Tipster Graffias pointed out an exciting find in the latest leaked Alpha files for WoTLK: An Icon for a Brewfest Kodo. You may recall that last year's Brewfest included a Ram mount that was purchasable with tickets by both sides, allowing the Horde very easy access to an Alliance mount with a few days of grinding for Brewfest Prize Tickets. Many Alliance weren't happy with this, annoyed that the Horde got such easy access to an Alliance mount without having to kill Baron Rivendare or a Troll a couple hundred times. Bornakk decided that the best way to answer this criticism would be by promising the Alliance that the Horde would be getting access to yet another previously alliance-only mount skin in the Cenarion War Hippogryph. Of course, Kisirani, being as awesome as she is, later said that we should have patience and things would work out in the end.

Listening to the words of the world designer seem to have paid off, as it looks like the Dwarves are going to turn the tables on the Goblins this year and steal some Kodos from them. I can finally fulfill my dream of owning my very own Kodo. My Night Elf Druid is from Kalimdor after all, and you would think there would be some Night Elves who decided to domesticate Kodos as beasts of burden too.

But really, as much as I am looking forward to grabbing myself a Kodo (and seeing a tiny Gnome riding around on a huge beast of burden), what's really exciting is this thought: If the Brewfest is in late September to early October, does that mean Blizzard is planning to give us WoTLK by September, Brewfest Kodo and all?

If they aren't planning to give us one more year with nothing but a Ram, that could be the plan. Release WoTLK and the patch with the Kodo some time in mid-September, and we'll suddenly be stuck with the horrible choice of leveling to 80 as soon as possible, working on a Death Knight, or grabbing enough tickets to buy a Kodo.

Still, while it's nice to think about WoTLK going live by the start of Brewfest, it's not a given either. It's possible that we could still get the Brewfest Kodo, only in a seperate patch. After all, Patch 2.0.1 gave us access to 41 point talents, the LFG system, and a few other new features from Burning Crusade in a patch that predated the expansion itself. It's certainly possible that Blizzard will once again do the same, handing us a 3.0 patch that'll bring in the 51 point talents, a few other new features, and the new Brewfest Kodo as well.

Either way though, I figure we win. If this leak really does point to a purchasable Kodo at the next Brewfest, we might get WoTLK over a month earlier than is widely expected, but even if we don't, we still get an awesome new prize to shoot for when the Brewfest returns to Azeroth. If we're even more lucky here on the Alliance side, maybe we'll even get new goggles that'll turn everyone into female Draenei instead of male Gnomes.

Tags: alpha, alpha-leak, baron-rivendare, bloodlord-mandokir, bornakk, brewfest, brewfest-kodo, brewfest-prize-ticket, cenarion-war-hippogryph, deathchargers-reins, gnome-on-a-kodo, holiday, holidays, honorary-brewer-handstamp, horde-vs-alliance, kisirani, kodo, leak, ram, rare-mounts, swift-racing-ram, swift-razzashi-raptor, world-events, yearly-event, yearly-events

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Events, Blizzard, News items, Expansions, Mounts, Wrath of the Lich King, Rumors