After the successful Guild Wars World Championship ArenaNet ran a special "fun" tournament season from Jan 16 – Feb 28, 2006. We held this mini-season so guilds could practice their GvG skills for the upcoming Guild Wars Factions Championship series, and so we could sneak preview our new in-game tournament rewards.

Even though we call out successful guilds on our website through Guild of the Week articles, we wanted them also to be called out in Guild Wars itself. We figured a special visual mark would be the best way for these champions to be spotted in the game.

For this fun season, we gave out the new in-game reward to the top eight guilds. In upcoming seasons of the GWFC, we will give out this unique reward to the 16 guilds that compete in each seasonal playoff.

The guilds that came in 2nd through 8th last season were given a special limited-duration silver cape trim upgrade. Guilds that finish 2nd through 16th Place in future seasons will receive this reward. This special silver trim will appear on the cape of every active member of that guild until the end of the following season. In the case of the recent fun season, the silver will stay with the guilds until April 3rd.

The guild that came in 1st this time—The Last Pride—earned a special gold version of the cape trim, with one major change: It is permanent! As long as this guild or subsequent 1st place guilds exist, every active member of the guild will have the special gold trim on his or her cape!* Even if that guild comes in 2nd – 16th in future seasons, they will always be champions in our eyes, and they will maintain the gold as long as their guild is present in Guild Wars!

Here are the guilds that have earned the very first champion cape upgrades:

• 1st The Last Pride – permanent gold trim cape-upgrade
• 2nd I Guild I – silver trim cape-upgrade which lasts until April 3rd
• 3rd Sweetie Animal Girl – silver trim cape-upgrade which lasts until April 3rd
• 4th Esoteric Warriors – silver trim cape-upgrade which lasts until April 3rd
• 5th War Machine – silver trim cape-upgrade which lasts until April 3rd
• 6th Bring Back the Rifts – silver trim cape-upgrade which lasts until April 3rd
• 7th Illicit Awakening – silver trim cape-upgrade which lasts until April 3rd
• 8th The Last Empire – silver trim cape-upgrade which lasts until April 3rd

We'll be adding images to this story as we're able to catch the guilds between GvG battles, so check back to take a look at all the spiffy new capes with the sparkly edges! And keep an eye out for them online, so you can see what your guild can play to earn in upcoming GWFC seasons!

*The cape trim will appear on active members of the listed guilds only. If a member leaves one of these guilds, they will lose the cape trim. This cape trim is non-transferable and non-tradable.