Regional Finals Coverage - Saturday

It is now Saturday and the second day of the 2009 US and EU Regional Finals. The Grand Finals are up for watching later on the stream with team Woah waiting anxiously to see who they will face after the x6 vs eDawgs lineup in the Lower Bracket finals.

Before we get into the excitement and thrills expected of the matches today though, we wanted to do a small recap of the matches and highlights from the day before.

In the Upper brackets yesterday, we saw team Woah and aAa Nawak face off in what would eventually be a 3-0 win for Woah. Team Woah, who was expected to perform well in this tournament, displayed some amazingly well coordinated plays in this match, in particular by Ocelote - Woah's warrior, who pulled off some of the best plays a warrior has displayed in a tournament and was backed up perfectly by InFlame.

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises early on was Ensidia's defeat to RimP. The 3-2 score this exciting match left Ensidia getting knocked down to the Lower Brackets after their very first game, an outcome that surprised many players who considered Ensidia one of the biggest tournament favourites.

After eDawgs had knocked SK Gaming EU to the Lower Brackets in the very first match, leaving both of the tournament favourites in the Lower Brackets, round 2 of the Upper Brackets had them matched up against RimP. Noteworthy highlights from this match include Raeli's quality rogue play in shutting down Phildryzen. RimP, who now were quickly becoming an interesting name in the tournament ended up getting knocked down to the Lower Brackets in a 1-3 defeat, just after knocking Ensidia down themselves.

In the first round of the Lower Brackets, x6tence were set to face off against aAa RAT after having lost their first match of the tournament to Woah. Despite good efforts by aAa RAT, they were unable to kill neither x6tence's Paladin nor their Death Knight and ended up losing 0-3 to x6tence, much thanks to x6tence's well executed kills of aAa RAT's priest.

The second match in the Lower Brackets round 1, between SK Gaming EU and Ensidia, was probably one of the closest matches of the tournament so far. In the end though, SK Gaming EU's "cleave" setup for this round won the match in a 3-2 victory.

After both of the first round Lower Bracket matches had been played, x6tence were set to face off against RiMP, and aAa nawak to face off against SK Gaming EU. The match between x6tence and RimP was pretty much a one way show with x6tence's hunter saving Bestial Wrath for after DaisyD had used iceblock. With hypothermia up and Iceblock off limits, x6tence pulled off clean kills three times, resulting in a 3-0 win.

The other match in the Lower Brackets round 2 showed us just how close and exciting these World of Warcraft matches can be. Highlights include rounds ending in a 2v2 or 1v1 almost twice and a single well timed Death Grip saving the tournament spot for SK Gaming EU in their last match on Ring of Valor. The match ended in an exciting 3-2 to SK gaming who were now set to face off against x6tence in the 3rd round of the Lower Brackets.

In Friday's last WoW match, we got to see some very high quality play by both eDawgs and Woah. Highlights include a perfect opening onto Ocelote with a CheapShot -> KidneyShot -> Dismantle leaving Ocelote at roughly 1k HP in the first round of the match. This was then followed with a perfectly timed Imp Counterspell on Woah's druid, sealing the deal and leaving Ocelote defenseless. After suffering a loss in the first round, Woah's druid decided to re-spec into Insect Swarm, sacrificing Wild Growth. Noteworthy here is that along with this re-spec, Woah's strategy changed to a defensive style, making good use of the added druid damage, and allowing Woah to come back with three consecutive wins in a row. Woah could not be happier, now being guaranteed a spot at Blizzcon 2009 for the Global Finals and ready to potentially represent Europe as the regional champions, provided they can pull off the big W today.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is where we are at this point. Excitement and anxiety can be felt in every room of the venue both by the players, spectators, and yours truly. With high profile final rounds in both Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft coming up, we invite everyone to tune in to our livestream which can be found here: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/index.xml

Stay tuned as we make our way through the tournament rounds here in Cologne, Germany today!

Results are in from the first matches of the day in both Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft. First up on the stream was the Warcraft 3 match between Grubby and Nicker. Grubby, appearing to be very well prepared for the day, opened up the first round with complete domination by killing Nicker's hero very early. The round was over almost before it had started.

In the second round Nicker put up a little more of a fight, resulting in a huge skirmish between each player's respective armies. Despite Nicker's best efforts though, Grubby took control of the fight and swiftly dealt with Nicker's army and sealed the game in a very tasty 2-0 victory.

