MLG Live Blogging Saturday: Can Ensidia Bounce Back? From Underdog To Favorite, Emazing Is For Real!

Watch It Live: http://www.mmo-champion.com/

WOM Live Blog Saturday: 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM US Eastern

Very close opening round as SK started on Azael the lock to lock out his incredible bursts, before swapping to a rogue vs rogue fight.  Enforcer the SK rogue was brought down to less than 5% once Azael got open, but he jumped off the platform just in time to get shielded + penanced from Realz the SK priest.  Vanish Cheap Shot on Zyz and SK was able to take him down with a round of bursts. 

For RMP to beat RLS, you have to start on warlock to keep him from casting, but you will rarely kill him, you swap to either rogue or shaman for small stretches, as they are your real kill targets.  In game 2 SK went on Kollectiv the shaman straight up and left Azael wide open, Enforcer was brought down to 10% in seconds, and next round of burst killed him.  You can't gamble for shaman kills, you must start on lock or rogue, make the shaman cough up their trinkets THEN swap to him.

Terrible start for Team EG as Enforcer was able to sap Kollectiv AND land the opening cheap shot on Zyz the rogue.  That cost Kollectiv's natural swiftness almost right away and the RLS was forced to peel/play defense.  RMP pumped their damage into Zyz and scored a quick kill with blanket counter spell.

Wow, I have to say I am very very impressed by the way Realz is coaching his SK-US.  All four matches they called different plays and sets.  In game 4 they landed sap on Kollectiv on shaman and opened on Azael, brought him to 30%, sheeps Kollectiv followed by an improved counter spell.  Team EG being a top RLS made enough peels and defensive plays to prevent the kill, but again it cost them a ton of defensive CDs.  Terrible mistake on EG's part to be behind on DPS AND going for a priest kill early.  You can't train priest if you are already behind on momentum!  Also why is Zyz not landing his saps on priest or mage?  Every match started with their shaman sapped and they really have to sap either priest or mage in return to even out the momentum.  Again they had full control of the fight and eventually scored a kill on Azael once CC diminishing returns wore off on Kollectiv.

On paper SK-US does not have the best roster of the tournament, but Realz is the best leader you can have for an arena team, and without Serennia-sama in the way of his coaching, it is a huge difference.

Complexity (Rogue/Mage/Druid) vs Emazing (DK/Hunter/Paladin): 0-3

Will Sodah play druid against DK/BM hunter?  It is the easiest and most logical comp change.  I hope he read WOM and saw how RIP beat X6tence with one simple change.  The difference between X6 and Emazing, is Emazing actually plays PHD as their main comp and qualified in the regionals, and Payce is the best tournament paladin today, will it be different?

Huge pressure on Venruki the mage to force a block super early as Emazing pressured him heavily.  Very interesting strategy here as mage is the heart of every RM/Healer teams, and taking away his CCs and hard casts is much better than whatever extra damage you can pump out on the rogue.  With Venruki pressured all game, Payce the paladin didn't have to bubble until much later in the match, although he did go down to very low post bubble.  This is what Payce does best as I played him back in S1 myself, he is so difficult to bring down as he has amazing footwork around the pillars.  He solo tanked Happyminti the rogue + occassional instants from mage/priest for 20+ seconds at 15%, and kept his hunter/DK alive long enough to drop Venruki.  Sodah innervated Venruki by accident but Payce clearly won this game for Emazing.

Game 2 went even smoother for Emazing as they put out even more pressure on Venruki, and killed him shortly after block once aimed shot was put up.  Venruki usually plays very aggressively and most mages these days are not used to being focused at all.  Game 3 showed amazing play of hunter hero Twix.  His brought Venruki to 50%, Venruki got behind pillar with hunter pet solo, thought he was safe so he tried to cast a sheep, intimidation stun and Twix popped his pet offensive CDs, killing him before he could even block!  Venruki-san soloed by a pet! 

Emazing is for real, believe it!  You can tell they are not X6, they have strong plays and sets for every comp they run into, because PHD is all they play.  Unless someone learns to play warrior/DK/paladin overnight, they suddenly went from underdog to favorite status.

SK-Gaming (Rogue/Mage/Priest) vs Gravitas (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3-0 

Will Gravitas DGFG swallow their pride, admit their RMP is washed-up and run rogue/ret/priest?  Or will they pull a Mel Gibson and Danny Glover before they were about to go up against Jet Li in Lethal Weapon 4, "We are not too old for this $hit?"  Gravitas could not beat Realz on rogue of RMP in 3.0, and they are certainly not going to do it here when Realz is now playing his main class, the priest with a better roster around him.  I wonder if Celex can break a blackbird?  Hide your laptops!

