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Team Blog
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MLG Columbus Preview! |
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Posted on May 29th, 2009 at 6:20 AM |
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| Age: 21 |
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| From: Kingston, Ontario |
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| Tags:
WoW,
MLG
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With MLG's first stop just around the corner (starting on June 5th) in Columbus Ohio, I figured that I would give you all a rundown on the teams that will be attending, so you can be in the know for when the tournament starts. The tournament will feature 8 of the top teams, 7 being from North America, and the last team being from Europe, and will be a round robin format where every team will face every other team before moving on to elimination brackets, making for extremely long hours, but also for many very interesting matchups.
The following teams will be in attendance:
- Pandemic
- eMazing Gaming
- Fnatic
- Complexity
- Evil Geniuses
- Ensidia
- Gravitas Gaming
- SK-Gaming US
Pandemic
Team Armory - http://tinyurl.com/l7d8ob
Players & Known Classes
Kintt - Priest, Paladin, Druid
Shinanigans - Warlock
Ohnoes - Rogue
Beastlol - Death Knight, Warrior
Setups
Rogue, Warlock, Druid
Death Knight, Rogue, Healer
Warrior, Warlock, Druid
Druid, Deathknight, Warlock
Team Information / Predictions
Pandemic is an interesting team for me, coming into this tournament we have two players who're LAN veterans in Ohnoes, and Kintt, who were last seen at LAN events playing with Caal as their third where they had some solid showings, but nothing up to their expectations for themselves, and up until the most recent tournament realm, they had not been seen for a while. Kintt however put Pandemic's name back into the ring by becoming a force on the US Tournament Realm as a Shadowcleave team with new additions Shinanigans and Beastlol, and they were dominate throughout the early phases of the TR. However when 3.1 came out, they along with the other Shadowcleaves and DK / Hunter / Paladin teams chose to sit on their rating, and they were no longer confident in their ability to compete with the other top teams leaving questions about their setup and the strength of their team in this patch. Since then, they have however been able to continue having success online playing mostly with Ohnoes in place of Beastlol since the 3.1 DK nerfs, but this is not really a surprise as they have consistently been at the top of Vindication in WotLK, as that's really what got Shinanigans known when Warlocks were weak early in season 5.
This team is quite versatile with Kintt being able to play three different healers, however the question with this team will be just how good are they at the new classes / setups that they're playing, Beastlol was known for his warrior play in the past, but is just recently returning to it after a long stint on Death Knight, and Kintt has just recently taken up druid, and began playing priest again after almost exclusively playing his Paladin in season 5, and on the tournament realm. Although they have continued to have online success with Kintt on these new classes, will that trend continue at LAN or will his inexperience show? What is this teams main setup, and will the fact that they can run so many comps end up hurting them as they will very likely not have the same level as practice on individual setups as other teams attending will.
Prediction: Four strong individual players add up for a team that will be hard to predict, and annoying to play, but in the end Kintt's inexperience, shows on Druid and the teams lack of a go-to comp come crunch time hurts them as they finish middle of the pack 4th / 5th, with a respectable showing.
eMazing Gaming
Team Armory - http://tinyurl.com/nkn6xc
Players & Known Classes
Twixz - Hunter (May also play Druid)
Payce - Paladin
Flexxorz - Deathknight, Shaman
Setups
Death Knight, Hunter, Paladin
Various cleaves?
Team Information / Predictions
This is 2/3 of the team which qualified on the US Tournament Realm after being able to avoid having to play the final week when the setup was nerfed with 3.1, with both Twixz and Payce, however Niero will not be able to attend so Flexxorz who will be playing their Death Knight will replace him. These are 3 relatively unknown players, Twix is known within the Tichondrius community as a solid hunter who has been around for some time, Payce I really had never heard of until the Tournament Realm, and Flexxorz I know nothing about other than the fact that he normally plays with Brayzee. This team had strong success on the TR, but with nerfs to their main setup, and a replacement, it definitely leaves many questions about their performance for this event. Looking at their armory, Suuwuu is Niero's Death Knight, and there is an additional one, presumeably Flexxorz, but they have a pathetic 37 games played with a low win loss, and very low PR, which leads me to believe that they have not been practicing very much, unless it is on other accounts on a different realm. Their team rating of 2305 leaves much to be desired for a competitive team with the new rating system as all PRs were raised 300 points, making this the equivilent of a 2k team pre-rating changes. There is also a ret paladin on the charter which could mean they're experimenting with other cleave teams, but I am not really sure, the characters do however have some mediocre gear which could lead to their struggles on ladder thus far.
