MLG Live Blog Saturday: Checksix vs The World, Rogue Strength At WOTLK Low

Zilea will be talking over today's live blog while I take care of my father-in-law who is here in New York for three days on business.  Estel will take this opportunity to escalate outstanding issues to senior management and I have to be prepared.

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

Saturday: 10AM PST
Sunday: 10AM PST

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



It doesn't matter if you are American or European or Chinese, on every forum I read yesterday, everyone is rooting against the beast cleave cheese.  While Blizzard developers watching the tournament will almost certainly do something about it in 3.3, the question is can anyone beat this team next two days?

As impressive as SK-EU was against Complexity, when the comp advantage is the other way around, I really can't see them doing much as DK/Lock/Druid against a team that can not be snared and potentially two offensive dispels vs druid HOTs if Toes plays priest.

However, as shown by Another yesterday, SK-EU does have mage/lock/druid at their disposal.  With either mage or lock left open to free cast, they *may* have enough peels to outlast the initial rush, from there the wizard cleave does stand a chance.

Rogue Strength At WOTLK Low

Lowest damage, survivability and mobility of any DPS class in arena today, it is season 2 TBC, pre-hemo buff all over again.  Rogues are playing with level 70 specs when everyone else moved to level 80.

Yes, S5 gear does make a difference, and turns a hard match-up (Even Hydra's RMP is 0-2 against Inflame's DK/Lock/Druid, that is with S7 gear which MUCH MUCH higher damage).  Blizzard really needs to update the tournament gear to match live gear, just so the tournaments don't feel like a completely different game for the competitors.

Still, mage/priest is not the problem in RMP, rogue is!  The only team with a 4-0 record on live against Inflame's DK/Lock/Druid?  You guessed it, feral/mage/priest.  Replace the rogue with a better melee, and you win.  Mage has -20% healing debuff now, the other 30% is not needed when you have better damage/survivability/mobility/CC in one package.

Buff subtlety for 3.3, it is the only way to save the beloved rogue community!

Button Basher (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3 (3)
Complexity (Rogue/Mage/Priest: 1 (2)

Reckful demonstrated why he is the best rogue today.  BB was able to pop him out of stealth in game 1 and controlled the fight from start to finish, and BB chose to go on Venruki the mage in early game, scoring a mass dispel before swapping to Reckful and for a while, the American rogue hero was in a lot of trouble but with the 44/2/25 spec he managed to kite away, stay alive for a very long time before helping his team to score a kill on BB rogue Hiren.  Amazing play by Reckful, perfect CD management!

Not sure why Complexity went on Orangemamalade the BB mage in game 2, and Reckful took a lot of damage in the process costing their priest a ton of mana.  Eventually Sodah went dry and Reckful went down for the count, 1-1.

Before the tournament Sodah said in his interview that he is opting for more aggressive gearing, focusing on crit instead of spirit and the Koreans seem to be taking advantage of it.  Long fight on Blade's Edge as Hiren played keep away from Reckful most of the game, and Numberone found an opportunity to get a few ticks of drinks off, and late in the match Sodah found himself at 5% mana vs Numberone's 50%.  Reckful went down again for the count and BB is up 2-1.  Huge upgrade at the rogue slot for this team, as Hiren is among the best defensive rogues out there.

Not sure if the 0-5 sweep from SK-EU did too much psychological damage to Complexity as the final game saw them under pressure from start to finish again.  Huge damage pressure from BB on Venruki to put him on the defense, before swapping to Reckful for the kill and BB had complete control.  Complexity did win the final match of the series but I feel this was the series they had to win to get back into this tournament.  Sodah/Venruki played really soft under pressure and I am not sure if they can regain the toughness they need to pull this off.

News Break:

Fnatic is thinking about adding Zilea/Hoodrych to their roster for this weekend's tournament.  For some reason I don't think MLG admin will approve but you never know.  Imagine a tag-team WWE match and somebody from the audience takes off his shirt and steps into the ring!

Complexity BHMS (DK/Lock/Druid): 2
Fnatic (Rogue/Lock/Shaman): 3

Fnatic needs this series more than BHMS but it won't be easy as I feel BHMS will play quite a bit better with one series in the bag, and LAN jitters reduced.  This is the warm-up Fnatic needs before they face SK-EU later today and if they lose this one it will be really bad for their psychology.

