Blizzard US/EU Regionals Live Blogging Sunday: SK-US Overcomes TSG's Cleave To Win US Regionals

Watch It Live: http://eu.blizzard.com/rf09/

Sunday 11:15AM – 18:00PM (5:15AM - 12:00PM US Eastern)

Grand Final Video (LQ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O13GF1w23dc

The end is near as SK-US will be playing the red hot Team EG in winner bracket finals, and TSG will go up against Emazing Gaming in loser bracket finals.  Emazing has serious problems against heavy armor cleave, and TSG should advance. 

SK-US vs Team EG is going to be a very close call assuming Zyz doesn't have a wild night out and understand what is at stake.  Azael will most likely play destruction and it is all up to Zyz to slow down the ultra aggressive Enforcer, creating an opening for Azael. 

It is so hard for me to call a favorite here between these three teams.  Azael obviously writes for WOM and the shaman community is still looking for their first ever championship.  Realz and I chat every now and then, and I learned my lesson to not bet against him.  TSG represent the BG I play in myself, and everyone in Stormstrike want to see them going all the way. 

Those three teams are also so close in strength, although I still believe if TSG can wash away the offline jitters, they have the best overall comp in this tournament.  I am happy with either two of those three teams representing America at world finals.  If I must make my selection out of three extremely close teams, I will pick TSG 1st, and SK-US 2nd.  However, I sincerely hope Azael's team makes it because 3.2 will be a great patch for shaman/lock teams, and I want that team in the world finals for America. 

Sit back and enjoy the games, trust me when I say it will be worth waking up at 5AM on a Sunday morning for.  See you in 7 hours!

Team EG (Rogue/Lock/Shaman) vs SK-US (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 1-3

It is interesting Azael opted to go with affliction, which has durability issues vs RMP and doesn't have the burst power to end a fight even if left open momentarily.  His CC is also weaker against triple-UD RMPs.  Game 1 took place on Dalaran and Pookz did a psychic pet nova to hit Zyz out of stealth and rooted Azael the warlock in place, big damage on Azael took him to 20% which forced Zyz to use his vanish offensively to stop the initial burst.  Azael got full dots on Enforcer the rogue but Zyz was sheeped by Pookz to stop his burst attempt.  A quick vanish CS->KS by Enforcer dropped Zyz shortly after as Kollectiv was unable to keep him up.  SK up 1-0.

Game 2 Pookz landed yet another pet nova to hit Zyz out of stealth in Dalaran tower.  He ate a big opener and had to blow cloak/vanish right away.  Realz and Enforcer had a miss communication, blowing pain suppression on Enforcer when he played defensively and got off a restealth and this cost them later.  Azael freed himself from Pookz's CC's and got his full round of DOTs up, and Enforcer/Zyz were caught behind boxes and Realz could not keep Enforcer up.  1-1.

Ring of Valor and SK opened up with a big opener on Kollectiv but he was able to heal back to full.  Quick swap to Zyz followed by Azael and on a map without line of sight, Azael could not stay up as Affliction.  SK up 2-1.

The final game took place on Dalaran yet again.  Zyz ran all the way around the map to avoid Pookz since he was hit out of stealth first two games on this map.  Unfortunately that gave SK a good 7 second's worth of free DPS on Azael and Zyz was hit out of stealth by a nova again even with a late opener.  EG was on the defensive from the get go as a result, but Zyz did manage to snap that momentum when both he and Enforcer vanished and he was able to land a sap on Enforcer.  Here EG made a questionable call and chose to go after Realz the priest, but Azael was CCed by Pookz and they didn't dish out any real pressure.  Enforcer got out of sap, Kollectiv hexed him but Pookz was able to remove it, and Enforcer was able to land a full opener on Zyz which took him from 100-0 with Pookz assist.

I believe Azael should have ran destruction, I can't see rogue/affliction beating elite RMPs, the margin of error is in RMP's favor so much.  You can control most of the match, but lose in a few globals if the mage gets off a big shatter.  If Azael loses in loser bracket (hence the ticket to Blizzcon) I see him rebuilding his team.  Rogue/lock synergy is not what it used to be in TBC, affliction needs high durability teammates so he can take his time to play outlast.  Destruction is the only spec that can dish out enough burst if they choose to go on your rogue, and being almost impossible to kill if they go on you.  I am impressed how far he took this team but he needs a better comp to compete with the likes of Inflame.

TSG (DK/Warrior/Paladin) vs Emazing Gaming (DK/Hunter/Paladin): 3-1

Hunter hero Twix went survival spec for more anti-heavy armor damage and control.  Veex charged into center bridge off the bat and was targeted right away, dropped to 50% instantly.  Not sure why TSG opted to go on Payce the paladin, leaving DK/hunter open to DPS and CC.  Zilea was forced to bubble but Veex went down during the global + casting time.