Prediction: They were a solid online team with a very overpowered setup on the TR, but if their armory is any indication, they're struggling now, and I think most teams were surprised that eMg was even sending a team after their no-show as ESL Philidelphia, and their very spotty track record. Unless they're getting in major practice elsewhere, the fact that they're all new to LAN, playing with a ringer, and a much less dominate comp will lead to a less than satisfying result for this team, I am thinking 7-8th place range. However, with four RMPs in the tournament, and the fact that they're running the setup that the Korean team Shipit was able to utilize to defeat both HON, and SK Korea they won't get knocked out before zerging down a priest or two and making for some interesting matches.
Fnatic
Team Armory - http://tinyurl.com/mbc94q
Players & Known Classes
Glick - Warlock, Ret Paladin(?)
Hafu - Druid, Shaman, Priest(?)
Yog - Warlock, Warrior, Rogue
Setups
Warrior, Warlock, Druid
Rogue, Warlock, Shaman
Priest, Ret Paladin, Rogue (?)
Team Information / Predictions
The world reknown WLD team which struck fear into many last year has (as many predicted), been far less of a factor since WotLK with Druids simply falling off the map. However with the re-emergence (is this even a word?) of Druids in 3.1, Hafu is back in full force, putting her back on the class where she had so much sucess in 2008. The team however has made a major change by dropping Rhaegyn, who was felt by many, to be the best Warrior playing in the North American scene, and who's extremely defensive play fit with Hafu's playstyle quite well. There has been a lot of drama surrounding this team however, and Rhaegyn made his departure from the team sometime in WotLK although it was never really clear for a long time if Yog or Rhaegyn would be the third to Hafu & Glicks duo. Yog is well known in the American scene for being a great multi-classer and a very offensive player in general, his team claimed 2nd at the North American Regionals last year running WLD, and also were able to get 2nd place at Blizzcon (iirc) after defeating fnatic, and then losing to the 2008 champs Nihilum. This team competed in the most recent tournament realm but struggled, after getting two teams high rated early, they tanked their lower team badly, and were really never able to make it back up to qualifying ratings as they constantly went up and down struggling with the many RMP teams playing in the final week of qualification. They waited until about 15 minutes before the server went down on the last night to play on their higher rated team, presumably because they lacked confidence that they would be able to raise its rating, and tanked about 50 points to finish well out of the top 8 for Regionals.
After that Hafu, sold her account, or was hacked, depending on who you ask, and her druid has been MIA, Rhaegyn appears to have quit the game so Hafu is playing on other peoples characters, and Yog is practicing on Rhaegyn. Up until recently it seemed like they had really not played at all, but it looks like they're finally getting some practice in on armory, and raising up their rating with WLD as their main setup, and a few games on Rogue Lock Shaman. It is worth mentioning that Yog played with Neilyo and Douja for the Tournament Realm as well, and most would say that was the stronger team, who was in 9th place at the end of it without playing on the final night, and it's also the same team that is dominant currently on the infamous BG9. You have to wonder if the success Yog has had with his other team will hurt his confidence playing with Fnatic when they're not achieving the same level of success, but with Druids back to being grossly overpowered, and Glick comfortably able to play Affliction (because of the druid healer), they will be a tough team to deal with regardless.
Prediction: The lack of practice and motivation this team has had, coupled with the fact that anyone playing with the infamous couple is likely to be the odd man out, will hinder the team, and they won't find success with Hafu on her Shaman, however with the state of Druids, and the current HoT / Drink spam playstyle that is most effective with druids, Hafu won't have trouble getting comfortable on Druid, and the team will be a tough WLD. Based on their struggles on Tournament Realm against RMP, Yog's extremely offensive playstyle, which is the polar opposite of how Rhaegyn played (and which leaves Hafu to fend for herself much more often), I see the team putting up some good fights but not finishing higher than 5th / 6th range.
Complexity
Team Armory - http://tinyurl.com/n9gtzl
Players & Known Classes
Sodah - Druid, Priest
Venruki - Mage
Happyminty - Rogue, Death Knight
Setups
Rogue, Mage, Priest
Team Information / Predictions
Complexity, formerly GotGame, has been a force in the North American PvP Scene for quite some time, however after an EXTREMELY disappointing showing at the global finals where they finished 0-5, many questions have been raised about the team. They had been extremely well known for their Druid, Mage, Rogue setup, but after the disaster in Germany, they basically completely abandoned in in favour of RMP, which they were able to qualify with on the Tournament Realm, squeezing in with an 8th place finish. There is no doubt the team has great synergy, as they have been playing together for a long time now, but is Sodah a top priest? I considered Sodah to be the best druid that I had played with / against, and I have no doubt he is a strong Priest, but there are always questions about players who're somewhat new to a class when put into mirror matches against world famous priests such as Hydra who have been playing the class forever with enormous success.
