MLG Anaheim Live Blog Friday: Reckful vs Inflame On Opening Night

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Coverage on: http://www.gotfrag.com/

Friday: 7PM PST
Saturday: 10AM PST
Sunday: 10AM PST

Current time of Anaheim: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=783

The opening match is only a few hours away!  And you shouldn't skip tonight's matches because we have Reckful, the best rogue in the game today according to the hokage, taking on Inflame, the best warlock in the world according to himself (although to be fair, it is not far from reality). 

Reckful and Complexity hold a very strong record against top DK/lock/druid's in BG9, but Inflame and company hold a 88% win rate in Europe's best BG Cyclone.  This is more than just an opening round series!  This is BG9 vs Cyclone at its finest!  Who will prevail?  See you in a bit!  






Also playing tonight:

Button Basher (RMP) vs Team EG (RLS)
SK-US (RMP) vs Complexity BHMS (DK/Lock/Druid)
Checksix (Beast Cleave) vs Fnatic (RLS)

Don't miss it!

Button Basher (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3 (3)
Team EG (Rogue/Lock/Shaman): 1 (2)

Both teams made some adjustments since the last MLG.  BB has a brand new rogue and EG has a brand new rogue/shaman duo to go with Azael, this series is huge for both teams as a win here will erase a lot of doubts on their roster. 

Game 1 took place on Dalaran and Azael went affliction for this fight.  Rogue vs rogue duel and both rogues managed their defensive CDs very well to drag it into a long fight.  However the frost mage has burst and affliction doesn't, and late in the match Button Basher rogue managed to get off a restealth into CS KS to score the kill on EG rogue.  This doesn't look good for EG as they actually got the opening sap + opener on Button Basher rogue, yet was unable to dish out any real pressure.

EG played much better in the second match.  Their new rogue Smatin surprisingly plays a very good defensive game and this time around Azael managed to dot up everyone on the other team, creating a situation where all three members of the RMP were below 50%.  Incredibly close game as both healers were low on mana and both Azael and BB priest were below 10% at one point.  But Azael managed to teleport away and EG scored rogue kill after BB priest went out of mana.  1-1.

Game 3 took place on Ring of Valor and BB caught Azael out in the open and trained him hard to force a super early kill.  CC spam on EG shaman Tenderloin with sheep + blind and they worked Azael down, never allowed him to be picked back up.

Game 4 started with double sap from the rogues but again with frost burst BB was able to take EG rogue to 5% off the opening skirmish, forced EG to blow all of their defensive CDs early.  EG went for a swap on BB priest, took him very low but BB made the defensive stops and allowed their priest to be healed up, followed by a quick swap to Azael and with his defensive CDs blown on the rogue early, EG shaman Tenderloin has nothing left and Azael went down, series over.

With nothing to lose EG played much looser in final game, and their rogue managed to dish out an amazing sap mid-battle on BB priest.  BB rogue Hiren was at 2% and he kited away, used a bandage on himself to stay alive, and got healed to full.  But EG still had momentum advantage and they eventually brought down BB rogue to win the final match.

Azael need to go destruction as his (lack of) survivability was what cost them game 2 and 3.  That and affliction damage being all sustained and his team with no real chance to burst someone down.  Affliction just can't make people pay when they leave him open.  Destruction nerf is coming in 3.3 but this is still a 3.2 tournament.

Complexity (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 0 (0)
SK-EU (DK/Lock/Druid): 3 (5)

As predicted, Complexity went all out on SK-EU's druid to start the fight, but perfectly managed defensive CDs from Inflame/Another and aggressive pre-hots from SK-EU's druid made the effort futile.  Reckful went with CS-KS blind on SK-EU druid, hoping he would not trinket blind and let his hot fell off, but SK-EU druid is too good for that.  Sodah kept his team up for a very long time but Complexity could never dish out serious pressure against a full hot druid and Reckful went down eventually to DOT pressure.  SK up 1-0.

Too much DOT pressure from SK-EU on Ring of Valor and again Another/Inflame again dished out perfect peels.  With S5 gear being a big damage reduction vs S7, Complexity just can't seem to dish out enough damage on the SK-EU druid.  From my experience, DK/Lock/Druid is MUCH MUCH better at keeping their druid alive than Warrior/Lock/Druid thanks to death grip, chain spam, strangulate and ghoul stuns.  SK up 2-0 and I am sure a lot of people would love to see them take out Checksix Beast Cleave tomorrow.

Much better job for Complexity as they chained stuns, counterspells and fears super aggressively on SK-EU's druid and finally scored a kill.  However, by that point Sodah was too low on health as he had to overextend him to score a kill, and SK-EU was able to get the cross kill.  Out of CD mage/rogue with DOTs rolling vs DK/lock, it wasn't pretty as Reckful saw full DOTs rolling on him and went down for the count.  SK up 3-0.

Another fruitless opening train as the RMP tried their hands on the druid.  But SK-EU is rolling out their defensive CDs with ease.  Barkskin for the first round of CS->KS, AMZ for the second round, death grip + death coil + spell lock for the third round, and consider by the time Reckful opens on SK druid his priest is already fully dotted, enemy druid fully hotted, it is an uphill battle.  Complexity swapped back to Another's DK but by this point they were already out of mana, Reckful went down and SK up 4-0.

Wizard cleave!  Another went back to his original mage class to round 5, and they managed to take Reckful from 100 to 10 as soon as his cloak wore off.  Reckful got a vanish off but SK just swapped to his priest, taking him very low and prevented him from healing Reckful.  Both Reckful and his priest stayed at 10% for a very long time before Reckful was killed and SK-EU won 5-0 in dominant fashion.