Next up on the stream was the much anticipated game between x6tence and eDawgs. x6tence, who up until this point had not lost a single round against an RMP team, were to face off against one of the strongest RMP teams of the tournament so far. The pressure and anticipation against x6tence did not seem to make much of an impact though as the first round ended almost as quickly as it started. eDawgs opened up with a Shatter Combo on Souler, x6tence's paladin, but bubble saved the day and allowed x6tence to quickly turn it around into a killing blow on eDawgs priest. The pressure applied by x6tence's Hunter and Death Knight was simply too overwhelming at this point for even Pain Suppression to make much of a difference.

The second round started somewhat differently as eDawgs were able to apply a lot of pressure on x6tence's paladin. Despite good efforts though, eDawgs were unable to capitalise on the momentum they had build up. A combination of deterrence and BoP on Siler, x6tence's Hunter, left eDawgs once again as the underdogs of the round as Stgeorge gets shut down and killed in a very quick turning of the tides.

The last round brought about an interesting change; namely the fact that eDawgs at this point had changed out their priest for a paladin in hopes of surviving the immense amounts of damage StGeorge had taken in the previous rounds. x6tence picked up on the change of classes quickly and adapted their strategy to the 'next squishy target in line', namely Saori the mage. After receiving a lot of pressure early on, Saori was forced to use his IceBlock in order to stay alive and get healed up. eDawgs then managed to set up an combo attack on Siler who survived a full duration Kidneyshot before x6tence again jumped onto Saori, now with hypothermia preventing him from using a second Iceblock.

The match ended, perhaps not unsuspectedly, with Saori going down and x6tence pulling off that sweet, sweet 3-0 victory. x6tence played the match exceptionally well and earned their spots in both the EU Regional Grand Finals and the Worldwide Grand Finals at Blizzcon 2009.

And with that, the European Regional Finals are over and done with. The Grand Finals for both World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3 have been incredibly intense and nailbiting. Both finals had a double set of rounds as the 'underdogs', as it were, coming up from the Lower Brackets both succeeded in taking the first set of rounds respectively.

It is with that in mind that we will take a deeper look into the different rounds of each game's finals. First up is World of Warcraft, featuring x6tence coming up from the Lower Brackets to face off against Woah for the title of European Champions.

The first round starts off in the Dalaran Sewers. Pressure is being applied to both teams, and Inflame is taking a lot of damage. A clutch teleport gives Kae a breather which lets him catch up on healing while his team mates continue to apply pressure on x6tence, ultimately resulting in Falcons death. The first round goes to Woah.

Round two takes place in the Orgrimmar arena. Kae, team Woah's druid gets through a repentence from x6tence's paladin while Inflame is getting low. Inflame manages to stay alive much thanks to very nice support and cooperation with Ocelote, the warrior. x6tence are putting pressure on Woah and move in for a pet kill before swapping to Inflame who has Mortal Strike applied to him. Meanwhile, Woah are applying pressure everywhere and move for a kill on Falcon. Finally, Kae manages to pull off a clutch cyclone on Siler allowing Woah to drop Falcon and take the round. It is now 2-0 to Woah.

The third round takes place on the Blades Edge arena. Inflame starts the match out by placing his portal on the ramp, setting up his 'escape strategy'. Meanwhile, the two warriors are duking it out against eachother before Siler makes a swap to Woah's druid, Kae. Siler hits his bladestorm ability and, combined with a well coordinated Strangulate -> Bladestorm -> HoJ, is able to drop Kae pretty rapidly. x6tence takes this round, making it a 2-1 to Woah.

As round 4 starts, we see Kae positioning himself defensively in attempt to avoid the swap that caused the loss in the previous round. Siler starts out by targetting Inflame's pet but gets cycloned. Meanwhile, Falcon finishes off Inflame's pet and it looks like x6tence are setting up for a kill on Inflame. x6tence then changes target to Ocelote who starts to get threateningly low on health before executing a very well coordinated target swap onto Kae. As Kae is taking damage Falcon hits him with a Strangulate which leaves Woah with both Ocelote and Kae low on health. x6tence keeps the pressure up and is able to drop Kae for a sweet, sweet equaliser. The score is now 2-2.

