ESL Super Weekend: It Is His Tournament To Lose, Council Of Mages Interviewed

The smoke cleared and Innerfire, a relatively unknown squad somehow squeezed everything they could out of the RMP comp and overcame all odds to place 1st place at continental finals. The previous European RMP champion, SK-EU unfortunately got a little too side tracked with countercomps like DK/rogue/paladin that they lost the bleeding edge of their own RMP, a comp that simply requires you to devote all your chakras to it and they paid for it when they had to go back to the classic comp.

Out of the 10+ 2008 tournaments, other than the first ever MLG tournament and possibly one European continental finals that was won by X6, I have never seen multi-comp team do well. Countercomps are effective when played by the best players of the comp, half baked countercomps almost always lose to the classic comps played by people who gave everything they have to master them.

That Is Why, It Is Serennia-sama's Best Chance To Win A Championship

"Do you believe you can play hunter like Hamchook/Cherez?" - Ming

"No, but in Germany, I won't have to." - Realz

The DK/Hunter/Paladin team is without any question, one of the best comps in the game, and most likely the strongest overall comp in the tournament.  When I asked Realz whether he felt his hunter was as good as one that belongs to a true hunter hero, his answer was very honest.  No, he is not as good (yet), but in Germany, we are talking about taking on 2008 rosters.  None of the top tournament realm teams will be here.  The only other hunter team is X6, and while I worried about their depth before the European regional, they really struggled and unless they somehow rejuvenate themselves in the hotel room over the next 48 hours, their PHD is even less specialized than SK-US's.  Serennia/Sck play DK/paladin full time, as long as they stick to their game plan and don't go for gambles on comps they are not familiar with, they will be fine.  Serennia-sama has never had better teammates, and more importantly Realz is the best coach you can possibly have, it is his time to shine, believe it!

Full Rosters/Comps Can Be Found Here

Group 1 Prediction: SK-EU, SK-US Advance

If you have to pick a RMP moving through the group stage, you have to pick HON over Mousesport as most consider Koreans away ahead of everyone else with the comp.  In fact you have to give RMP a chance to win it all because PHD really doesn't counter them as hard as people make it out to be.

However, given HON's recent struggles in online play (2100 and 71% win rate with 800 games played), I really don't know if they are still an elite team.  SK-EU will be well rested and they already warmed up with offline play in European finals, and if ZOM stick to shadow dance (I believe the spec gives him a huge element of surprise especially on target swaps), they should advance.

Realz/Serennia/Sck's PHD is obviously my other choice but this is one brutal group to go through.  Sorry for Minti-sama fans but it is highly unlikely they will be able to go through such a brutal group.  Rogue/mage/druid is just not top tier and I don't think their secondary comps are strong enough against the level of competition here.  X6 may be able to click together but I believe SK-EU can recover faster than they do.

Group 2 Prediction: INNERFIRE, Team EG Advance

Having witnessed the power of rogue/lock/shaman myself, and having witnessed its power on TR, it will be very difficult to beat Zyz/Azael/Kollectiv, about as good as you can get for each class from an American roster.  There are still questions about shaman's offline performance without mods and UIs but Kollectiv has been in so many offline tournaments before when the class was low tier.

Again I am picking an RMP to advance as there is no true RMP counter in this group.  INNERFIRE vs COM should be one hell of a RMP mirror.  I am giving the edge to INNERFIRE because they were undefeated in European finals and as hot as you can get as a team.  You can't bet against momentum and they are on a tear right now.  Per interview from COM, Snowstorm (mage, the heart of any RMP) is also no longer with the team and I am not sure if they can recover from the loss of such an amazing player.

Nihilum, as resilient as they are, just don't have a superstar rogue.  It is hard to bet against Inflame, as he is one of the few players successful in both 2007 and 2008 tournaments, and one of the best warlocks in the game today (and already a second place finish here in 2009).  However, I just can't see them survive the pounding of two top RMP teams, and shaman tremor totem (and Zyz's advantage over Paperkat as rogue) should give Azael's team the edge in rogue/lock/healer mirror as well.

Council Of Mage Interviewed By Chinese Media



Actually saw this on WOMCN, and I will translate the good parts. 

The interview was between Chinese media E-Sports and Hyoga, 24 years old college student, the priest of SK-KR (COM).  Apparently Snowstorm, the mage who impressed everyone at WWI Paris left the team after Blizzcon for personal reasons.  Can Kwana, his replacement keep them among the elites?  I have my doubts but we will find out.

About Korean BGs

I believe Korean, Chinese, European, and American BGs are all very comparable in talents.  The difference in Korea is we have a strict player transfer system based on server populations.  As a result teams tend to stick together much longer, and we tend to stick to the same comps for a much longer time.

Who Is Your Favorite Priest (Other Than Yourself)?

Numberone (Current ID: Numberline) from HON, a great friend and competitor.

What Do You Think About 3.0.9?  Specifically The Rogue/Mage Nerfs?

I think it was reasonable as rogue/mage burst was a little too strong.  What I didn't like was how they left blood DKs, feral druids, retribution paladins and hunter burst alone.  Of course even with the nerf, RMP is still competitive for high level play because of the amazing control it is capable of.

Are You Satified With 3.0.9 Priest?

Holy paladin was overbuffed and priest survivability is nowhere near what it used to be.  Thankfully rogue/mage's CCs greatly make up for it, that is why you simply won't see many priests outside of RMP in high level competitions.

With Arcane/Mutilate Nerfs, Will Your Mage/Rogue Try Something Different?

Our mage played both arcane and frost before 3.0.9 but used arcane as his main spec.  He is just as capable as frost but we will have to change our playing style from rushdown to control/CC.

Mind-numbing poison change is no big deal, but I am still shocked that Blizzard nerfed mutilate damage so much without testing it first.  I still believe in our RMP as when played at the highest level, we are capable beating any other comp.

Toughest Comp To Go Up Against As RMP

Feral druid, blood DK and holy paladin.