|  Issue #33 - Time for Celebrations... & Prizes!
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Christmas comes but once a year, and we're taking advantage of it since it nicely fits in this year with SEGA of Japan's 5 year anniversary of Phantasy Star Online! Phantasy Star Online was released for the SEGA Dreamcast on 21st December 2000, as we approach the date 5 years later, SEGA has got something HUGE planned... and so had we! Ragol.co.uk, being the foremost Phantasy Star Online resource n'all, would be souless without celebrating the event. 5 years of PSO... i mean, come on, it's not rocket science... that's something special indeed, and with it being christmas aswell, even more of an excuse! We're holding 9 (That's right, 9!) competitions between now and the time December ends. Here's a little lowdown on them all: - Blue Burst Battle Tournament
Delayed from a month or two ago, we finally take our Battle Tournament to Blue Burst in style. In classic Ragol.co.uk Singles Knockout style, get down to the Blue Burst servers at a date TBA, and battle your way to become the first ever battle champion and walk away with a great prize! - Episodes I & II Battle Tournament
Keeping our classic Ragol.co.uk Singles Knockout theme going, we're bringing it back to the Nintendo Gamecube, just like our very first battle competition. Take on others back in Alphard06 at a date TBA, and take down the rest of the competition to walk away with another great prize! - Episode III Battle Tournament
Unlike all our previous Episode III Battle Leagues, this time, we are yet again continuing our classic Ragol.co.uk Singles Competition theme. At a date TBA, Alphard06 once again see's more competition, C.A.R.D. style! With special prizes in store, be sure to be a part of the action! - Blue Burst 'Towards The Future' Team Challenge
In something fairly different from the current battle scene, and with all the in-game action going on, it'd be silly to leave the teams out of the christmas competitive spirit we're blooming here! On 22nd December, Sonic Team conducts Server Maintenance on the Blue Burst servers, and 'Towards the Future' quest is added to the game! We want you and your registered Blue Burst team to blast through the quest as fast as you possibly can between then and 31st December! Bet Online Fun in a competition that's something completely different! Use your Ragol.co.uk Meseta to bet on different questions possible outcomes every week up until christmas, and the winner makes a real profit, walking away with one nice prize! We've never had a proper fan art competition before, and to celebrate 5 years of PSO we want to see your best pieces of artwork, whenevr you drew them, whether it's brand new, or something you've drawn previously, in the last 5 years you've been a budding fan of Phantasy Star Online! 5 years of PSO, which means a lot of possible snapshot taking possibilities, and we know there's most likely to have been some amazing moments in the past. Whether they're brand new, or old snaps, whichever version of PSO they're from, get them entered into our competition! - Ragol.co.uk Forum Signature Competition
Signatures have always been popular on our forums, and pretty much all forums ever made for that matter! Now there's a chance to let them shine, by entering them into our special competition, purely devoted to these undoubtedly amazing delights! - Guess the Song Competition!
