Guild Wars Guru 2011 GvG Championship Series



It's been a long time coming, but the Guru-sponsored GvG tournament is back! The Guild Wars Guru 2011 GvG Championship Series was announced February 21st on the Guild Wars Guru forums. Alongside the tournament, we'll be scheduling GvG workshops for new players and instituting a mentorship program for the Casual division. The tournament is open to everyone in the Guild Wars community!

More information will be added as tournament progresses so keep a look out!

Tournament Schedule

 * Registration: March 19th - April 6th @ 9:00 PM Pacific (-7 GMT)
 * Bronze & Casual Division: April 9th
 * Gold & Silver Division: April 16th

Division Breakdown

 * Gold: Top 100
 * Silver: Ranks 100 - 300
 * Bronze: Ranks 300 - 1000
 * Casual: New players and those guilds off the ladder

Prizes

 * Gold Division: NVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti (retail value: $250)
 * Silver Division: Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard & G930 Wireless Gaming Headset (combined retail value: $223.98)
 * Bronze Division: Rude Gamewear Fierce 5000 DPI Laser Gaming Mouse v. 2 & Fierce Teflon ® & Steel Mouse Surface (combined retail value: $79.90)
 * Casual Division: Bigfoot Killer NIC (retail value: $89.99) (Note: Winning mentor will also receive a Razer Anansi keyboard.)

Workshop Program
For those interested in getting into GvG for the first time, the Casual division will provide a great opportunity for testing the waters. However, the learning curve is indeed steep, which has unfortunately served as a deterrent in the past.

In order to help address this problem, we will be conducting a series of introductory-level workshops on weekends leading up to the Casual division tournament. They will be covering basic topics with the objective of providing everyone enough knowledge to not feel completely lost when they enter a match.

The schedule is tentatively as follows:
 * March 6th, 8PM UTC/3PM EST/12PM PST - Basic Mechanics and Concepts
 * March 13th, 8PM UTC/3PM EST/12PM PST - Individual Roles
 * March 20th, 8PM UTC/3PM EST/12PM PST - Team Builds and Communication
 * April 2nd, 8PM UTC/3PM EST/12PM PST - Tactics by Map

All workshops will be held on the Guru Mumble Server and we will be bringing in some of our mentors to help with the coverage of material. Questions outside of workshops can be directed to mentors.

Mentorship Program
As part of the 2011 Guild Wars Guru Championship Series, we have put together a program to facilitate learning and growth within the Casual division. Many of you who wish to enter the tournament may not have a lot of GvG experience, and some of you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the format as a whole. This will be addressed by our Workshop Seminars, meant to address general knowledge pertaining to general and specific aspects of GvG, but after that if you feel you would still like a re-assuring presence, then I would encourage you to take advantage of mentorship program opportunity.

We have compiled a list of players who you may be familiar with - players who have won multiple gold and silver trims, players who have volunteered to spend their day helping out by sharing their great knowledge and experience in GvG. If you are a guild within the Casual division only you may request one of these mentors to be part of your team for the duration of the tournament. They will play alongside you just as the rest of your teammates would, and if needed, can provide many tips and pointers during the course of the games. Guilds must submit their request for a mentor at least two weeks before the date of the tournament in order to give us enough time to assign an appropriate mentor to you. We will have mentors who have great experience on every position, as well as mentors who can speak various languages to meet the needs of every guild who wishes to play the tournament. Participation in the mentor program is of course up to your guild and you should only select a mentor if you have 7 people who wish to play; don't "bench" a player just to receive a mentor. That would be counterproductive in regard to the overall goal of the division and the tournament as a whole!

If your guild is interested in having a mentor for the tournament, feel free to send one of the moderators for the tournament (Ariena, Kvinna, xhappy feetx, Jenn, Lemming, and Apok) a private message describing what kind of mentor you would prefer (language, position) and we will do our best to arrange for a mentor who would be an ideal match for you.

Winners
Gold Division
 * 1st Place: South Central [cent]
 * 2nd Place: Plus Hiding [og]
 * 3rd Place: I Disposable Heroes I [DirT]

Silver Division
 * 1st Place: The Noname Squad [sqd]
 * 2nd Place: Your Katharsis [yK]
 * 3rd Place: Paradoxical Penguins [pP]

Bronze Division
 * 1st Place: Training With Hinako [zomg]
 * 2nd Place: Let Us Not Run [rush]
 * 3rd Place: Ashford Abbey [aa]

Casual Division
 * 1st Place: Shinigami Demons [kami]
 * 2nd Place: Wanted By The Law For Keepin It [Raw]
 * 3rd Place: Us Are Not [leet]

Sponsors

 * Guild Wars Guru
 * Curse.com
 * NVidia
 * Logitech
 * Rude Gamewear
 * Bigfoot