Stream issue and it resumed with BHMS up 2-1.  Fnatic tried to go on the lock against DK/Lock/Druid first three matches, and Woundman just didn't have the mobility against DK chains/death grips.  They managed to swap to DK in game 2 to squeeze out a win which set the stage for game 4 and 5.

Game 4 was DK vs Rogue trains although DK's ability to pestilence DOTs to multiple targets dishes out more damage, rogue's wound debuff and +20% healing against a team with no MS debuff was huge.  BHMS druid actually ran out of mana and his DK kited Woundman rogue over and over with chains spam for a long time, before finally going down to DOT pressure.  All tied up at 2-2.

Once again Fnatic went for the DK train and honestly I think Woundman should just go hunger for blood + envenom.  Rogue doesn't have the mobility to chase locks any way, may as well max out damage on the DK.  The second evasion/vanish don't add much survivability when 80% of the damage you take will be from DOTs.  In any case Massive the DK was under a lot of pressure, had to play defensively and eventually went down for the count. 

Fnatic up 3-2 and hopefully with what they learned in this series, they will do better against SK-EU later.  There is no reason to go on lock when you have shaman tremor/grounding to deal with fears and the other team doesn't.  Rogue may not outdamage DK but the +20% / -50% healing makes a huge difference.

Team EG (Rogue/Lock/Shaman): 3
SK-EU (DK/Lock/Druid): 2

Having watched the previous series, Team EG will probably train the DK in this series, how will SK-EU deal with it?  SK-EU is obviously the stronger team but you bet Fnatic is watching this closely.  Looks like SK-EU is much better at dealing with the RLS pressure as Another's DK kited the rogue with chains spam perfectly at the start, avoided the rogue when the fear/coil/silence chain was on his druid.  SK spreaded DOTs on both rogue/shaman to create massive damage pressure and EG rogue went down eventually.  SK druid had no mana issues whatsoever this game as his DK played keep away to avoid heavy damage.

Very well played by Azael in game 2 as he dotted up both SK-EU's DK and druid in game 2 to create massive damage pressure.  They went on DK and managed to stay on him all game and both teams had at least two players below 50% at all times.  In the end Another went down and EG ties it up 1-1.  Azael is much more aggressive this game, proving to Inflame that they are equal in level.

I have watched Azael in tournaments forever and every now and then he calls really odd plays.  Instead of working on the DK they went on Inflame to start the match, wasted a lot of CD/damage on a warlock for no reason.  Then rest of the game he was trying to DOT up SK druid, close to a kill while his rogue worked on the pet, but a warlock alone can not finish the druid.  Shaman ran out of mana and his rogue went down, SK up 2-1.

EG went back to training the DK in game 4 and their rogue was quickly loaded with full DOTs.  Smatin did not want to blow an early cloak, tried to rely on his shaman's healing but a spell lock + strangulate on his shaman followed by Inflame searing pain brought him down in opening seconds of the game. 

I thought the previous game looked funny as the rogue did not get any heals at all, turned out their shaman lagged out and game 4 was to be replayed.  EG went with Hunger For Blood rogue and sat on the DK all game, and finally brought him down with sheer damage pressure.  Another managed his defensive CDs perfectly but Azael was able to land a clutch fear late in the game on SK druid Enigma for the kill.

Unbelievable game 5 as Azael outplayed Inflame in the final match to bring in a series victory!  Damage pressure on Another early, DOT up everything he could get his hands on to create maximum damage pressure while his rogue is kited by endless chains, and eventually ran the SK-EU druid out of mana!  EG rogue was below 10% multiple times but the new shaman Tenderloin is playing better than the good old Kollectiv IMO in those games, picking him up over and over from death's door.  When SK druid went out of mana and went down at last, a roar from Team EG as they really EARNED this victory! 

Inflame doesn't look like the best warlock in the game when he is not playing with a massive comp advantage.  USA! Go Azael!  It is up Yog now to prove to Inflame that he is not even the second best warlock in this tournament.

SK-US (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 1 (2)
Fnatic (Rogue/Lock/Shaman: 3 (3)

A rough start for Fnatic as Woundman had trouble get onto his target early, and their shaman took some early pressure.  However, early blind on Enforcer the SK rogue followed by DOT pressure on Realz the SK priest to force pain suppression on himself was able to turn the tables.  Fnatic swapped back to Enforcer for the kill.  Yog is looking good here as affliction and Woundman's defense shined against Enforcer's rushdown.

