So hey, it's really happening. Sure, Wrath went live in Europe already (kind of like those raid bosses and world firsts, huh?) but it's about to go live in about an hour stateside. Well, it's ground zero. We over here at WoW Insider went a little crazy with some giveaways, while silly little 7-11 jumped the gun and sold stocks earlier than was allowed. It's been kind of a whirlwind. Let's take a look at all the stuff that's happened this month leading up to Wrath of the Lich King.

COUNTDOWN TO WRATH

• Of course, this November, we celebrated our excitement by giving away lots of swag in our Countdown to Wrath contests. And I mean lots. We gave away some Collector's Edition boxes, some pre-paid game cards, a few Polar Bear Mounts, and some super sweet Razer gaming accessories. Cool, right? Well, guess what. We're not yet done. Keep your eyes peeled for more contests to come.
• A couple of guys got in line really early in New York. You know the drill.
• Those guys wouldn't have had to wait in line so long if they had just swung by a 7-11, which apparently sold a whole lot of copies ahead of schedule.
• Some people needn't even venture out of the house, actually. Blizzard (inadvertently) made the game available for download despite announcing the contrary. You'll still need a CD-key, though.
• As if you needed any more incentive, there have been a bunch of deals for Wrath all over the world.
• With all this excitement, the fully packed launches, and Collector's Editions selling out everywhere, the analysts seem to be right on the money by predicting that Wrath will sell five million copies within one month.
• If you're wondering why Blizzard bothers to sell boxes at all, maybe this article about Activision-Blizzard's September results will clear things up for you.
• Mike will be documenting his installation of Wrath as well as the first few minutes of his time in Northrend through a live netcast on ustream. If you don't have the game yet and want to live vicariously, it's really something worth checking out.
• If you don't want to feel the pain of watching Mike install and play live, you can always check out the Wrath installation gallery. It's kind of the same thing, but less drool-inducing.
• On the other hand, if you're a real glutton for punishment, you can drool over the unboxing of a Collector's Edition box in this video by some lucky guy who's sitting comfortably at home waiting for Northrend to unlock.
• Blizzard is getting ready to migrate everyone to the new and improved Battle.net. Well, everyone except those guys they banned for cheating.
• You know, if you've been paying attention to WoW Insider, you really should have been preparing for Wrath all this time.

LAUNCH EVENTS

• WoW Insider is going to be at midnight launches across the United States. And well, Jennie is in Scotland, but you probably missed her since she's quite likely already in Northrend like the rest of Europe. If you're in Chicago, drop in and say hi to Mike when you buy. Dan will be in Anaheim rubbing elbows with the Blizzard bigwigs, while other co-lead Liz will be in Austin. Not in those places? Check out where everyone else will be, too.
• Those are just the WoW Insider-attended events. Blizzard planned out their own events throughout the globe, too. These are the real deals with Blizzard execs signing away their souls copies of the game for avid fans and probably giving away swag. Nothing compared to the stuff we're tossing out, though.
• Did Blizzard really pay those malls to stay open?
• If you're unable to attend a midnight launch, don't sweat it too much. WoW Insider's got you covered with a full gallery of all the launch events happening everywhere. Liz has already started, and we'll keep updating the gallery as we get more pictures.

Whew. That was exhausting. By the time you get to this part of the post -- and you really should've clicked on the links above -- Northrend will likely be open or very close to being open. Pack your bags and put on some cold-weather gear. It's about to get chilly in here.

Tags: Countdown, Launch-Roundup, Pre-launch-Roundup, Round-up, Roundup, Wrath, Wrath-of-the-Lich-King

Filed under: Events, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King