Wake up and smell the coffee guys, this ain't hollywood as SK took a quick 2-0 lead winning the rogue vs rogue duel both times.  Enforcer played super aggressively and outdamaged Emolol by a big margin, even forcing him to blind the wrong target in panic TWICE.  Going into the final game you could see DGFG's body language, they had no confidence whatsoever in their comp, yet they still went in with the illusion that they are still a factor in this tournament as RMP.  Realz called a "train the priest start to end" play and SK wrapped it all up 3-0.

Can we stop this retarded round robin joke?  Winner + loser bracket should be all you need, or divide the 8 teams into two groups, round robin in each group, and take the top two teams from each group.  It really hurt the competition quality and it is very easy to lose audience interest if they have to watch DGFG vs Fnatic.

Ensidia (Rogue/Mage/Priest) vs Complexity (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 3-1

Ensidia is obviously the favorite here, as they have no excuse to not win an RMP mirror against the Americans.  Minti/Venruki/Sodah came a long way since the last time they played in a LAN tournament, both teams lost to Emazing 0-3, can the Americans pull off an upset?

Complexity pulled out a very surprising Korean style arcane/shadow dance!  Minti the rogue opened on Hydra the priest, got locked down for a bit and had to vanish run away, but did manage to make Hydra cough up his defensive cooldowns.  Venruki managed to bring Hydra to 50%, arcane + shadow dance burst and the most famous priest in the world is down for the count.  Complexity had element of surprise on their side this game, can they keep it up?

Game 2 Ensidia took advantage of arcane's lack of peeling options, and they trained Sodah the priest from start to finish.  Mutilate frost can train priest just as well as arcane/dance can, while it doesn't have the burst power, frost's extra nova + deep freeze when used properly can shut down the enemy rogue/mage, and mutilate itself dishes out so much more sustained damage pressure.  1-1. 

Why is Hydra drinking Pepsi?  Didn't he read the memo that this was sponsored by Dr. Pepper?  Looks like Complexity's HON impression is still nowhere near the original, as Ensidia shut them down completely in game 3 and 4.  Opening pressure on Happyminti, switch to Sodah and locking him down, swap back to Minti for the kill.  Ensidia could never put together any real burst chain in this game.  When you are shadow dance, you must score the kill during the dance and Minti's burst timing is nowhere near the Korean rogues.  Getting CCed during dance is almost an automatic loss as you can never fight a mutilate rogue toe-to-toe as shadow dance.

Fnatic (Rogue/Lock/Druid) vs DGFG (Rogue/Retribution/Priest): 2-3

Battle of the has been's, it is amazing how the same players/teams that fought for championships a year ago are non-factors today.  I am still waiting for DGFG to swallow their pride and run rogue/ret/priest full time, or Fnatic to run warrior/lock/druid, we will see.  It looks like Didy is in and Celex is out, I expect DGFG to beat Fnatic and they can still advance to the second round if they give up on RMP.  They have one of the strongest comps of this tournament, they better take advantage of it.

This is going to be a very bad tournament for Fnatic as Glick is very uncomfortable as destruction.  Game 1 DGFG played straight up zerg on warlock and held Glick to 8000 damage dealt in a 2 minute game.  Game 2 Fnatic did a better job with CCing but once Yog the rogue was forced to trinket early blind/repentance's, a single hoj + retribution burst dropped him from 100-0 in seconds.  A lot of the European rogues already switched to 850 resilience + 3/3 deadened nerve type of builds, many Americans are still in the past with 500 resilience + 3/3 focused attacks.

Hafu went back to her shaman as Yog/Glick is generally a more offensive combo, and it paid off.  They had good peels and with heroism, Glick finally got off some nukes and killed Emolol the DGFG rogue in game 3 and 4.  Druid is too defensive to pair up with rogue/destruction warlock (it is a lot better for DK/affliction) and Fnatic is taking advantage of DGFG's lack of experience with their cleave comp.  My stream died and I couldn't see exactly what happened in those two games but apparently Didy threw a fit after the 4th game and he is about to be replaced by Celex.