Traditionally RMP's have edge in healer trains against RLS, but when you have a super aggressive warlock like Yog things are very different.  Enforcer and SK started on Fnatic shaman, Fnatic went on SK priest.  The difference is the warlock can load up DOTs and start CCing while doing damage, mage can not CC and damage at same time.  Realz the SK priest had to blow pain suppression early before going down right after as Yog kept his DOTs rolling while controlling the SK offense with coil/fear/spell lock.  With full DOTs rolling all it takes is CS -> KS unload from the rogue to score priest kill.  Fnatic up 2-0.

Ring of Valor and again both teams went on healer trains.  Pookz the SK mage was more aggresive than last game here, pumping out massive damage on Douja the Fnatic shaman.  I still think Douja is one of the softer tournament shamans when taking heavy damage, at least compared to Kollectiv/Tenderloin, and he went down here.  Realz's early pain suppression kept himself high and he was able to dish out some assist DPS on Douja as well.  RMP wins the healer train on ROV and SK-US stays alive in this series.

Epic game 4 with the series on the line as both teams traded healers on Ring of Valor, then traded rogues in a mage/rogue vs lock/rogue fight.  Pookz vs Yog and I have to say if this wasn't ROV, Pookz would have had a much better chance.  His cooldowns were out and he did get a full innervate + reset, but without water elementals it was impossible for him to dish out enough damage against a self-healing affliction warlock.  Had this been on another map Pookz would have had a better chance to play keep away and get his CDs back.  Still a fun duel to watch and I really hope MLG adopts the Korean rules and add a DPS vs DPS duel for every series.  Fnatic wins the series 3-1 although they did give up a sloppy 5th game when Woundman was killed during cheap shot.




Zilea here. Ming has "left the building" and will be out for the rest of the evening. Stay tuned as we still have a lot of exciting matches to follow. On a side note, my pick of SK US for second place doesn't seem to be going so well. Hopefully they can get their act together as I felt they were one of the toughest RMPs I ever played against.

 

Button Basher (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3
SK-EU (DK/Lock/Druid): 2

Koreans historically struggled vs warlock teams, will they do better here? I'm putting my faith on SK EU as world champion Inflame knows what he is doing and the Koreans have never had a warlock in their country on the level of Inflame.

First map on blade's edge with Inflame opened on in the middle of the bridge. A quick blind is tossed on Enigmaz, making it look like BB was going to swap to him due to a very fast trinket. However, the peeling power of dk/lock leads to a swap over to Another. It is just a pain train after that with a good fear on Enigmaz which leads to the death of Another. BB up 1-0.

Second round on ruins of lordaeron with Hiren once again opening on Inflame. As last game went, a swap is made to Another following the opener but due to Enigma being very close they try to kill him. After that fails, it is back to Plan A as Enigma eats a good fear, leading to Another getting dangerous low in HP. BB is doing an excellent job as they seemingly control the match while Hiren is being sat on by Another and Inflame. Both teams ride the melee pretty hard with Hiren fluctuating from 30 and 60% HP. Despite some very good damage control by BB, the game goes on to long and it becomes a game of attrition as Numberone goes out of mana and can no longer keep Hiren up. Series tied at 1-1 as SK EU takes this round.

Third round on ruins of lordaeron and Inflame gets opened on extremely hard. An excellent fear by Numberone on all 3 players on SK EU gives BB the opportunity to open on Enigma. The switch was very sharp as Enigma didn't have a chance and went down quickly. BB takes the round and the score is 2-1 in favor BB.

I may have to give BB another look here as they were one of the teams I was downplaying in my preview earlier in the week. They're doing something Complexity could not: going 2-1 so far against SK EU while Complexity went down to SK EU 5-0 with SK EU essentially toying with them, even using a wizardcleave lineup against them. And, after that, BB beat Complexity at their own game in a head to head battle 3-2. BB is definitely a much stronger team than I originally expected after previous poor performances and either they simply learned from watching Complexity lose yesterday to SK EU, or BB is really just that good.

Round 4 on ruins of lordaeron and this time BB decides to switch it up a bit by directly opening on Enigma while SK EU works on the priest. However, BB gets off Enigma after the opener and switches to Another, killing him almost instantly and ending the round in what seemed like 10 seconds. However, it looks like there were lag issues so the round will be replayed. BB still up 2-1 in the series against SK EU.

