We're running late on this one (the beginning of the month was quite busy), but it's not any less exciting: congratulations go out to our latest Guild of the Month for May: the Dragon Knights on Area 52. They sent us a nomination along with many other guilds in the game, and were selected for their originality, community, and raiding performance. Among other interesting things about the guild (which you can read in the second half of this post), they run a guild podcast, an email newsletter, and even a lotto, all along with raiding competitively and leveling up as a guild.

In addition to being profiled here on the site, the Dragon Knights will also win a raid pack from Swagdog.com, where they (and you) can pick up customized shirts and hats with their guild name and logo printed on them. Our Guild of the Month contest is ongoing, so stay tuned to the site for the next chance to nominate your guild to be recognized here on WoW.com. Read on to learn more about the Dragon Knights and why they're our winners for May.

The guild was actually started up by the son of the current guildleader, Lilmommah. She says that he was the first to play the game and was the one who started the guild, but when she kept pestering him about guild changes, he eventually gave her leadership ("Being THE MOM," she says, "is a good thing"). Bigstick is Lilmommah's husband, and he is the "Councilor of the Raid," in charge of leading raids for about four years now. Novvar is the official guild banker, Jmet is the healing class lead, and Gottimas serves as the guild's "Information Officer" -- in charge of researching content, events, and patch notes, and acting as liason for the guild's Raid Council. Arcthestout runs disciplinary actions, Cutielock is the Councillor of the Revel (runs social events like the guilds "DKLotto" -- more on that in a bit), Malachial handles "moral issues," and while Yungtoon and Vandrexios are on hiatus right now, they serve as tie breakers for "votes of substance."

They're exceptionally proud of being around for so long -- they've been in the game for almost as long as it's been around, over four years now. And they're currently raiding in Ulduar -- just recently, they went in with just eight people to try and learn something about Flame Leviathan, and they ended up dropping him right then and there. They raid progression content twice a week on Friday and Saturday, and then raid other content earlier in the week for two days, helping to gear up and improve alts and other guildies.

But while they're no slackers in the raiding department, they have a lot of fun, too. One thing that caught our eye is their "DKLotto" -- they run a guild lotto to beef up morale and keep the guild bank packed. Every month, players can pay 50s per ticket, and it's all tracked by Cutielock using an Excel spreadsheet, so everything is open and professional. The winner is selected by a random roll (everyone's given their numbers ahead of time, and the roll takes place in a group of guildies), and then one month the winning guildie gets everything, and the next month, the winning guildie gets half, and the guild bank gets the rest. Lots of guildies get involved -- one month, they gave away a grand total of over five thousand gold. Just the fact that they can carry that off without drama every month speaks to how well the guild is run.

And the rest of their guildies are proud of the guild, too. Crossguard and Gottimas make a guild podcast called Random Aggro (you can hear the second episode over on their website), which features raiding information and recaps, as well as information and interviews about the guild's members, and the occasional contest. Pretty impressive, considering it's all made by and for the guild itself.

Bigmommah also writes a guild newsletter every week, with guild news and quotes, funny screenshots, spotlights on guild members, and columns written by various guildies. She says that to avoid drama, they keep the guild chat "cleaner than the Disney Channel," but also have an "After Midnight" club where guildies who are mature can let loose and have fun.

As you can tell, we were very impressed by the Dragon Knights and the guild they've put together -- they have led a great balance of both casual and hardcore players, and make sure that everyone in the guild, no matter what their interests or playstyle, have an outlet for enjoyment. They're having a great time in game and doing a lot of fun stuff, and that's why we've chosen them as our Guild of the Month for May.

Congrats to the Dragon Knights. As we said, stay tuned for the next chance to nominate your guild for the Guild of the Month award, and see you guildies and name right here on the site.

Tags: area-52, bigmommah, dklotto, dragon-knights, excel, flame-leviathan, guild, guild-of-the-month, honor, lotto, newsletter, podcast, raiding, server, spreadsheet, ulduar

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Contests, Raiding, Bosses