The WoW TCG World Championships wrapped up this weekend, and an American player named Jim Fleckenstein emerged the winner. The World Champs took place in Paris, and there was a fun twist -- apparently last year, a French player won on American soil, and next year, the tournament is going to take place in Austin, Texas, so there's a rivalry building.

The WoW TCG site has lots more, including play-by-plays of all the matches if you're interested in how the top players play the game (Jim won with a Shaman -- SHAMAN POWER!), and they've even got video of all the folks throwing down to win the crazy prizes. Looks like lots of fun in Paris for players of the TCG.

The 2009 season kicks off with the end of these world champs -- the next event will be a Darkmoon Faire event in Anaheim, CA on November 9th (right before the Wrath release), and of course the Drums of War expansion is due out soon, with those loot cards we've been drooling over.

The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game World Championships have started up this weekend in Paris, France -- there's some excellent coverage on the official site about all of the CCG gaming going on over there. They've got everything from a roundup of the swag bag to play-by-play on the featured matches and some good commentary on what kinds of decks players are bringing to the tables. All told, the players are fighting for a prize pool of $250,000 -- some serious cash for playing cards.

They're in the middle of Day 2 right now, so there's lots more tournament coverage to come from Paris. If you're a fan of the TCG, this weekend's your chance to check out what some of the top players are up to as they battle for the big prize.

Our friends over at Upper Deck's WoW TCG site have been running a little review of their biggest stories from 2007 over the last week (including this terrific piece about the Lady Kath card), so if you haven't been keeping up over there all year, or just want to look back at what happened in the trading card game, go check them out.

They've also posted two pieces looking forward as well. The first is a look at what the Organized Play schedule looks like for 2008-- they're going to have a new award to honor the Player of the Year, starting with the just-finished World Championships, and they're also going to have a Group Championships tournament as well. They're also looking for names for both events, so if you'd like to win a Wraith Scythe card, check the bottom of that page.

And there's a preview of what's coming in 2008 as well-- an art book is due out soon, and the Magtheridon's Lair raid deck is coming out soon also. We'll keep an eye on what else they've got planned over there-- while the online game is headed to the Sunwell, they've only just scratched the surface of possibilities on Burning Crusade content.

Upper Deck has officially announced the winners from their World Championships a while back, and here's all the info on who won and how much.

As we noted previously, Guillaume Matignon, a 26-year-old from France, took home the $100,000 1st place prize. He played a Blood Elf Paladin deck, and went 6-3 on his first day, and an incredible 6-0 on Day Two, beating over 400 entrants to win the championship. Impressive.

Second place was $25,000 (still nothing to laugh at) and went to Eric Prieur, a 30-year-old from Montreal, and Brad Watson (whom we interviewed before the tourney) and Matt Loomis, both of a team called Cheateyface from Chicago, won 3rd and 4th place, $10,000 each. Upper Deck tells us in a press release that there was also a Ladies' Championship (so ladies weren't actually participating the regular championship?), and it was won by Jacqueline Spreadbury, another of Watson and Loomis' team members.

Congratulations to everyone who took home prizes from the event (and it sounds like many, many prizes were given out), and a big grats to these guys. Winning thousands of dollars in a collectible card game tournament-- who knew?

Upper Deck's first WoW TCG World Championships are over, and the $100,000 winner is Guillame Matignon, who crushed his opponents (including the US Champ Brad Watson) with-- what else-- a Blood Elf Paladin. Unfortunately, it looks like UD's Ben Drago was far too busy to blog, but UD's official site has lots of great information and recaps.

• This really was a World Champs-- players hailed from countries all over the globe.
• Here's a great walkthrough of the artists' table, including a few good insights from the artists about where the card art comes from.
• Unfortunately, Upper Deck didn't let us into that dinner with the developers that they held, but here's the two guys who got to go.
• And finally, the players: they put together not only profiles of the top 8 players, but after it was all said and done, an interview with the $100,000 winner. The French player ran undefeated for 12 rounds to win it all, and how'd he do it. "Aggressive Horde, always." For the Horde!

All of Upper Deck's coverage is available on their website. Odds are that you didn't win the tournament, but worry not-- WoW Insider has your chance to win another WoW TCG prize later this week. Congrats to all the winners in San Diego, and cheers to Upper Deck for putting on what sounds like a terrific TCG event.

As we mentioned the other day, the WoW TCG World Championships are just around the corner-- they're kicking off in San Diego this coming weekend-- and WoW Insider got the chance to speak with one of the top players of the card game, Brad Watson. He's the US National Champion this year, and he, along with a long list of other qualified players, is going to sit down in San Diego to try and win the $100,000 First Place Prize.

Brad spoke with us about how he got started in the card game, the best and worst cards to use during play, and how Upper Deck's TCG has changed over the last year or so since it began. He gave us interesting insight on how sets like Fires of Outland and the holiday Winter's Veil set have affected tournament play, and we even asked him about what average TCG players think of the loot cards that online gamers seem to go crazy over.

Our interview with Brad Watson starts right after the jump. Stay tuned later this week for more news from Upper Deck's World Championships in San Diego.

Lots of action in the WoW TCG this week, as Upper Deck heads to the World Championship in San Diego next weekend. WoW Insider will have more coverage heading into the event (billed as "one of the biggest TCG tournaments ever"), but before we get to that, here's an interesting opportunity for those of you who know the card game so well you might actually like to design it: Upper Deck is hiring.

They've got an R&D position open, so if you have an interest in designing or updating card games for Upper Deck, look it up. They don't specifically say that you'd be working on the WoW game, but the ad is linked from the WoW page, so if you do want to work on the TCG, now's probably your best chance. They do ask for a couple years of card game design experience, so I'd imagine the pool for this is pretty limited already, but you never know-- could be that with the right background and interests, you could be coming up with cards for the next expansion release.

Stay tuned for more info about Upper Deck, the WoW TCG, and this weekend's World Championships.

Upper Deck has announced that their final WoW TCG tournament this year, the World Championship, will offer a whopping $100,000 prize. Yes, you read that right-- the top winner will take home a hundred grand. There's already a long list of people invited to the tournament, mostly from previous Nationals and qualifying tournaments, but there is still one chance left to get into the tournament, which starts on November 29th at the San Diego Convention Center. If you can come up with an Honor Ranking of 4 by then, you could enter the Honor Grind tournament on November 29th, and the top four winners of that will be invited to compete in the World Championships. So if you really want that $100,000 prize, and have never played the TCG in your life, better get playing.

But even if you don't plan on winning, the World Championship sounds like a lot of fun-- TCG artists (including Blizzard's Samwise Didier) will be there to sign cards and meet players, and there will be lots of other events and tournaments. The Crafting Redemption metagame will also be happening for the first time-- players will be able to turn in "extra" material cards to "make" special exclusive item cards for the game. And this "Thunderfury" card is an exclusive participation card for the tournament, too. Very nice.

And Upper Deck also reminds us that November is release month for the upcoming March of the Legion expansion, and they're going to hold a sneak preview of all the new cards on November 17th at a store near you. Supposedly there's a list of stores hosting the events over on their site, but I don't see it yet, so hopefully it'll be up soon. And keep your eyes open-- we've already been told the new set will have three brand new loot cards, and we've got our ears to the tracks on just what they might be.