Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen to the grand finale of our illustrious contest! On opposite ends of the arena stand our final two contestants. The only heroes to have passed every test up to this point, and now stand between the other and the title of “Hero Melee Madness Champion.” Both are well known for taking punishment and continuing on, but they do it in distinctly different styles. Lady Grey stalks her prey, seeming to bask in the punishment her opponents try to dish out, only to rise from her darkness to strike her opponent down. Positron comes out blazing, wrapping the enemy up in a tornado of green mist, wearing them down with bolt after bolt of charged energy and using that same energy on himself to avoid attacks and heal the damage to his armor.

As the opening horn sounds, neither of these heroes is rushing forward. Lady Grey is even adjusting the wispy garment around her fingertips – but don’t let that fool you, folks. You can see in her eyes how seriously she’s taking this match up! There’s the darkness starting to gather around her! It’s swirling… ah! There’s the green glow – it’s mixed into the shadows around Lady Grey and Positron is laughing as he swoops by, just out of reach of the Lady’s dark touch. The glow from Positron’s radiation is swirling around Lady Grey just as fast as the tendrils of darkness – making it impossible for her to hide in the darkness! Right from the beginning, our armored hero has negated one of the dark one’s greatest strengths. How will she respond now that she’ll have to work twice as hard to spring her attacks?

Oh my! Positron crashes to the ground! Wait, Lady Grey didn’t move! She’s not that fast, is she? Has she developed super speed? No! It’s Stratosphere! He’s here to help his patron against Positron, and that stunning attack of his has allowed Lady Grey to slip back into the shadows and begin striking out with the darkness itself. Positron is pulling himself back to his feet, and reaches out his hand to restart his radiation attack on Lady Grey. The green glow starts swirling through the darkness and any moment now we should see… them fly? Stratosphere has lept in front of Positron’s infectious attack and has pulled the disabling energies away from Lady Grey! That black fire burns behind her eyes as she fires attack after attack at Positron, beating him down. The energies are beginning to slip through that armor of his, but he’s rolling away.

Where is he looking? Ah, he’s focused on Stratosphere, circling above the arena, drawing that noxious energy as far from his mistress as possible. Now Positron is launching himself upwards towards the sidekick. Is this wise? He’s completely ignoring Lady Grey – isn’t she the much greater threat here? She’s already back to full strength and firing one attack after another at Positron. With a quick one-two of energy-laced punches, Stratosphere plummets to the ground and now we’re back to our original two, though positron is clearly battered and bruised. Well, battered anyhow. I assume he’s bruised, but who really knows under that suit…

The radiation has started swirling around Lady Grey again, and the battle has been rejoined between the two combatants. The Lady is firing strike after strike at Positron who is energizing as hard as he can to keep himself standing and still strike out at the lady so that she also has to heal. Lady Grey closes the distance between them and unleashes a furious flurry of blows – Positron’s energy helps him slip past the life siphon strike, but she slips in a stunning brawl that has staggered Positron back and his energies no longer swirl around her. This must be it! Wait – he grabbed her hand on that punch. He’s not letting go! The energies releasing from his armor are now coursing across Lady Grey’s body, lighting her like a torch! The darkness is trying to hold on, but it is stripped away by the radiation! That’s it! It’s all over! Positron has turned ON the lights and can stagger away from this battle as our champion! All hail Positron!

Winner: Positron

Here’s everyones’ final totals, for those that are curious: click HERE.

Every year in March, we celebrate college basketball by making wild predictions based on far too little information, and a wonderful time is had by all. Inspired by this, we decided we wanted to run our own tournament, and then hold a contest we call “The Hero Melee Madness Contest” where you, the fans try to predict the outcome of our little tournament.

Click here for information about the Madness.

Final Leaderboard
1st 769 David Stirm
NE 745 David Williams
2nd 741 Joe Biscuiti
3rd 740 Jeff Baciak
NE 740 Shem
4th 739 Russel Ricks
5th 730 Mike Auth
6th 728 Craig Yoshihara
(NE = Not eligible)

One thing to note is that Shem is outside of North America so technically he can’t be one of our winners. All of the top six finishers will receive a City of Heroes(r) ccg tshirt, license plate frame and a copy of the collector’s edition of City of Villains(tm) from NC Soft. David Stirm, Joe Biscuiti and Jeff Baciak will also be receiving a full foil set of the base set of City of Heroes(r) ccg! Congratulations to all of these players for doing a great job predicting our tournament!

On the opposite end of the scale, congratulations to Mathew Silverman who locked up first place in the “Madest prediction” with a whopping 342 points! That’s a really terrible set of predictions there, Matthew, and for that you’ll be getting your very own copy of the City of Villains(tm) Collector’s Edition!

Most of all, thanks to everyone that made this a really fun promotion! We hope that everyone had as good a time with it as we did. Go ahead and start sending in your ideas for the next contest like this we should run!

Here’s everyones’ final totals, for those that are curious: click HERE.

