The premiere 3v3 Arena team from Europe of Cherez, Beasteh, and Hydra -- aka Nihilum Arena -- won top honors at the recently concluded Championship Gaming Series Arena Tournament. This win comes after their notable absence from MLG Orlando despite a 2nd place finish in San Diego. Considering the purse for the MLG series is $12,000 (and an HP Blackbird for each team member), Nihilum fortunately participated in this tournament, winning a whopping $25,000.

Frag Dominant Duelists continued their strong showing on the pro circuit, finishing 2nd again after falling to Orz in MLG Orlando about a week ago, and placing first in MLG San Diego. FD-DGFG ran a double healer Rogue, Druid, Priest comp, taking home $12,500 after their defeat to Nihilum Arena's Hunter, Druid, and Priest. Two runner-up teams took home $6,250 apiece. The tournament used a format that pitted Europe's against the United States' best in the finals.

The coverage was different from the MLG series, being much more friendly to viewers not overly familiar with the game or Arena tournaments, with extensive previews of the characters used by the players, and an overview of the Arena maps prior to matches. The shoutcasting was also much more casual-friendly, at a significantly slower pace than the MLG coverage. The choice of the infamous Leeroy Jenkins to commentate was definitely a marketing move, with more than a few mistakes (calling Scatter Shot Distracting Shot, saying Ice Block's cooldown as 2 mins vs. the correct 5, being fooled by Cherez' Feign Death, etc.). The level of analysis wasn't as deep as MLG's, which featured Arena pros for commentating. Camera view was also an overhead style as opposed to the third person view used by MLG. Both tournaments had good points, and it's exciting to see Arena play gaining a stronger foothold in the pro gaming scene.

On Saturday, July 19th, the four finalists in the CGS 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Championship will meet in the squared circle of pixels to duel it out for glory. The four finalists are MoB Gaming (US), Frag Dominant (US), aÄa Agïta (EU), and Nihilum Arena (EU). The US teams will fight first, then the EU teams, and then the winners will face-off up to determine the final champion.

The matches run in a best-of-five format, ending when one team reaches three victories. There is a 15 minute time limit for each round, and the show will be live streamed by the Championship Gaming Series. The matches will be shoutcasted by none other than the infamous Leeroy Jenkins. No, really.

The show starts at 4PM Eastern, with aÄa Agïta versus Nihilum. MoB Gaming versus Frag Dominant kicks off around 5PM Eastern, and the US Finalist versus the EU Finalist will fight it out by 6PM. That schedule's going to shift a bit, obviously, if any of the match ups finish especially quickly. At any rate, we'll let you know who wins.

The latest episode of the WoW Insider Show is now online for your listening enjoyment over at WoW Radio, and it was an interesting show. The Internet's Veronica Belmont was kind enough to grace us with her presence, so we spoke with her about what she's been up to in the past with Mahalo Daily and more recently with Tekzilla, including her interviews with Leeroy Jenkins and The Guild, and we talked about all the most popular stories in the last week of Warcraft, including but not limited to:

• The infamous Wrath alpha leaks -- we didn't talk about specifics, but we did discuss with Veronica what this means for Blizzard, and what effect, if any, the leak might have on the expansion's release
• The Glider bannings, and all of the rumors swirling behind that one
• Whether Karazhan is for entry level raiders or not, and what that means for 10man raiding in the expansion
• And we talked about Age of Conan's release, and what WoW players thought of that game

Additionally, we answered some reader email (including trying to decide what Turpster will do to ding 70 on his Shadow Priest) -- if you'd like to send us some of that, just drop a note to theshow@wowinsider.com and maybe you'll hear your email on the next show. A huge thank-you to Veronica for coming by this past week -- don't forget to check her out on Revision3's Tekzilla every week, and if she does any more WoW-related broadcasts, you'll hear about them here for sure.