And here we go again with a restart of round 4 on ruins of lordaeron. BB opens on Inflame with an early blind on Enigma, which is quickly trinketed. As seen in previous games, BB then switches to Another which it seems like this is when they realized Enigma had trinketed and Hiren vanishes and makes an effort to open on Enigma but gets pulled out. SK EU's druid Enigma eventually does get swapped to and narrowly escapes while SK EU plays the attrition game by training Hiren. And in what seemed like only a few seconds, Hiren goes down. SK EU wins the round and the series is tied at 2-2.

Round 5 on ring of valor and BB opens on Inflame. BB continues working on Inflame while SK EU sits on Hiren. Unfortunately, with Inflame having used his trinket early, BB's pressure simply becomes too much and Inflame goes down. BB takes the series 3-2.

SK Gaming USA (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 0

Check6 (Enhancement Shaman/BM Hunter/Paladin): 3 (5)

Can SK USA turn around their losing streak to get into the double elimination tomorrow? Originally I would say yes, but I feel they've lost so much momentum and they are definitely damaged psychology from the two losses this tournament so far.

Round 1 on ruins of lordaeron and Realz knew what was coming as he sat inside the spawn and did not come out. However, as soon as Pookz made himself open to damage, Check6 made a swap to him while SK Gaming USA did the classic move on training the healer known as Toez. Unfortunately it is simply too much pressure on Pookz as a fast iceblock allows Toez to get away without divine shielding. The pain train continues and despite SK Gaming USA outlasting the spirit wolves, once Pookz used both ice blocks he went down for the count. Check6 1-0 over SK.

Round 2 on ruins of lordaeron and this time SK Gaming USA clearly has rage in their eyes as Realz charges in with the rest of his team as they open on Flexx, getting him to 20% HP within 3 seconds of the match starting. But, the consequence of this strategy is Realz opened himself up for damage and he died within seconds of being sat on. Check6 up 2-0 over SK Gaming USA. So far there has been some magnificent display of skill by Check6.

Round 3 on nagrand arena. Check6 came out and started working on Toez, but again SK Gaming USA takes too much pressure as Pookz gets focused, allowing Toez to withhold his divine shield until later. SK Gaming makes a swap to Flexx and despite getting him to around ~40-50%, there is far too much pressure on Pookz, forcing him to spend more time running away and kiting than doing damage. Once his second ice block goes down, an instant cast hex on Realz with no trinket up is all it takes and Enforcer and Pookz go down. Series goes to Check6, 3-0. The 4th and 5th match must still occur though.

Round 4 on blade's edge. Twixz gets opened on and literally within 5 seconds of the damage coming out, Pookz goes to 10% HP and has to ice block. After this a swap is made to Enforcer, getting him down to 10%, forcing him to use defensive cooldowns. At this point it is prettu obvious that SK Gaming USA is going down as there is literally 0 damage being put out on Check6. Pookz continues to take more damage with damage done to Enforcer everytime Pookz gets awya. Enforcer eventually takes too much burst damage and he is down. Check6 up 4-0 over SK Gaming USA.

After a very tough first 4 rounds for Check6, it is time for some comedic relief as we will see round 5 on ring of valor. I wonder how fast SK Gaming USA will die this time? Right on the get go Realz gets trained from start to finish while SK works on Toez. Unfortunately, Realz dies before divine shield is used. Check6 wins 5-0 over SK Gaming USA. I really hope Blizzard devs are watching this because let's be serious. SK Gaming USA, Fnatic and the rest of the teams that are about to get 4-1ed or 5-0ed against Check6 are not low caliber teams. They are some of the highest caliber teams in the game and I refuse to believe that we are seeing a legitimate competition occurring. Please, Kalgan, I talked to you last night with Hoodrych. You told us you felt beastcleave was "unique" and that was why you liked it and you even acknowledged that it was stupid how the comp can steamroll everything with utter ease. These games are even on season 5 gear. Imagine it on live! Let's see another round of nerfs announced by the end of the week.

EG (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman): 1
Complexity (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3 (4)

Round 1 on blade's edge arena. Both rogues get sapped and purged clean. After the sap Complexity opens on Tenderloin the shaman very and narrowly escapes a few times. Once that happened you can tell Complexity wanted a kill and a fast swap was made to Smatin, who dies very quickly. Very little pressure by EG on Complexity. Complexity 1-0.

Round 2 on ring of valor. Complexity opens on Azael while EG opens on the priest, even blinding reckful right off the bat who quickly trinkets. EG never really took advantage of it as Complexity makes a swap to tenderloin and rides him until the end of the match, where he eventually dies. Complexity up 2-0.

