MLG Dallas Live Coverage Sunday: eMg Wins It All Despite The Odds

Matches Begin @ 10:30AM: http://www.gotfrag.com/
Standing: http://www.gotfrag.com/wow/story/44528/



Looks like Flexx's pre-MLG preparation really paid off, as his BM Hunter/Enhancement Shaman/Paladin is probably every bit as hard a counter to RMP as PHD.  X6 and Emazing Gaming have the hardest anti-RMP comps here and they are taking full advantage of the five RMPs and picking up wins left and right.  They pretty much have the top two slots locked in, and it will be up to Fnatic, Complexity and SK-US to fight for the other two spots.

Gravitas vs Fnatic (Rogue/Mage/Priest vs Rogue/Lock/Druid): 4-1

A huge upset from Gravitas as they upset Fnatic 4-1, training Douja each and every time.  Douja is the weakest link on the Fnatic team at handling rushdown's, and Gravitas exploited his weakness to win 4-1.  Training Douja forces Yog and Woundman to play defensively, and that gives the RMP all the momentum it needs.

SK-US vs Complexity (Rogue/Mage/Priest vs Rogue/Mage/Priest): 0-3, 0-2

A must win situation for Complexity to stay in this tournament, and even then they will need help from other teams as they have a terrible win/loss ratio.  Still, Reckful is outplaying Enforcer in game 1-3, winning the opener and momentum advantage both games.  Game 1 a quick swap to Pookz after he popped an early ice block to get out of CC sealed the deal.  Game 2, 3 Reckful got the opening sap and shut down Enforcer all game.  Complexity cleaned it up 3-0 and keeping their final four dream alive.

It is not a good day for SK-US as they finally traded kills with Complexity to go into a mage/priest 2v2, but Complexity managed to get a res off on Reckful with power infusion!  Complexity up 4-0 and they really needed this.

A gorgeous play by Reckful!  Stuck in center by Enforcer and brought to very low health, Sodah gives him pain suppression and instead of fighting defensively, he blinded Realz and turned the table on Enforcer.  Venruki hit a follow-up counterspell and they dropped Enforcer.  Defense to offense, all in one play.  Reckful is the total package as he led his team to a 5-0 victory over SK-US, keeping their final four dreams alive.

Unfortunately for Complexity, the opening day arcane/dance experiment 1-4 loss against AAA is really hurting them, as they are tied 4 wins 3 losses with SK-US, but they won 15 and lost 20 matches, while SK won 16 and lost 19.  Which means SK still has advantage over Complexity in qualifying for the next round, despite just getting blown out 5-0!

The only way Complexity can qualify, is if BB loses to Emazing (very likely), and beat Fnatic (50-50 given Fnatic just lost to Gravitas's RMP of all teams).  Emazing, X6 and SK-US have it all locked up, it will be between Fnatic, Complexity and BB (they can still qualify, in theory with back-to-back wins over Emazing and Fnatic).





Zilea here, I'm going to be taking over now. I woke up late so I wasn't able to cover all the matches from the beginning.

eMg vs Button Bashers (Paladin/Enhancement Shaman/Hunter vs Rogue/Mage/Priest): 2-3

As much as I think Kintt may be a washed up player, you have got to hand it to his team for finding a comp that is more of a countercomp to RMP than pally/dk/hunter. The sheer pressure from an enhancement shaman and hunter with earthbind totem and freedom makes the damage not only very high, but also unpeelable. Will Button Bashers, who has been rather disappointing at this tournament and at Blizzcon, be able to pull off the impossible?

Round 1 went as expected as Orangemarmalade of Button Bashers getting trained from start to finish while Kintt was opened on. Unfortunately, when you have an enhancement shaman and hunter on a mage, the mage is going to have a very difficult time to get his damage up without risking an early death, which is what happened. The pace is already set for this series and I think Button Bashers needs to either pull out a new comp or open up very hard on the shaman and unload everything to get a quick kill. If the game gets too long RMP has no shot.

