Cyclone Arena Tournament vol2

Even though the first
tournament just finished (gz to AK!), last weeks we've already
worked trying set up the next one, to keep up the flame that's
Cyclone's 5v5 currently.

When we migrated here
few months ago, we never dreamed it could be this crowded, this good.
And we wish to keep it this way. Each night there's dozens of clashes
between extremely good teams, and the remarkable thing here right now
is that, you can't really know which one is the best. There's so many
avid and able teams and they're competing constantly. Bolts fly,
maces crush and deathcoils get resisted faster you can keep track
off. And people are absolutely loving it. I'm loving it.

So here am I,
presenting the 2nd Cyclone Arena Tournament!

http://knockoutarena.com/tournament/tour2.html

(final brackets will
go live 7^th of feb)

Notable changes in
rules from the previous tourney are that setups, classes &
specs are locked once the brackets go live and that due to
popular demand, it's now a 16 team double elimination.
Apologize for those still being cutoff, just can't accommodate
everyone :/

Other thing worth
noting is that due to the influx of transferee's to the BG, the
online ladder and therefor the tournament are more heterogeneous than
ever before.

Few statistics:

Out of 16 teams:

5 runs a droodrog

3 runs a 2346

3 runs a drainburn

2 runs a
warrior/hunter triheal

1 team is 2345

1 team is a mage/lock

1 team is an war/ench
sham tri heal

Every single team has
a disc priest.

Every single team has
a a healing debuff; in 69% of the cases it's provided by a warrior,
in 31% by a rogue.

Paladin is still the
most favored main healer, though druids are catching on, 11 vs 8.

Each class has at
least 31% representation in the tournament, the ones with lowest
representation are hunters, shamans & rogues with 5 each.

The Meta game!

The ladder really has
seen a flood of droodrog teams, and currently it's by far the most
common setup you'll encounter when queuing up for some games. Meta
game keeps on shifting, where before 2345/6 used be the FotM and db
briefly after it, seems like tri healers that plagued the ladders in
s1 are making a new push for the top.

Even though their
inferior pressure gets demolished by competent ex-FotM setups,
they're are extremely though cookie for those rogue fielding teams.
Whereas tri heal before meant a priest/paladin/shaman combo, it's now
days almost without exception substitutes a druid instead of the
shaman. WF doesn't cut it when Earthshield is a joke and Lifeblooms
roll while Abolish ravages both opponents healing debuff and snare.

Still it's not among
the best combos out there, having a small advantage of the mainstream
while getting facial indentation from everyone else just doesn't cut
it in the long run. Maybe if the rog teams come even more abundant
tri healers could really cut it, but atm it seems all they're really
good at is boring people with a sitdrinking competition with no end
in sight.

The droodrog
becoming much more common also rattled some other cages, by culling
most of the elemental shaman/x setups. 2346 used to be the ****,
other than getting out kited by a skilled db, it was flawless. 10k
burst in under 2 seconds, windfury/purge and cheeselust overall just
doesn't seem to cut it anymore, when opponents won't give you even a
seconds breathing space, let alone time to charge up a bolt.
Shamans,
quite like paladins, rely on cast times and walking around which both
have a limited skill cap. Once the opponents get better, those two
aren't going to cut it anymore. Other than giving that warm fuzzy
feeling accompanied with sinister grin after gibbing a strayed
warrior with dice roll every 10th game, ele shammies just don't seem
to bring that much to the table anymore.

Drainburn's or
hunter/lock's, whichever you wish to call it, dominance in the ladder
was quite short lived, though arguably it's the setup with ultimate
skill cap (if you play it perfect, avoid all the ups' &
oh's, it is the setup that comes on top in the mana
game). Sadly for the setup, but great for the ladder, there's just
too much going on on 5s to keep track of it all for perfect play.
When well played it's still a powerhouse of setups though, and can
overcome any match-up, though hardly any match-ups favor it anymore
after the recent mage buffs.

What makes this setup
extremely interesting to play, and extremely frustrating to play
against, is it's almost nil reliance on RNG – it doesn't have to
kill anyone to win. If you get the kite down, execute it with
perfection, you're going to win, but a single counterspell on your
paladin can shatter the dream in a blink of an eye. A weakness every
team wishing to overcome the disgusting dps this setup provides
should capitalize on. Three minute flawless kite demolished because a
random counterspell landed and crits happened can bring even the
sturdiest man to tears.

Small
introductions for selected few of the teams:

Avada Kedavra,
SS Alliance droodrog

Not
much introduction needed, they're the winners of the last tournament,
seeded first for the 2nd one, always fielding solid performances,
especially by their mage Coold the Undying. Brutal in mirror matches
due to their superior human and nightelf racials!

WE RLY CARE,
SH Horde droodrog

Unrepresented in the
first tournament due to scheduling conflicts, they're probably the
most consistent droodrog team out there. When you could get away with
few mistakes against other teams fielding the same lineup, Vexed &
co just come in and kill something. Fast. It's really quite
inexplicable, they do in 5 what others do in 7 seconds. One of the
rare top teams not based on Stormscale, they're the pride of
Shattered Hand.

