Lelling

It's that time of the year again! Everyone's dressed in colorful outfits, bringing out their most brilliant dyes, and the bridges of Tyria are quaking in anticipation. It's pride month! Tyria Pride 2019 is coming! Tyria Pride is an in-game march through Tyria, aimed at showing support for our LGBTQ+ friends & guildies, and raising funds for Rainbow Railroad, a non-profit organisation that helps LGBTQ individuals escape persecution and violence! The march will be taking place on two days: Saturday, June 22 | 16:00 CEST [EU] - 4 PM EDT [NA] Sunday, June 23 | 16:00 CEST [EU] - 4 PM EDT [NA] The events will last about 3 hours each day, and during the event we'll be playing some mini-games in map chat and have a ton of fun making our way from Ebonhawke all the way to Rata Sum! Why We March We march primarily to show our support for gender and sexual minority players, some of which have found Guild Wars 2 to be one of a few safe places to simply be themselves and get away from the hardships they face in the outside world. In other words, we march to spread the message of positivity, acceptance and love! Allies and proponents of equality for all are especially welcome to attend, as are those who are members of LGBTQIA+ communities! In addition to having fun in-game, we also want to make a positive impact in the world by supporting a fundraiser! For the second year in a row, we are teaming up with Gamers Giving Back, who is leading the organisation on the NA side, and together we are raising funds for Rainbow Railroad, a charity focused on providing support to LGBTQ individuals seeking a safe haven from countries where their lives are at risk for simply being who they are. Click the button bellow to go to the fundraiser: Donate Alternatively, if you wish to donate in-game prizes to support the event, please contact Lelling.6795 via in-game mail! General Event Information When do we meet? The event begins at 16:00 CEST [EU] / 4 PM EDT [NA] both days, but we do ask people to come a little bit early. You should also already be able to reach the coordinators Lelling.6795 and AngelWriter.3652 at least one hour in advance. You can contact us in-game, on the forums, or join us on TeamSpeak (EU: OpenCommunity, no password, NA: solts.org, password: franticzebra). You don't need a mic to join us on teamspeak and can just come hang out! Where do we meet? Day 1: Ebonhawke, near the portal from Divinity's Reach! If you don't have explored yet, do not worry! You can reach Ebonhawke through a portal in Divinity's Reach, so we will also have a commander showing people the way through DR if needed. Click here for an image of the Day 1 path. Day 2: Lion's Arch, at the Field of the Fallen! Lion's Arch is also connected to all major cities via Asuran portals, so you'll be able to reach easily with even a starting character! Click here for an image of the Day 2 path. Is Teamspeak required? We do recommend Teamspeak, as we'll be using it to easily coordinate a large amount of people, get everyone into the same instance, and travel through loads of maps, as well as just chat and have fun! You can get the TS3 client for free on the teamspeak website and download it and have it ready to go in less than a minute! However, Teamspeak is not required to join the event. Simply contact one of the coordinators & join their squad when the event starts, and you'll be able to join us! EU address: OpenCommunity (if the short address does not work, use "ts.theopencommunity.org") NA address: solts.org | PW: franticzebra A microphone is not required, and you don't need to speak, so feel free to join us, even if you're shy and / or just want to lurk! How do we get on the same instance of the map? We can, and will, do this through squads and LFG! The commanders will be coordinating via TS and squad chat to make sure we get everybody into the same map (or maps, if there's more people than can fit into one map). Make sure to keep an eye on LFG, and join the legitimate LFGs. What do I bring? You don't have to bring anything! But, party boxes, kites, transformations, fireworks, and other fun things of all kinds are of course welcome! If you wish to dye your armor in the traditional pride flag colours, that's also a fun way to express support! Who can I contact about the event? EU: @Lelling - Lelling.6795 NA: Angel - AngelWriter.3652 If you would like to help organize this event, please let us know by contacting us in-game, on the forums, or by replying to this thread! Pre-Events This year, we'll be organising a whole host of pre-events, with an event happening on every Saturday & Sunday in June before the main Tyria Pride event! For the first time ever, we'll be hitting the cities of each race with a fun Fashion Wars event, the overall winner of which will be announced on Day 1 of the Tyria Pride festivities upon reaching Lion's Arch! Mini-Marches The mini pride marches are a more low-key, relaxed travelling rainbow through the areas of the Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire expansions, to spread the good word about the main event! You can join us, the more the merrier! Heart of Thorns - Saturday, June 1 | 16:00 CEST [EU] - 4 PM EDT [NA] Path of Fire - Saturday, June 8 | 16:00 CEST [EU] - 4 PM EDT [NA] Fashion Wars The Fashion Wars event is a Tyria-wide fashion extravaganza! Each Saturday & Sunday, we'll be visiting a new city, and members of that city's race can participate and compete in a fashion show, showing off their best outfits that fit the theme! This year's theme? Rainbow! Whether it's just a simple accented element, or you've transformed your entire self into an amazing rainbow, show off your fashion skills and fight for the crown! Each contest will have an individual winner, and from all 5 events, an overall winner will also be chosen! The overall winner will win an in-game prize in addition to custom-made character artwork done by Malchemist! Rata Sum - Sunday, June 2 Black Citadel - Saturday, June 8 Divinity's Reach - Sunday, June 9 Hoelbrak - Saturday, June 15 The Grove - Sunday, June 16 Each Fashion Wars event will take place at 20:00 CEST on EU servers, and at 3 PM EDT on NA servers. #TyriaPrideReady Character Screenshot Contest Another way you can win some prizes or a character portrait by artist Six is by participating in the Tyria Pride Ready screenshot contest! Submit a photo of your character ready for Tyria Pride, either via Twitter by tweeting @GamerGivingBack with the hashtag #TyriaPrideReady, or via the Gamers Giving Back discord, by submitting a screenshot in the #screenshot-contest channel. The screenshot should be of your character, dressed up in a special way that to you represents that your character is ready for Tyria Pride! This can be using any pride flag motif or any other special design that is significant to you! Entries for the contest can be submitted until June 22, 21:00 EDT, approximately 1 hour after the Day 1 march concludes on NA. The winner will be announced on Day 2 of Tyria Pride! Prize Information We'll be giving away various in-game prizes for various mini-events, such as the Fashion Wars pre-event and the Trivia game we'll be playing during the main event. In addition, you're also eligible to win prizes by donating to the fundraiser! Physical Prizes If you donate 10€ or more, you can receive a Tyria Pride 2019 pin or magnet (your choice!). In addition, you'll receive a random pin or magnet "Bibi Icon" designed by @Atila of one of the following three characters: Kasmeer Meade, Marjory Delaqua, or Aid Worker Sya. For each additional 10€ donated, you can get another one (guaranteed no duplicates until you have all three). To receive physical prizes, a mailing address is required. To redeem these physical prizes, you can either use our google form, or, if you're registered at OpenCommunity, you can use the OC prize redeem form. Digital Prizes In addition, every 10€ you donate counts as a raffle ticket, giving you the potential to win lots of prizes! This year, we have a number of GW2 and steam codes, some cool in-game prizes, and for the first time, a number of amazing artists have decided to contribute their artwork to the fundraiser, so you could win a character artwork of a character of your choice! To participate in the raffle, when donating, make sure you include some kind of contact information, such as your GW2 in-game name (name.1234), or, if you don't play GW2 and would still like a chance to win a prize, an email address. We won't store or share this contact info for any other purpose, other than contacting winners of the raffle. You don't have to submit anything else or fill any form to participate in the raffle - everyone is eligible! OpenCommunity Supporter Progress As always, anyone who supports the fundraiser can also redeem their rewards with OpenCommunity to add to their reward progress - this means any donations you make to the Rainbow Railroad fundraiser will also count as if you donated to OpenCommunity when it comes to getting extra OC rewards! In addition, you will get a Tyria Pride 2019 Teamspeak and Website badge at OpenCommunity. To redeem your rewards, make sure to include your OpenCommunity username on the badge redeem form, or go through the OC redeem form on the website!