Some people have asked what random cards were found in each of the tournament Battle Packs. Our own intrepid reporter Danny “The Greek” went snooping through the super hero lockerroom to find out!Click HERE to see previous match reports.
Click HERE to see how the fans handicaped the first round matchups.

Las Vegas, N.V., March 15, 2006 – The City of Heroes®, collectible card game, designed and published by Alderac Entertainment Group as a licensed property of the multi-award winning online computer game from NCsoft and Cryptic Studios collected the first major award of its own this week, as it was named “Best CCG” in the 2006 fan awards by Inquest Gamer magazine.

The City of Heroes CCG launched in January of 2006 to wide acclaim and strong sales in the US and Europe.

“The Inquest Gamer fan awards are one of the most prestigious in our industry – a real representation of how players feel about your product, so we are extremely excited about this award. We really couldn’t be happier” said David Williams, lead designer of the game.

The City of Heroes brand has always well recognized. The computer has won a variety of “Game of the Year” and “Best Online Game” awards from a wide range of sources including Spike TV, Billboard Magazine, Computer Gaming World, Games Magazine, and more.

About Alderac Entertainment Group
Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc., is based in Ontario, California. Formed in 1993, Alderac’s first product was the hobby gaming magazine, Shadis. It jumped into the collectible card game business in August 1995 with the release of Legend of the Five Rings, which remains one of the most popular CCG’s to date. Alderac continued on to produce other collectible card and role-playing games such as Warlord CCG, Spycraft, Doomtown, and 7th Sea, and now has become an industry leader in hobby gaming.

About Cryptic Studios
Cryptic Studios, Inc., located in Los Gatos, California, was established in July of 2000 and is an independent developer of massively multiplayer online games for the PC and next generation consoles. Its first game, City of Heroes, launched in April 2004. The game takes place in a virtual world where thousands of people play simultaneously, take on the role of super-powered heroes, fight villains and help create a dynamic story in a visually-stunning, 3-D graphical world. The recently launched award-winning    sequel, City of Villains, offers players a look at super-powered game play from the other side of the mask as villains seeking ultimate control.

About NCsoft
NCsoft – North American is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is part of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company launched two massively multiplayer titles on the same day last year: Lineage II® and City of Heroes, and in 2005 the hit games Guild Wars® and City of Villains were released. In 2006, NCsoft is poised to launch two more massively multiplayer titles: Auto Assault® and Tabula Rasa™ More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com <http://www.plaync.com/> .

Contacts:
John Zinser Alderac Entertainment Group 909 390-5444 jzinser@alderac.com

Mike Crouch NCsoft 512 531-1615 mcrouch@ncsoft.com    Groundbreaking game releases to stores worldwide

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Lineage, Guild Wars, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes, City of Villains and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCInteractive, Inc. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contacts:

John Zinser Alderac Entertainment Group 909 390-5444 jzinser@alderac.com

Mike Crouch NCsoft 512 531-1615 mcrouch@ncsoft.com

Groundbreaking game releases to stores worldwide
ONTARIO, Calif., January 10, 2006 – Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc. announces the release of the first set of the new collectible card game (CCG) City of Heroes™: Arena based on the highly successful City of Heroes® online computer game. The City of Heroes CCG was designed by award-winning game designer, David Williams (Legend of the Five Rings, Doomtown, Warlord, Initial D, Spycraft, Football Champions) and brings together hobby and computer gamers for a new gaming experience. Top Cow Productions (Witchblade, Tomb Raider, Hunter-Killer), which is also producing the City of Heroes™ comic book, illustrated all of the artwork for this new game.

“The fact that people can try out and play the City of Heroes CCG for less than five dollars with one of our new Battlepacks™ is just amazing,” says Williams. “Even better is that for the first time in the history of gaming, we will be crossing the barrier between online gaming and tabletop gaming with online rewards for league and tournament success as well as players of the online game being rewarded with promo cards for certain online achievements. Players have used our Hero Builder at http://www.cohccg.com to build their online hero as a playable card over 25,000 times in just the first month it’s been active which means the game is clearly a hit with players of the online game. Between the CCG and the success of the recent City of Villains™ release, it’s a great time to be a City of Heroes fan.”

“The majority of designers at Cryptic Studios are huge CCG players so you can imagine our excitement at working with the team at AEG on this project,” said Jack Emmert, creative director at Cryptic Studios. “We were thrilled to work side-by-side with the creators of the ‘Legend of the Five Rings’ and ‘Doomtown’ CCGs to fashion a title that truly reflects the best elements and mechanics from our MMORPG into the media that they have mastered.”

About Alderac Entertainment Group
Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc., is based in Ontario, California. Formed in 1993, Alderac’s first product was the hobby gaming magazine, Shadis. It jumped into the collectible card game business in August 1995 with the release of Legend of the Five Rings, which remains one of the most popular CCG’s to date. Alderac continued on to produce other collectible card and role-playing games such as Warlord CCG, Spycraft, Doomtown, and 7th Sea, and now has become an industry leader in hobby gaming.

