The finals are over and we can only blame YOU for not crossing your fingers hard enough. I’m kidding of course and a 2nd place at a Global Event that is easily comparable to Blizzcon competition-wise is amazing. The team also showed that they can improve as they took the edge over SK-Sansibar this time.

Overall I have to say that the finals were everything from boring to breathtaking, from disgusting to delicious. Of course because of the DDos attacks, the first day was unbearably long and that showed in some players play as well. While I don’t know how much the Korean jetlagged, SK-US was very tired which showed in their play.

After group phase many people were concerned that Korea would steamroll all over the competition taking first in their groups. As you might know, I was there as the team manager of coL.Black but of course I was there rooting for Team Dignitas as well. Fortunately or unfortunate, they didn’t meet in the tournament so it wasn’t really a problem to cheer for both of them. Nevertheless it was a heartbreaking experience for me. I was standing right behind Kalimist when they lost to x6tence. The curveball of running with a Druid instead of a Paladin proved to be a good idea.

Right after they had their game against mouz which played a similar comp but with a very different approach. The “monster cleave” as Kalimist called it, applied immense pressure by popping everything in the first couple of seconds of the match, using BoP on Cheap Shots. They were pretty much immune for the time they took to kill Hydra and they got 3-0′d pretty easily. I was a little concerned that the guys would let this get to them too much and even when SK Korea wasn’t too much of a problem. Fortunately they 3-0′d them pretty easily. If x6 would’ve gotten on more round of mouz or played better against SK-US, they would’ve been out before the tournament really started.

In the other group, coL.Black was at an overall match score of 3-1 with one 3-0 loss against EG, a close win 3-2 against SK Sansibar, 3-0 win vs iNNERFIRE, as well as a 3-1 win vs SK.EU in which they used Priest/Enhancement/Hunter. It all came down to the last match vs Button Bashers. As the games of the Beast Cleave were a little delayed, I was able to watch the other games. Basically, if either EG or SK Sansibar lost, coL.Black would’ve been at least third. Only if both of them won and the team around Twixz lost to Button Bashers, they would’ve been thrown out because of a three way tie breaker and they had the worst score. Before the match, I got to read SK.EU’s party chat and they didn’t really want to give EG a free win and iNNERFIRE certainly didn’t want to be 0-5′d in group stage.

As the last match of  SK.EU was finished, Engimz wasn’t exactly amused about the outcome and coL.Black understood in that very second that they had to win. At this point they were 1-2 against Button Bashers. And of course it had to be them. Every time these teams met, it was important for the outcome of the tournament and this time it would be no different. At the score of 0-2, coL.Black who had that switched to ProtWar/Hunter/Paladin for the match, decided to train the Priest. They were able to tie it at 2-2 and the last map would decide the entire outcome of the tournament. If they win, they are first in their group at a score of 4-1 just like Button Bashers. If they lose, they are out because of the worse tie-breaker score. The game starts and Flexx is under heavy pressure and Toez has to blow Cooldowns fairly early. Numberone has to use PS as well though and it really comes down to who dies first. I remember seeing Numberones HP at 8k HP, no desperate prayer or battle master and Flexx sitting on his back only to get Cheap shot after and die. Later Orangemarmalade came to Flexx and said “I didn’t know that we kicked you out, sorry. But you won last time!”

As I heard that Team Dignitas had to fight SK Sansibar again, I felt a little sick to the stomach. Sanisbar in such an important situation… again? The series of course went to full length. I don’t recall much of the game other than the 1vs1 situation and the final match. Call it traumatic event if you want. When Flyn came into this 1vs1 with Noonia’s trinket and AMZ down, I thought he would try to reset as he had no sheep dr on him as well and just routinely finish it like the duel god he is. It was apparent that he wanted to win and he’d rather win it quickly. Quite unusual for Flynpr0c, not much popped up and he didn’t really crit as well and so he lost the 1vs1. In the final game, many people thought Moldran was the one to blame for the loss as he charged into the chamber but it was really a combination of things such as great CC by Flyn who kept both the Paladin and the DK outside. The smell of revenge was in the air and Moldran learned a lesson. Just as much as one can’t just walk into Mordor,

hydragandalf

The semifinals pretty much like the the group stage matches against SK-Korea. Some people argue that mouz vs Dignitas and EG vs SK-Korea would’ve resulted in an all Korean final. Certainly, this would’ve been a much harder challenge for the western world. Dignitas played it really save after losing the first round and used the LOS of Dalaran in a way, that we mostly only see cleaves do. Kalimist got quite some restealth off and the Koreans were never really in kill range of anything. The game ended 4-1 and we were watching EG, who had just won against the “monster cleave” which already very few expected to happen. I was sitting in the middle of many top players who seemed all pretty sure that Button Bashers was running the wrong strategy and so was I. Train the Shaman worked great for iNNERFIRE in groupstage against EG as they almost beat them, going 2-0 up. Button Bashers lost the semi final and we were blaming it on too few practice against the comp or simply Korean pride who don’t want to just zerg one target. Little did we know that Button Bashers realized that this strategy was not going to work against the RLS that was sitting on this stage right now.

In the finals, we were sure that SHOO SHOO SHAMAN TRAIN was the way to go and it probably is against every other RLS. The idea of training the Priest in return and not helping the Shaman as much seemed to pay off. On top of that, the RLS that came together days before the event played just incredibly well. Azael later said that he never played so good in his life and I wholeheartedly agree. Every single one on that team was simply playing his A-Game and the performance that especially Tenderloin showed was jawdropping. In Cologne I felt upset because of the way Dignitas lost, getting RoV as the last map etc. This time, my mind bowed to EG’s performance as they were simply the better team this time.

Frodotender

After everything was said and done, we have to summarize that we know so much but at the same time so little about WoW. Almost everyone predicted Dignitas to be in the top 4. Almost no one had Evil Geniuses on their list. While RMP continues to be a strong line up, we found out that RLS can win tournaments which they did for the first time. Resto Shamans if played amazingly are viable, even to win a global championship (for the first time as well).  No cleave in top 3.

Later we had a series of 10 matches of BB vs Dignitas on the B-stream and I can tell you that this was more than just good fun for shits and giggles. When BB was up 3-0 and lost the first match making it 3-1, Orange and Numberone were arguing loudly. Overall the clash of the best RMPs in the world was really amazing, even though I wished it would’ve been in a normal tournament setting, with audience and on the A-stream but the brackets didn’t allow for that. Dignitas took the series 6-4, but there were still no hard feelings on Button Bashers part.

We even had dinner with them which really entertaining. Between Flexx and Toez drinking competitions, I asked Orange if he liked the food. He nodded and responded with a brief “Yes”. I looked over to Numberone who was leaning over his chicken pizza, stuffing it in, not really looking like he enjoyed it. I asked Orange if Numberone liked the meal and he looked over to him as well. As Orange turned back to me he went: “Yes, yes….. Maybe” and I almost drowned on my sip of coke. Overall I have to say every player I met at the tournament were really nice guys and I liked talking to them a lot. I found that for example Realz and I shared a lot of views on the game and I really felt a little sad when I left the “hotel” yesterday morning. I also caught a cold from Twixz, who on top of that also forgot both his cellphone and a shirt in the room.

I apologize if this reads like a teenage diary, but I’m still emotionally agitated by all this excitement and disappointment. I guess, if you want an objective description of what it was like, you come to Cebit next year on your own. Of course some parts were rather “meh” such as the hotel or the long breaks because of the Chinese DDos attacks, but overall I have to say it was really worth it.

I will pick the new writers most likely tomorrow, so stay tuned for that. Yiska out.