WoW Trading Card Game, you can get up to three overviews of it from the official site. These overviews, written by winners of the Wrathgate contest this April, give you a sense of the place this expansion to the TCG has both in terms of the card game and the larger WoW universe. William Brinkman covers both the Argent Crusade and Flying Mounts, while David Lyons discusses how the in-game Wrathgate experience is translated to the card game. If you're a player of the TCG or are just curious about how WoW makes the transition to a different format, go give them a read.
Cryptozoic posts Wrathgate visual spoilers
If you're interested in the upcoming Wrathgate expansion for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, then Cryptozoic has a treat for you: spoilers for the May 25 expansion. If you're dying to see what cards will be entering the game, to look at some new art or just to see if you recognize anyone on the hero cards, get thee hence and check out the images. Then you can spend the next two weeks feverishly anticipating the release of the expansion. Not that I would know anything about feverishly anticipating an expansion. Not me. No, sir. Nothing doing. Cryptozoic's also been doing detailed previews of certain cards, discussing their impact on competitive play and their place in certain decks, so you can check that out while you're on their blog anyway. Side note: I really dig the draenei figure on this card. I know, I know, blueberry LOL whatever, man. He looks badass and you know it.
Cryptozoic breaks open Wrathgate expansion for WoW TCG May 25th
Cryptozoic, the new publisher for the World of Warcraft trading card game, dropped us a line to let us know that they're preparing the game's newest expansion pack, Wrathgate, for release on May 25. If you've been following the trials and travails of the WoW TCG in the past few months, you know that this is a big relief and a concrete sign that the game's in good hands. And there's loot, too! "The 11th set in the World of Warcraft TCG, Wrathgate features 220 new cards straight from Northrend and the new Argent Crusade faction. Yes, players can recruit figures from Warcraft lore like Highlord Tirion Fordring for the battle against the Scourge. Also, players can use new Wrathgate crafting materials to forge brand new gear for their TCG heroes. Each booster pack contains 19 game cards. As with previous sets, players have a chance to open one of three new Loot cards randomly inserted into Wrathgate booster packs. The codes on the Loot cards are redeemed for cosmetic upgrades to World of Warcraft® MMORPG characters. The loot cards in Wrathgate are Landro's Gift, Statue Generator, and Blazing Hippogryph. The latter is another TCG exclusive mount -- a flying hippogryph to set the skies on fire." To commemorate the occasion, Cryptozoic is running a special contest, the winner of which (and a friend) will attend the internal unveiling of the expansion, hang out with its creators and maybe even eat some food here and there. Check out the contest and official rules here.
WoW Trading Card Game Vegas championship
Do you play the WoW Trading Card Game? You any good, punk? From June 3 through June 6, 2010, the North American Continentals will be happening in Las Vegas, and Cryptozoic Entertainment, the new World of Warcraft TCG licensee, seems to be picking up the slack left by Upper Deck at record speed! They've booked several blocks of rooms at the Paris and Bally's hotels, a paid stay at which will include several nice TCG gifts: Two Tuskarr Kite (or King Mukla) loot cards Two Naxxramas treasure packs Two Series 1 class deck boxes (assorted) Two packs of WoW TCG sleeves Other gifts from Cryptozoic and other World of Warcraft partners There's $50,000 in prizes up for grabs and no entry fee, as far as I can tell. If you're big into the TCG competitively, this is the place to be! For the full schedule, check out Cryptozoic's press release here.
Former Blizzard dev starts Atomic Operations game studio
Industry veteran Chris Millar has been around -- he's been with Blizzard since the WarCraft II days, and has worked on everything from Black and White 2 to Fat Princess – but now he's off to head up his own company called Atomic Operations. In this quick Q&A with Gamasutra, he says that the company will be a grab-bag of methods and products, all using "an evolved production method similar to that of movies." They've already got a project out the door, too: Atomic is the company that's supporting Fat Princess, with the bugfixes released the other day and presumably more to come. Millar and Atomic Operations join the multitude of other Blizzard veterans off working on their own companies. Let's see, there's Keith Lee and his crew at Booyah, the ex-Blizzard folks at Red 5 Studios, the unfortunate souls at Castaway Entertainment and Flagship Studios (now Gravity Bear and Gargantuan Studios), new WoW TCG licensees Cryptozoic, and a few other little developers and divisions headed up by ex-Blizzard devs. Whew, that's a whole lot of babies -- Blizzard is like the Zeus of gaming studios lately. What are they serving in the cafeteria over there, startup cola?
Cryptozoic takes over WoW TCG license
According to this press release and Blizzard Licensing Manager Kat Hunter, the World of Warcraft TCG is now in the hands of Cryptozoic. They will be handling all the aspects of the game, from releasing new sets to scheduling tournaments and events surrounding the card game. We don't know a lot about Cryptozoic, and we were initially skeptical until Kat Hunter's tweet. Kat Hunter WoW TCG Moves to Cryptozoic Entertainment. New company started by Blizzard's Cory Jones and Wildstorm's John Nee. http://cryptozoic.com/ -- Follow the new Cryptozoic Entertainment @cryptozoic source Blizzard and UpperDeck recently split ways, which left the TCG's future full of many unanswered questions. And while there are still several today, the game at least has a home and some real potential for success. Update: Nethaera hit the forums to formally announce Cryptozoic carrying the TCG. We'll be seeing the Wrathgate booster in May, and class decks will begin their run in June.