Round 3 on dalaran arena. Complexity opens on Azael, getting him to 40% before the cheapshot came off. After Complexity makes a swap to Tenderloin, EG goes on peel mode as they ride Reckful for the rest of the match while Complexity rides Tenderloin. After what seems to be a pretty short period of time, both healers actually go out of mana. A good fear gets landed on Sodah by Azael and Reckful goes down. EG wins the round and the series is now 2-1 in favor of Complexity.

Round 4 on blade's edge arena. EG opens on Sodah with Complexity opening on Tenderloin. It becomes a race of healer-training and Tenderloin, forcing EG to sit on Reckful to peel. Complexity manages to continue sitting on Tenderloin, despite Reckful taking a ridiculous amount of damage. Tenderloin eventuall goes down and Complexity wins the series 3-1.

Round 5 on ring of valor as they have to play out all 5 games. Azael gets opened on by Complexity and an early polymorph on Tenderloin keeps EG behind the rest of the match as almost no damage is put out by EG with Azael staying below 30% hp until the end of the series. Azael goes down and the series ends 4-1 in favor of Complexity.

Complexity BHMS (Druid/Warlock/DK): 1
Check6 (Enhancement Shaman/Paladin/BM Hunter): 3 (4)

Round 1 on blade's edge arena. The warlock on the Complexity BHMS team expectedly gets trained and takes insane damage with Twixz of Check6 getting sat on. Flexx gets swapped to as it is an easier target to sit on, giving BHMS some breathing room before making a swap to Twixz and getting him to below 10% hp. Check6 finally manages to get back on the warlock while Flexx gets swapped to and both targets get very low. Toez surprisingly goes to 0 mana and dies due to divine shield already being used. Wow! Complexity BHMS up 1-0 over Check6.

Round 2 on ring of valor. This is going to be disgusting for Complexity BMHS. The warlock gets trained and with no where to run or hide, he is hovering at 20-30% the entire game. BHMS is doing a good job though of kiting Flexx and despite him not being able to sit on the BHMS warlock for very long, gets soloed by Twixz. Check6 wins this round and the series is tied at 1-1.

Round 3 on ruins of lordaeron. Once again the warlock Snutz gets trained from start to finish and it really is stupid how much damage he takes with BM/spirit wolves up and he dies in 10 seconds. Check6 up 2-1 over BHMS.

Round 4 on ruins of lordaeron. Yadda yadda yadda Snutz gets trained again from start to finish with BHMS doing damage to Flexx. But, just like the case with Pookz, the damage taken is so high that more time is spent running and kiting than doing damage. 3-1 wins the series in favor of Check6.

Round 5 to play out all 5 games. It is that time of the tournament again for some comedic relief so the map is ring of valor. The DK of BHMS gets trained this time for something new and never gets above 20%. While Twixz did take some big damage, it was a complete joke of a round. 4-1 in favor of Check6.

SK Gaming USA (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 2
Button Bashers (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3

SK Gaming USA, already 0-3 for their matches in this tournament, are clearly psychologically crippled. Can they turn it around and defeat Button Bashers, who is seemingly on fire so far?

Round 1 on ruins of lordaeron. BB surprisingly opens up on Pookz, forcing a very early ice block while SK Gaming USA opens on the priest Numberone. Once both openers fail to deliver a kill, both teams start focusing damage onto the opposing teams' rogue and just ride them until one goes down. Even though both will hovering at 20% the entire time, Enforcer went down first. 1-0 in favor of BB.

Round 2 on dalaran arena. Hiren gets popped out of stealth and Enforcer opens on him. An early CS on Numberone sets BB behind in healing and going defensive right out of the gate. But, BB recovers and one good fear on Realz followed by a silence is all it takes for Enforcer to go down again. 2-0 in favor of BB. This is not looking to be a good tournament for SK Gaming USA as they are heading into a 0-4 for games played so far. As much as it pains me to say this, have they passed their prime?

Round 3 on blade's edge arena. Double sap with Realz and Numberone sapped. Numberone gets opened on with Hiren being sat on with Enforcer also being sat on in another rogue-train-fest. Hiren gets focused extremely hard and a counterspell on numberone leads to the death of Hiren. 2-1 in favor of BB.

Round 4 on nagrand arena. It was an interesting game as SK US seemed defensive for the first half of the match with Enforcer dipping fairly low numerous times. As soon as he got topped off, the pressure pendulum swung and Hiren started taking some big damage until he went down. Series tied 2-2.