And don't forget, we run the WoW Insider Show live every week right over on WoW Radio -- stop by around 3:30pm EST every Saturday (and drop into the #wowradio channel on irc.mmoirc.com if you'd like to chat with us live) to hear everything you already enjoy about the WoW Insider site right there in audio form. Enjoy the show, we'll see you next week.

As you may recall, Upper Deck recently announced the March of the Legion tour, a series of tournaments against their own legionnaires for fabulous prizes. They've updated the tour page today with information on the first leg of the tour, including the identities of the legionnaires and the places they'll be visiting, including Northern California, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Philadelphia, Florida, Michigan, and Ontario (Canada). The events last through June, so there's sure to be more locations and dates added later.

The legionnaires are no slouches, though. We're talking lead developers and high class judges for the TCG here, so it sounds like you'll have your work cut out for you if you want to win yourself a Varimathras extended art card and a Leeroy Jenkins T-shirt by defeating them. Of course, as mentioned, just showing up gets you that Weeble extended art card, and it sounds like the event should be fun. Let us know how it goes if you show up to one!

Here's some fun news for our TCG players. Upper Deck reveals a new March of the Legion Tour coming to various North American hobby stores this month. WoW TCG team members will be coming to the stores and playing against all comers at sealed deck tournaments at each stop. Anyone who beats one of these "Legionnaires" will win a Varimathras extended art card and a Leeroy Jenkins T-shirt. Everyone who stops by will get Weeble extended art card (I approve of cute Gnome Warrior chicks, but how is she a protector if she's dual wielding? Learn to use a shield, newb).

It sounds like the events should be fun. I'm actually liking the Varimathras card, if only because he's one of my favorite shady characters in WoW lore thus far, and I cannot wait for the day that he assassinates the Dark Lady and uses his loyal pawns, the Deathstalkers and Defilers, to take over the Undercity and rule with an iron fist as the new supreme ruler of Lordaeron. But I digress. Anyway, it look like it should be a good time for all you TCG fans.

All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, suggestions, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening.

You've probably heard that no story is completely original, that everything is copied from somewhere, and nothing anyone ever thinks or says is really unique. It's an awfully pessimistic way of looking at the creative endeavor, but there's a degree of truth in it.

Any time you make up a new character, you are sure to be inspired by something you observed somewhere else. Perhaps you wondered, "What if there were a dwarven rogue, whose personality was a mix between Sherlock Holmes and Jack Sparrow?" or "My undead warrior is a lot like Frankenstein's monster, not evil so much as tragically neglected and rejected. He also likes to play with dolls." All this is fine and good for roleplaying, as long as you recognize the essential differences between your character and his or her inspirational anscestors.

After all, every creative endeavor basically consists of mix-and-matching pre-existing knowledge in new and useful ways. In the same way a painter doesn't need to invent new colors, color palettes, or even new color matching techniques to make an beautiful, a storyteller doesn't need to create entirely new characteristics for each character in his or her story, only mix-and-match qualities real people already have in order to create someone compelling and interesting for other characters to interact with.

Jump on in to find some great inspirations for WoW characters.

A player decided to take a school assignment and turn it into a World of Warcraft machinima piece. In it, he explains what an MMOG is, as well as various aspects of WoW. Just like the title of the film states, it's a good introduction to Warcraft.

It's very well done with lots of music, humor, good editing and beautiful 1 minute intro showcasing various zones in Azeroth. Don't miss the Leeroy Jenkins reference, the examples of the perils of Voice Chat or the Village People music under the credits.

Final Grade: A+!

Previously on Moviewatch...

I have to admit, when I saw this particular video come up on the WoW LJ community, I couldn't believe my eyes. But sure enough, it appears that Toyota has figured out that World of Warcraft is a good way to attract the attention of tons of folks. Anyone who has ever seen the original Leeroy Jenkins video knows what they're trying to draw a correlation to. I'd also be willing to bet whoever designed this plays WoW themselves.

In any case, I would bet that it won't be long before we hear "Four wheels of FURY!" and "I am the LAWGIVER!" all over the place.

Previously, on Moviewatch...