Guild Wars 2006 World Championship
Mike Gills' Thoughts Akimbo - The Taiwan Version - Day Two

Treacherous Empire Interviews

Then we all walked over to the Taipei Game Show. We were some of the first ones let in the show. Guess they realized how important Guild Wars is huh?

IQ is ready to see the show

After we all arrived at the booth, the teams that would be competing today were brought up on stage for pictures.

Te is ready

LuM is ready too

Each team was then given colored t-shirts for the event.

The American guilds were given yellow to wear.

And the Finninsh guilds were given black.

After fixing some minor technical issues, the first match between Te and LuM was ready to begin. But first, the cheerleaders!

2-4-6-8, Who should the Warrior Eviscerate?

Then an introduction by MC Amanda...

MC Amanda introduces while I wait in the background

And the match was finally on. A Taiwanese Senior GM and an NCsoft Taiwan employee provided commentary to the audience while watching the match onstage.

That looks like that one hurt...

After LuM won the first match, and Te the second, Lum managed a fairly quick win for the third and decisive match.

Victory for LuM.

We took the American guilds out for lunch after their interviews and let everyone rest for a few hours before the afternoon match.

After a few well needed lobster rolls and hamburgers at the hotel it was back to the show for the afternoon match between The Last Pride from Korea and The Valandor from Finland.

EviL rotates onto the stage

The Valandor gets ready

Then after more cheerleaders and introductions, the match got underway.

Cheerleaders even came out while the matches were underway.

Considering how much noise and lights and crowds there were, all of the guilds did a great job of focusing on their matches.

Other guilds watching the matches in the crowd.

Even growing cat ears won't distract me.

Some of the Guild Wars prizes given out to the crowd.

In the end, The Last Pride from Korea, defeated the European regional champions, The Valandor.

After giving the players and staff a few hours to rest, we all met at a reception hall at the hotel for a nice buffet dinner.

Fancy setup.

The founders spoke...

The three amigos.

We gave out some random prizes (an Ipod, a digital camera) and then came the Guild Master Challenge. Each Guild Leader competed in a test of skill and dexterity in order to try and win prizes for his entire guild.

The game was Hasbro's classic Don't Break the Ice!

War Machine vs. Lum

IQ vs. The Valandor and The Last Pride vs. Treacherous Empire

In the end, The Last Pride took the prize (gigabyte flash cards for each guild member).

There was time for one exhibition match between Jeff and Izzy...

Jeff vs. Izzy

And then we were off on a tour bus to visit the CKS Memorial hall where the famous lantern festival was taking place.

Winnie the Pooh in lanterns too?

Not really lanterns, but they were cool.

By the end of this first day of competition, the players were tired, but all had had a great time while making friends with the people they had been playing online against for so long.

Te and EviL hanging out

The next day would bring more competition, parties, prizes, and tours but more importantly, it brought friends together from around the world to meet and compete.

Stay tuned on our website for the upcoming next championship season rules so perhaps you and your guild can share some of the same good times!

Fun time at the Taipei Game Show.