Round 5 on ruins of lordaeron. Pookz opened with a garrote and ice blocks instantly followed by a polymorph on Realz, putting SK USA extremely defensive and he goes down before he can iceblock again. BB wins the series 3-2.

Can anyone stop BB? How will they do against Check6?

Complexity BHMS (Druid/DK/Warlock): 3
EG (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman): 2

Round 1 on dalaran arena. This round was the epitome of what a game of attrition looks like as BHMS never really had a target and just kept dots rolling around to everyone on the team. EG's strat was expected as Smatin the rogue was hunger for blood spec and he nor azael never really looked at anybody else other than the DK known as Massive. Gets trained from start to finish and despite some extremely close kills, the druid simply outlasted Tenderloin the shaman and Tenderloin eventually goes down. 1-0 in favor of Complextiy BHMS.

Round 2 on blade's edge arena. Very similar game as Massive was trained from start  to finish with a lot of dot spreading by Complexity BHMS. This time, however, Massive went down for the count, tying the game 1-1.

Round 3 on ring of valor. Once again Massive starts taking damage all game while working simultaneously on Tenderloin, Azael and Smatin. Azael manages to survive with what looks to be less than 10% hp, leading to Tenderloin in turn almost dying. The EG strategy is apparent as the druid of BHMS doesn't top himself for close to 15 seconds the DK Massive continues to get focus fired. A good switch to Tenderloin leads to his death. Score is now 2-1 in favor of BHMS.

Round 4 on blade's edge arena. Again (yawn) Massive the DK gets trained from start to finish. This time, there is very high damage being done to not just EG but also Massive the DK of BHMS. Massive gets caught with no HoTs on him and he goes down. EG wins the round and ties the series at 2-2.

Round 5 on ruins of lordaeron. Massive opened on once again right in the open with the usual damage spreading across EG's team. The game just goes on too long and Azael dies. Series goes to BHMS 3-2.

Check6 (Enhancement Shaman/BM Hunter/Pally): 3
SK Gaming EU (Druid/DK/Warlock): 2

Can world champion Inflame do what no other team has done so far and beat Check6? We'll see.

Round 1 on blade's edge arena. As expected Inflame gets focused from start to finish and the useful portal to the top of blade's edge gave him some breathing room. Wow! I don't even know what happened as Twixz took a ridiculous amount of damage out of no where and goes down! 1-0 in favor of SK Gaming EU.

Round 2 on nagrand arena. Inflame again gets sat on from start to finish and somehow manages to survive after hovering at 20% for over 5 seconds. But, without the aid of a portal with the use of a Z-axis, a HoJ on Enigma ends the match this time as Inflame dies immediately after. Tied at 1-1.

Round 3 on dalaran arena. Inflame gets opened on and is fluctuating while Twixz starts taking some serious damages, forcing Toez to divine shield very quickly. The pressure continues on Inflame with Inflame sitting behind the crates permanently to mitigate damage from the hunter. This is a pretty long round and despite sitting behind the crate the entire time, Inflame goes down. 2-1 in favor of Check6.

Round 4 on nagrand arena. Inflame once again gets opened on with Twixz taking damage. Somehow SK EU manages to outlast the myriad of cooldowns that Check6 has and even makes a swap to Toez, forcing a divine shield. Inflame is doing a beautiful job of mitigating the damage he is taking while putting out some ridiculous damage. Toez goes completely out of mana and SK EU pulls out a win against Check6! Wow! World champion lord Inflame is doing the impossible! Overcoming the odds of broken, overpowered classes and doing it superbly!

Round 5 on dalaran arena. Inflame trained from start to finish and despite some pretty good use of cooldowns, there was nothing poor Inflame could do against the training power of beastcleave. Check6 drops Inflame and wins the series 3-2.

Fnatic (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman): 2
Complexity (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3

Round 1 on ring of valor. Sodah opened on by Fnatic with Douja getting sapped. Douja gets swapped to with nature swiftness down and he sits at 10% hp for a while before he is ultimately killed. Following that we have a crosskill on Reckful. 2v2 rogue/warlock vs priest/mage and the priest/mage comes out on top. Complexity 1-0.

Round 2 on dalaran arena. Sodah gets opened on and swaps are made between him and Reckful by team Fnatic. The focus keeps going and Sodah has trouble keeping him and Reckful up forcing Complexity to go very defensive. Reckful soon gets killed and Fnatic ties it up 1-1.

