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The Chaos Raiding Open – Special Prize Winners!

This article is about the ''Chaos Raiding Open'' that took place on the 17th of August. You can watch the vod of this epic tournament here! It's been a little over a month since Snow Crows managed to outspeed their competition and win the Chaos Raiding Open! Once again, congratulations to them for pulling it off, but they weren't the only winners! Before the tournament we announced in a news post that there would be additional special prizes that could be earned during the tournament. Unfortunately, we weren't able to select winners for every category that we listed. We've received a fair bit of feedback on this and we're planning to improve this aspect of the competition in future installments of Ready Check Cup. For now here are the winners for the meme prizes!   While every team had a…

The Chaos Raiding Open – August 17 4PM UTC

Sign up to the tournament here. You will need to create a Hardstuck account to register. It only takes a minute and all instructions are on the Team Signup page! To kick things off again we're bringing a fully open to all, audience powered chaotic event to give Secrets of the Obscure an epic send off before we head into the Janthir Wilds: The Chaos Raiding Open! Our goal with this tournament is to create something a little different, very much towards the 'for fun' direction and create a relaxed, fun but competitive environment that everyone feels like they can have a go at! The Chaos Raiding Open kicks off on August 17th at 4PM UTC and will be live on Twitch at twitch.tv/mightyteapot.  Get ready to get involved as a viewer too as the destiny of the tournament will…

Ready Check Cup 3!!! – October 29

Sign up to the tournament here. You will need to create a Hardstuck account to register. It only takes a minute and all instructions are on the Team Signup page! We need YOU to sign up for Ready Check Cup 3!!! Our last Ready Check Cup took place in April and we are ready for our next iteration. The showdown is unfolding on Sunday, October 29 at 15:00 UTC and it will be streamed live on Twitch. If you have participated in Ready Check Cup previously make sure to check out the EVENT STRUCTURE & INFO section below as the tournament format has changed slightly from past tournaments. Ready Check Cup is our entry level raid tournament. Our goal for the Ready Check Cup is to motivate the raiding scene to participate in community events, while introducing newer raiders to friendly…

Benchmark Brawl Debut — In partnership with Cure Rare Disease

Sign up here. You will need to create a Hardstuck account to register. Any questions? Ask away  here, but make sure to do so at least a week before the event. After two editions of Ready Check Cup, Hardstuck is bringing raid tournaments back, introducing a tier of higher competition for our more daring players. Enter Benchmark Brawl, coming up on Saturday, September 23 at 16:00 UTC/17:00 BST, live on  Twitch. We will be partnering up with Cure Rare Disease once again! Benchmark Brawl is a middle-ground meant for more advanced players looking to test their mettle and climb to the highest ranks of PvE competitive play. Our goal with this tournament is to introduce more skill-based segmentation to our events and ensure balanced match-making. As you may know, the primary target of Ready Check Cup was ‒and is‒ novice…

A word from Sneb – Ready Check Cup Aftershow

Yesterday (April 29, 2023), raiders from both the NA and EU servers vied for victory and the coveted Community Hero title in the second edition of the Ready Check Cup raid tournament. Overall, it was a great success! Morale was high, bosses were defeated and the Twitch chat cheered on their favorite teams. We are incredibly grateful for all the support we’ve received during Ready Check Cup 1 and 2 and we are looking forward to making future tournaments bigger, better and more fun for all kinds of raiders. We felt it was important to make a post outlining possible changes and our thoughts on the tournament for transparency, as well as to garner feedback from the people that matter most – you! We cherish and welcome all feedback, but please offer potential solutions where you can. Before I get…

Ready Check Cup returns April 29

Sign up to the tournament here. You will need to create a Hardstuck account to register. It only takes a minute and all instructions are on the Team Signup page! The Ready Check Cup debuted last December, along with a fundraiser for Cure Rare Diseases that reached over $5,000.00 in donations! This enabled some fun and engaging milestones, like the "ScuffedCraft" Starcraft II tournament, which a niche of our community had been requesting for a while. The sequel has been in the works for the past four months and now we are finally ready to announce the date. Reinforce your armors and prepare your battle plans: the showdown is unfolding on Saturday, April 29 at 17:00 UTC and it will be streamed live on Twitch. Designed to be the entry point for raid speed-running in our community, the Ready Check…
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  • meta train
  • podcast

The Hardstuck Podcast Ep. 2 – “All aboard the Meta Train”

Missed the live broadcast? Watch the full episode here. Five months ago, the Hardstuck Podcast premiered with an interview with Mightyteapot, the man behind our whole operation. We thought there would be no better ice-breaker into the field of podcasts than to hear how our community came to be from the person that started it all. In case you've missed out on that juicy Hardstuck lore, you can watch the full episode here. Since then, one of the hosts, Will, had to step down indefinitely due to significant changes in his schedule, which left the initiative pending. Now, as we wait for the return of Will, our Lord and Saviour, we've decided to continue this series of laid-back encounters. The Hardstuck Podcast returns this Saturday, January 21 at 18:00 CET • 17:00 GMT • 9:00 PT • 12:00 ET. Tune…

Gamers, rise up for the Ready Check Cup!