Showtimed, SS
Horde droodrog

Bokkle's apostles,
Zom's posse, call it whatever you like, they mean business. Last
tournament's 2^nd place, now hungry for more. These
ex-Al'Akir'ans were among the first to play this setup to it's
fullest. Compared to other team's Shadowstep specced rogues, they
usually field a deep mutilate one. This not only changes the play
style of the rogue, but also that of the team, making the fights
against them much more unpredictable compared to their sister setups.
Combined with the fastest Massdispels on Cyclone they're a pain to
face.

COOL AZSHALLEROS,
SS Horde 2345

German transferee's
from Glutstrum, they play probably the most eccentric 2345 ever. A
mix of defensive outlast and gibs combined with amazing kite by their
shaman Totempo. Their play is top notch, and they do honor to the
setup, sadly with the invasion of warlocks and hunters the setup
ain't a top contender anymore. Regardless, they're a team everyone
loves to fight, mainly due to them making FotM something that's
definitely not mainstream. But who knows, their offbeat play
might surprise in a tournament mode.

Four Kings, SS
Alliance mage/lock

Playing the 'old' CC
setup, they might be a bit outdated. Fairing well against the db's
after the mage buffs that came with the last patch and a new play
style, they do well against most teams. Most in this case doesn't
quite cut it, as their setup has some severe disadvantages against
some teams. They can go far though, unless they get out-comped early
in the tournament.

Nihilum Arena,
SS Alliance drainburn

A real powerhouse for
a team, they're a top contender for the first spot. Surmounting the
setup's only real weaknesses with dwarf racials and superb play, only
thing that prevented them from winning the last tournament was
inexperience against droodrog teams. Now they come prepared, are
other teams prepared for them? Even more interesting was the call for
benching Slòt, probably the best elemental shaman in the BG,
and the 2346 setup they were familiar with for Cherez the hunter &
drainburn.

I R TANKER, RC
Horde 2346

Playing the old CC
setup with an amazing success, but acknowledging it's flaws, their
mage leveled and geared an elemental shaman. Swapping from CCS to
2346 with only a week to prepare and train, can Omaster absorb the
essence of ele shammy fast enough, and well enough? Ravencrest's
finest.

Nagas, SS Alliance drainburn

Having struggled with
activity as of late, Paralol & co have probably the best team
play on the BG. Having dwarf racials to cover for the setup's
weaknesses, they're a real contender for the most coveted spot. Or at
least were few weeks back. Can they get in to shape fast enough, will
Paralol ever recover from his windfury addiction?

Cowboys from
Sweden, SS Alliance droodrog

I don't know them
really, but Raphiron said they were all **** and were carried by
their human priest.

Any of the given
teams has a chance for the finals spot if they play it well, for some
just the chance is somewhat greater. My prediction will be that it
will be either droodrog vs db in the finals or another droodrog
mirror. Will know more tomorrow when the specs of each individual
player are released, some teams might prefer their locks as SL/SL
instead of the cookie-cutter felguard/shadowburn since it really
makes a drastic difference versus teams that heavily train on warlock
(who doesn't now days?). Trading
some DPS against other setups for viability against droodrogs/db's
might be enough to tip the scales to their advantage.

Doubt anyone will
bother having their hunters as BM since the drawbacks against other
setups than, droodrog are pretty severe, and they can always just
train the lock in the first place. Some might have their warriors go
flurry, since the downfall of elemental shaman teams, tactical
mastery isn't a must
have anymore. Especially if you can compensate the abundant target swaps
with superior play by calling out the bursts before they even land,
having a warrior to ton more damage against other teams might be just
worth it. Same trend can be seen with more and more warriors going
for the s3 sword instead of the mace, justifying it with rage
starvation and superior pressure through higher flow of damage.

Priests &
paladins both will obviously have their cookie-cutter specs
specialized in mindless spammage of certain skills, rogues will most
likely all be shadowstep/vile poisons to counter the possible kite
through hunter traps and flares as well as to have a fighting chance
versus the abolish poison/cleanse. Druids will be resto, most opting
to ignore the cyclone range talents, though some will have it for
personal convenience.

Shammies will be the
common lightning overload/ns build for sure, there isn't really any
other build that comes close to it anymore after the watershield
buffs, manaregen via talents isn't needed anymore. Mages will go for
water elemental/imp counterspell to avoid the dire consequences of
someone fluking a fake heal, as well as to have something on the
pesky lifebloom-spammers.

Specs have mainly
been standardized, though some still prefer small derivations to
them, due to team's overall play style differences as well as
personal preferences. Only game breaking spec could be that one of
the droodrogs fields an SL/SL warlock, since they actually work
pretty well against other lineups (like Showtimed has proven on
ladder games), and are absolutely ace in mirrors.

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