IEM Recap & Facts You Probably Missed, The Death Of Easymode?, Yog's Trolling Drivel

Shupudub Gameriot? Even though you probably already placed the IEM Global Finals in your old news folder (probably just like me), I'm quite sure there are some infos you didn't catch on stream. I was with coL.Black in one hotel room and overall it was quite fun even though the "hotel" rooms made me feel I'm in the army again. Shared bathrooms and no towels were a bummer but fortunately we had free WLAN and quite nice breakfast. Before I start annoying you with my diary entry, I will go to the juicy stuff only to finish it with the promised Zilea special.

IEM Recap & facts you probably missed

The Koreans overall dominated the first day and I have to say that SK-Korea and especially Sexycommando, albeit not really being sexy, still commanded his avatar quite well. The most memorable move I saw while watching his team was him trying to interrupt a fear by switching to Seal of Justice, even stunning the Warlock in time but because of lag and usual server latency he still got feared. Overall the latency was of course a huge problem but this time around it wasn't a WoW player sharing a moment of nerd rage with us.


I was at the tournament as the coL.Black manager and I can tell you it was a very painful experience and I felt like I jinxed it. Most people who watched the stream understood that the series of coL.Black vs BB was tied at 2-2 and the last game would decide who takes first in the group and even if the Beast Cleave will be thrown out of the tournament. What most people didn't know was that there were some simply ridiculous happenings that made this situations even possible.

You probably heard about Azael's sound problems which forced him to reboot his PC and therefore resetting his macros which he didn't realize until he was in the arena. But did you hear what happened at the score of 2-2 vs iNNERFIRE? What happened was that Tenderloin was being trained hard which worked great in the first two games, giving the Bulgarians a 2-0 lead. If EG lost this series, they would've been thrown out of the tournament. So in the 5th game (or so I think) Tenderloin sat at 4% and iNNERFIRE's Priest Xerio was in LOS and still had SW:D. Randomly his Skype popped up and blocked him from pressing the button for about a global and Tender is able to pick himself up. When we told Tender while he was holding his big ass check, he said he didn't care and quite honestly he really shouldn't. More on this later.

In the series of SK.EU vs Button Bashers on RoV, General Another had to run to the bath room. He later said that because of his bad hotel conditions, which apparently was even worse than ours, he caught a grand total of 2 hours of sleep and really felt sick to the stomach probably because of energy drinks. It's important to note that SK.EU wasn't really behind and if you watch the VoD you will most likely agree.

Moreover I was able to read the SK.EU chat shortly before they played EG. They were fully aware that they had the chance to throw Azael out of the tournament. Why this was kind of important to them?


Divine Inflame's Visitor pass

Yep. Unfortunately for them, he wasn't too **** this time around as the took the series. Overall one has to say that EG's performance became better as they played. I realize the Americans on this site want me to comment on their performance a lá "lOl Yiska ***git US dominatez, wheres ur U-rob noa" and I'm born to please.



EG's performance

The idea of a team that came together days before the event and winning it all of course seems ridiculous. Quite honestly though, if a team that performs as EG did in their last three games I don't give a ****.

The idea "What if EG wins?" was written over all the top players faces and when it happened, of course some were upset, but no one in their right mind thought that this was undeserved. I personally couldn't help but "Woah... Wow...". The feeling I had when I saw my beloved Team Dignitas take second for the second time was nothing like the experience and the void that I felt at the European Finals in Cologne. While there was sadness, there was amazement about the performance I had just seen. Seeing Tenderloin and Azael shutting down Lord Hydra (even though he faked one spelllock) with a 1st tick Penance Shock, Spell lock, Feldom Spellock and again a 1st tick Penance Shock while seeing a Lava Burst coming out of focused Resto Shaman. The beauty of WoW bloomed right in front of me, just this time it wasn't my continents seed.

There is no doubt in my mind, that the RLS which was sitting on those chairs located on the stage were the best RLS we have ever seen at a tournament. The first Resto Shaman to ever win a tournament and then one that is easily comparable to Blizzcon in terms of competition. I really don't want to take anything away from any of those players, but if I had to name my MVP of the tournament, it would be Tenderloin. The Kazekage of the European WoW community, that's me, bows down to this awe-inspiring performance. Thank you Emerson, Isaac and Charles.

*thanks to DieJule of ESL for the picture.


No Cleave in Top 3 - The Death of Easymode?

For my friends with a blind-spot for question marks: This was a rhetoric question. Of course Cleave isn't dead but I also believe that it's no coincidence that Cleave didn't do well at this tournament. Many people think that the only combination in arena that should be viable is Melee/Caster/Healer. While this is arguable, the comps that are of this nature tend to have an edge over other comps in the sense that if they are played well, they can beat everybody. Most definitely, this isn't true for a line up like SK-Korea played.

Having that said, I believe that this tournament proved that at the highest level of competition, comps like RMP or RLS are able to beat everybody if played amazingly. Keep in mind, these comps are getting buffed with the introduction of Season 8 gear on TR. To this equation, you might want to add WLD and PHD (Hunter is not really a Melee and DK is not really a caster so that makes it even I guess?).

Also tunnel vision didn't seem to be the recipe for success, despite many pro players suggesting that tunneling the Shaman in the series BB vs EG will work which the grand finals clearly proved. Also the European Champions SK Sansibar didn't get far with tunneling Lord Hydra. Even SK-Korea's Cleave really wasn't about focusing on one target, rather than hitting switching really quickly and timing their cooldowns well.


Yog's "trolling" drivel


Did you watch the CS Finals? The Ukrainian team "Na'Vi" was the absolute underdog and took the CS world by storm. I don't care if a team can play as well as EG did with little practice if I get to see games like these. Of course that was trolling, of course. However there is a fundamental similarity between both these victorious teams:

They cared.

Whatever you dislike about the players of those teams or how uncool (is that even a word?) those people might be for caring about a video game. I'm talking to those of you who worship Yog, the kid that proved to his organisation and more importantly to his team that he really doesn't. It's fine if you want to throw your talent away, but it's a dick move when you drag down a team mate that wants to go to these events, that wants to win. I know you guys think Yog is hardcore trolling, but he partially really isn't. He's the sole reason the team that recently refreshed their contracts with Fnatic has one of the worst sponsor deals in the WoW Arena scene. I won't support a 17 year old cool kid, that has all the tools to be a champion but ****s all over his team mates like he did. I can't go into further detail as I'm sure that would only get people into trouble. Most insiders know what I'm addressing and will realize that I'm making a valid point.

People don't realize that once you show up at a tournament, everything you do counts for your résumé. It doesn't need to end with price money you get by winning tournaments. Players who know how to market themselves such as Azael get great deals like he did with gunner. Another player was offered an awesome job when he graduates. Some of the nice players get hooked up with a salary from random rich Arabs. Gameriot I ask you, who's the loser now? Maybe I shouldn't be addressing this to Yog specifically because he's still too young and naive but rather pander to the people who support such irresponsible behavior. You're not cool for taking the piss with other peoples money and you're not smart for wasting other peoples time. If you were around the player booth you realized one thing for sure.
Emerson "Woundman" Condon does care.


Zilea special

Look, I dropped something and I'm too lazy to pick it up.




I love SK-aNNa, please don't be mad with me ^_^V. Yiska out.