Fellow Ragol.co.uk Staff Member decswxaqz is back and he's holding a very special version of his classic 'Guess the Midi' competitions... except this time he's not using midi's... but mp3's! Guess the Songs from popular SEGA games and more in a competition that never gets old! For more information on any of the competitions including all upto-the-date information, check out our specially constructed mini-site at http://www.ragol.co.uk/xmas/. We've got competitions taking place as 'one-day only' in-game events such as our Gamecube Episode I & II, and Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution Battle Tournaments, aswell as our first Blue Burst Battle Tournament, and then if that wasn't enough and you don't play PSO anymore maybe (Are you mad?!), then you can still join in the fun by joining in on our forum competitions. We know there are loads of people out there who have played older versions of Phantasy Star Online such as the SEGA Dreamcast & Windows versions, so i think our '5 years of PSO' competitions that come in the form of the Fan Art and Snapshot competitions are the most special at this time. Please send/post any snapshots you've taken from any version of PSO you've played in the last 5 years, and please do the same with Fan Art you've produced over the last 5 years. We know there's loads out there. But you know what? As if just participating in our competitions weren't enough, we've also got lots of prizes to give away too. Keep on reading... We've got a few special investments we want you to have this christmas, which we would like to otherwise call... prizes! All of the competitions mentioned below come with prizes for winners, and some with runners up prizes too! To read more on the prizes themselves, scroll on down to the next segment! How to win them and what competitions they are, you'll find out below: - Blue Burst Battle Tournament
The winner of this knockout styled tournament win one of our amazing Ragol.co.uk Dog Tags! To win, simply turn up on the day (Date TBA) in the appropriate server and get yourself entered into our Tournament brackets before they fill up, and then battle everyone else in your path until your names in the winners spot! - Episodes I & II Battle Tournament
The prize for winning this Battle Tournament is again one of our great limited Ragol.co.uk Dog Tags! To win, alike the Blue Burst battle competition, turn up to our official block (Alphard06) on the day (TBA) and get yourself entered into our tournament brackets before they fill! Then simply battle your way to the winners spot. - Episode III Battle Tournament
Once again, like our other in-game competitions, the prize is our one remaining Ragol.co.uk Dog Tag! Prepare your winning deck, and turn up to Episode III's Alphard06 lobby on the day (TBA), enter yourself into our tournament brackets, and then fight your way to victory. Easy! - Blue Burst 'Towards The Future' Team Challenge
Not keeping the teams out of the action, one of the best features of Blue Burst, we made sure that this was something... a little different. When we heard that Server Maintenance meant the 'Towards the Future' quest was being added in the run upto christmas, we had to mix it up a little, and this is the result! To enter this competition, get together with the rest of your team, and when the quest is released, pick upto your 4 best team players and just go nuts! The team with the best finishing time on our leaderboard by 31st December wins a very special black Ragol.co.uk wristband per participating teams member! 
A very strange competition indeed, but one that is proving popular already in our forums! The concept is simple. Each week a new question is placed on the forum, and you make a bet on the outcome using special Ragol.co.uk Meseta! The competition ends on 25th December where the winning player with the most Meseta on their account wins a very nifty Ragol.co.uk Keyring! 
Whether you've done something in the past or would like to produce now for this competition, we want to reward you for it! Simply send us your PSO Fan Artwork before the new year and after judging, you could be walking away with one of our very cool Ragol.co.uk Keyrings! Runners up (2) each also recieve a Blue Ragol.co.uk Wristband too! - Ragol.co.uk Forum Signature Competition
It's a simple concept, you make a great signature as you probabily always have been since you've been a Ragol.co.uk Forumer, or before that maybe, and then send it to us, using our forums! We'll then take a closer look at them all, and if yours is declared the best, then you walk away with our last remaining great Ragol.co.uk Keyring! Fear not if you aren't a winner though, 2 runners up also recieve our stunning black Ragol.co.uk Wristbands! 
5 years of PSO, 5 years of undoubtedly great Snapshots to go with it, and we want to see your best! There have been many previous great submissions in our forums, and now, even if you've posted it before, we want you to send us your favourites that fit into any of the categories below, and if it gets judged the best, then you'll win one very nice prize! The categories are as follows: - Best SEGA Dreamcast/Windows Snapshot
- Prize: Light Blue Ragol.co.uk Wristband
- Best Xbox/Gamecube/Blue Burst Snapshot
- Prize: Green Ragol.co.uk Wristband
- Best PSO: Blue Burst, Episode IV Expansion Pack Snapshot
- Prize: Black Ragol.co.uk Wristband
- Best Action Packed Snaphot*
- Prize: Black Ragol.co.uk Wristband
- Best 'LOL' Snapshot*
- Prize: Black Ragol.co.uk Wristband
For the very first time, we've got 3 amazing lots of Ragol.co.uk prizes to give away to winners of the competitions mentioned above! You've most likely seen just about everyone else walking around with wristbands of some kind, normally made to help some cause or other, well, since SEGA thought they'd do the same with Phantasy Star Universe over in Japan, we'd play that game too, and we've got our own Ragol.co.uk Wristbands! 