Help us spread the word about Tyria Pride by joining us in Path of Fire, braving the jungle and spreading the message of love & acceptance! Location: Crystal Oasis, Amnoon Waypoint Requirements: Path of Fire You do not need any mount or glider skills! Path: Read more about the main Tyria Pride event here:

Help us spread the word about Tyria Pride by joining us in Heart of Thorns, braving the jungle and spreading the message of love & acceptance! Location: Verdant Brink, Shipwreck Peak Waypoint Requirements: Heart of Thorns You do not need any gliding skills or mounts Path: Read more about Tyria Pride here:

Hello, everyone! June is just around the corner, and just like every year, we will be organising Tyria Pride, an in-game march across all of Central Tyria to show support to our LGBTQ+ friends & guildies! The Tyria Pride event is planned for end of June, our current most likely candidate being the 2nd to last weekend of the month! On top of that, we're hoping to do tons of pre-events all around June, and here's where you come in! To pull this off, and make Tyria Pride bigger than ever, we're inviting everyone to join us on the Tyria Pride volunteer / planning meeting, which will be happening on May 25th! Meeting Information Date: Saturday, May 25th Time: 12 PM CDT | 19:00 CEST Teamspeak address: OpenCommunity The meeting is open to both EU & NA volunteers! Whether you're a guild, a group, a community, or just an individual who wants to help out, join the meeting and see how you can get involved! Meeting Topics Topics that we'll be discussing on the meeting will be finalizing all the event specifics, including locking in the dates, planning and discussing pre-events, as well as picking our fundraiser goal! Each year, during the event, we highlight a different LGBTQ+ related fundraiser. 2016: Orlando Pulse Club victims fund 2017: Rainbow Railroad, an organisation that helps LGBT individuals escape violence & persecution in their home countries 2018: The Human Rights Campaign Foundation For this year, we've got a couple ideas, such as ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, but we're open to all suggestions until the fundraiser goal is locked in after the meeting. Our goal this year is to find an organisation which benefits the lives of queer people on an international level, and focuses on helping individuals directly.

