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Checksthesky

Mike G

I’ve talked about our awesome volunteers, the Champions of the Black Flame, on this blog before.  Within the program, Cryptozoic likes to recognize those that go above and beyond what is asked of them.  To show our appreciation for the effort put forth by these Champions, we award them the Champion of the Month.

These Champions go the extra mile by doing any, or all, of the following: Successfully supporting more than one store at a time, providing additional tools for the Champions to use to support the game better in their area, contacting Cryptozoic with the intention of providing extra time for projects, doing demos and judging tournaments at small conventions in their area, organizing extra tournaments for their local playgroups on their own, and many more (too many to list). Typically, these are Champions that are looked at to help lead the Champion community overall.

For January 2011 (mid-Jan to mid-Feb is listed as the month prior to announcement for those that might be confused), we have our first repeat Champion of the Month. This Champion was awarded Champion of the Month back in November of last year.  Some of the responsibilities that this Champion has taken on are:  currently runs events/demos at 7 different store locations, maintains both a Facebook group as well as a standalone website that advertises all the events in the area, has bought and used that product to help supplement his demo sessions, and still has enough time to volunteer for additional projects that may come up.  He is also flexible when it comes to providing support at events and I haven’t heard him voice concern once about any duties that may be assigned to him. There are many more ways that he has been invaluable to the Champions program, but if I listed every single one, William would kick back my article for being too long.

Without further ado, the Champion of the Month for January 2011 is CZEV# 203, Leonard Volk.  For his continued support and effort, Leonard will be sent an uncut sheet as well as some additional goodies (CZE Sleeves and more).  Congratulations (again), Leonard and I’m looking forward to how you are going to surprise us all next.

William

As I shared in the first blog, part of my job is flying around the world to write about the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Starting out as a volunteer coverage writer for the World of Warcraft TCG, my first trip abroad was from Milwaukee, WI to Toronto, ON Canada. The whole trip was 419 miles, and they even took my US dollars across the border. Yes, I needed a passport.

I would get better value out of my new passport the following year as I was asked to help with the World Championship web coverage team in Paris, France. They do not take USD in Paris; ask Community Manager Mike Girard about that sometime.

I now average about 30,000 to 50,000 miles a year in the air, and that’s just for work. After the first version of WoWTCG.com launched late last year, I took a trip to China to decompress. It was mostly for pleasure, but I was very interested in seeing the Chinese WoWTCG community. Our Cryptozoic representative over there, Ming Wan, has visited the states a few times and described the differences—and similarities—in how players in mainland China play our game.

I took a sleeper train from Shanghai to Beijing and met up with our man on the streets, Ming Wan. As our Managing Director of Greater China, he’s been turning this emerging market into one of our biggest communities. To give you some perspective, China is our second biggest market and Taiwan is our third-- and they didn’t get the TCG until 2008.

My first stop was Tong Yun Card Store at Zhongguancun E-World. Basically, imagine that your local mall didn’t have individual stores, but was instead nothing but kiosks. We entered the second floor which was the cell phone floor. If you can figure out how 20 or 30 different cell phone kiosks can all sell the sell similar merchandise in a sustainable model, please let me know because I still can’t figure it out.

Ming and I took the escalator downward (does that make it a de-escalator? Descenterator?) and I saw the store with play area. That's our logo above, incorporated into his store. He loves us, he really loves us! Here's a wider shot of the store.

Other than the fact that it was in a mall, it was pretty much identical to what you’ll see in the US or Europe. The store even sold singles. The open play area had a cosplay practice going on in lieu of a performance scheduled later that day. After that, the area would hold the local weekly World of Warcraft TCG tournament, which is what the players in the picture below were practicing for.

I took my lunch with Ming and Mr. Qinting Li, the owner of Tong Yun Card Store.

It was an amazing opportunity to speak to someone who had embraced the WoW TCG from the beginning in China-- a successful operation built on the relationship between the store and the community. I peppered him with questions pertaining to what players liked in his area, how often they played, and what their MMO cross-over was like in the area, and he was glad to answer my seemingly unending questions. He was truly a gracious host.

Second, we went to the Summer Palace. Here’s a shot of a street reproduced within the Summer Palace. When he wasn't busy ruling the country, the emperor could pretend that he was a peasant or merchant. He could run his own store, and his servants would pretend as if they were customers. Never say that the ruling class is out of touch with the people!

I love animals and I didn't bring my winter cap, so I was lucky to 2-for-1 with this panda bear hat. Rawr!

Our next stop was a little more on-topic. It was a board game club called Xiaojie Card Store. As games are social instruments, players naturally need a place to play and people to play with. Similar to the way in which video gamers can purchase time at a local LAN, players at a board game club pay a low hourly rate to be able to play games. They can choose to play any of the board games in the store’s library, or they can bring their WoW TCG deck to battle their friends.

I took the subway back to my hostel. On the way, I found Baron Davis: the man, the beard, the guy I wish I knew how to quit but can't. This was during an odd transition for me, a time between Baron showing up to Clippers pre-season camp completely out of shape and Baron getting back into shape and dishing dimes to Blake Griffin. I decided not to boo Boom Dizzle and instead gave him the “sup” pose. So, sup BD?

Reflecting upon my trip, I learned that China can be similar to the United States on the surface. On my morning jogs in Shanghai, I'd stop by a Starbucks to get a quick WiFi signal with my phone and I bought power adapters at the downtown Apple store. And while players might not have a local standalone hobby store to support their community, they instead go to the mall to play cards or hit up their local board game club. They'll all play at the Beijing DMF next month, just like thousands of our players in North America and Europe will play in DMFs this year. I'll end my trip with a shot of the Great Wall, this picture a testament that our game is truly an international phenomenon, you'll have friends no matter where you go, and it can take you anywhere in the world that you want it to. Have a great weekend!