Round 3 on ruins of lordaeron. Sodah gets focused along with Yog. Sodah dispels a UA just as Fnatic makes a swap to Reckful, getting him dangerously low. As soon as Complexity recovers, a swap to Douja is made, killing him fast. Complexity leading 2-1.

Round 4 on ruins of lordaeron. Sodah takes a lot of damage as he is the primary target and a bloodlusted warlock and rogue is just too much and the game ends quickly. Fnatic ties it 2-2.

Round 5 on ring of valor. Yog takes a lot of damage early on and Douja has a lot of trouble keeping him. Once Yog gets topped Fnatic begins presure by getting on Sodah, putting Complexity defensive and putting out little pressure. Once Sodah recovers, Complexity works on Yog, killing him. Series goes to Complexity, 3-2.

SK Gaming USA (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 2
EG (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman): 3

Round 1 on ring of valor. SK US attempts to focus hard on Tenderloin, who does a good job of getting away, leading to a blind on him so that SK can focus Smatin. Both teams start focusing the rogues. The pressure takes its toll on Tenderloin who runs out of mana while getting swapped to. But SK Gaming overextended and sat on Tenderloin for too long, allowing EG to unload into Enforcer, killing him. SK Gaming really looks like a mess at this point as training a healer who is completely dry (compared to Realz who had plenty of mana) is a rookie mistake because it allows the 2 DPS to run rampant. Why not just sit on a DPS and slowly kill the player with Tenderloin having no mana to do anything about it?  1-0 in favor of EG.

Round 2 on ring of valor. Well...it starts off pretty interesting as he accidentally evasions before the game actually started. Realz gets a full fear onto all of team EG with Tenderloin being opened on, barely surviving the onslaught. Smatin gets swapped to later on and dies pretty much instantly after getting dispelled out of polymorph by Azael's pet. SK Gaming ties the series 1-1.

Round 3 on ruins of lordaeron. EG focuses Realz, which turned out to be a big mistake as Enforcer and Pookz get on Smatin, killing him within the first few seconds of the match. SK Gaming USA leads the series 2-1.

Round 4 on nagrand arena. Azael gets opened on very hard, almost dying in Enforcer's opener. Tenderloin keeps him up but Smatin then gets swapped to to keep the pressure going. As soon as EG recovered, the pressure swings and Enforcer is forced to pop defensive cooldowns to keep himself alive. A lot of back and forth occurs until Enforcer gets stuck behind a pillar and almost dies. The match continues with Enforcer plays defensive until he gets topped and then going offensive on Smatin. Both teams work on the rogues and a very good fear on Enforcer and a swap to Realz switches the momentum so much that Realz cannot keep Enforcer and himself alive. Enforcer eventually goes down. EG ties the series 2-2.

Round 5 on ruins of lordaeron. Tenderloin is the target of SK USA in the beginning as it forces EG to play defensive. Enforcer gets very low and EG takes advantage of this by switching to Realz, making it very difficult for him to keep himself and Enforcer alive. Unfortunately it is too much for him as Realz goes down. The series goes to EG 3-2.

More series to go. Damn, MLG should really consider getting more games in on Friday so that there aren't like 30 games played on Saturday.

Fnatic (Rogue/Warlock/Shaman): 1 (2)
SK Gaming EU (Druid/DK/Warlock): 3

Round 1 on dalaran arena. Woundman and Douja both taking high spread damage while forcing Another to go defensive as he gets low as well. The high damage was spread across all of team Fnatic and I thought Woundman would die right away but he manages to be kept up and Another of SK EU goes down. Surprisingly, SK EU manages to kill Woundman seconds later, turning the game into a 2v2 of warlock/druid vs shaman/warlock. The other big surprise is that the game does not last very long as SK EU gets a kill on Yog. SK EU leads the series 1-0.

Round 2 on ruins of lordaeron. Inflame gets opened on by Fnatic but Woundman gets very low as Inflame and Another put pressure on not just him but the entire team of Fnatic. Douja is visibly having trouble keeping his team up as not only is Woundman very low, but so is Yog. It is just a matter of time and Yog goes down. SK EU winning the series 2-0.

Round 3 on blade's edge arena. The same occurs as in round 1 and 2 as Woundman is still hunger for blood and trains Another, getting him very low. The pressure swings in SK EU's favor as Woundman can not get to his target with chains of ice spam. Enigmaz becomes the target, which is certainly a first, and he gets very low as he waddles around with no mana. In contrast, Douja manages to drink and keep his mana up. SK EU starts playing very defensively as Enigma is still dry and it is just a matter of time until Enigma goes down. Fnatic gets a point on the scoreboard. 2-1 in favor of SK EU.

