In a lot of ways, it's hard to believe that Flesh and Blood launched less than two years ago. The world was a very different place on 11 October 2019 when we released "The New Classic TCG" in New Zealand, Australia and the USA. Back then signing up stores was incredibly challenging; it had been 20 years since a major new TCG had launched, a lot of games had come and gone since then, and stores were sceptical about taking on a new product. We had game devs calling stores one by one, trying to get them on board with Flesh and Blood, this game that we believed in absolutely, but at the time most people couldn't see it. We had pockets of fans across the world, but were struggling to build any kind of critical mass.
Then COVID hit, and the world shut down. For six weeks, we didn't sell a single dollar of product. We started putting in place plans for how to put the company into hibernation. A business based on sitting down with people in the flesh and blood in March 2020 just seemed like a case of wrong place, wrong time.
But then something unexpected happened. People in lockdown needed something to do, and so, here and there, they started trying the game at home. And it started spreading. We started getting orders again, just little bits here and there, but enough to keep paying the rent, and enough to fund printing Crucible of War. Word started spreading, and new stores started deciding to give the product a try. Then Alpha sold out, and from there the rest is history.
Today we hit a special milestone in the history of the company. We just signed on our 2,000th store to GEM. Every store that signs up is an important part of the community, and we're proud to have each and every one of you on board, but for this particular milestone , we wanted to say a special welcome to Card Game Coliseum in Santa Ana, California! You guys look like you have a great community there, with a fantastic store and a great OP programme, and we're looking forward to seeing Flesh and Blood events featuring right up there on your Facebook page in the weeks to come.
So, at this special juncture, we'd like to take this chance to say thank you to everyone that has helped to get Flesh and Blood to where it is today. Thanks to all the local game stores for taking a chance on the game, and for opening your doors every day so people can play great games. Without you stocking the product, teaching people how to play, and running organised play, there would be no community. Everything the game has become today, it is because you've been there to support us, and we're committed to ensure that Flesh and Blood continues to deliver for local game stores in the years to come.
Thanks to the artists, whose work has done so much to bring the world of Rathe alive for us all. Hundreds of creatives have worked on the art and design of Flesh and Blood, along with our the key studio partners Polar Engine, GRAFIT Studios, Radial Studios, Gunship Revolution, and many others that had supported us on our journey. Your beautiful work has made the heroes, villains, people and places of Rathe the amazing setting that it is, and we're excited to continue to explore more of the world with you in the years to come.
Thanks to our distribution partners, and their sales and organised play teams who brought the game to the world. It's hard to understand how complex it is to get a TCG out into the world until you actually have to deliver something like a worldwide pre-release weekend, but our partners have been fantastic throughout. We work with a very tight group of distributors to make sure we can deliver the best possible experience to players, so thanks to Lets Play Games, Southern Hobby Supplies, PHD, Prince, Fayble, Blackfire and Asmodee.
Thanks to our (silent) manufacturing partners for getting us this far. It's been a huge journey to scale up from our first production which lasted four days, to manufacturing continuously across three different continents. It's been a very challenging process to onboard so many factories, and we haven't always gotten it right, but every day we seem to get a bit better, and every day we keep trying. We know how much work it's been, and how much work it's going to be, so thanks for sticking with us.
Thanks to all the frontline workers out there that have kept things going. In the depths of the COVID outbreak, someone still had to go and switch the machines on every Monday morning. Someone had to load out the pallets of product. Someone had to drive the truck. Someone had to fill boxes for stores orders. Someone had to keep the warehouse floor safe and clean. All those cards sitting in your decks, sitting in your folders, sitting in those boxes, all of them got there because there were people on the front lines over the last year who were brave enough to get out there and keep the world running to make things a little bit brighter and a little bit better for us all. It's hard to even know how many people worked to actually deliver the game, but we want to say thanks to all of you for your efforts over the last year.
Thanks to the team at the studio; to the creatives, the devs, the ops. Everything that is Flesh and Blood is brought to you by a team of less than 30 people. But they're hugely committed, driven to design the best game possible, and to make sure that communities around the world are supported as best as possible. It's come at a big personal expense to people, and a pretty deleterious cost to everyone's sleep, but we did it, and we did it together, and as hard as it's been we wanted everyone on the team to know ho much your contributions are valued.
Finally, thanks to the community. To the players, to the content creators, to the TOs, to the judges, to the admins. The Flesh and Blood community is such a diverse place, but also a very welcoming one. One of the best things to see as the game has grown is how the original values amongst the first group of players - tolerance, inclusiveness and hard but fair play - have remained at the core of what it is to be a part of Flesh and Blood. Thank you all for your support, and for bringing the game to the point that it's reached today. It's been an amazing journey, but it's also just the start.
We hope to meet more of you out there on the circuit as the world starts to open up again. In the meanwhile, stay safe!