Risk 2210 AD - Retail Tournaments

Wizards of the Coast has announced plans to support its Avalon Hill board games with a sanctioned organized play program at retail. The new prototype program, called "Risk 2210 AD Avalon Hill Frontline," gets underway soon, with Wizards offering official tournament kits for Risk 2210 AD.

According to a company press release, later in August 2003, Wizards plans to post a list of retailers planning to run official Risk 2210 AD tournaments, so that players can register at stores in their local area.

Each Avalon Hill Frontline organized play kit will support up to 10 players. Retailers can order as many as four kits monthly, enabling them to host weekly tournaments.

Wizards plans to introduce newly themed kits approximately every two months. "Avalon Hill Frontline offers retailers and players an exciting competitive program for some of the best board games ever developed," said Laura Veasey, category manager for the Avalon Hill games at Wizards of the Coast. "We’ve been running national championships for Risk 2210 this year, and with all the player interest, the time was right to offer a store-level program."

The first Avalon Hill Frontline season of Risk 2210 AD is the Mars season, based in the future, where the planet Mars and its two moons have been terra-formed. The tournaments use the Risk 2210 game pieces, plus new maps included in the tournament kit.

Kits also come with posters to promote the tournaments in-store, copies of game and tournament rules, and an official reporting form.

In addition, Wizards is planning a monthly newsletter -- the Avalon Hill Frontline Report -- to keep retailers and their customers abreast of tournament and game news.

With new maps and additional rules, the Risk 2210 Mars season offers many new game-play opportunities. The primary game map is based on an actual image of Mars taken by the Hubble telescope, and the winner of each tournament gets to keep this collectible map, which will not be for sale in any stores and is only available through the Avalon Hill Frontline program.

After incorporating feedback on the Risk 2210 AD Frontline program in 2003, Wizards plans to formalize the Avalon Hill Frontline program and launch Avalon Hill Frontline beginning in 2004, providing organized play support of additional board games, such as Axis and Allies.

The Avalon Hill Frontline program will be flexible to allow for casual tournaments, as well as sanctioned tournament play and even National Championship events.