As we head into the early summer months, the Road to Worlds kicks into high gear. Here is an extensive breakdown of how you can participate in Organized Play for the World of Warcraft Miniatures Game.
Battlegrounds
The first level in the Minis Organized Play structure is the Battlegrounds program.
The Battlegrounds are designed to show players the basics and is hosted by your local game store. This is also your chance to get a Battlegrounds Miniature. These miniatures are previews from the upcoming set. So in addition to getting to see the minis early, you have the first crack at being able to play with these. The Battlegrounds also contain new maps for you to do battle against your friends. For more information, including a list of stores that are hosting a Battlegrounds, visit
WoW Minis Battlegrounds Page.
Darkmoon Faire
Now that you have gotten your feet wet, you can move on to the next level of competition. The Darkmoon Faire travels throughout the world, making stops just long enough to award a lucky player their choice of travel, an entertainment system, or an insane laptop. The competition is fierce.
The Darkmoon Faire tournament structure is a series of smaller tournaments that take place over the weekend leading up to the Minis final on Sunday afternoon. Two qualifiers on Friday are followed by two qualifiers on Saturday. Each day hosts a Constructed qualifier and the other is a Sealed qualifier. The Constructed qualifiers entry is $15 and the Sealed qualifiers entry is $25. Any Minis player is allowed to play in all the qualifiers, if they want. All players who have zero or one loss move on to the Sunday finals. After 4 more rounds of Swiss, a cut to the Top 8 is made and those players fight it out for the title of Darkmoon Faire Champion.
In addition to the Darkmoon Faire Championship, the Darkmoon Faire plays host to a full schedule of Minis events. Loot card tournaments, iPod drafts, and Gadgetzan Challenges fill out the rest of the schedule. You can also get all of your crafting taken care of at the Darkmoon Faire. To whet your appetite, you can check out the Darkmoon Faire Singapore information page.
Realm Championships
The Realm Championships occur twice a year and with the list of prizes awarded, there is sure to be plenty of competition at these events. For the Spring 2009 season, any Minis player were allowed to participate in the Realm Championship (no invitations needed). The tournament structure follows the format used for the Darkmoon Faire. Three qualifiers occur on Saturday, two of them are Constructed and one is Sealed. Entrance fees are $15US/$20CAN for Constructed and $30US/$35CAN for Sealed. Similar to the Darkmoon Faire, any player with zero or one loss moves on to the Sunday playoffs. After 4 more rounds of swiss, the Top 8 playoff for the big prizes.
Prizes include travel vouchers, loot cards, and a trophy to the winner. Everyone does walk away with an exclusive Miniature. The Death Watcher Mini was given away exclusively at the Spring 2009 Realm Championship. For location information, please check out the Realm Championship information page.
Continental/National Championships
The next step in the Road to Worlds is the Continental/National Championships. In North America, the event is the Continental Championship at Gencon in August. For the rest of the world, the countries will be hosting National Championships.
For the North American Continental Championship, players can qualify for Day 1 by playing in any of the six qualifiers on Thursday and Friday. The Constructed qualifiers entry is $16 and the Sealed qualifier entry is $30. Each player with zero or one loss will move on to Day 1 of the NA Continental Championship. Invites for Day 1 are also awarded to players that finished in the top 8 of a Darkmoon Faire and based on Honor/Ratings.
Prizes include invites to the World Championship this October, Amazon Gift cards, travel vouchers, iPod Touches and iPod Nanos. The exclusive miniature for the Continental/National Championships is the Murloc Shorestriker. A finalized prize list for both the NA Continental Championship and the National Championships will be announced in the coming weeks.