On one side reads the words 'RAGOL.CO.UK' while these special reversable bands also have 'THE PSO RESOURCE' printed on the other side! Wear them day in, day out, to show your support for Phantasy Star Online and the foremost PSO resource that is, Ragol.co.uk! As if wristbands weren't enough, we've also got some great Ragol.co.uk Keyrings! As the images show below, whack you keys on this keyring holder and take them everywhere you go in style! Whether rain, wind, or snow, your keyring will stand out from the crowd and is one very tough badger indeed. The same design comes on both sides, so you'll never have a preference either! 
The Phantasy Star Online Logo & RAmarl are Copyright SEGA. And now the most innovative prize of them all, specially printed Ragol.co.uk Dog Tags! Winning one of these is a very hard thing to do, but it's quite an achievement, and there's no better way to say that then with your very own Dog Tag! Wear it 24/7 to show that you are Ragol.co.uk's Xmas '05 Champ! Chain included. 
Want to know how to win one? You'll want to refer back to the section above! Remember, certain prizes are awarded for certain competitions. We've only got so many of these amazing prizes, so make sure you give it your all! The main reason we're coming to you this christmas with all these great competitions, is because SEGA of America/SEGA of Europe doesn't see the 5th anniversary of Phantasy Star Online until next year, just SEGA of Japan and the Japanese regions of the world. And you know SEGA of Japan, they like to do things... BIG! It's the largest size text there is ok! -_- To celebrate the 5th anniversary of PSO, SEGA have released the Episode IV Expansion Pack to the Japanese version of Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst as a free download to all it's subscribers this christmas. Mainly because many might be missing out, but mainly it's because they don't want anyone missing out on their HUGE Episode IV competition. Previously in Blue Burst, and in Phantasy Star Online in general really, SEGA have held competitions in the form of Maximum Attack! So, with the release of Episode IV, guess what? Maximum Attack 3 has landed! 
In association with 'Net Cash', Sonic Team of Japan present Maximum Attack, Stage 3 for Episode IV, for the very first time. What exactly the competition involves is pretty obvious following previous trends, kill as many monsters as possible in the time limit, and work your way upto the top spot of the leaderboards... but i'm expecting just a little bit more actually. Why? Well today Sonic Team of Japan announced just some of the prizes that are up for grabs through Maximum Attack 3: 
You remember in a previous Hunters Gazette when i mentioned that up for grabs in the Nintendo Gamecube Maximum Attack, Stage 2 competition were 5Gb Apple iPods, a competition that took place in 2003. Well, they've gone mad with a spending budget again, because up for grabs this time... 32" LCD High Definitions T.V's, HDD Recorders, Mp3 Players, and 500 MegaPixel Digital Camera's amongst other items! Who knows what else they'll have up for grabs, but when we find out, we'll let you know. To participate though, you don't need me to tell you that you've got to play the Japanese version of PSO: Blue Burst and be a Japanese resident (Or at least have a Japanese postal address). Will will get anything this great when SEGA of America & Europe celebrates the 5th anniversary of Phantasy Star Online early next year? Well, i think we all know the answer to that question, but who knows eh? In the meantime, enjoy our competitions this christmas! If you'd like to comment on this editions main article, then do it in our forums, in this particular Ragol.co.uk Forum Thread! Share your point of view with the world! Do you agree, dont you agree, DO post on our forums!  Chao, our chao, has been once again at it, wondering the online auction houses of eBay, looking for great SEGA and Phantasy Star merch. This week, Chao comes up with some nice treats that you could consider for that good friend you also know has a good ol' PSO fetish!  If you're interested, then click on the item! All prices were correct as of December 2nd 2005 (Night GMT).
Chao, for now!  | | The Ragol.co.uk Hunters Gazette |
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Credits December 2nd 2005 Hunters Gazette Edition by: Lee-yoshi
Images: Lee-yoshi
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