Game 2 saw TSG playing a lot safer, training the hunter and Veex was a lot more comfortable at start, landed a flawless blade storm that forced Paycee to bubble himself AND BOP Twix.  However Emazing really showing off their ability to play against a countercomp here as they kept Twix up and landed enough damage to Veex to force a bubble from Zilea, and dropped Zilea right after.  Unfortunately TSG was able to drop Paycee at the same time.  Veex was at very low health but stayed alive long enough for his DK to spread the DOTs around before he went down.  TSG DK Valrath saved their tournament winning the 1v2 fight against low health DK/hunter to tie it up 1-1.

Ring of Valor is here and Veex's blade storm took Twix to 2000 health before he was death griped by Emazing DK.  Paycee was forced to bubble and TSG swapped to him for the kill right after.  Game 4 was even quicker, perfect blade storm to force bubble + BOP, sudden swap to Emazing DK for the kill before Paycee even got out of his bubble. 

TSG won 3-1 despite some early hiccups and will rematch Team EG who beat them 3-2 yesterday, winner gets SK-US.  Personally as big of a fan as I am for Azael, I think TSG has a better chance of taking two series in a row from SK-US, so I will be rooting for TSG in the loser bracket finals.

TSG (DK/Warrior/Paladin) vs Team EG (Rogue/Lock/Shaman): 3-2

Pretty big words from Veex guaranteeing a meeting with SK-US in the grand finals during the on-stage interview, facing a team that beat them 3-2.  Many feel Team EG lucked out on the Z axis maps earlier, will TSG adjust when Azael inevitably jumps off a platform at 10% health?  We will see!  Veex is usually pretty good with his guarantees, like his bid for deadly gladiator from 0-2800+ the last week of season 5, will he be good on his promise?  I think most of us here in BG5 want to see TSG vs SK-US, we will find out shortly!

In Game 1 TSG finally did something I thought they were more than capable of doing, training down the shaman!  Nothing can stay alive in the face of warrior/DK damage, and Azael as affliction can provide very little CC on warrior/DK both with fear immunes.  Hammer of justice + strangulate and Kollectiv is down in less than 10 seconds.  Brutal and effective!  I can tell TSG was upset how they lost the first series, and Veex is playing with an axe to grind. 

Game 2 Zyz ate a hammer of justice from Zilea which he chose to trinket, followed by an intimidation shout from warrior which kept him out of fight for 10 seconds.  Azael fortunately switched to destruction for this fight and had no problem surviving the early 10 second pounding from warrior/DK.  I am not sure why they don't look for swaps on Kollectiv, I just don't think you can kill a warlock of Azael's caliber on Dalaran.  EG was able to score a kill on Veex once Azael got open.

Amazing game 3 as Zyz actually landed a cleaner opener for once, and they did big damage on Veex bringing him to 35% off the opening round of burst.  Anti magic zone + shield wall + blessing of protection were used to pick him up.  Team EG went for a swap on Valrath the DK but he hovered at 15% health for a long time with his defensive CDs as they brought down Azael.  Zileas played an absolutely brilliant game here avoiding shocks/spell locks and kept his teammates alive.

Ring of valor and this is the destruction burst we are talking about!  TSG was unable to dish out a lot of pressure on Azael early as destruction warlock is just too sturdy.  They left him open momentarily and paid a big price for it.  EG went for TSG's DK and brought him very low, Zilea bubbled at the perfect time and picked him up from 2000 to 8000 but it didn't matter as Azael nuked him down before the next holy light.  Kollectiv was VERY low on mana and Azael scored a critical kill to give his a team a tie at 2-2 and the next game is for the Blizzcon ticket!

TSG power!  It has been a long time since I felt the adrenaline going into this final game, so much at stake.  Zyz once again got hit out of opener, hammer of justice + feared, big pressure on Azael followed by a quick swap on Kollectiv, who managed to stay alive and gave EG a chance to nuke Veex.  Veex was at 40% health but his DK Valrath was able to strangulate / mind freeze Azael's burst attempts.  Zilea played the game of his life here keeping Veex alive while avoiding shock/fear/spell lock, and they managed to score the golden kill on Azael. 

Wow, go TSG, Veex you are the man of words with those guarantees!  Will we hear a pre-game guarantee against SK-US in a hour?  About time this squad gets real recognition and a serious sponsor.  Gravitas/Fnatic/Pandemic, why rebuild with your washed up players/rosters when you can pick up a brand new team already at the peak of its game?  Veex has been around forever and is so versatile on both warrior/warlock, so is Zilea, they have showed so much commitment to the game from S1 to S6, they deserve a sponsor over players who are too lazy to practice/maintain a good standing in their BGs.

Does this look like a professional arena player to you?


