Just a warning to everyone that there are some people going to great lengths to impersonate me recently, with MSN Messenger accounts having my picture, x-fire accounts under my name, on top of using IRC and other things.  I don't really know why, but they're trying to get people's accounts, playing w/ people I know pretending to be me, trying to get the MSN / AIM of people as well as phone numbers. - Azael

There is a very special day next week, and the hokage will be making a very special announcement, stay tuned!

TSG will be going into next week's American regionals as the top seed, and other than SK-US, the defending champion of MLG, this will probably be the most watched team at American regionals.  As of last night they have hit an amazing rating of 2934, the highest team of any bracket worldwide.  Coupled with the 1st place finish on tournament realm qualifiers, Zileas's know-it-all personality, and the fact that I am in their BG and have fought them many times, this is the team I will be cheering for. 

Veex is the most underrated player in America from a tournament perspective, but with Glick's legacy with Fnatic fading away, and Shinaniganz's Pandemic yet to win anything, I really expect Veex to return to his warlock with the resilience buff.  The shaman he teamed with to obtain deadly gladiator in just three days, streaming every match for the world to admire will probably make a comeback as well.  However, his warrior is nothing short of amazing, and here in the regionals, I feel they have a superior comp against everyone except the RMPs.  Emazing Gaming's PHD?  Veex's team hard counters them as triple plate.  Warlock teams?  Being a great warlock himself, Veex knows the weakness of the class better than anyone, don't expect them to put up a fight.  Holy play?  Warrior/DK's damage pressure is way too much for the nerfed retribution paladin to handle. 

For Veex, the road to Blizzcon goes through the two RMPs.  That would be Complexity (and they will be facing them in opening round as 1st vs 8th seed) and SK-US.  While TSG doesn't have to beat SK-US to advance, the 1st place money is fantastic ($15000 vs $6000 for second place), and they need the psychological advantage going into Blizzcon more than a team that already won a championship.  Looking at TSG's opponent history, they have a winning record against every single team in BG5, except Billian, the #1 player on SK-100's RMP.  The record is 11-13, but consider they will *probably* be facing even tougher RMPs at regionals and Blizzcon, and Season 5 gear doesn't do the same cleave damage, it is very alarming.

Can Holy Paladins Ever Look Good In Tournaments?

After watching Paycee's performance at MLG with Emazing Gaming, I really feel holy paladins are like the goal keepers in soccer.  No one will ever remember your amazing performances. Remember how Paycee stayed alive at 15% with Minti-sama in his face for 20 seconds, while dishing out heals to hunter hero Twix to keep him alive?  Nah, the audience only remembered his death against SK-US in game 1 of group play before he could bubble, and that certainly changed everything for his team psychologically from there.

And Zileas, being one of the few paladin heroes who produced stellar records when the class was in turmoil in S2-S4, extremely confident in his ability as a paladin and not shy to let the community know about it, his first ever LAN performance is going to be under the micro scope.  And like Emazing Gaming's DK/BM/Paladin comp, the warrior/DK/paladin comp can't provide much in the ways of CCs and peels, and Zileas will see pressures from the best mages in America in Pookz and Venruki.  He will be thrown into a LAN environment in opening round against a comp that has the best chance of beating his team.  Is his chakra strong enough?  The opening series will certainly be the most important games in his WOW career.  His team can afford to lose to SK-US later in the tournament, but they really can't afford to hit the loser bracket right off the bat.

My RMP ran into TSG last night for a bunch of games.  As a dual comp RMP (running DK over mage in our other set-up), our coordination is nowhere near an elite RMP.  We started the fights with me quickly opening on the warrior at max distance from our priest, and tried to play pressure/lock down on him while sheeping/novaing/deep freezing/blinding/disarming the DK.  A sound strategy, but it just didn't work for us.  DK would eventually lichborne and get on the priest for a bit, warrior will eventually get his intercept/charge off, hamstring, blade storm + strangulate and priest is down for the count.  We couldn't dish out enough pressure in any of those matches, we were on the defense the entire time, delaying the inevitable, not preventing it.

Then Twsty, our mage who happens to be a big Pookz fan remembered what SK-US did against Emazing Gaming.  He ran in and pulled a Pookz impression to nova/cone of cold/sheep the DK/Warrior, I opened on Zileas and together we forced a quick bubble.  By then our priest was very low, but I was able to disarm the DK followed by vanish->CS->KS on the warrior.  Twsty was able to sheep/nova the DK as our priest got back to full.  From there we swapped back to Zileas and scored the golden kill and our first ever victory against that team. 

Unfortunately in the next two games, while we were able to force the divine shield very quickly, our execution as RMP is simply not clean enough to beat them consistently.  However we were able to dish out a lot more pressure, and we actually felt we had a chance of winning in those games. 

I am sure Realz aka Shikamaru already has a plan worked out for TSG, and my entire team will be watching how the elite RMPs deal with this team next weekend, as we only have 1 win out of 20 attempts against them through out this entire season.  I will be extremely impressed if any RMP can beat them on Ring of Valor, and in a five game series against a team of that caliber, you can't really give free wins. 

SK-EU did win ESL Invitationals as Warrior/DK/Druid cleave, different healer for sure, can Zileas step up to the plate and bring pride to the paladin community?  His LAN performance will be the difference between a quick flight home vs tickets to Blizzcon.

European Regionals Preview



Who Is Hot:

Ensidia has to be the favorite for this tournament.  They just won Dreamhack which should be a great confidence builder.  The 2-0 into 2-3 choke against Edawg should be past them and I expect them to win the RMP mirrors.  What they learned from Realz and SK-US in MLG will be an invaluable edge over European counterparts.  They have the athleticism, all they need is a little Zen which Realz's Phil Jackson-like play calling should have rubbed off on them.

Inflame's warrior/lock/druid didn't do all that great against Innerfire in ESL Invitationals.  I really wish he is playing with Another instead of Ocelote to maximize the DOT & HOT comp of DK/lock/druid.  But at least for this tournament, the most feared duo in Europe will be on different teams, and I predict a second place finish for Inflame.

Who Is Not:

After losing (and raging) in Dreamhack, Another won ESL Invitationals with an all new SK-EU roster.  While the Another/XOM combo will stay alive for one more tournament because they qualified for the regional together, I feel this team won't have the chemistry to make it to the Blizzcon.

The Dark Horses:

I really don't know how will Edawg and the two AAA teams do, as they are very close in strength and pretty much interchangeable. Given the unpredictability of RMP mirrors, any of those teams on paper, has a chance to upset Ensidia and make it 1st place.  Edawg specifically has the mental edge from ESL Invitationals, but Ensidia has so much more experience playing on LAN so I can't see them repeat the feat offline.

Naruto Shippuden: Back On Track

Have to say I really enjoyed the last two episodes.  They have to be up there as some of my favorite episodes of the entire series.  The series is just so good without the fillers.  Can't wait for Sasuke vs Itachi, hopefully it will be out before the end of the year!