As the 5th and potentially final round starts in the Nagrand arena, each team's warrior start out by charging into eachother. Woah is able to apply some pressure on Souler while Siler gets hit with a cyclone. x6tence, however, are not ready to give up yet and some clutch play allows them to stay alive long enough to return the pressure onto Kae once again. Meanwhile, Falcon has managed to survive both a Bladestorm, a Death Coil and all the damage Ocelote's rage can produce. x6tence keeps up the pressure on Kae and is able to drop him and take the round ending this set in a 3-2 in x6tence's favour.

With this, x6tence - who are up from the Lower Brackets - manages to take this set in a best of 5, resulting in a second set of games being required in order to determine the final outcome of the finals. Not ready to give up just yet, and with everything to gain, x6tence are truly proving themselves as worthy of being here in the European Regional Grand Finals.

After a short break the games start back up in the second set of best of 5, the first round taking place in the Ruins of Lordaeron. x6tence starts off by using Death Grip to pull Ocelote out of position and into the fray of x6tence's damage dealers, forcing Kae - Woah's druid - to come out from his defensive rear positioning. The pressure then shifts from x6tence to Woah who are now targetting Siler with everything they have, including a Bladestorm from Ocelote. Meanwhile, Inflame throws on a fear on Souler who is forced to bubble to keep his team mates alive. Siler, while also receiving the BoP, shifts into Shield Wall in order to stay alive before putting the pressure back onto Ocelote. For a brief moment it looks like Kae is going to be able to keep Ocelote alive, however a well executed target swap onto Kae by x6tence allows them to drop Kae swiftly and take the first round, resulting in a 1-0 to x6tence.

In the second round we find ourselves watching the players getting ready on the Ring of Valor lifts. The round starts out with Ocelote jumping Siler, forcing Souler to heal through Mortal Strike. Woah, not determined to give up just yet, swaps to Falcon but the damage is negated by Souler's heals. x6tence are meanwhile targetting Kae who gets rather low on health while his team mates come to his assistance. A lot of damage swapping between the teams happens before x6tence manages to drop Kae who is under the effect of Mortal Strike. Meanwhile, Ocelote and Inflame have been putting pressure on both Souler and Siler who both go down shortly after Kae. Amazing turnaround in a matter of mere seconds, Woah is able to pull off the big W despite having their druid killed first. The score is now 1-1.

The third round starts on the Blade's Edge Arena with both teams fighting on the lower level under the bridge. Strangulate and Mortal Strike are up on Kae who gets knocked down to 10k health. Woah targets Siler and forces a bubble on Souler, however it is too late - x6tence manages to drop Kae after a nervebitingly long time of putting pressure on Woah. It is now 2-1 to x6tence.

In the fourth round which takes place in the Ruins of Lordaeron we find x6tence opening by pulling Inflame into harms range. Siler follows up with a Bladestorm onto Inflame but it falls somewhat short as Inflame teleports out to the safety of one of the starting areas. The effect of this teleport, however, is not simply just a life saver for Inflame as both teams follow into the starting area duking it out in very close quarters. As Woah are beating on Falcon and getting him low, x6tence are doing the same to Kae who ends up having to trinket a HoJ to bring his life back from a measly low 4k. The round ends with Inflame pulling off a clutch Spell Lock on Souler allowing Ocelot to finish off Falcon off. After 9 Grand Final rounds played the score is now 2-2 in the second set.

The fith and final round of the Grand Finals takes place on Blade's Edge arena. x6tence opens the round on Kae who is forced to trinket an HoJ early. Meanwhile, Woah targets Souler who is forced to use his bubble equally early. x6tence executes a nice target swap to Inflame who gets low and teleports away. Falcon, experienced as he is, is able to pull off a clutch Death Grip and pull Inflame back into harms reach allowing x6tence to pull off the final victory needed to remain the EU Regional Champions.

The final rounds of the European tournament are probably some of the most exciting and nail biting matches this writer has seen in a long, long, time. x6tence has proved to us once again that they are, in fact, the best team in Europe at the moment. Congratulations to them as we wish them the best of luck in the Worldwide Grand Finals at Blizzcon 2009.

Next up: The US Regional Finals!

Yesterday we had a chance to sit down with Kintt who not only is participating today in the 2009 US Regional Finals, but also had a chance to cameo as a shoutcaster. We talked a little about his impressions of tournaments in general, but also a little about his experience as a surprise shoutcaster.

