The Vanguard Trials: A Guild Wars 1 Event

Welcome to "The Vanguard Trials", a premier Guild Wars: Reforged event where daring teams will race to complete the Forsaken Tunnels on new characters. This is a marathon-like event, where teams will create new characters, line up at a starting position, then race to complete a series of specific quests.

One team will emerge champions!  

The Vanguard Trials, will start 1st of August 2026 09:00am PDT / 18:00 CEST

The GOAL of this event is for teams to complete the "Story Mode" dungeon quest chain Forsaken Tunnels in Presearing Ascalon as quickly as possible.

The event will start on fresh characters before taking the first quest. 

The questline includes these separate quests, which will also act as milestones:

1. Across the Wall
2. A Bastion in the North
3. Long Thought Forgotten
4. Charr in the Tunnels
5. The Scourge Beneath

Please note that you MUST complete each quest. You cannot skip any quests. 

Sign up by using this Google Form
(https://forms.gle/TrWz9h4q6NhiF7oM9)

Registration Deadline: July 30th, 2026.

If you would like to donate to the prizepool, please contact any one of our tournament organizers on discord or ingame.
Everyone that enters will have a chance at "door prizes". We will also be livestreaming the event, with some fun little giveaways for viewers on occassion.

More information about prizes coming soon.

1. Each team MUST have a party of 4 players.

2. Each player character must be a NEW creation using the MELANDRU'S ACCORD system in Guild Wars. You can "pre-make" the characters, but the characters need to be as if they were just created. "Pre-making" characters is solely to avoid having to create the characters live. You cannot travel, accept quests, complete quests, or do *anything* that would deviate from your character being a new character. We will monitor for cheating. The start will be at the Town Crier and the official start time will be announced on the Skein Gang discord under Event Announcements; do not accept any quests prior to starting. Again, we will heavily monitor for cheating.

• Must accept both the Reforged AND Melandru badges and keep them for the entirety of the run. In other words, you cannot trade with other players, even your teammates.

3. Teams are PROHIBITED from using the following:

• Items acquired via the /bonus command.
• No p-cons (items that give your character or party a buff, such as speed, morale, attack speed, etc.)
• Summoning Stones
• Heroes

4. Teams are REQUIRED to stay in their designated parties for the entire duration of the event.

• This includes all traveling between regions and outposts.

5. Teams must have at least ONE member livestreaming their POV on Twitch.

• Must have your team name visible at all times (Top-left preferred, in a highly visible color)
• Register your team with the Google Form

6. Teams must complete the event goal within the maximum allotted time of approximately 3 hours.

7. The official timer begins when Event Admins declare START via Discord communication in the Skein Gang discord server (#event-announcements), and stops upon killing the last boss of the dungeon: Maz Scourgeheart. The quest will show as (Completed) after killing Maz Scourgeheart.

• Show your quest log at the end to confirm.

8. The person streaming must have their party window up at all times so the commentators can see names, levels, and professions of the party.

• Ideally, it is big enough that it is legible. 

9. Participants should follow the ArenaNet/Guild Wars Terms of Service and Player Code of Conduct. Failure to do so may result in disqualification.

10. We reserve the right to decline player participation based on prior poor behavior in community events or tournaments or other reasonable circumstances. 

11. When you create characters for the tournament, please use a standardized naming format to make it easier for the casters to shout you out.
Example: [Individual Name] + [Team Name] = Snebzor Skein.

• If you need to add letters to broadly get the name you want, please do so.
• Example: "Snebzor Skein III"

Mostly a solo player looking for some people to group up with? Need 1 or 2 more people to join the event? Have no fear! Skein Gang [SG] is here.
You can go to #event-chat in the Skein Gang Discord and post that you're looking for a team.

There is also a small giveaway of a few copies of Guild Wars: Reforged in the Skein Gang discord. Don't have Guild Wars 1, but want to give this a shot? Fantastic!
You can support our amazing tournament commentators/administrators by purchasing the game using one of our referral links:

• Snebzor (Skein Gang Leader): http://guildwars2.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=26&aff_id=689
• Gwenokami: http://guildwars2.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=22&aff_id=786
• Smiiles: http://guildwars2.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=22&aff_id=722
• MightyTeapot: http://guildwars2.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=24&aff_id=88

The event will be streamed, you can watch any of the streams at:

• https://twitch.tv/snebzor
• https://twitch.tv/mightyteapot
• https://twitch.tv/itssmiiles
• https://twitch.tv/gwenokami

Q: How long will the event be?

A: We anticipate the event lasting around 3-4 hours. If teams take longer than 3 hours, we will, at our discretion, wrap up the event.

Q: Can we split off from the rest of our party?

A: You must remain in your party at all times. This includes travelling from outpost to outpost. However, when you are in an instance or an outpost, you can split off to go to a merchant, pick up a quest, etc. 

Q: Are we allowed to "gate glitch"?

A: In the spirit of speedrunning, yes. It's high-risk, high-reward. Please note that you must complete the quest by killing Maz, so you cannot "skip" any quests from the questline. All milestones (quests) must be completed. 

Q: Can I use GWToolbox?

A: Yes!

Q: Can I use GWToolbox?

A: Yes!