Last week we reported that the prize giveaway phase of the Mtn. Dew GameFuel/Blizzard promotion had kicked off, and that the in-game Battle-Bot vanity pets (pic courtesy of MMO-Champion) would become available to US WoW subscribers later in June, as announced in an earlier press release. However, it turns out the "Battle-Bot phase" has started sooner than expected.

Earlier today, a link appeared in the lower-right corner of the official contest page, offering subscribers the ability to claim the Battle-Bot pet (presumably with an in-game or Battle.net code). If you haven't made the transition of converting your WoW account into a Battle.net account yet (because of all the log-in problems and downtime reported in the past), you will most likely need to. Although the Battle.net login page is currently displaying that "all Blizzard Accounts have been converted into new Battle.net accounts," that statement doesn't seem to apply to sole WoW accounts.

After converting your US WoW account into a new Battle.net account, you should be able to claim a Battle-Bot pet without any problems. Check out more Battle-Bot details after the jump.

First of all (and as unfortunate as it is), the Battle-Bot is only available to US Battle.net account holders. It's something that's stirred up quite a bit of controversy, and if you're one of the millions of non-US residents who play WoW, I sympathize with you. That being said, it's been unofficially reported by fans that some EU account holders have been able to obtain the pet by using this redemption link (having first registered with the promotion website), then ignoring the "US only" message and clicking on the submission button below it. However, any such methods are not endorsed by ZAM; we're just reporting the buzz.

The Battle-Bot comes in two varieties; blue and red, representing the Alliance and Horde. Each Battle-Bot is "fueled" by in-game charges, which can be obtained each day from the GameFuel site. A Battle-Bot given fuel of one color will battle one fueled with the opposite color. This is the first day of the Battle-Bot promotion, so details regarding the amount of fuel offered each day (or if it will increase) are still unknown. But it appears as though you can only claim one in-game item per day from the website.

The GameFuel website prize giveaway is still ongoing until mid-August, so there may be additional Battle-Bot-related "phases" of the promotion we have yet to see. In the mean time, get your free in-game pet and smash some Allian—er...I mean—whatever faction you oppose.