No and he failed to get a clean cheap shot in too many games for Team EG to beat the likes of SK-US and TSG.  I am amazed how Team EG was able to win game 2 against TSG, when Zyz was out of the fight for the entire first 15 seconds of the game, against a team that has very little CCs, wonderful. 

For Team EG to reach the very top I believe it is time they get ride of Zyz and look for a better rogue.  Look at what Enforcer did for SK-US!  Or they can consider a completely different melee with better lasting power.  I can't see rogue being a top class in 3.2.  Maybe retribution paladin?

Knowing Azael's desire to win, and the obvious problem which he CAN fix, I see a change in the melee spot.  Retribution paladin perhaps?  The one team I would love to see is Nick Hammer/Azael/Kollectiv, coupled with the 3.2 changes it should give them one of the most feared rosters for the next MLG.  Or Neilyo-kun who is already playing the same comp with a weaker lock/shaman combo.

TSG (DK/Warrior/Paladin) vs SK-US (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 1-3

TSG's struggle with Team EG had a lot to do with the unfamiliarity of the comp, as rogue/lock/shaman is a very rare team these days and with destruction being very hard to kill, it actually does very well against cleaves.  I don't think they will have the same problem against SK-US's RMP, but Realz calls his shots differently from any other RMP in the game.  If it was only one set I would have gave TSG a 60-40 edge but because they have to win two sets in a row, I am giving them a 50-50 split.

Knowing Realz they will most likely try what they did against Emazing before, pressure Zilea early to force him to cough up trinket/bubble and freedom himself, with Pookz CCing the warrior/DK to reduce pressure, and possibly set up a warrior kill or even paladin kill later in the game.  TSG will of course play cleave like the way it is supposed to be as the number one team on SK-100 3v3, brutal and effective priest trains with swap opportunities on mage/rogue here and there.  Who will come out on top?  Go TSG!

Wow, SK-US did exactly what I thought they would do but I didn't think they can pull it off on Ring of Valor.  Big pressure on Zilea at start to force bubble with Pookz controlling one of the two DPS's, and CCed him after he came out of bubble to score a kill on the DK.  The pressure on Zilea is huge as it prevents him from having the globals to remove sheeps/roots.  SK up 1-0.

Knowing they can not leave the most dangerous American mage open, TSG pressured Pookz the SK mage all game in game 2.  Without his help Enforcer could not make Zilea coughing up his bubble, and Zilea did a magnificent job kiting him behind pillars, dishing out freedom/cleanse on his melee, on top of avoiding counterspells and shatters.  A great adjustment by TSG, how will SK react which the series tied 1-1?

And they it by novaing both of TSG's cleaves in center map and going on Zilea at same time.  Both cleaves had to wait out the nova with Zilea stunned and that gave SK all the momentum in the world.  Enforcer is so aggressive and Zilea was forced to bubble but it was mass dispeled by Realz, and SK brought him down right after for the win.  Incredible pressure/momentum from SK, the way a RMP is supposed to be played!

And the final game went off the same way, Pookz got off a beautiful nova that caught warrior/DK/ghoul at same time, and they opened on Zilea with a big round of bursts.  Warrior/DK were caught out of position and had to play catch-up the entire game.  Enforcer/Pookz forced the bubble but the mass dispel was resisted.  However it didn't matter because as soon as Zilea came out of bubble, the next round of burst finished him off. 

It is simply amazing how high of a level SK-US is playing compared to other RMPs out there.  Their positioning is flawless.  Pookz consistently get off his novas to root enemy cleaves at longest possible range to give Realz all the time in the world to do his things.  And Enforcer is easily the most feared rogue today with his sheer damage output and super aggressive plays.  It is not that other RMPs don't know what they need to do to win, but they do not have a defensive/offensive duo like Pookz/Enforcer to maximize the strength of RMP.

I would LOVE to see this team go into the world finals vs HON in a RMP mirror, America with the #1 RMP in the world?  Believe it because it can certainly happen!  Unlike other RMPs who were forced on defense against the likes of Emazing and TSG, SK-US managed to turn the momentum upside down, and took the pressure to them instead.  The aggression, the momentum, it is as good as it gets for a RMP!

Did Zilea know what was coming in the grand finals?



Jokes aside, I believe he played as well as any paladin can possibly play, but Pookz's nova on melee from long range and Enforcer's opening cheap shot on Zilea pretty much landed at same time every game, and unless Veex/Valrath were willing to trinket a root, SK-US just found the Achilles Heel of TSG.

As talented as Zilea is, while this team will certainly get another chance at Blizzcon and MLG Dallas, we will have to see if either he or Kollectiv can break the curse of paladin/shaman at tournaments.  Unlike shamans, there is no major buff for paladins on the way and increased resilience will probably favor druid/priest. 

Still an amazing job by the paladin hero, your community is pride of you even if you were bend over in the grand finals!