His general thoughts about surprise shoutcasting? It was fun! Kintt went on to tell us that he has severely enjoyed watching the matches, and getting to shoutcast one made the whole event just that much cooler. Being a knowlegable and experienced tournament player, watching matches was for him not just about the enjoyment and entertainment, but also good practise in analysing the games figuring out what each teams were doing right and wrong.

Kintt noted that the difference between tournament matches at level 70 in the past, and level 80 these days, is pretty large. While he previously had to watch out for a lot more independent plays, these days it was a lot more fast paced and paying attention to shorter duration abilities such as Kidney Shot or Counterspell is imperative to following the important happenings of each match. He suggested that people watching the stream keep an eye out for cooldown use for abilities such as counterspell, fear, stuns, trinkets, strangulate and other abilities with similar capability of determining the outcome of a match.

On the topic of what had been the most noteworthy matches he had watched yesterday, the trilling round between Ensidia and SK Gaming EU was one of the first things he mentioned. He also talked a little big about the game where RimP defeated Ensidia 3-2. In his opinion, Ensidia might have made a dubious choice with their composition as they are better known for their abilities as an RMP team.

We then talked a little bit about RMP teams in general, and he went on to tell us that the likely reason that so many teams are going with the composition these days is because noone really has found a consistently effective counter to it. He noted that the composition that team Woah were running (Warrior/Warlock/Druid) had been having seemingly decent win rates versus RMPs and predicted that we might see more people picking it up and learning its' intricacies in the future. He also noted that he thought that RMP mirror matches could have a tendency to have a slightly random outcome due to the nature of an MMORPG if both teams were equally skilled.

Lastly Kintt took the opportunity to share his thoughts on what kind of incentives that tournament play were to offer new potential teams and players. Being able to go out there and experience something new and different, meeting your opponents in person, as well as the hightened level of competitive play were the biggest incentives for the tournament veteran. Lastly he added that obviously the money was a nice additional incentive, but he did not consider it a reason to enter tournaments if one does not already enjoy competitions and challenges.

Many thanks to Kintt for taking the time to talk with us, and we wish him and his team, Pandemic, the best of luck in the US Regionals today!

With the EU finals over and done with it is time to move over to the US matches. As can be seen on our live stream, the matches have already started. Fortunately for those of you who missed the first few games, we had the opportunity to report and recap (some of) the matches as will be presented below in this thread!

Before we give you the recaps though, we would like to remind everyone that the live stream can be found at this url: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/

The first game to be shown on the stream was the match between TSG and Complexity Gaming. Both teams are rather well known, featuring capable players such as Happyminti and Veex. Round one starts with HappyMinti opening out on TSG's Zilea by taking a decent chunk of his health bar down within just a few seconds. Meanwhile Venruki of Complexity Gaming is also under heavy fire. Despite Sodah's best efforts and a pain suppression, he is unable to keep Venruki alive thanks to TSG's incredible damage output. 1-0 in TSG's favour.

The second round is probably one of the fastest rounds of the entire tournament thus far. It starts out with Complexity Gaming charging into Zilea to get him low, however he is protected by Anti Magic Shell and is able to get healed back up. TSG on the other hand opens up on Sodah and ends up putting out so much damage that not even Pain Suppression makes much of a difference. It is now 2-0 in TSG's favour.

The third round is set to take place on Blade's Edge. HappyMinti gets a successful sap on Zilea, TSG's Paladin, however it is broken shortly after due to a Blessing of Sacrifice in place on one of his team members. Once again Sodah is taking a lot of damage, however he is this time able to make use of Pain Suppression and get healed back up. While HappyMinti and Venruki are getting Zilea dangerously low, Sodah gets Death Gripped back into harms way and gets more or less instantly blown up.

The match ends 3-0 in TSG's favour and Complexity Gaming gets pushed down to the Lower Brackets off the bat.

The second match to be shown on the stream is "A wild roguemonkey appears" - hereafter named AWRMA - vs SK Gaming US. While SK Gaming US are seasoned tournament veterans, this is the first tournament AWRMA attends as a team. The crowd in the venue, as well as players online are excited to see if what the team can offer in terms of strategy, entertainment and competition.

The first round starts with AWRMA opening up on Dancer, SK Gaming US' mage, forcing an early IceBlock. For the duration the IceBlock is up, AWRMA switches their focus to Realz, but instantly swaps back as soon as the IceBlock is cancelled. Meanwhile, SK are putting pressure on Syia, AWRMA's druid, but is unable to make it count as AWRMA swaps to SK's rogue resulting in a swift killing blow. The first round ends with AWRMA taking the lead, 1-0.

