Speed Run Prizes Announced

Congratulations to all 32 challengers who completed Gold Speed Run IV! It was a thrilling event, and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

It was the most successful speed run ever in terms of both individual and collective results. The total gold accumulation of 745,369 Gold, or an average of 23,292g per challenger, was quite amazing. Can we hit 1 million gold next time?

Now it’s time for the prizes. I always like to give away something that is useful in game. This time, it’s…

Choppers!

I am awarding a chopper mount… either a Mekgineer’s Chopper for use by an Alliance toon, or a Mechano Hog for the Horde side… to each of our three winners. The mounts will be delivered by character transfers from my speed run server.

The choppers go to…

  • Benfrew, winner of the single-faction challenge
  • VekTor, runner-up in the both-factions challenge
  • SisterOfTorment, special Rookie-of-the-Run award

The first two awards are clear enough. Benfrew not only racked up a convincing win by gold total, he also entertained and informed us all with an outstanding series of commentaries and progress reports. VekTor put aside his own aspirations of ultimate victory to develop and test excellent tools for MGB’ers (his Pipeline and Purchogram add-ons), and to give detailed instructions for playing the speed run to the max… and still came away with a huge gold total and overall 2nd-place finish.

The special award to SisterOfTorment is a “wild-card” prize. I wanted to recognize a challenger who contributed to everyone’s experience of the Speed Run in a big way, and/or who earned “style points” for representing the spirit of the Blueprint method throughout the challenge. There were several strong contenders for this extra award, but in the end I am delighted to recognize SisterOfTorment for her spirited play, her excellent series of progress reports, and great results as an absolute beginner in both MGB and speed run.

… plus Something for Everyone!

I also want to reward everyone who took part in the speed run and completed the full 30 days of the challenge. The whole MGB community learned a lot from your enthusiastic participation and experiences, and you deserve a big thank you from us all.

So: I am awarding full access to the “Realm Run” members’ area to all 32 speed runners. I’m hoping the info in the Realm Run series of videos (on making gold via character transfer arbitrage) may help you towards a useful disposal of all that gold you earned on your speed run server.

Congratulations to everyone!

- Jon

Gold Speed Run IV Final Results

Here is the final Leaderboard with results submitted at the end of the day on July 31st 2010.

Prizes will be awarded to VekTor for the “Both Factions” challenge, to Benfrew for the “Single Faction” challenge, and to a third mystery prize winner (not yet determined). I will announce the actual prizes tomorrow (Monday Aug. 2).

The total gold acquired for all challengers during the 30 days of Speed Run IV was 745,369 Gold (average of 23,292g per challenger).

Both Factions Challenge

1 Jonathan Kenins, The Scryers US: Alliance 78335g, Horde 32553g, Total 110888g (increase: 51902)
2 VekTor, Ysera US: Alliance 46267g, Horde 41605g, Total 87872 (increase: 44694)
3 Captain, Shadow Council US: Alliance 69001g, Horde 14230g, Total 83231 (increase: 55963)
4 Toltec, Undermine US: Alliance 33077g, Horde 27339g, Total 60416 (increase: 31245)
5 jplineman, Mannoroth US: Alliance 39597g, Horde 5609g, Total 45206 (increase: 24446)
6 Calór, Stormrage US: Alliance 22361g, Horde 16977g, Total 39338 (increase: 17503)
7 Dragon, Uldaman US: Alliance 8631g, Horde 6838g, Total 15469 (increase: 4915)
8 Lindsey, Hellscream US: Alliance 8945g, Horde 5682g, Total 14627 (increase: 4794)
9 Bartock, Earthen Ring US: Alliance 4199g, Horde 2520g, Total 6719 (increase: 1373)
10 Wisdomone, Hydraxis US: Alliance 1290g, Horde 2620g, Total 3910 (increase: 1651)
11 auburnimp, Dragonblight EU: Alliance 1214g, Horde 1204g, Total 2418 (increase: 939)
12 arnie, Dragonmaw US: Alliance 101g, Horde 1077g, Total 1178 (increase: 0)

Single Faction Challenge

1 Benfrew, Kirin Tor US: 70325g (increase: 21782g)
2 Knowmad62, Moonrunner US: 36915g (increase: 16915g)
3 nrsratchett, Azjol Nerub US: 33812g (increase: 12914g)
4 Trop, Burning Legion EU: 30010g (increase: 15691g)
5 DrZap, Velen US: 22551g (increase: 9662g)
6 SisterOfTorment, Dragonblight US: 11842g (increase: 3121g)
7 Mahdi, Dawnbringer US: 11337g (increase: 2219g)
8 williams101, Antonidas US: 10736g (increase: 7630g)
9 wotfan2, Zul’Jin US: 10694g (increase: 5212g)
10 Rennell, Silvermoon US: 5807g (increase: 1263g)
11 Orbi, Dath’Remar US: 4923g (increase: 1726g)
12 loboblanco, Kargath US: 4521g (increase: 0g)
13 Kenny, Kel’Thuzad EU: 4330g (increase: 914g)
14 Dyemnd1, Silver Hand US: 3886g (increase: 1201g)
15 EvilTom27, Emerald Dream EU: 3868g (increase: 0g)
16 dgrove21, Trollbane US: 3166g (increase: 507g)
17 maritime407, Skywall US : 3000g (increase: 0g)
18 Brokk, Shadowsong EU: 1665g (increase: 0g)
19 Ursacmav, Stormreaver US: 591g (increase: 199g)
20 abcoachnz, Dalaran US: 118g (increase: 0g)