Round 2 is on Dalaran Arena and Kintt gets sapped with Button Bashers opening on Twix. It turns out to to not be enough as Orangemarmalade is forced to try to stay alive over doing damage, leading to nobody on eMg's team getting low. Button Bashers makes a huge gamble by making a switch to Kintt and despite getting him low, it just isn't enough as Orangemarmalade pays the price by dying. 2-0 in favor of eMg.

Round 3 is on Ruins of Lordaeron. Once again Kintt gets sapped while Twix gets opened on. An early beastial wrath forces Orangemarmalade to ice block within the first 5 seconds. Button Bashers makes a swap to Flexx after the iceblock and keeps the pressure going long enough to actually kill him. Shaman really is the only target for an RMP in this comp matchup as it stops the shocks and grounding totems. 2-1 in favor of eMg.

Round 4 on Dalaran arena. An opener on Twix's pet does the job of tricking Twix into getting into a poor position. However, eMg responds by putting serious pressure on Orangemarmalade as he iceblocks within 5 seconds of taking damage. Button Bashers responds as it only took some well placed polymorphs and a deep freeze followed by a late hand of protection and a late divine shield at around 1000 hp, leading to Flexx dying. Series tied at 2-2.

Round 5 on Nagrand arena. Even though eMg is pretty safe in getting into the double elimination, Button Bashers needs the win.
Kintt gets sapped and while he is sapped Twix gets to around 25% hp before he comes out of it. As soon as Kintt came out of sap he ate a blind, followed by a priest fear right after. Excellent CC is all it takes as Twix drops while Kintt seemingly had no control of his character the entire match. Yet again, however, some blame can be put on Kintt for handing out a late hand of protection and divine shielding late, leading to Flexx's death. Button Bashers takes the series 3-2.

x6 vs aAa (Paladin/DK/Hunter vs Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3-0, 2-0

The standings are starting to get really tight with eMg, SK Gaming and CompLexity all 4-3 with x6 at 4-2. However, because of the number of rounds won by x6 so far in this tournament, even if they get 5-0ed here by aAa, they still will make top 4 for the double elimination.

Round 1 on Dalaran Arena. aAa opens on x6's DK and puts ridiculous pressure by getting Falcon to around 10% for what seems to be an eternity. X6 responds by just keeping pressure on Hiss before making a quick swap to their priest as soon as his positioning was not good. It was all it took as X6 takes the round. 1-0 in favor of X6.

Round 2 on Nagrand Arena. Hiss goes in and once again opens on the DK of Falcon while x6 puts pressure on Hiss, getting him to 30% almost instantly. Once again, however, Thorkin, priest of aAa, gets into a position to put him in range of death grip and he dies very quickly.

Round 3 on Ruins of Lordaeron. aAa does not seem to be learning anything as they go for a third round to try to train Falcon. Even though he gets fairly low, there is just too much pressure by X6 as they switch from the mage to the rogue, where he sits at around 10% for far too long. Eventually, the rogue drops. The series is decided at 3-0 but we need to sit through the last 2 rounds still.

Round 4 on Ruins of Lordaeron. aAa looking worse as the series goes on as Hiss gets trained and sits at very low health for what seems like the entire duration of the round until he eventually falls, even through pain suppression. 4-0 in favor of x6.

Round 5 on Blade's Edge Arena. aAa decides to switch it up a bit as they open up on Souler. But, the match outcome appears pretty obvious as the priest Thorkin instantly went to about 10% before Souler even has to divine shield. And it looks like the mage had enough as he actually left the arena before the round was even over. 5-0 x6 wins.

Quick update on standings as it is getting very confusing (note: this is not really updated so it may not sync with all the games):

1st place : x6 5-2
2nd place: eMg 5-2, 23 rounds won, 12 rounds lost
3rd place: SK Gaming 4-3, 16 rounds won, 19 rounds lost
4th place: CompLexity 4-3, 15 rounds won, 20 rounds lost
5th place: Button Bashers 3-3, 17 rounds won, 13 rounds lost
6th place: Fnatic 3-3, 15 rounds won, 15 rounds lost
7th place: aAa 2-5
8th place: Gravitas 1-6

CompLexity is out of the tournament because Fnatic has to play Button Bashers later today, which will lead in one of those 2 teams passing CompLexity.