About Cryptic Studios
Cryptic Studios, Inc., located in Los Gatos, California, was established in July of 2000 and is an independent developer of massively multiplayer online games for the PC and next generation consoles. Its first game, City of Heroes, launched in April 2004. The game takes place in a virtual world where thousands of people play simultaneously, take on the role of super-powered heroes, fight villains and help create a dynamic story in a visually-stunning, 3-D graphical world. The recently launched award-winning sequel, City of Villains, offers players a look at super-powered game play from the other side of the mask as villains seeking ultimate control.

About NCsoft
NCsoft – North American is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is part of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company launched two massively multiplayer titles on the same day last year: Lineage II® and City of Heroes, and in 2005 the hit games Guild Wars® and City of Villains were released. In 2006, NCsoft is poised to launch two more massively multiplayer titles: Auto Assault® and Tabula Rasa™ More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.

About Top Cow
Top Cow was founded in December of 1992 and currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and 2 licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades. Its flagship franchise Witchblade was TNT’s #1 original film of 2000. Virtually all of Top Cow’s other properties are in development as feature films, live action television, animation or video games. Top Cow has also successfully licensed and merchandised its franchises into toys, statues, clothing, lithographs, puppets, posters, magnets, shot glasses, lighters, lunch pails, wall scrolls, mouse pads, die cast cars, calendars, Christmas ornaments, Halloween masks, trading cards, standees, video games and role playing games.

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Lineage, Guild Wars, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes, City of Villains and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCInteractive, Inc. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

A mission can be defeated either of two ways: by damaging the villain or by fulfilling the mission’s “defeat” condition. Each defeat condition is different (and some villains cannot be tricked into defeat in this fashion), but involves performing an action: and paying the necessary costs (discarding cards, charging powers, etc). More commonly, a hero can simply their attacks to defeat the villain – a hero that reduces the villain’s hit points to zero defeats the villain, completing the mission.

When a mission is completed, the hero who completes the mission places the mission card under himself to show the mission is complete. There is a global “Victory” prize that all of the players receive from the mission card now that Paragon is safe from the villain’s plot. The victorious hero receives no special reward for his thankless work, but there are other cards available that provide special bonuses for completed missions.

City of Heroes has received mass market and critical acclaim in the gaming industry since its launch in April of 2004. The game was awarded PC or Console Game of the Year and Multiplayer Game of the Year by Billboard Magazine. It also received MMORPG of the year honors from Spike TV and Computer Gaming World.

The new card game will release its first set, City of Heroes CCG: Arena, this November. “With such a popular license, I see this as an exciting opportunity to bridge the gap between card gamers, computer gamers, and comic book fans,” says City of Heroes CCG Brand Manager, Raymond Lau. “There’s no doubt that the joint efforts of high caliber companies like Cryptic Studios, Top Cow Productions, and Alderac Entertainment Group will result in a world class product.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Alderac Entertainment Group,” says City of Heroes Lead Designer Jack Emmert. “Alderac has a long history of producing quality products and providing the kind of complete support that we feel is core to the City of Heroes property.”

About Alderac Entertainment Group
Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc., is based in Ontario, California. Formed in 1993, Alderac’s first product was the hobby gaming magazine, Shadis. It jumped into the collectible card game business in August 1995 with the release of Legend of the Five Rings which remains one of the most popular CCG’s to date. Alderac continued on to produce other collectible card and role-playing games such as Warlord CCG, Spycraft, Doomtown, and 7^th Sea, and now has become an industry leader in hobby gaming.

About Cryptic Studios
Cryptic Studios, Inc., located in Los Gatos, California, was established in July of 2000 and is an independent developer of massively multiplayer online games for the PC and next generation consoles. Its first game, City of Heroes, launched in April 2004. The game takes place in a virtual world where thousands of people play simultaneously, take on the role of super-powered heroes, fight villains and help create a dynamic story in a visually-stunning, 3-D graphical world.

About NCsoft North America
NCsoft – North America (NC-NA) is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is part of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NC-NA, with development and administrative offices in Texas and California, launched two ground-breaking titles in the first half of 2004, Lineage^® II and City of Heroes. The company also works with NCsoft subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. More information about NCsoft – North America can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.

About Top Cow
Top Cow was founded in December of 1992 and currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and 2 licensed) in the industry’s Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades. Its flagship franchise Witchblade was TNT’s #1 original film of 2000. Virtually all of Top Cow’s other properties are in development as feature films, live action television, animation or video games. Top Cow has also successfully licensed and merchandised its franchises into toys, statues, clothing, lithographs, puppets, posters, magnets, shot glasses, lighters, lunch pails, wall scrolls, mouse pads, die cast cars, calendars, Christmas ornaments, Halloween masks, trading cards, standees, video games and role playing games.

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Lineage and all associated NCsoft logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes is a registered trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCsoft Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.