What is the Community Assembly? The Community Assembly is a community-wide meeting open to everyone, where we can share plans for the upcoming future of the community, hear ideas from our members and discuss any questions, quandaries and concerns people might be having related to the community. Anyone can come along and voice their concerns, ask questions, share ideas, as well as ask for clarifications on any matters regarding the community What will be the big topics? Any topics can be brought up by members, but major topics that will be brought up by the OC staff relate to the changes in the community, what we hope they will achieve, and the future we're hoping to build for the community. We'll be discussing the aftermath of Toga Party 2019, as well as our plans for June, including Tyria Pride, and the public announcement of the GW2 League! More topics might accrue over time as we get closer to the assembly! And as always, if you'd like to discuss other topics, don't be afraid to bring them up! Whether you have questions yourself, or you'd just like to come and hear what others have to say or what the plans for the future are, we hope to see you at the 4th Community Assembly!

What is the MS Toga Party? Toga Party for MS is a charity fundraiser for Multiple Sclerosis care and research, happening on both EU & NA servers in GW2, with a 10-year history going back to GW1! The event will be on Saturday, May 11, with the official kickoff at 19:00 CEST, with hours of fun events and activities, cool prizes, and on-air legendary giveaways! On EU side, we are also going to be doing some pre-events, starting at 16:00 CEST, to get everyone into the party mood! You can drop in at any time during the event to hang out or join the next activity, or you can stick around throughout the entire event for maximum fun & prizes! How to join? To join the event, keep an eye out on LFG, or join by connecting to one of the hosts' voice platforms, where they'll help you get into the right map! Since the Toga Party happens simultaneously on EU and NA, EU hosts might organise some pre-events or other activities to compensate for the evening start, so keep an eye out for any afternoon events! Host information will be announced here after the final volunteer meeting on April 27th! Fundraiser Information We are fundraising for the MS Society of Canada, and the money will go to international research grants! You can find the fundraiser here: http://mssoc.convio.net/goto/toga19 You can also redeem this donation with OpenCommunity, to get extra shinies and a nice MS Toga 2019 badge - you can find this info on our donate page! Anyone who donates to the fundraiser and redeems their reward using the "Redeem Badge" button can have their donation added to their OpenCommunity supporter reward progress, as well as get the exclusive MS Toga Party 2019 website and TS badge! Any donation over $10 CAD is also eligible to receive an MS Toga 2019 pin or magnet! Activities During the event, there'll be tons of activities where players can compete for prizes, and there'll be some legendary on-air giveaways, and tons of fun stuff to do! The activities during the event will be taking place in Divinity's Reach, as well as certain starter areas. Our coordinators will be leading the event in squad chat as well as in voice, and regularly communicating any necessary info in other chat channels! Participation is open to everyone, including free-to-play and low-level players, and there are no specific prerequisites for joining! Balloon Brawl What better way to celebrate the onset of warm temperatures than to have a fun water balloon fight? The Balloon Brawl is a fun free-for all battle that anyone can participate in! Tonic Race The Tonic Race will test your racing skill on equal footing - no mounts, no special abilities, just you, transformed into something adorable, and the wide open world! Note that tonics will be provided! Fashion Wars Our longest-running event, Fashion Wars is truly an all-time favorite. Bring your best, most original, creative, dramatic, or fun looks to the runway, and please the judges! This year's theme: Orange is the New Black! Scavenger Hunt The Scavenger Hunt tests your speed as well as your wit! Participants will receive a number of hints about various locations, people, or indeed objects that they must locate, and then it's just a matter of piecing it all together! And many more! In addition to the four main events, there will also be a plethora of smaller, fun activities, on-air prize giveaways, and other fun events and mini-games!

Since our birthday falls on a weekday, we're holding an EXTRA birthday party on May 4th to celebrate our four years of fun, events, and doing our best to make the world a better place! We can get together for some fun in-game events, or just chat, hang out, and catch up!

Hey everyone! It's here again! May 1st is OpenCommunity's birthday! To celebrate, I thought we could get together and have a little fun evening as a sort of "OC Decides" situation. Just hanging out, doing stuff in-game, we can also do an event, or just do some catching up! Hope to see you there!

What is the Community Assembly? The Community Assembly is a community-wide meeting open to everyone, where we can share plans for the upcoming future of the community, hear ideas from our members and discuss any questions, quandaries and concerns people might be having related to the community. Anyone can come along and voice their concerns, ask questions, share ideas, as well as ask for clarifications on any matters regarding the community What will be the big topics? Any topics can be brought up by members, but major topics that will be brought up by the OC staff relate to the changes in the community, what we hope they will achieve, and the future we're hoping to build for the community. We'll be discussing progress on the GW2League, our new Teamspeak structure, and changes on the website! And as always, if you'd like to discuss other topics, don't be afraid to bring them up! Whether you have questions yourself, or you'd just like to come and hear what others have to say or what the plans for the future are, we hope to see you at the 4th Community Assembly!