Note: For any series ties, MLG will see who has the most rounds won to decide top 4.

Remember, the top 4 will move on to a double elimination later today.

eMg vs Gravitas (Paladin/Enhancement Shaman/Hunter vs Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3-1, 1-0

Round robin sucks for the sole reason that we need to watch matches like this, which will not decide anything. EMg will qualify for the top 4 for today's double elimination no matter how this series turns out.

Round 1 on Ruins of Lordaeron.  As predicted Celex the mage will be getting trained all game. Celex does a great job with damage control for most of the match, but the inevitable happens as two iceblocks are used and he goes down. Because of Celex's damage control and kiting there was poor damage for most of the match. 1-0 in favor of eMg.

Round 2 on Blade's Edge Arena. Gravitas switches it up by sitting on Twix, which results in Flexx running wild, leading to a very fast ice block. After the iceblock Gravitas goes back on Twix, but the strategy is just very poor because it allows Flexx to do everything he wants. Celex eventually goes down after a second ice block. 2-0 in favor of eMg.

Round 3 on Nagrand Arena. Kigz gets pulled out and pays for it with enormous damage on him. Kigz makes a run for it and eMg chases him down before Twix gets sat on, taking enormous damage and pretty much gets globaled with Kintt silenced. It definitely took me by surprise as I was sitting there wondering how the hell Twix died so fast. 2-1 in favor of eMg.

Round 4 on Ruins of Lordaeron. Toez charges with the rest of his team, getting twix to 20% very quickly, but likewise Celex gets very low very quickly and is forced to iceblock. After celex finally gets topped off from poor line of sight communication they make another effort on Twix. Unfortunately though, with ice blocks down and a hex/hammer of justice on Toez, there is not much that can be done with Celex going down shortly after. 3-1 in favor of eMg.

Round 5 on Ruins of Lordaeron. Kintt gets sapped with Twix getting dangerously low in the opener. Gravitas never lets up as they continue training him with Celex getting equally as low. The difference here though was that Kintt was able to top Twix off while Celex was never getting healed above 30% hp. 4-1 eMg wins.

It is difficult to understand the mindset of Gravitas Gaming for sending their team to tournaments as they have done poorly for all of them in Wrath of the Lich King. What will become of them when this one is over?

Fnatic vs Button Bashers (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman vs Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3-1, 1-0

This series will decide who the 4th place team will be for the double elimination! Will Button Bashers shock America by closing the door on the team that was most feared coming into this tournament? Or will Yog carry his team through to the double elimination? I'm going to have to bet my money on Button Bashers as even Gravitas Gaming was able to take down Fnatic 4-1.

Update: According to the MLG shoutcasters,  Button Bashers does not have a shot to make final four. The tie-breaker broke by looking at a head-to-head count. I still debate that point but in in any case, assuming the MLG shoutcasters/MLG admins are correct, there is much to be gained here as Fnatic needs a win to advance for final four. If Fnatic loses, though, SK Gaming will make it into the top 4.

Round 1 on Blade's Edge Arena. The start is very rocky for Fnatic as Douja gets sapped with Woundman pulled out of stealth. Button Bashers begins the match by getting on Douja but Douja gets away and creates distance. Numberone gets focused, followed by a swap to Hannival. Hannival attempts to restealth on the bottom of Blade's Edge Arena but Yog lands a brilliant rain of fire, keeping him in combat. Numberone soon after dies. This round can be blamed on the amount of time wasted by Hannival on trying to get that restealth. With Douja completely dry, wouldn't it have been smarter to just get on somebody and keep mashing damage? 1-0 in favor of Fnatic.

Round 2 on Nagrand Arena. Douja gets opened on ridiculously hard, forcing him to use a very early Nature Swiftness. Orangemarmalade does an excellent job with CC on Yog by making sure winter's chill is on him before polymorphing. Both teams soon after start focusing the healer with Button Bashers making a very good swap to Woundman and dishing out serious damage, leading to his death with little time for Douja to react. Series tied at 1-1.