I hate to say it but it looks like rogue teams will only be able to beat other rogue teams at equal skill.  From playing on live I really feel the rogue class is extremely weak at the moment, low damage/survivability/mobility all around.  I hope Blizzard developers are watching and give subtlety, our main PVP tree some much needed attention.  No other class is playing without their 51 talent right now.  Having a rogue on your team is a serious liability.  Against wizard cleave, once cloak is down, you are sitting duck and will never get to your target again.  You just don't have enough options as a rogue right now.  In 3.3 with WOTF nerf, you may as well kiss RMP good bye vs warlock teams in any high level competition.

SK-US (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 2
Complexity BHMS (DK/Lock/Druid): 3

Will Realz and SK-US do any matter?  Complexity BHMS is not as good as SK-EU, but will they take advantage of Enforcer's popped collars and upset the veterans in their debut?

Complexity BHMS is playing the match-up totally wrong as their DK/lock stayed on the defense instead of charge in and DOT up SK-US priest to create early pressure.  Instead they packed in and ate a fear from Realz and they also had to pop Anti-Magic-Zone much earlier.  SK-US easily took control of the momentum and scored a kill on Complexity druid after they caught up with him.  Not enough pre-hots either when he knows what is coming.  Did they watch how SK-EU did it?

Again very questionable strategy from Complexity BHMS as their druid switched between caster/travel forms instead of tree form on Ring of Valor.  He was brought to very low and caught in a stun in caster form but he had bark skin up and his DK gave him the AMZ to survive and get back to full.  This game BHMS played much more aggressively and had full DOTs rolling on SK priest Realz to bring him down shortly after.  Even with BHMS nowhere near SK-EU's level, they made it look easy once the druid survived the opening skirmish.  And let's face it, with bark skin, enough globals to put on at least 3-4 hots, AMZ, the RMP will need some serious RNG to score a kill in S5 gear.

It seems like BG9 doesn't teach you pre-hotting and for whatever reason Complexity BHMS druid did not pre-hot himself yet again.  Ate CS -> KS from Enforcer into fear/counterspell and went down in seconds.  Again his teammates are not charging in to put pressure on the RMP.  They really need to read this blog and watch SK-EU replays to learn this match-up.  SK up 2-1.

BHMS druid is really making it a lot harder for his team than it should be.  Again he was in caster form most of the times, very late NS/barkskin, yet once Enforcer is out of CDs, there really isn't anything he can do to get in range.  I think BHMS is probably feeling a lot of LAN jitters, maybe don't even have everything set-up correctly yet with sheer comp strength they are still tied 2-2 with SK-US.

Final match BHMS actually didn't place Anti-Magic-Zone correctly and their druid was caught outside of it.  SK unloaded their damage but BHMS made enough peels for their druid to get away from the rogue.  Death grip + chains of ice spams and Enforcer could not get away.  He was fully dotted and killed. 

Both RMPs go down against DK/Lock/Druid to start this MLG and we have to hope the Koreans have a different strategy.  Druid kills are not going to work against teams that manage their defensive CDs correctly, maybe try arcane if you are going to go that route?  It pains me to watch the rogue heroes caught in endless chains, unable to get anything done, huge liability to the team, please Blizzard devs watching this tournament, why should a leather class have less damage AND mobility than plates with far better survivability?

No offense to BHMS, as I do believe they will play much better next day with more time to set up macros/bindings, and getting over LAN jitters.  But they played like a 2100 team compared to SK-EU, and still won over a veteran team.  Had the series been played with S7 vs S7 gear, their druids would have died 2-3 times over the way he positioned himself.  Blizzard can we please update the tournament servers to at least S6 gear?

Fnatic (Rogue/Lock/Shaman): 1 (1)
Checksix (Enhancement Shaman/Hunter/Paladin): 3 (4)

Will Fnatic be able to pull off a huge upset against the heavy tournament favorite?  Will Checksix go with priest or paladin against a destruction warlock?  Will the S7 to S5 gear's damage reduction give Fnatic a chance?

Game 1 looked ugly for Fnatic as Checksix charged in, split damage on Yog/Woundman for a couple of seconds followed by full DPS on Yog to drop him almost instantly.  Yog did 5000 damage in that game, never got anything done compared to 50000 damage each from hunter/shaman, no chance for Fnatic.

Beautiful job from Fnatic in game 2.  Heavy peels + chain disarms on enhancement shaman to keep him peeled and Yog was able to outlast the beast rush and enhancement shaman survivability became an issue once Yog got off his casts and the wolves were gone.  Twix trinketed a fear and was caught in a blind which allowed Fnatic to get their burst off.  The 10 second beast nerf allowed Woundman to blind Twix just a couple of seconds earlier, and gave his warlock the breathing room.  1-1.

Unfortunately in game 3, all it took was an instant hex from Checksix on Fnatic shaman Douja followed by a hammer of justice to drop Yog.  The amount of damage pressure from Beast Cleave is just so ridiculous even with the lowest damage gear in the game.  Blizzard dev, are you watching?

Ring of valor in game 4 and 5 and Yog was toasted in both games within seconds.  All it takes is just a hammer of justice to interrupt one heal followed by arcane torrent, and Yog goes down.  The strength of beast cleave is not just damage but how you are completely stuck in the frost trap and take it up the rear.  Vs most other cleaves you can actually get away but vs this comp, even with the enhancement shaman completely locked down under most ideal scenarios, BM hunter + 3 pets are enough to drop you with ease. 

Checksix wins 4-1 with ease and if they peace out SK-EU like I predicted (and I don't see how a druid can keep up against TWO offensive dispels), they will sweep through this tournament.  Perhaps SK-EU will switch to lock/mage/druid vs Checksix?  We will find out tomorrow!

See you guys tomorrow!  It may be a depressing tournament but with the developers watching, I am sure the game will move in the right direction!