ESL Qualification Rounds End, ArenaCast - Twilight Edition...Wait, Dreamhack & WoW, Ghingis Guide pt. 2

I've been nerding it up lately with L4D2 and a couple of striking realizations occurred to me:

1. Playing an FPS game from time to time doesn't betray your love for WoW
2. Germany sucks in terms of media law
3. Slapnuts is a gigantic *****

While the first two points explain themselves, our beloved conehead outed himself as a slave of reality. Yes, you get that right gameriot. Slapnuts didn't want to play computer games till 8am even though he had the best "HUNTER, HUNTER, HUNTER!!!"-screamer of all time on his team (needless to say I didn't realise my headset was broken). Someone really got his nuts slapped. Anyway...WoW blog.


ESL Qualification Rounds end - Confusing among the American teams

The ESL Qualification round ended and Europe got a really healthy mix of all kinds of different comps going, even including Felic - a fellow PROT BEATZ player. Overall there are only two RMPs in the top 8 of the ladder qualification and that is of course also because most of the quality RMPs were already invited before. I hope all invited teams get back in shape for the European top 16 round and we can see some natural selection take place to only send the strongest European teams to the Global Finals. It so happens that the ESL released the European top 16 groups. Here they are:

 A
Godmode (Hydra, Flyn, Kalimist) RMP
The End Come So Far (Nathalol, Gnomew, Mastah) RMP
SK Sansibar (Fraki, Noonia, Moldran) DK/War/Druid, TSG
RNG Party (Draintrain, Blade, Iopakodoo) WLD

B
x6tence (Siler, Souler, Falcon) PHD, TSG
aAa (Thorkin, Khuna, Pheonix) RMP
rocknroll pigtails (Bloodx, Evleh, Exerion) Feral Rogue Priest
BRB ICE CREAM TRUCK (Sanchez, Instance, Yunisha) Shadowcleave

C
iNNERFiRE (Desis, Coold, Stg) RMP
No Surprises (Defiancex, Joker, Keyn) RMP
pwning noobs all day (Maitoh, Nushz, Valkyriee) Ret/Rogue/Priest
Pincho Gaming (Anika, Dev, Jetz) H/Lock/Pal

D
SK Gaming EU (Another, Inflame, Enigmz) Shadowcleave
plan-B (Texi, Kajn, Daisyduke) RMP
Emo Whoopass Patrol (Felic, m0jjen, Sonija) PROT BEATZ/War/Druid
Death Row (Botti, Tokash, Yurito) Sham/War/Pal

3rd and 2nd of each group have to battle it out against the 2nd and 3rd of another group. Group A&D 1st place should be Godmode & SK.EU but other than that, the competition seems really healthy. You can see the whole news here.

On the dark side of the WoW community (heh), things don't look as bright at all. Players report that the US TR had only about 15 teams playing and the whole qualification round was a mess with vendors not being available for two weeks, queues taking ages not only because nobody is on there, but also because there was a bug that limited the realm to only host one 3vs3 rated arena at a time. The continental finals in Edmonton are mere three weeks away and teams still aren't able to safely buy plane tickets and get their hotel room reservations as they don't even know if they will qualify for the tournament.

On top of that, 3.3 is around the corner and the teams which qualify for North America might not be the deal at the global finals next year. You want to hear more about that topic? Read on.


ArenaCast - Twilight edition


Yet again JP&Keith made the mistake to invite me to their show. We talk a good chunk about MLG and the meaning for WoW as an esports. Moreover we talk about the ESL problems mentioned above, about Rob Pardo's statement about WoW, about the latest GomTV event and about...Twilight?

I can honestly say, I have no idea who Edward Cullen is and I was forced to use his name! Add in my general awkwardness and you got yourself a statement that will make you want to put on your mom's panties. I promise. I hope you like tanga. Why do I know that your mom wears strings? Yes, exactly.

You can check out the episode here. You really should. Trust me. I'm a...drinker?





Dreamhack & WoW


What if it is time for Dream Hack winter and nobody attends?


That is of course a false statement as far as the overall event goes. A sick amount of CS teams have been invited and the competition in other games such as Quake will surely be amazing.

On the WoW side of things, the price money has been announced and it's 2800 Euro for the first place finisher. That is not much of a problem in itself but the reason why this is very problematic for the WoW tournament is that it was announced so late. Flight & Hotel prices significantly increases the longer you have to wait for the booking and it so happens that I haven't heard of a single quality team going to Dream hack so far.

Yours truly thought about attending the event, but only a flight both ways is already 600 Euro from Düsseldorf to Jönköping. A month ago, the prices were probably around half of this. The alternative of going by train is not that much cheaper, but takes 24 hours for me to get there. In conclusion, no Yiska at Dream Hack.

 SK.EU probably won't go and as it looks Hydra's team of Godmode won't be able to attend as well. If you go there on your own expenses and even if you finish 1st, chances are you spend more than you won in that tournament if you aren't a local. It's simply not worth it, not even for sponsors as the coverage and the community interest in Dream hack is really not that high.

The only rumoured known name so far seems to be Bloodx and his team. If you know Bloodx or rather his reputation, you understand why this might become a "fun" tournament. Let's just say Bloodx makes Inflame look like Harry Humble or Mike Modest.


It's just sad that so many amazing teams will have to miss out on those events (both ESL NA continentals and Dream hack) just because the way these tournaments were set up up were not really player or sponsor friendly. Getting your stuff together a month before the tournament starts goes a long way.



Ghingis with a new guide



Ghingis the great released another part of his guide over at Bartov gaming. Most Europeans will agree that Ghingis is a very good warlock who not only knows how to play the game, but also understands how to talk about it. I had the pleasure of having him in ventrilo during MLG Anaheim and his insight was spot on.

If only Trig wasn't such a ***** and Nx such a slacker and their team could really make things going. They are currently 5th on Cyclone EU with their Wizard cleave and very solid 84% winratio. Therefore his guide is mainly about their line up of MLS and how especially a warlock should play against the most common comps.

You can check out his guide here. It's pretty long, but definitely worth a read.




As I'm about to visit my family, I don't have the time to wait for le shader to proof read this. Yiska out.