The ultimate form of PvP in Guild Wars, this combat takes place between organized teams of eight players. Finding a pick-up group without PvP experience doesn't really happen, as most teams that use guests find people they know or who have demonstrated prior knowledge of the game. Thus, to play in any GvG, you'll most likely need to find a guild. Choosing a group of players you mesh with is extremely important. If you try to force yourself into liking a group of people, you will probably end up getting frustrated and then you won't learn anything. (Read more about finding guilds and networking with other players.)

The nature of GvG constantly evolves. In fact, we devote special coverage to this metagame (the game surrounding the game where players try to figure out what other people are going to play), and publish regular State of the Game articles about it. During tournaments, we also have match reports to record the clash of top teams, and we've even started publishing detailed statistical information about skill usage.

The official Guild Ladder keeps a historical record of the performance of the top 1,000 guilds over time, and this ladder gets updated several times a day. People play in GvG matches for a variety of reasons, and among those reasons is a desire to place somewhere on the ladder, or even the very top rung, while others just enjoy playing as often as they can for the pure joy of the game. Lastly, GvG offers the chance to win real world and virtual prizes by playing in regular tournaments. Guilds form teams to compete in these tournaments for glory and loot.