Over the past year since our last raiding tournament, we have been brewing all sorts of ideas and concoctions to keep the community engaged. We have been listening to your numerous requests to bring raiding competitions back and today we are officially announcing their return with our brand-new Ready Check Cup! Designed to be the entry point for raid speed-running in our community, the Ready Check Cup means to reinvigorate the raiding scene, while introducing newer raiders to some sweaty-but-friendly competition. We anticipate this being a relatively frequent event that happens every 3-6 months. Polish your armours and get your strategies straight: the showdown is unfolding on Saturday, December 17 at 5PM GMT. The upcoming edition of this tournament is a fundraiser for Cure Rare Disease, a charity that focuses on developing advanced therapeutics for those who have been diagnosed…

The Team Builder is live!

Welcome Gamers! Today we have some exciting news about the Team Builder and other improvements. Be sure to check out this post for all the updates. We are very excited to share that the Team Builder is finally live! The developers worked hard to make this feature a robust, intuitive tool. Using the Team Builder, you can pre-organize 10-player squads for Raids and Strike Missions. In the future, we plan to extend this tool to support 5-player parties as well. You can access the Team Builder here. If you find any bugs, missing information, or anything unusual, please feel free to contact dani#5703 on Discord. With this launch, we have added a new section to our navigation bar called "Tools". Currently, this nascent category contains Team Builder and PlenBot, but we plan to add more useful tools to it in…

Hardstuck Halloween Fashion Contest 2022

Raid your wardrobe, spruce up and join us in our upcoming fashion contest! Meet us in Deverol Gardens, Lion's Arch Saturday, October 22th at 17:00 BST/18:00 CEST and decide the rise and fall of each contestant by voting live on Twitch!   Spooktober is upon us once again and what better time to hold another fashion contest. So dust off those costumes and join us in this celebration of all things spooky. During the entire stream, we'll be raising money for Gamers Outreach, a charity that empowers hospitalized children through the power of videogames. Each year, millions of children and their families receive medical care inside hospitals. For many, the process can be scary and isolating. During hospitalization, kids lose access to friends, school, and moments that typically define childhood. Gamers Outreach is a for-purpose organization helping to restore a sense…
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  • griffon
  • pve
  • tournament

Griffon Masters

Hello Gamers! Hardstuck strikes again with another competition for you to sink your claws into. For the very first time, the Griffon community will have a Arenanet Prize Sponsorship! Hardstuck presents The Griffon Masters Competition! Players will compete by showcasing their flying skills and ultimate stunt game! These stunts can include going through small obstacles, sharp cave turns, showcasing your Griffon control in such situations and more! The details for the competition are as follows: Rules: No speedup or slow-motion videos. we want the real footage. This means no edits. No copyright music in your video. (if you would like to do so, just note that I have to mute the video on stream for DMCA purposes) • One submission per person (add your account ID into the video so that nobody can make double entries). The map for this…

Hardstuck Welcomes All New Steam Gamers

Hello everyone! To those that are new here, welcome to Guild Wars 2 and Hardstuck! Hardstuck is the biggest social and gameplay-oriented community in Guild Wars 2. We strive to create a fun, dynamic and inclusive environment, where all players can feel welcome and find resources to upgrade their in-game experience. Over the past few weeks, we've been working hard on creating guides that help educate new players on the professions, what to look for when creating your first character, and much much more! We invite everyone to check them out - maybe you'll even learn something new as a veteran that has been with the game over the past years! The best and community's brightest have done a deep dive to give you a good look at the 9 playable professions in Guild Wars 2. Profession Mechanics, skills and traits,…
  • competitive
  • pvp
  • tournament

Congratulations to Zeromissing: Our New Masters of the Arena!

The dust has settled on the battlefield in the Mists... Last Sunday we watched Zeromissing battle their way through the Global Finals, triumphing over the Soo Won Slayers, their long-time rivals Rank Fifty Five Dragons, and Ultrascuffed in the Grand Finale. Zeromissing has earned the right to call themselves "Community Conqueror" and permanent access to Champion's Rest in the Heart of the Mists. In addition to these already awesome prizes, they'll also be taking home 25% of the total gold prize pool and 75% of the cash prize pool. During the Masters of the Arena II tournament, the Guild Wars 2 community has managed to raise a staggering of $10.234,20 for Cure Rare Disease. A Hardstuck record when it comes to fundraising and we're looking forward to working with them on future Hardstuck events. You can still donate and help…
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  • tournament

Masters Of The Arena II: Watch It Live This Weekend!