The second round is set to take place in the Ring of Valor, and SK opens on Syia in hopes of forcing an early trinket. The match goes back and forth for a bit with pressure being applied by both teams before SK makes a very well coordinated target swap back onto Syia, dropping him in a matter of seconds thanks to trinket being on cooldown. SK takes this round and the score is now 1-1.

The third round starts up in Nagrand Arena with SK opening up on Syia. Realz is taking some focused damage but manages to get away. The next set of events displays SK Gamings ability to execute very well coordinated CCs as Syia gets blinded, AWRMA's Death Knight gets cheapshotted and SK follows through with an instant target swap to Roguemonkey (AWRMA's Hunter) who dies in a matter of seconds. 2-1 to SK Gaming US.

The fourth round takes place in the Ring of Valor with AWRMA's Death Knight instantly pulling Dancer (SK's Mage) into harm's way with a Death Grip. The instant action does not seem to phase SK Gaming much though as Dancer's team mates do a magnificent job peeling the threat off and lets Dancer escape to safety. The pressure momentum then swaps sides as SK initiate a coordinated attack on Syia, starting with a well timed fear. The fight ends with Syia using his trinket in order to stay alive but to little help as he falls over dead shortly after.

The match ends 3-1 in SK Gaming US' favour as they thank their opponents for a good game.

Earlier today we had the opportunity to sit down and have a talk with all three members of eDawgs about their experiences in the tournament, the event and some about Wrath of the Lich King itself.

eDawgs roster:
StGeorge: Priest (rerolled after Wotlk, former Rogue)
Saori: Mage (rerolled after Wotlk, former Rogue)
Raeli: Rogue

It is no secret that Wrath of the Lich King has brought about some fundamental changes to the game and how certain classes and specs are played. It is also no secret that some players like the changes, and some don't, for whatever reason. StGeorge and Saori shared with us some of their thoughts about the rogue class, noting that they miss the ShadowStep style rogue play which was very dominant in the later seasons of TBC.

One of the first things we talked a little bit about was the fact that eDawgs were considered somewhat 'unknown' internationally before this tournament and how that could potentially have affected their expectations and comfort with potentially being pitted up against some of the more well known team names such as SK Gaming and Ensidia. They told us that they had already played against some of these teams on the Tournament Realm prior to coming here, and that the live experience did not change much in regards to their confidence in their ability to play well. As we have seen, they proved this by knocking SK Gaming down to the Lower Brackets in the very first round.

When the topic of the US teams was brought up, eDawgs told us a little bit about how they had played against Evil Geniuses before, and that they thought it was cool that they got to meet up with the US players in the venue alongside all the other EU teams. We suspect that this is the case for most of the teams, as it probably brings more of a 'tournament community' feeling.

As far as tournament experience goes, this was eDawgs second big tournament - the former being the ESL Invitationals where they finished 3rd out of 16 teams. They told us that they were happy with that position, considering they were a new team on the scene. As with quite a few of the teams we have talked with here, practise has been somewhat scarse, particularly against compositions outside the traditional RMP which is very well represented on the EU ladders. They added that they wished they had been able to practise more against teams with Druids, Warlocks and Paladins.

One of the last things we talked about was their general impressions of the 2009 Regional finals. We were happy to hear that they appreciated the support and kindness that had been shown to them despite being a new team. They went on to say that while they were happy with the 3rd place position in the regionals, they would definitely continue playing and practising so that they could come back next year with a vengeance - hopefully reaching the WorldWide Grand Finals.

In the end, we thanked them for their time and congratulated them on their efforts and accomplishments in the tournamet. Hopefully we will see them again next year!

As this will be the last update for the day since the matches are over for now, we would like to thank everyone has played in the matches, talked with us, or otherwise taken part in making this event such a great experience as it has been thus far.

Lastly, we would like to remind everyone that the US final matches will be played tomorrow and that we will, as with today, be providing editorials and updates along the way.

Q u o t e:
Slorkuz my undead buddy. I haven't been able to watch the streams lately, but you got them covered up so well. I like this approach although it takes a bit of time from you. :) good writing as well...

Glad to hear that you find them useful :) For reference, Sunday's coverage is continued in this thread: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=9520949812&sid=1