To hardcounter Asians I will spam cute puppies in this article. At first I considered using Saronite bombs but I was afraid of getting banned for playing the game.

While I totally overslept the first day, I still feel like it’s worth summarizing the event based on the VoDs (don’t even pretend you stood up at 7am on a Friday to watch WoW). Not to be rude, but there are some matches which you can skip without missing too much. Some of those teams weren’t really impressive.

BB (RMP) vs ROC (WLD)

The first game of the event is a rather boring one, with the top team Button Bashers around Orangemarmalade. I can’t be kind about this, their opponent ROC played WLD like 1800 scrubs. Positioning was totally off most of the times. I felt that the Druid was the best player in that team. If you don’t believe me about their ability (or inability if you want) just go ahead and watch the first game of the series. Warrior dies like that? Even the shout casters couldn’t be kind about this. The end score was 3-0 for Button Bashers. A nice start for them on their way to Global Finals and possibly for the tournament win. You can find the VoD of that match here.

Suit time alb (RMP) vs Death Blooms (WLD)

On paper this looked quite interesting as Death Blooms played Double healer Warrior, a comp that most people considered to be a very good comp with the recent changes to resilience and healing even in S5 gear, against an RMP. When the first game ended after ~20 seconds in favor of the double healer, I was ready to throw in the towel to spare STA the embarrassment of getting rolled like this. The second game looked more promising though as the RMP was able to stay alive long enough to create some momentum and even run the paladin close to oom in the end. The Rogue was tunneled again from start to finish though, rarely sitting at more than 70% HP. I was smirking when I saw Ocean S-key’ing the shit out of her keyboard when they spectated her(Yes, it’s a women). We can see though that the Warrior is not really rage starved at all and as he gets babysitted with HoF’s and dispells, he can ditch out more than both of the enemy DPS combined. Game three plays out pretty much like game 2 with the Rogue getting trained from start to finish. The RMP seemed relatively clueless about what they should go for, really not getting any decent momentum going. If you don’t have momentum as RMP against double healer and both healers can dispell, you will have a hard time getting the Warrior off his target. Easy 3-0 win for Death Blooms.

DKP WoW (RMP (Envenom)) vs SK-Korea (Ret/Arms/Druid)

I found that this VoD is really worth watching not only for the clips of the Taipei 101, the former highest building in the world. (Burj Dubai officially took that title early this year) DKP playing a solid RMP (with Envenom Rogue) while SK-Korea of course played their Ret/Arms/Druid Cleave. The first match on Nagrand was really entertaining as it really went back and forth with SK-Korea timing their defensive cooldowns pretty well and DKP having momentum for most of the game. As SK-Korea not only runs the Mage dry, but also the defensive cooldowns of the RMP, they turn around and kill the Rogue in a HoJ with relative ease. After the second game though I was sure I was watching a top player tournament because both teams played pretty well. Both teams are on the verge of killing an opponent multiple times. In game three I really envied the balls Scoo has to sit through a full fear while his Warrior is sitting low. The defensive CDs of SK-Korea are once again well timed but at the same time DKP was more resourceful in game 3. At this point they are sitting healthy on Mana while the Rogue is dipping low. A poly on the Ret that only has his bubble as an out keeps the Rogue save as they turn around on the Ret and force him into a popping his last defensive cooldown. The first mass dispel hits and gets the bubble but the Priest keeps spamming which fortunately also dispels the Rogue from the HoJ, thus keeping the pressure high. As Scoo uses HoF before Kidney, he finds himself trapped in one at 3k HP. Only a clutch Intercept on the Rogue followed by push back onto the Mage’s cast keeps the Ret alive as he jumps down out of LOS of the enemy casters getting healed up to full. At this point the Priest is completely drained. After a  back and forth everyone is sitting at about zero cooldowns and Mana and finally the Rogue bites the dust. 3-0 the score for SK-Asia. Definitely one of the better matches of the tournament so far.

ROC WoW (WLP) vs Death Blooms (Enhancement/Warrior/Paladin & Double Heal War)