The final match took place on Ring of Valor and Glick warlock/Emolol rogue were both dropping very quickly.  Celex mage did good CCs on Yog rogue and they eventually dropped Glick.  Once again they held Glick to 20000 damage.  Fnatic is looking depressed, sad, but not raging.  It is funny because they put up the ads but left the sound on, and I think I heard Celex saying "I would have punched Didy in the face if we lost".  My stream was messed up I missed Didy leaving the game early, I can't see DGFG playing him again rest of the tournament which means this series is probably the only series they will win rest of the way.  Didy's retribution paladin screams second hand scrub and coupled with stability issues, DGFG is going to have to tough it out with RMP.

Ensidia (Rogue/Mage/Priest) vs Team EG (Rogue/Lock/Shaman): 3-0 

Battle of the heavy weights as I predicted those two teams to compete for the title, but SK-Gaming and Emazing will say something about that.  Team EG lost to SK-Gaming 1-3 earlier so their record against RMP is tainted but Ensidia doesn't have the experience of SK against Team EG on American tournament realms.  Can they adapt on the fly?

Once again EG is being too defensive, Zyz rogue needs to get an opening sap to cancel out the RMP opening sap.  Kalimis rogue sapped Azael lock, went on Kollectiv shaman to burn his PVP trinket, CCed him then swapped to Zyz rogue for a quick kill.  Text book play.  Zyz must get his own sap to cancel out the initial sap from opposing rogues.  Or EG needs to get into combat quicker.  They are letting RMPs sap->open every single game and that can't happen if they are going to win the series.

Did Kollectiv DC before Zyz went down?  Apparently that is the debate here.  Waiting for a confirmation from Admin, but it did seem Zyz went down too fast without any resistance.  Kollectiv is still DCed and we are waiting for the admins to clear the technical issue and update on the score. 

Apparently match 1 was rewarded to Ensidia and we play on.  A much better start for Team EG this time as they finally put together a few decent rounds of burst on Kalimist the Ensidia rogue.  But Redhot did an incredible job controlling Azael's burst and Zyz lost to Kalimist in the rogue vs rogue duel.

The trend would continue in round 3, as Redhot continue to deny Azael's burst attempts and created burst attempts of his own.  The difference is priest burst healing with shield + penance + pain suppression is just so much better than shaman.  If shaman gets behind, he just doesn't have the same instant options to bring his target back to full.  If Ensidia lands a burst chain on Zyz it is over, the same is not true for Ensidia and that was the difference.

Pandemic (DK/Lock/Druid) vs Emazing (DK/Hunter/Paladin): 2-3

Out of all the teams in this tournament, I felt Pandemic had the best comp against DK/Hunter/Paladin, as they have the durability to outlast BM hunter bursts.  But Emazing pumped out massive pressure on Shinaniganz lock with early BM to burn Kintt druid defensive CDs and NS, then swapped to Kintt to force kills.

On Ring of Valor this worked extremely well as Emazing won both games, but on Blade's Edge it is a different story with warlock/druid being able to line of sight.  Once BM is gone, the PHD team is very reliant on DK to dish out pressure, the hunter is more of a debuffer until the next BM (which is only 90 seconds or so away).  Do they have enough in the tank to win a decisive game 5 with score tied 2-2?

This is where having the highest rated DK in the world of S5 helps.  Flexx was the only player I am aware of winning deadly gladiator in all three brackets, he is probably the best DK in the US and for some reason no one heard of him before (including myself, thanks Trance!).  He was previously a Merciless Gladiator Mage and Vengeful Gladiator Shaman, and people here in Columbus have been saying he's one of the most on point DKs they've ever encountered.  With Twix the hunter hero exhausted after his BM wore off, Flexx picked up the damage pressure and forced a kill on Kintt.  Also a very good call to rush Pandemic from the other side of the map early, putting Shinaniganz literally in the center bridge + frost trap with nowhere to go, eating full BM damage forcing Kintt to blow all of his big heals, before swapping to Kintt to win the series.

Emazing has surprisingly good play calling and adaptation.  They demonstrated they are not all about the BM cheese.  Their game is indeed built around the paladin aura mastery + BM burst, but it is what they do outside of the burst window that makes them the only PHD to qualify for US regionals.

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

The top two US RMPs go up against each other.  SK-US had a winning record in the past and they are the hotter team in this tournament.  RMP mirrors come down to little things and Realz's coaching should overcome Complexity's raw athletism.

Game one saw SK going for priest pressure early before swapping to Minti rogue for a quick kill.  But Complexity went for pure priest pressure in game 2 to break SK's momentum and tied it all up 1-1.   