Personally I consider them, along with SK US to be the best North America has to offer as far as RMP goes, but it's unclear if it will be enough as most people feel the European RMPs are simply superior. CoL will be out in full force to prove everyone wrong however, and when combining the fact that they have been playing together for so long, they online success, and their desire to prove that the Global Finals in Germany was a fluke, they will be driving hard for a top finish. Another question is will Sodah pull out his Druid now that they're extremely strong after so long? His druid has ZERO games played on its 3v3 team, but the class isn't exactly rocket science to play, and DMR can be very effective against cleave teams, which Serennia claimed dominate Complexity, saying they were not an issue at all when he fought them online with his cleave setup.
Prediction: I have no doubt that Complexity will play well at MLG, and have a much stronger performance than at the Global Finals, however according to my sources they have not faired well in RMP mirrors against SK US who I'm told boasts a 20-6 record against Complexity, which does not bode well for a tournament where half of the teams are RMP. I do however see them overcoming peoples doubts and finishing 3rd depending on the result of their match against SK US, and if they're able to overcome Ensidia, they could very well end up in the finals.
Ensidia
Team Armory - http://tinyurl.com/m3rbj2
Players & Known Classes
Hydra - Priest
Redhot aka Redkoala - Mage
Kalimist - Rogue
Setups
Rogue, Mage, Priest
Team Information / Predictions
This team really needs no introduction as it is extremely well known in competitive PvP today, and has been very highly thought of in recent months. Hydra is probably the best known Priest in the world, Redhot was the winner of last years Blizzcon, and newcomer Kalimist is a well known name in the European PvP community. This team has been widely hailed as the best European RMP, and possibly the best in the world, boasting an all-star lineup, and great success both online and on the European Tournament Realm. It is interesting to note however that Hydra really has yet to win a major tournament, because his lone victory came at CGS where there were only 4 teams, and they had to only beat a team which apparently win traded to get there, and duelists going for glad, a team which they countered badly who looked helpless against them in the finals. Kalimist has not been to a LAN as far as I know, and his first real step onto the competitive scene was last week with ESL's invite only European tournament where they were beaten in consecutive sets by eDAWGS, and relatively unknown RMP leading many people to think that perhaps they were not all they were made out to be.
This team seems determined to prove their critics wrong and show the world what they're really capable of at MLG after that disappointing showing online where mods, latency, and other things may have been a factor. They will get their chance, and early on many people were calling for them to dominate the tournament, however since that performance their backing has seemed much more quiet and less convinced that it will be an easy win for Ensidia.
Prediction: Ensidia lives up to their expectations, overcoming a shaky start at the LAN due to first time nerves from Kalimist, making it all the way to the top 3 at columbus, and most likely the grand finals.
Gravitas Gaming
Team Armory - http://tinyurl.com/lpv34x
Players & Known Classses
Celex - Mage
Ely - Priest
Emolol - Rogue
Setups
Rogue, Mage, Priest
Team Information / Predictions
Once considered the end all be all when it came to North American RMPs, Gravitas Gaming AKA Duelists Going For Glad, have all but fell off the map in WotLK. After failing to qualify at ESL Philidelphia for the Global Finals in a Tournament where their setup was grossly overpowered, they seemed to pretty much stop playing the game, and took a long time to level / gear up, basically becoming a complete non-factor in early season 5. On the Tournament Realm, GG failed to show up to play, never really becoming a factor and blaming ratings not resetting and a lack of teams queing the last week of play as the reasons for them not qualifying. They were however not really ever a factor on the Tournament Realm, and I don't believe they ever cracked Qualification ratings, so after a push which fell short in the final days, they gave up and were resigned to their fate of not qualifying. It must be pointed out however that even with the ratings reset SK US, a team which had not played together at all before Tournament Realm, running the same setup, was able to overcome what GG cited as their reasons for not qualifying to finish in 7th place.
Has their time passed? Many people think it has, and wave them off as a non-factor, however they have been playing a lot of late, and are at a solid rating with a good win loss on armory, and from what I'm hearing they're playing quite well online. Duelists seem to be trying their best to prepare for MLG, and to prove that they're still in it to win, so it will be interesting to see how they end up doing.