Despite the map advantage of Blades Edge, ROC finds themselves under pressure as soon as wolves are popped. While RoC is on the defense, Death Blooms just hits everything in their range instantly dropping the target to a dangerously low amount of health. As the Enhancement Shaman drops to 50% from a Bladestorm, they just stack defensive cooldowns on him. While both melees of Death Blooms drop low at times because of the bad usage of defensive CDs, it never gets really scary for them and they ultimately end up killing the Warlock with both Paladins being at the end of their mana. It looks like they can score a cross kill on DB’s Warrior but he gets bopped and the Cleave takes the first win. The 2nd game starts out on Nagrand with a pretty interesting portal position choice in the open but it still gets the job done as he avoids the Bladestorm. The Enhancement blows his Hex carelessly in a situation where they really didn’t have any momentum going while RoC is winning the mana war at that time. The game goes on for a bit and Death Bloom decides to go for the Warrior which dips pretty low though I can’t see if he used Shield wall as there is a big ESL TV sign over it (*hint hint* reposition this please) As the 2nd hex comes back up again they use it on the Warrior and switch back to the Warlock with a Bladestorm which he almost fully eats before he portals off while his pet dies in the process. Even though he manages to feldom it, he’s still sitting too low and his Paladin is too mana starved to keep him up and DB rides it home. In game three Death Bloom switched to their main comp of double Healer Warrior and play a pretty straight forward game of mana burning the living juice out of RoC’s Paladin. Even though Fu (RoC’s Warrior) gets a full SS Bladestorm down in both healers, they just keep on burning. While it looks like the game is over with the Warrior of DB sitting on the Warlock with his Paladin sitting at 0 mana, RoC manages to survive long enough to grant their Healer a couple of sips to get him back to 5k mana, it still isn’t enough and the team of Death Blooms takes it home 3-0. RoC definitely did better than in their first round against Button Bashers, but it still wasn’t enough so the 4th 3-0 of the tournament and the 2nd one of Death Bloom counts. Here is the VoD link.

Gaming WoW (RLD (Envenom)) vs Mousesports (DKHP (Survival))

First map kicks off on Dalaran Arena with a very scared Hunter who at first sits at maximum range to avoid a possible switch on him before he covers the stairs with a flare nicely. As he gets into LOS, the first Warlock pet dies pretty much instantly forcing a feldom summon. A cyclone (yes folks casted Cyclones exist) opens up an opportunity to switch and the Rogue blows both sprint and cloak to get on the Hunter. The player from mouz disengages behind one of the boxes, putting himself in a bad position where his healer can’t heal him and he has to blow deterrence. With a Corruption and crippling poison still up he creeps around the corner trying to catch heals but another clutch Cyclone from Gaming’s Druid comes in. As the Rogue Vanish-> CS’es on him, the Hunter goes down, giving Gaming WoW the 1-0 lead. At the start of  the second game the Hunter again is the center of attention as he gets sapped before his pet can bring him in combat or the flare can get the Rogue out of Stealth. They get on Angelref who is forced to use IBF and is save for now. As Gaming want to switch on the Hunter again, the DK tries to slow down the switch by peeling and gets caught in a Cyclone. Meanwhile the Hunter runs to his DK to make sure that he can help him out with a AMZ this time which he manages but still gets kidney shotted while the DK sits in roots. (Yes people, someone should tell this Druid this is not TBC anymore. Preposterous!) Another Cyclone on the Paladin to render the HoS useless for the time being. The hunter disengages off the platform LOS’ing his healer while Deterrence runs out. By good positioning, the Paladin is able to keep the Hunter up despite the Rogue sitting on the Hunter with the Druid Moonfiring (this guy is kinky). By multi dotting both the DK and the Paladin, the Healer of mouz finds himself too pressured to keep himself up and dies to dots and Life drain.  Game 3 is played on Blades Edge with Gug the Warlock positioning his portal on the ramp and after fearing the Paladin, he starts dotting both the Hunter and the DK while he doesn’t seem too concerned that he out-ranges his own portal, maybe rightfully so as Angelref again sits in a full Cyclone. Gug does a good job at faking the DK and making the Hunter’s life miserable. Not only that but Arai is also OOM and has to switch to Viper which means that their is no considerable pressure to be expected from mousesports for a couple of seconds even though the Rogue was really low and had to pop cloak. The Paladin gets feared in a bad spot but can get back in LOS of his DK. Arai gets up the nerve to switch out of Viper again and DPS’es the Rogue and with the last few points of Mana he shoots an Explosive Shot which ends the Rogue’s life. The first match to have more than four maps and it’s quite a good one as well! Game four on Dalaran Sewers and mouz decides to go for the Warlock at first. When Arai gets Cyclone’d again, he’s too angry to not call for a switch on the Druid who stands too offensive and they force a Bark skin. Instantly after they see the defensive cooldown being popped they switch back to the Warlock. He sits healthy though and the Druid can once again cast a Cyclone on the Paladin. Meanwhile the Rogue opens on the Hunter and can force a Deterrence on his own. Mouz gather behind one box to heal everyone considering they are all sitting at around 50-70% and Mistake hits a clutch Warstomp. As we have learned so painfully in Wrath, playing offensively even when it’s clutch as a Druid can be very ineffective and the Rogue gets peaced in seconds. With the Series tied at 2-2, as always when it gets exciting in WoW we got ourself a nice bowl of Ring of Failure with the Warlock pet bugging on the elevator. Mistake kinda sleeps through the opening and forces his Rogue to use cloak and evasion way too early. He dips low again but gets a full round of hots and mouz switches on the Druid who has to use both Bark skin and Natures Swiftness. The Rogue of Gaming wants to get on the Hunter but is getting peeled pretty nicely by CoI and finds himself in the open with both DPS sitting on him. A well timed Cyclone goes off on the DK again which helps the Rogue to survive while the enemy Hunter is fully dotted. The Rogue can connect and the Hunter drops really low, forcing an AMZ. Another two Cyclone on the Paladin apply insane pressure and with the help of Drain soul the Hunter goes down. 3-2 for Gaming WoW. A must see if you ask me.