Round 3 on Blade's Edge Arena. Numberone gets sapped and gets opened on. Hannival gets early sapped. It is just too much damage with an early deathcoil handed out. Numberone lasted less than 5 seconds before dying! 2-1 in favor of Fnatic.

Round 4 on Dalaran Arena. This one is the series point for Fnatic's trip into the final four!
Numberone gets sapped and opened on with a very fast bloodlust. Button Bashers responds by training Douja while Numberone is trained. A quick swap to Woundman leads to a very fast trinket. They stick to Woundman and it seems like Fnatic is playing catchup with more pressure being dealt to them than they are dishing out. Hannival gets swapped to but a very fast pain suppression keeps him alive, despite getting very low health. Hannival eventually goes down and Fnatic will be going to the final four. As usual, however, we have to watch all the rounds. 3-1 in favor of Fnatic.

Round 5 on Blade's Edge Arena. Woundman gets pulled out with Douja sapped. Hannival gets sapped, forcing him to trinket while Numberone gets trained. It is just too much for Numberone as he eventually dies with virtually no pressure against Fnatic. 4-1 Fnatic wins.

Fnatic crushes SK Gaming's dreams of rebounding and reclaiming their throne! The final four teams for today's double elimination will be:

1. x6
2. eMg
3. compLexity
4. Fnatic

Final Four, Double Elimination

We're not heading into the final four double elimination portion of the tournament. Thank god we won't have to have 5 rounds in every series.

Top 3 teams will be getting cash, so one of these 4 teams will walk away with nothing. Who will it be?

Fnatic vs eMg (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman vs Priest/Enhancement Shaman/Hunter): 0-3

Round 1 on Ruins of Lordaeron. EMg charges in and immediately gets on Yog. The match seemed to go by so fast as Yog dropped in what looked like less than 10 seconds into the game. 1-0 in favor of eMg.

Round 2 on Ruins of Lordaeron. The match is identical to the last one, with one fear on Douja being all it takes for Yog to go down. This is really sad as the matchup right now is more cleave-friendly than anything I've ever experienced. This is patch 3.2 on season 5 gear - isn't this supposed to be the lowest damage output in the game? Sure doesn't seem like that is helping and I hope Blizzard really does something about damage as the resilience change was clearly not enough. 2-0 in favor of eMg.

Round 3 on Dalaran Arena. Yog went destruction this time and Fnatic decides to go very hard on Flexx to try to get an early kill. With bloodlust up it almost worked as Flexx got dangerously low. However, eMg recovers and the pressure from Fnatic falls apart as soon as bloodlust comes off with Yog never getting above 30% hp. EMg takes the series 3-0.

compLexity vs x6 (Priest/Ret Paladin/Rogue vs Paladin/DK/Hunter): 1-3

Winner of this series will go on to face off against eMg while the loser will have to go head to head with Fnatic.

Round 1 on Dalaran Arena. CompLexity is switching this up as they are going to be trying ret paladin/priest/rogue. Cleave vs cleave, I'm really curious to see how this will turn out. Siler getting trained right out of the gate while x6 decides to work on Venruki who is on ret paladin. Both paladins divine shield pretty early while Souler gets mass dispelled and instantly eats a blind. Unfortunately however, the powerhouse cleave of DK/Hunter is just too much for reckful who drops in a few short GCDs. 1-0 in favor of x6.

Round 2 on Blade's Edge Arena. Siler gets opened on ridiculously hard and goes to 10% hp in less than 2 seconds while Sodah gets trained by x6. Both teams survive that burst but Siler and Sodah continue to be ridden really hard until Siler ends up falling. Series tied at 1-1.

Round 3 on Blade's Edge Arena. Siler is once again opened on while Venruki gets focused by x6. A slow opener by Reckful though leads to Venruki shielding only moments after Reckful opened. The round is pretty one sided as Siler never really gets low while Venruki just takes the cleave pain train all match until he dies. 2-1 in favor of x6.

