Regional Finals Coverage - Friday

It is with pride that we can finally welcome everyone to the 2009 World of Warcraft Regional Finals in Cologne, Germany. After much anticipation and many practice matches, the day has finally arrived for those about to put their abilities to the test. As we find ourselves writing this update, we can see pro-gamers setting up and practising their respective games; all equally anxious about the day ahead. It is not without reason either, as the competition here today is fierce. From veterans such as Grubby, Lucifron, and Sase in Warcraft 3, to SK Gaming, Ensidia and x6tence in World of Warcraft, the bar is set for competitivie play of another level.

Outside, the sun is once again shining at levels that could make even the stoutest of outdoor wanderers break a sweat. We are quite happy to be sitting inside in a cool, airconditioned and fresh tournament venue. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what you all have been waiting for.

Some of you may already have seen the brackets announced on our news pages, but for the rest of you - the day is set to start with the following matchups:

World of Warcraft
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Woah vs x6tence
aAa vs aAa RAT
eDawgs vs SK Gaming EU
Rest in many pieces vs Ensidia Habaneros

Those looking to follow the progress, this brackets page will be updated on-the-fly as the day goes by: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/brackets-wow.xml

Warcraft 3
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Happy vs Nicker
DeMusliM vs Grubby
Lucifron vs ThomasG
Vortix vs Sase

For those interested in following the the Warcraft 3 brackets, this page will be updated as the days go by: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/brackets-wc3.xml

It is now only one hour left til we kick the day off with the initial matches. We are sure some of you who are following this event already have favourites picked, and would like to welcome everyone to share their thoughts, predictions and visions of what the tournament will bring in this thread.

As the day goes on, we will be updating this thread with match statistics and recaps even from the matches that are played outside the stream. For those interested in following the event in it's entirety, this thread is where it's at.

With that said, let the games begin!

The first couple of games being played off stage have finished for both World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3.

The results were as follows:

World of Warcraft
aAa Nawak: 3 - aAa RAT: 1

Warcraft 3
Lucifron: 2 - ThomasG: 0

Stay tuned for more as the day passes!

Another game has concluded, this time it was team Whoa vs team x6tence. After x6tence took the first round on the Nagrand map, Whoa came back strong with three consecutive wins in a row.

The end result:

Whoa: 3 - x6tence: 1

eDawgs vs SK Gaming
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Round 1: eDawgs wins, Map: Orgrimmar
Round 2: eDawgs wins, Map: Nagrand
Round 3: SK Gaming wins, Map: Blade's Edge
Round 4: SK Gaming wins, Map: Nagrand
Round 5: eDawgs wins, Map: Dalaran

End result: eDawgs: 3 - SK Gaming EU: 2


Rest in Many Pieces vs Ensidia Habaneros
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Round 1: Ensidia wins, Map: Lordaeron
Round 2: RimP wins, Map: Nagrand
Round 3: Ensidia wins, Map: Dalaran
Round 4: RimP wins, Map: Lordaeron
Round 5: RimP wins, Map: Nagrand

End result: Rest in many Pieces: 3 - Ensidia Habaneros: 2

This leaves us with an interesting situation as two of many people's favourites, namely SK Gaming EU and Ensidia Habaneros, have been knocked down to the lower bracket. What this means is that one of the two teams is destined to get knocked out and will not be reaching the finals later this weekend. Aside from that, nothing is decided yet since this is a double elimination knockout tournament.

Continue to stay tuned as we bring you more information as it ticks in!

The last few matches of the first round of Warcraft 3 have completed and we have the results for you.

Grubby 2:1 DeMuslim
Happy 2:0 nicker
SaSe 2:0 Vortix

Currently on the stream, live for everyone to watch, is eDawgs vs Rest in many Pieces. Shortly after that we will be showing aAa RAT vs x6tence. For those tuning in just now, the stream can be found on our 2009 Regional Finals page right here: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/index.xml

Here are the latest updates from the World of Warcraft Regional Finals:

UB2 - eDawgs vs Rest in many Pieces
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Round 1: eDawgs wins, Map: Dalaran
Round 2: Rest in many Pieces wins, Map: Lordaeron
Round 3: eDawgs wins, Map: Dalaran
Round 4: eDawgs wins, Map: Orgrimmar

End result: eDawgs 3 - 1 Rest in many Pieces


LB1 - x6tence vs aAa RAT
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Round 1: x6tence wins, Map: Blade's Edge
Round 2: x6tence wins, Map: Orgrimmar
Round 3: x6tence wins, Map: Orgrimmar

End result: x6tence 3 - 0 aAa RAT


UB2 - Woah vs aAa Nawak
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Round 1: Woah wins, Map: Ring of Valor
Round 2: Woah wins, Map: Nagrand
Round 3: Woah wins, Map: Lordaeron

End result: Woah 3 - 0 aAa Nawak

LB1 - Ensidia vs SK Gaming EU
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Round 1: Ensidia wins, Map: Dalaran
Round 2: Ensidia wins, Map: Lordaeron
Round 3: SK Gaming wins, Map: Lordaeron
Round 4: SK Gaming wins, Map: Lordaeron
Round 3: SK Gaming wins, Map: Dalaran

End result: SK Gaming EU 3 - 2 Ensidia Habaneros

This update marks the conclusion of the second round of the Upper Bracket matches and the first round of the Lower Bracket matches. In round 3 of the Upper Bracket matches, eDawgs are set to face off against Woah in a game many spectators here are very anxious to see.