DKP (RMP (Arcane for 1st Game)) vs Gaming WoW (RLD)

The first game on Dalaran starts out with a surprise as DKP is running with an Arcane Mage playing massively offensive, dropping the Warlock so low then switching on the Rogue. The Mage uses his only Iceblock on a fear and they instantly gip the Rogue. Gaming WoW totally thrown off by the Arcane Mage. In Game 2 the Mage switches back to Frost and they go heavy on the Warlock. The Mage tries to get a poly on the opposing Rogue even though he has CoT on him and pays it with an Arcane school lockout while his Rogue is getting bursted. DKP’s Rogue gets a vanish of and gets healed up to full though and opens on the Warlock again but decides to Blind Gaming’s Rogue who instantly trinkets only to get caught in a CS-> KS and with a little help from Brainfreeze RNG, he dies in the stun. In game three the Druid can keep up with the switches much better but it really looks like his Rogue is still getting dominated pretty heavily. They try to go for the Priest but he does a good job of running out of the line of sight of the Warlock. Has Gaming’s Rogue is tempted to chase the Priest around the corner he pays with his life finishing the series at 3-0. You can find yourself some Rogue killing here.

Mousesports (DKHP) vs SK-Korea (Ret/War/Druid)

Definitely a very interesting one with both teams being backed up by big European sponsors and actually the last game of day 1 just in time before the first matches of day 2 kick off. Mouz starts extremely hard on the Ret paladin who has little chance to LOS because… well… Ring of Valor but still manages to stay alive without using his bubble for a quite a while and they even manage to force some defensive cooldowns on the DK. Eventually Scoo has to use his bubble and the pressure is still going on him. They try to kill the pet to get rod of pesky Pins but as it dies, so does the Ret.  On a side note interesting choice of Scoo to run with Seal of Command. 1-0 for Mouz. Game 2 on RoL looks a bit different though considering there are actual LOS opportunities and the damage on Scoo really isn’t all that scary and nothing is decided yet. The internet dies in Taipei and the game has to be replayed. Apparently the teams decided that they don’t care about maps and the second map is played on Dalaran sewers. Well aware of what mouz is capable off, SK-Korea hugs some pillar after the initial group cuddling in the middle. The fights continue with a different target choice of mouz which they quickly deem useless and switch back to the Ret while SK is sitting on the DK who really doesn’t take all that much damage until his paladin gets caught in a full Cyclone rotation with the Warrior popping Bladestorm on him. The last defensive cooldowns are used by mouz and they manage to force a bubble from scoop. The game proceed with everyone from mouz dropping to 50% and that’s when SK-Korea tries to finish it with a focus on the Paladin but no real damage can be dealt. It looks like mouz can turn it around with a focus on the Ret who gets picked up though. Big problem for Scoo at this point is that he is oom and he can hardly keep himself dispelled so he can kite effectively. Not only because he’s so low on Mana even the Repentance on the Holy Paladin and a Bladestorm on the DK can’t score a kill but also because the DK uses AMS. SK-Korea can reset the game long enough for Scoo to judge twice and get a nice amount of mana back. The Holy paladin of mouz at this point is sitting at a full bar while the Druid is at 8k without Innervate up. Both Angelref and Scoo drop low because of nice CCs on their respective healer but the fight is once again reset. The Druid is simply mana starved and has to drink while Scoo gets pulled down without any chance to LOS the hunter. The Warrior does a very good job at keeping the Hunter from damaging and Scoo survives long enough to enable his Druid to drink back to 5k mana and they go for the kill on Angelref with Cyclones on the Paladin as, guess what, a disconnect happens. *sadface* Again a replay and to put it simple: SK-Korea realizes that the Hunter is actually a pretty decent target to go on as they keep switching back and forth between the DK and him. The momentum is definitely on SK’s site in the first half of the game. In this game it really shows that Arai is not some scrub Hunter but actually a very good kiter. After a some more skirmish the pressure is on Angelref and both healers Mana bars. These games really feel like TBC again and they are really entertaining and you really can’t tell who’s going to die until it actually happens. Therefore I don’t want to spoil the match and at which point who’s going to die but I will tell you that it’s 1-1.  The rest of the series will continue at 7am CET! Check the VOD here.

Stream link here: http://tv.esl.eu/de/esltv_stream/stream/55-wmv-free

Please don’t flame me for my English on this one. I can’t be arsed to proof read at the moment as this took 5 hours to make with watching all the VoDs twice and then write it and also catching puppies to let me photograph them. OK the last point is a lie. I wish I did it though. Puppies…