Round 4 on Ruins of Lordaeron. Souler gets sapped by Reckful, this could be a very bad round for x6. It looks like Souler trinketed the sap and divine shielded very early. He gets mass dispelled and eats a blind. At the same time, however, Venruki takes the brunt of the cleave pain train and is forced into a divine shield. CompLexity capitalizes and switches to Souler, dropping him. The DK/Hunter cleave train is still not over, however! As they drop Venruki and it comes down to a 2v2! The DK/Hunter pulls off a victory with just too much damage to be healed through and outmuscles the priest/rogue of Sodah/Reckful. X6 wins the series, 3-1.

Lower Bracket - Fnatic vs Complexity (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman vs Rogue/Mage/Priest): 1-3

This series will decide who moves on for a top 3 spot and who will go home with no money. And believe me, folks, if you are sitting at an event for 3 days playing for over 5 hours every day, you want some of that prize money. Will Fnatic pull through a top 3 finish in their first tournament? Or will CompLexity finally win some money at a tournament under their sponsor with their new roster?

Round 1 on Blade's Edge Arena. Sodah gets sapped while Douja eats an early blind to which Douja sits through which leads to Yog getting very, very low until he gets a Nature Swiftness from about 5% hp to 85% hp. Woundman gets swapped to as Complexity is just controlling the match completely while Fnatic is struggling to put out any pressure. Both rogues get ridden hard and Woundman dies. Despite the length of this round Fnatic only got somebody low on Complexity's team once. 1-0 in favor of Complexity.

Round 2 on Dalaran Arena. Sodah and Yog both get opened on. Reckful gets swapped to while Douja eats a blind, to which he sits through. Once Reckful's cloak of shadows is down the dots start piling on him and the damage simply becomes too much for Sodah to heal through. Reckful goes down and Fnatic takes the round. It is tied at 1-1.

Round 3 on Dalaran Arena. Both healers get opened on but Fnatic makes a fast swap to Reckful getting him to about 10% hp while Complexity continues to focus on Douja. But eventually Douja goes down and Complexity takes the round to bring it to 2-1. It really seems like the best way to deal with rogue/warlock/shaman is to always train the shaman.

Round 4 on Ring of Valor. Yog gets cheapshotted early and a blind is handed out early to Douja. Again Douja gets ridden very hard while Fnatic is doing damage to both Sodah and Reckful. Woundman gets swapped to and with no where to run he drops. Complexity wins the series and will be getting prize money for the first time ever while simultaneously knocking Fnatic out of the tournament! Complexity wins 3-1.

Upper Bracket - x6 vs eMg (Paladin/DK/Hunter vs Paladin/Enhancement Shaman/Hunter: 0-3

Round 1 on Ruins of Lordaeron. Both teams charge into the other team's hunter. Both hunters get dangerously low and big cooldowns are used on both sides to keep them alive. Once those cooldowns come down Siler goes down while Twix is kept alive by Kintt. 1-0 in favor of eMg.

X6 has really disappointed me so far in this tournament with some of their random comps. They ran double healer against eMg yesterday and today they're sticking with pally/dk/hunter. I think if they run pally/dk/warrior they will destroy eMg as pally/dk/warrior is in my opinion the best comp to use against other cleave lineups.

Round 2 on Ring of Valor. This will definitely be an interesting match as damage will be unmitigated with very little line of sight to utilize. Siler gets trained while Kintt gets trained. Souler is forced to divine shield very early as a result of the damage being dealt to Siler. Despite all of Souler's cooldowns Siler still drops. 2-0 in favor of eMg.

Round 3 on Blade's Edge Arena. X6 finally pulls out the pally/dk/warrior, which is the right decision. As long as the warrior sits on Twix and the DK sits on Kintt, they will have an easy victory. Siler gets trained hard right out of the gate with virtually no damage being put out by x6. The inexperience of x6 as pally/dk/warrior is apparent as they went down without putting up much of a fight. eMg wins the series 3-0 and will be moving into the grand finals.

Lower Bracket Finals - x6 vs Complexity (Paladin/DK/Hunter vs Rogue/Ret Paladin/Priest): 3-1

This series will decide who gets third place and who will move on for a top 2 finish. Will Complexity have a solution for pally/dk/hunter? Maybe they are planning to run priest/ret paladin/rogue again.