Round 4 on ring of valor. The DK Another gets focused as usual with SK EU damages everyone on team Fnatic also. The game is a continual back and forth with the usual targets with a swap to Enigma later in the game but Woundman goes down in the process. SK EU wins the series 3-1 but they are still gonna play the 5th match.

Round 5 on nagrand arena and this time we've got a comp change. SK EU will be using mage/warlock/druid against Fnatic's rogue/warlock/shaman. Inflame really knows how to keep the audience entertained! This game Fnatic focuses the druid of SK EU and Woundman quickly learns the consequences of it as he almost gets blown up. Woundman switches over to Inflame before making another go over to Enigmaz to try to kill him. Fnatic keeps focusing Enigmaz and Woundman continually to cheat death as he is constantly getting below 30%. Woundman learns his lesson and switches over to Inflame to mitigate damage output. The game continues in a very lengthy match as Enigmaz gets swapped to a couple times along with Inflame but they recover. Eventually, Enigmaz runs low on mana and he goes down to Fnatic's damage. SK EU still takes the series 3-2.

Check6 (Enhancement Shaman/BM Hunter/Paladin): 3 (4)
Complexity (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 0 (1)

Round 1 on blade's edge arena. Complexity looks to be running restodruid/survival hunter/enhancement shaman. Complexity focuses Flexx while the enhancement shaman of Complexity gets focused. And here is where paladin defensive cooldowns outshine a druid's healing. Very fast round. Check6 up 1-0 over Complexity. It is pretty clear at this point the desperation of Complexity. Looks like Verty is apparently playing the rogue?

Round 2 on nagrand arena. Both teams sit on each other's enhancement shaman but again defensive cooldowns of a paladin are much stronger than a druid's, especially when you are looking at bloodlust, spirit wolves and BM damage. 2-0 in favor of Check6.

Round 3 on blade's edge arena. Complexity is still to their guns with their new lineup of enhancement shaman/resto druid/survival hunter. Complexity switches it up this time and sits on Toez while their own shaman gets focused. It is simply too much dmg for Complexity as the shaman dies before Toez even has to think about divine shielding. Check6 wins the series 3-0 but they will still play the 4th and 5th match.

Round 4 on dalaran arena. I don't even know what happened this time as there were literally 0 damage done to Check6 and the enhancement shaman of Complexity dies very quickly. 4-0 in favor of Complexity.

Round 5 on ruins of lordaeron. This time Check6 decides to have fun and train the druid of Complexity with Complexity focusing Twixz. It is a race to see who dies first and WOW! Twixz goes down! This is what happens when you run a comp that is decided to tunnel vision one target and decide to not target the right player. Series ends in favor of Check6 4-1.

SK Gaming USA (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 1 (2)
SK Gaming EU (Druid/DK/Warlock): 3

Can SK Gaming USA upset their counterpart of SK Gaming EU?

Round 1 on blade's edge arena. SK US puts pressure on Another of SK EU as there is too much peeling for them to sit on Inflame. SK EU responds by nearly killing Realz. SK US pulls a fast swap to Enigmaz who seemed unprepared, with Another dropping a good AMZ to keep Enigmaz alive. Once the AMZ comes down though Enigmaz dies. SK US up 1-0.

Round 2 on nagrand arena. Inflame gets opened on, getting him to around 30% before being topped off. SK EU responds by sitting on Realz and we have a near cross-kill as both Realz and Inflame gets extremely low. A string of some high damage numbers came in as SK EU takes down Enforcer. Series tied at 1-1.

Round 3 on blade's edge arena. Inflame gets opened on again as usual with Realz getting targeted. We see a switch as Pookz takes some damage before Enforcer gets swapped to, getting very low. A cyclone onto Realz is all it takes and Enforcer goes down.

Round 4 on dalaran arena. Enigmaz starts taking a lot of damage this round along with Realz. Enigmaz gets in a very bad position and AMZ gives him enough breathing room to survive. Once again Enforcer goes down from too much damage. SK EU takes the series 3-1 but there is still one more match.

Round 5 on ruins of lordaeron. Inflame gets sat on from start to finish and dies very quickly. Not sure what happened to all the defensive cooldowns... series in favor of SK EU 3-2.

That is it for today. The rest of the matches will be played tomorrow as it is pretty obvious that the MLG organization was way behind schedule and couldn't finish it all tonight. Goodnight everybody.