In the second round of the Lower Brackets, we can expect to see SK Gaming EU facing off against aAa Nawak and also x6tence facing off against Rest in many Pieces.

Continuous updates are on their way, so stay tuned to see who makes their way to round 3 here in Cologne, Germany.

We have two more updates for the Warcraft 3 matches.

Upper Brackets Round 2
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Grubby 2 - 1 Happy
Lucifron 2 - 0 SaSe

This means that Grubby will be facing off against Lucifron in the 3rd round of the Upper Brackets while Happy and SaSe have been knocked down to the Lower Brackets. Stay tuned for more updates and be sure to check out our live stream at http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/index.xml if you aren't already!

Additionally, you can find the Brackets updated on the fly at these two links:

EU WoW: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/brackets-wow.xml
EU War3: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/brackets-wc3.xml

LB2 - SK Gaming EU vs aAa Nawak
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Round 1: aAa Nawak wins, Map: Lordaeron
Round 2: SK Gaming EU wins, Map: Ring of Valor
Round 3: SK Gaming EU wins, Map: Nagrand
Round 4: aAa Nawak wins, Map: Nagrand
Round 5: SK Gaming EU wins, Map: Ring of Valor

End result: SK Gaming EU 3 - 2 aAa Nawak

LB2 - x6tence vs Rest in many Pieces
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Round 1: x6tence wins, Map: Dalaran
Round 2: x6tence wins, Map: Orgrimmar
Round 3: x6tence wins, Map: Nagrand

End result: x6tence 3 - 0 Rest in many Pieces

This concludes the second round of the Lower Brackets, sending x6tence and SK Gaming EU to duke it out in round 3. Both teams have displayed some strong plays and the matches played on stream have been quite the entertaining watch.

It is unfortunate though, that the stream does not capture the ambience and life going around in the venue alongside the matches. We have seen several teams and players making friendly bets on what the outcome of the matches would be, adding that extra level of excitement and competitive feeling to the whole thing.

There are still quite a few heavily anticipated matches left to watch before the day is over, and we will of course be providing updates here on the forums for those of you who are interested in following the state of all the remaining matches.

For those interested in watching the matches, the Live stream can be found here: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/index.xml

Lastly, we are interested in hearing some predictions and comments about today's matches, so if you feel like sharing - post your thoughts in this thread right here!

Greetings PvP community!

This time around, we have the pleasure of bringing you a special editorial piece directly from the frontlines! As the pace the matches are initiated has slowed down somewhat, we have had the opportunity to have a chat with DaisyD from Rest in many Pieces to talk about the event and matches so far. DaisyD, or Alex as his name is, had lots of interesting things to say to us.

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DaisyD tells us that the first round vs Ensidia was a tough one for RimP. The main reason for this was the nervousness that accompanies playing in a high stakes tournament such as the Regional Finals, and particularly when playing their first match of the tournament against the Tournament favourites - Ensidia who everyone considered to be in good shape.

Despite the nervousness though, RimP managed to pull off a win after 5 very exciting rounds, thus sending the Ensidia to the Lower Brackets.

DaisyD goes on to tell us about their fight against eDawgs. With a victory against the tournament favourites in their pockets, the team morale and confidense levels had increased tremendously, and they were excited about continuing their winning streak. DaisyD then goes on to share with us what he considers his personal highlight of the match. Namely, the stunning 1v1 mirror situation versus Saori, eDawgs' mage.

Saori, as many mages would, was conserving his cooldowns during the 1v1 duke out, attempting to kite DaisyD and apply enough pressure to get off an Evocation in order to have mana enough to end the fight once and for all. He was prevented from doing so, much thanks to DaisyD's heroic efforts. DaisyD tells us his main focus was to stop the evocation from taking place as he knew that if Saori had got it off, it could quite possibly have been game over. At the end of the round, DaisyD finished the match with barely enough mana to pull off the big W, complimenting Saori's performance and called him 'an experienced mage'.

In the later matches, DaisyD tells us, RimP were disappointed about their own performance - particularly against x6tence. Despite the disappointment though, many compliments were made towards x6tence and their dedication to performing well in the tournament. While DaisyD and team RimP considered themselves lacking in practise and preparation, somewhat attributed to school and final exams, they all felt that x6tence really deserved the victory. From what he had been told, x6tence had played over 700 practise matches prior to the tournament, and had arrived in good shape.

When talking about the tournament experience itself, DaisyD had nothing but praise for the way players had been taken care of. He had the following to say:

"I love the Blizzard tournaments as they really take care of the players. They are not cheap when it comes to player accomodation, and it is always fun to play in the yearly best of the best since the teams participating are always here because they deserve to be so."

At the end of our little chat, DaisyD wanted to call out to the German community in hopes of seeing more German teams in both the official Blizzard tournaments as well as some of the 3rd party ones. He went on to say that he knew the German PvP community had a whole lot of potential and skilled players, but wished they (the community) would step up and make a name for themselves on an international level.

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With that, this little piece of editorial on the workings of the tournament is over for now. We would like to thank DaisyD for taking the time to have a chat with us and we hope you all have enjoyed this little piece of insight into the workings of a tournament team.

Next up: More match updates and more insight awaits as eDawgs and Woah are currently duking it out live on our stream which you can find here: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/index.xml