Cryptozoic Entertainment has organized a massive summer tour of over 60 stores in the U.S., Europe, and Japan to promote its World of Warcraft TCG; give players a chance to meet and ask questions of game designers, organizers, and company execs; and learn more about the players and retailers of the game.  Players will pay $25 to enter a Tomb of the Forgotten Sealed Tournament.  Each player will receive six booster packs of Tomb of the Forgotten which he/she will use to create a 30-card deck.  A four-round Swiss-style event will be played, with prizes awarded based on the total number of rounds won, plus special prizes for playing against and for defeating a Cryptozoic employee. 

Prizes will include a Bromor the Shadowblade Extended Art Sketch Card, Taverncraft Limited Edition Mug, Booster Packs based on the number of rounds won, Bromor the Shadowblade Foil Promo Card (first 20 players) and 2012 Paladin Deck Box (first 20 players). 

In this exclusive interview, Cryptozoic Retailer Relations Manager Sara Erickson explains the tour. 

The goal of the CZE Tour is to give players a sense of connecting with the company while allowing employees a chance to be face to face with the players who enjoy our games.  To the people that participate in weekly World of Warcraft TCG events, the creators and organizers of the game are a bit like rock stars.  Players will enjoy some one-on-one time with Cryptozoic employees, like having a chance to ask all their burning questions and get some cards signed. It will certainly draw attention to the stores where these events are hosted, as well, giving a boost to the store and local WoW TCG community.

While we wish that we could visit every single store around the world, we are still a fairly small (but growing!) company.  There simply aren’t enough employees to travel to as many places as we wanted to visit.  Once we had narrowed it down to a few general areas, we found places where we could visit several stores in a weekend.  This means that for some of the stores participating in this program, the CZE Tour will be the very first big event they have ever hosted. We’re pretty excited to be a part of that.

This is really a grassroots campaign for us.  We think it’s very important to see what the average player is enjoying, which cards they choose to play and which they resource, and what kind of challenges face these local stores.  While our Champions of the Black Flame volunteer corps do a great job of giving us monthly reports, nothing can replace the experience of actually being in a store with local players.  These experiences will help us as a team create a better game and develop better in-store support for our games.  Even though we can’t stop by every amazing store around the globe, we sincerely believe that they will all benefit from the knowledge we take back with us from the places we do get to visit.