Round 1 on Ruins of Lordaeron. Venruki gets charged right out of the gate while Souler also gets trained. Both paladins end up divine shielding at the same time but as soon as Venruki divine shields X6 makes a quick swap to Sodah before going back to Venruki with his divine shield down. Venruki dies almost instantly after his divine shield comes down and X6 takes it. 1-0 in favor of x6.

Round 2 on Dalaran Arena. Siler gets focused while Venruki is once again being sat on, forcing a very fast divine shield. A vanish cheapshot into a kidney on Siler is all it takes as he dies it what seems like 1 or 2 GCDs. Complexity ties it up at 1-1.

Round 3 on Blade's Edge Arena. Complexity goes right into Siler as X6 goes right for Venruki. Venruki is able to hold off from divine shielding for much longer than the previous rounds but he does end up divine shielding and soon as it comes down Venruki gets killed. 2-1 in favor of x6.

Round 4 on Ruins of Lordaeron. Venruki and Siler are once again the targets of both teams. A quick divine sacrifice by Souler again is all it takes to prevent him from using divine shield while Venruki is forced to divine shield. A quick swap to Reckful after Venruki divine shields almost leads to a kill but Sodah manages to keep his team up. And, as the past few rounds have gone, Venruki gets trained once his divine shield is down but this time it proves unsuccessful for x6. With Souler completely dry on mana X6 makes a desperate attempt to get a win and trains Reckful for the rest of the match until he dies. X6 wins the series 3-1.

Who won Pookz' dryer?

I made the phone call but I guess I was too slow

Oh, and due to Vhell making a challenge that he would do a robot dance if 1000 people joined #arenacast on IRC, he had to deliver:



Grand Finals - x6 vs eMg (Paladin/DK/Warrior vs Paladin/Enhancement Shaman/Hunter): 1-6

Who will bring home the first place title and some new HP Blackbird computers? I would say that x6 has got the comp to win easily but unfortunately x6 has been a huge disappointment in not only deciding which comp is the best to use in certain matchups (after all, they can run so many so they have a lot of options) but also in executing the right strategy.

Remember, x6 needs to win two series because eMg has not lost in the double elimination yet. So with that, the series begins at 3-0 in favor of eMg. First team to get 6 wins will win the tournament.

I'm not entirely sure what is going on but apparently x6 was not allowed to switch comps yet. I'm really curious to know what lineup they were trying to use.

Round 4 on Blade's Edge Arena. X6 goes very aggressive onto Kintt while Siler gets focused. Kintt divine shields very quickly but Siler died with what seems to be poor cooldown usage by Souler.

Round 5 on Ring of Valor. X6 decides to do something unthinkable by pulling out paladin/enhancement shaman/hunter to make it a mirror match! eMg works on Falcon who is on enhancement shaman while x6 puts pressure on Twix and Kintt, leading to a very fast divine shield by both paladins. A swap to Falcon by eMg leads to a quick kill as the score is now 5-0 in favor of eMg.

Round 6 on Nagrand Arena and this is now tournament point for eMg.  Both shamans get trained leading to very early hand of protection on both shamans. Once the hand of protections came off X6 was the first one to get a kill as Flexx died. The series is now 5-1 in favor of eMg.

Round 7 on Blade's Edge Arena and we are still going to be seeing paladin/enhancement shaman/hunter mirror. Siler's pet gets focused early on and Souler fails to keep it up. Flexx gets focused and gets pretty low while Kintt is also geting focused. Both healers keep their teammates up for a while as there is a back and forth on targets between the enhancement shamans until Souler runs out of mana, leading to the death of Falchon. eMg wins the tournament in a 6-1 series. Congratulations!

I gotta hand it to Kintt, where despite just a few days ago I was trashing him as a poor paladin, he pulled out all the stops and actually played as paladin for a majority of the games this tournament. So for that, good job.

I am a little concerned though that paladin/enhancement shaman/hunter is going to start running rampant as a result of this tournament. And, as everybody knows, more cleave is not exactly a good  thing.