Video (runs 5:00): Although I’m in sell-off mode and generally trying to reduce my inventory of banked items, I still need to buy stocks for my most productive pipelines, such as flasks and elementals. Here’s how I start the day, working through my pipeline list using Auctionator’s buy tab to spot the opportunities quickly.

Daily summary (screenshots posted in Forum)…
Total Gold Acquired: 78,335g (daily increase 7,363g)
Average Gold Earned per Day: 2,611g

Complete transaction logs for the day are in preparation.

[MGB Member Content]

Read the rest…

Gold Speed Run Day 30, Horde Report

Full report to follow.

Daily summary (screenshots posted in Forum)…
Total Gold Acquired: 32,553g (daily increase 900g)
Average Gold Earned per Day: 1,085g

I passed the 100,000 gold mark (Horde and Alliance totals combined) in the early evening today, my grand total at the end of Day 29 is 102,625g.

Daily summary (screenshots posted in Forum)…
Total Gold Acquired: 70,972g (daily increase 6,980g)
Average Gold Earned per Day: 2,447g

Video (runs 4:08): My attempt to drive the price of flasks down on the Horde side, to meet the demand here on the Alliance side, looks like a fail. The price just doesn’t want to drop. Only one thing to do (other than run away): drive the selling price up here!

[MGB Member Content]

Read the rest…

Gold Speed Run Day 29, Horde Report

Daily summary (screenshots posted in Forum)…
Total Gold Acquired: 31,653g (daily increase 2,376g)
Average Gold Earned per Day: 1,091g

Video (runs 5:00): I’ve run into a problem with my hottest pipeline, raid flasks (Flask of Endless Rage in particular): out of stock, and none available at my buy price. My normal source is cheap supply on the Horde side, for cross faction selling on the Alliance. Let’s see if I can drive the Horde-side price down.

[MGB Member Content]

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Secrets of the Gold Speed Run Masters

Five top tips for boosting your auction house results into the big-money range achieved by the leaders of the current Gold Speed Run IV.

Part One (runs 31:36): Secret #1 – Super-size your auction house with cross faction trading… Secret #2 – the transforming power of big-ticket items.

Part Two (runs 32:17): Secret #3 – Take advantage of timing cycles and opportunities… Secret #4 – VekTor’s Pipeline Add-on.

Part Three (13:25): Secret #5 – Apply your Speed Run experience across multiple servers (your “home” server in particular)… plus Q&A with bonus tips on big profits from commonplace vendor goods, and using Remote Auction House.

[MGB-Plus Member Content]
Read the rest…

Daily summary (screenshots posted in Forum)…
Total Gold Acquired: 63,992g (daily increase 4,706g)
Average Gold Earned per Day: 2,285g

Video (runs 5:00): I’m not following the “50% Rule” for buy and sell prices on the Flasks that are selling so strongly every day. I’m buying at 18g and 19g, to sell at 24g and 25g… because the per-transaction profit is still good, the time to execute each transaction is tiny, and there is virtually no risk of running up an inventory that won’t sell.

[MGB Member Content]

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Gold Speed Run Day 28, Horde Report

Daily summary (screenshots posted in Forum)…
Total Gold Acquired: 29,277g (daily increase 1,735g)
Average Gold Earned per Day: 1,045g (1,020g)

Video (runs 5:00): Cross-faction trading has been slow to develop on this speed run, but it has started to kick over the past week. Now that I’m into sell-off mode, I’m using xfaction to balance out inventories and optimize the selling opportunities for each of my pipelines.

[MGB Member Content]

Read the rest…

Herbs were very active today, as I’m starting to push them out the door aggressively, with sharper pricing (Frost Lotus, Plaguebloom, Mountain Silversage, Dreamfoil, Goldthorn, Icecap, Khadgar’s Whisker, Golden Sansam, Wild Steelbloom, Teroconeand Briarthorn all going well). This made up for slower sales in elementals. Flasks went crazy as usual leading up to raid hours.

Daily summary (screenshots posted in Forum)…
Total Gold Acquired: 59,286g (daily increase 4,281g)
Average Gold Earned per Day: 2,198g

No video reports today.