Prediction: The team I feel to be the weakest RMP at the Tournament based off of Tournament Realm results shows signs of life due to their recent practice online, but never really gets clicking leaving them with many missed opportunities and a frustrating showing at the upcoming MLG finishing no higher than 5th.
SK Gaming USA
Team Armory - http://tinyurl.com/nn8wcz
Players & Known Classes
Realz - Priest
Sekko - Rogue
Pookz - Mage
Setups
Rogue, Mage, Priest
Team Information / Predictions
After the former SK US team which had a poor showing in Germany at the Global Finals with Realz on hunter disbanded, it appeared Realz would drop off the map. However after some early struggles for these members on the Tournament Realm with various different teammates, they ended up coming together to form this team and overcome the odds to push from basically no games played and no rating on a new team into the top 8 in order to qualify for the upcoming North American Regionals. A team many people underestimated and waved off as something that would die out and not be able to actually reach the top 8 ended up proving everyone wrong, and doing just that, being basically the only team playing non-stop which qualified in the last week which had to have been an extremely frustrating endeavor.
This team which includes Pookz who's RMP qualified for last years Regional Tournament as well, but wasn't able to play due to a medical problem with one of their players ends up with two people who haven't played at LAN, and one who won ESL Philidelphia in a tournament which many considered to be a joke because of the state of arcane mages, and then had one very shaky performance at the Global Finals in germany may be hindered by a lack of experience or confidence going into this LAN event. They have been practicing hard, getting tons of games in against Complexity in particular, where they're apparently doing extremely well although they have one of the weaker records from online play leading Serennia to brush them off as a non-factor when asked about the team on Arenacast recently.
Prediction: If what I have heard is true, and SK US really does have a 20-6 record against Complexity then this team will probably be sitting pretty in a tournament that has 4 RMPs. However the fact that two of their players have never played on LAN is always something which can make it hard to predict how they will do as some players adapt well to the environment, others struggle in it. I do however feel that this team has strong potential, and will come onto the scene with a strong showing, finishing as high as 3rd place depending on how they do against Complexity in their match.
Evil Geniuses
Team Armory - http://tinyurl.com/lgzp3y
Players & Known Classes
Azael - Warlock
Kollektiv - Shaman
Zyz - Rogue
Setups
Rogue, Warlock, Shaman
Team Information / Predictions
After a frustrating showing in europe at the Global Finals where we fell one round short of knocking out SK Korea from the tournament and moving on into the later rounds of the event while playing as Destruction, the spec recieved massive buffs making it exponentially stronger, and breathing new life into a setup with which we were already quite confident. After a poor start to the tournament where we were dominated by both AAA, and iNNERFiRE, we were able to adapt somewhat to the elevated playstyle of the RMPs, to beat Nihilum 3-0, Redhot's RMP Mousesports 3-1, and nearly knock SK Korea out of the tournament. Although it sucked to come so far and finish with the result we did, we learned out lesson, and took home a new determination to improve even more, as well as some valuable insight into the european playstyle for RMP.
We were able to bounce back on the American Tournament Realm, having two teams finish in the top 8 for qualifying, and being an extremely dominant force after the 3.1 patch went live, finishing a combined 55-7 with our two charters the final week against top teams. We left the tournament realm with even more confidence, and have carried that over into our practice on live servers for the upcoming events, resolved to prove we can play with and beat the best that both America and Europe have to offer, after having some difficulties getting practice time together while being on different servers, we very recently transfered to Kollektiv's server where we wasted no time in taking the top spot on the 3v3 ladder.
The doubts with our team lie in my opinion mainly with the strength of the Shaman healer, I have no qualms in saying I feel Kollektiv is without a doubt the best Shaman playing the game at the moment, but the class has minimal representation, and without a doubt has weaknesses, the question is, will we be able to overcome them?
Prediction: It has been quite some time since we have won a tournament, and although we have had some good showings with 3rd place finishes, we're hungry to win another tournament, and few teams have as much determination as us to do so. Combining our recent success with even more recent buffs to Destruction Warlocks, our lineup of players, how much practice we have been getting , and how long we have been playing together, I feel that we will have a very strong showing at MLG Columbus. I won't make a prediction as it seems somewhat self-serving, although I will say we're confident, and will not be happy with anything less than playing our absolute best at MLG Columbus.
I hope you enjoyed my preview, be sure to tune in on the weekend of June 5th to cheer for us, and your other favourite WoW teams at MLG Columbus, and be sure to comment / leave some feedback for my efforts!
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