With the score tied 1-1, Complexity went arcane/dance for maximum burst.  Game 3 SK managed to shut off their momentum, and Minti lost the rogue vs rogue duel against Enforcer's mutilate.  Game 4 Complexity went "straight up on priest don't even worry about peels" again, and arcane/dance's raw burst power got them a quicker kill and a win to tie up the series 2-2.

I am not sure why doesn't Complexity just call "zerg the priest no matter what" every game.  It is the best strategy to turns the game from finesse swaps to a physical, ugly mess.  It is what NBA teams with lesser rosters do against opponents with more upscale rosters, and Complexity can definitely win this if they stop making Minti do rogue vs rogue duels which he is terrible at.

It is not often I would question's Realz's coaching, but like Serennia-sama he tends to call some off the hook gambles instead of stick to bread and butter sets.  In game 5 his team decided to go on Venruki the arcane mage which in general is a terrible idea in RMP mirrors.  Mutilate rogue doesn't have the mobility to catch a mage with another rogue on his back.  They really need to take advantage of the Enforcer vs Minti match-up.  They paid for it as Enforcer was brought down after he ran out of CDs, and went on to lose their first series.

Ensidia (Rogue/Mage/Priest) vs Pandemic (DK/Rogue/Priest): 3-2

Ensidia is a lot more familiar with this comp at home, will Pandemic play into their hands?  Good to see Pandemic calling for an adjustment here, as they put on Kintt back on the priest class that made him famous.  DK/rogue/priest is one of the tougher match-ups for RMP, but can Ohnoes deliver? 

The best way to beat Ensidia regardless of your comp, is sitting on Hydra the MVP himself turning him into a healbot.  Kalimist rogue waited way too long in game 1 as he was looking for an opener on Ohnoes rogue, he needs to come out and open on DK immediately.  By the time he got out of stealth, Hydra was already at 20% and never had a chance to bring himself back up as Pandemic took game 1.

What was Pandemic smoking?  They went away from priest training and actually tried to go on Redhot the mage.  Kalimist did a much better job popping out early to stop the Pandemic DK from charging in, he popped his anti-magic/stun CDs but still couldn't reach Hydra so they called a mage swap, terrible idea they threw away game 2.

American pride!  As Pandemic went back to "get on Hydra regardless of what is happening" strategy.  He is their MVP and if you rough him up, it takes away his entire team.  Play physical on the priest, dumb down the game and force the RMP to be the one on defense!  Hydra was taken down in no-time and Pandemic won game 4.

Why did they go away from this recipe in game 4?  They tried to be fancy with mage/rogue swaps and wasted their offensive CDs.  By the time they went back on Hydra Ohnoes was already at 50% and went down for the count.  Zerg the priest!  You can not afford to drag it out into late game as cleave against RMP!

Again game 5 saw Pandemic foolishly playing into Ensidia's hands.  Sapping the priest and opening on the rogue sounds good on paper, but your DK already got opened on, rogue/mage pumping damage into him he won't be able to play aggressively.  Ohnoes needs to get on Hydra and stay on Hydra the entire game, instead he sapped the MVP and went for an opener on Kalimist.  DK/Rogue/Priest is not RMP and you must must play a power game, NOT finesse.  Terrible decision making as again Ohnoes got tangled up in rogue vs rogue duel, both rogues got off a vanish and Ohnoes was sapped as human by Kalimist's undead . . . He played way too soft there and it cost Pandemic the series.  There is no need for creavity when you are playing cleave, you don't need many plays, you just need to perfect your bread and butter.  Ohnoes put out less damage than Hydra in a minute plus game, when the series was on the line and it was embarrassing.

Team EG (Rogue/Lock/Shaman) vs Emazing Gaming (DK/Hunter/Paladin) 0:3

Can a destruction warlock survive the burst of BM Hunter?  We will find out.  Against BM hunter you have to survive his burst window, then win the match before the next BM comes back up.  You have roughly 1 minute to do it and any longer, the second BM will finish you off.

And that is exactly what happened in game 1.  The first BM took all the defensive CDs on Team EG's part to survive.  EG managed to push Flexx the Emazing DK to very low health, but he managed his defensive CD rotations and anti magic zone at perfect time to survive.  Kollectiv ran out of mana and the second BM finished Azael off. 

In game 2 and 3 it was even quicker, as Azael went down right after the first BM was popped.  Super heavy DPS pressure on the cloth and preventing him from playing his game.  Team EG is in big trouble here, they lost two straight series to RMP's, and lost against Emazing as well.  They will have a hard time qualifying if they don't pick up their play. 