Greetings Guild Wars 2 Gamers, It has been two long years, but we are back with another MASSIVE PvP tournament: Masters of The Arena II. Over the past two months there have been 3 qualifiers leading up to this event and now that the dust has settled, it's time for the main course! Join us this weekend for a 3 day PvP extravaganza shoutcasted by none other than MightyTeapot and legendary PvP players Lord Helseth, Rom and Nos. We've teamed up with Cure Rare Disease during their July 28th-31st 'Game For Cures' streaming marathon, to join the battle against rare genetic conditions! You can donate to this awesome event by clicking here. If you want to learn more about Cure Rare Disease and their mission, you can check out their website: https://www.cureraredisease.org/ Masters of the Arena II consists of 3…
  • builds
  • fractals
  • pve

Fractals reborn? Hop in and check our guide and builds.

Today, Arena Net released a patch introducing significant changes to Mistlock Instabilities. Most Instabilities have been reworked to reward players for properly handling their mechanics. These changes are sure to create some interesting counterplays! With such Fractal tweaks, some of you may want to hop back into this game mode, and some may be willing to give it a shot for the first time. We know how overwhelming Agony resistance, Tiering systems, Mist Potions, Mistlock Masteries, and Instabilities can be, which is why we've prepared an introductory guide which explains all of this, and more! You will have your first character ready to try out Fractals in no time! With this introductory guide, you will learn about every system in Fractals; how to gear, how to prepare, and where to start. When you are ready, you can jump right into…
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Masters of the Arena Qualifier #3: Sign up now!

Hello everyone! Get out your calendar, because it's time for the 3rd and final qualifier of Masters of the Arena. This qualifier will take place on the 24th of July, and will feature both an EU bracket and an NA bracket. The EU bracket will start at 5 PM CEST / 11 AM EST and the NA bracket will start at 9 PM CEST / 3PM EST. This tournament qualifier will feature a double elimination format, where upper bracket games are a 'best of 3' and lower bracket games are a 'best of 1,' with the lower bracket finale comprising a 'best of 3.' Both EU and NA will have a seperate bracket. The teams who reach the Grand Finale in each bracket will both qualify to play in the next installment of Masters of the Arena. For any additional…
  • meta train
  • pve
  • wvw

Colorblind mode commanding

What we want to talk about today is color blindness, there are more than 350 million colorblind people in the world (and only 1 million strong players in GW2 😉), so it's very important to think about them while we are playing.
  • event

The Legendary Treasure Has Been Found!

9 days after the initial announcement, on June 11th, a secret password was inserted in an even more secret field, and after 162 tries from multiple users, the treasure hunt was conquered! It was a fun project, we released 21 letters, and 8 of them were repetitions. Our evil plan even included releasing red herring in the code and in form of letters H, A, R, S, T, U, and C in the beginning, to make you think the password has something to do with "Hardstuck". In reality, it was nothing like that, the password was: "i am echo of scarlet briar" That's not all! We know how hard the hunt was, 2nd (and only other) person to guess the correct phrase, a treasure hunter named Los, will be rewarded with 250 . We received some good feedback about this contest, and we hope you…
  • competitive
  • contest
  • raids
  • strikes

Accessibility Challenge Recap

Thank you all for your interest and support in the Accessibility Challenge! We had a blast putting on the competition and I'd like to give you all a recap. We had just under 130 submissions for the contest! There were a few participants that submitted multiple builds, but wow, this was quite the turnout and we were blown away! All of the builds were a joy to look through and there truly were some real gems in there! We expected to see some great builds, but there were cases where low APM builds were competitive with "meta" builds and absolutely dominated in the videos and logs that were submitted. Mechanist is a very notable example of this and I've personally started playing a low APM condi Mechanist after seeing what it can do from the contest. Additionally, I'd love you…
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  • gvg
  • pve
  • pvp
  • tournament

2022 Community Events Roadmap

It's been a long road to get here but our website has finally arrived - mostly. It's been a gargantuan effort and I'm pretty sure Czokalapik and Sognus don't even remember what outside looks like because of how many hours they have been putting in! We hope you will enjoy the content and features the team has been working hard on over the past months. We've taken massive strides in our organization and are confident we'll be able to continue to deliver even more quality content and community events going forward into 2022! What's described here is just what we have confirmed for now because we want to make sure that we don't make plans that can't be followed through with. There are several projects in the works that although they are very likely to happen, are not at a…