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

It doesn't bode well for Fnatic as even EG could not beat SK's RMP as Rogue/Lock/Shaman.  Game 1 was so bad that Yog/Glick put out less damage than the SK-US priest, Yog was dropped so quickly and SK had total control.  Glick went from destruction to affliction for this series, while I am not sure if it is the right decision, I think he is just more comfortable as affliction.

Game 2 went better for Fnatic but a lot of that has to do with SK-US's play calling.  They gambled to start on Hafu's shaman instead of Glick's lock, and gave Glick too much time to free DPS.  Enforcer got to 40 hp, got picked back up to full, but still went down as he was too low on defensive CDs and too behind on damage against Yog.  SK-US needs to stick to their bread and butter plays, start out on lock and look for swaps from there.

And that is exactly what they did in game 3 and 4.  Start with sap Hafu + pressure on Glick, finished on Yog the rogue.  Easy victory, don't make it hard on yourself Realz!  Go for the safe plays, don't gamble! 

Pandemic (DK/Rogue/Priest) vs Gravitas (Rogue/Ret/Druid) 3:2

Gravitas went with druid instead of priest, hoping the superior survivability of druid will help in a cleave mirror match.  And it almost paid off for them in game 1.  They killed Kintt priest but lost Didy ret paladin in the process.  DK/Rogue vs Rogue/Druid and it was a cross kill again.  Celex druid was left 1v1 with low mana and no innervate, vs a DK and it is just not going to happen.  Death strike alone is enough to keep the DK up and eventually dropped druid although if the druid was better he should have been able to force a tie game playing keep away, instead of trying to moon fire the DK like an idiot.

Another cross kill on ret/rogue and we were left with DK/priest vs rogue/druid.  It is sad the rogue/druid synergy is nowhere near TBC days, and DK simply spammed damage/snare into the rogue while his ghoul prevented the druid from drinking.  Kintt priest's shadow fiend came back up and they brought down Emolol in a quick round of burst.

Still, in both games Gravitas scored the first kill, only to get dragged into a cross kill and eventually lost the 2v2.  They did a much better job in game 3 and 4 once they scored the kill on Ohnoes, and protected the lead.  Ohnoes is getting outplayed by every rogue in this tournament, but retribution paladin's hammer of justice stun + cheap shot / kidney shot is just pure death for any rogue sitting through it.  Pain suppression can save you for a few seconds.

It is 2-2 again, will Pandemic lose their 4th 2-2 series in a row?  Opening pressure on retribution paladin forcing almost an instant bubble, quick swap to rogue before swapping back to the paladin for the kill.  Druid HOTs take time to get rolling, and quick target swaps makes it very hard to keep up.  This is why despite druid nerf calls, they are only mid-tier on SK-100. 

Pandemic wins 3-2 and from here on, they will run into weaker teams, beat them all and they can still squeeze into the final four.

SK (Rogue/Mage/Priest) vs Emazing (DK/Hunter/Paladin): 3-1

What will Realz do that RMPs before him couldn't?  Or will he run RMP at all?  As the ultimate theory crafter, you bet he spent a lot of time going over his options last night.  I doubt he will send his RMP team into arena against Emazing without some sort of game plan.

Game 1 saw Realz calling a paladin zerg, as they went on Payce the paladin right away.  Emazing has a habit of riding high right into the opponents, and Payce got caught off guard.  For some reason Payce didn't hit his bubble in time, caught in the 1.5 global when he popped aura mastery.  He went down, his teammates still managed to force a Realz kill, but it took too long and 40% DK + out of CD BM hunter went down to rogue/mage.

Game 2 saw SK sticking to the same play, full DPS pressure on Payce and he bubbled a little too quickly at 50%.  I think Emazing is playing a little too aggressively.  Realz kited around pillars and managed to stay alive past BM, and from there, out of defensive option Payce could not keep him alive.

Did Realz the ultimate leader/coach find Emazing's achilles's heel?  Emazing is chasing Realz a little too much and left their paladin solo, under direct focus fire of both rogue/mage.  I think SK got into Emazing's heads.  Can Emazing get their energy back and win the next 3?  If they don't, expect every RMP go fast and furious on Payce to exploit his defensive weakness in this comp.  Realz being dwarf also buys him a disease removal which reduces the DK burst damage to a degree.

Oops, Ring of Valor and Realz has nowhere to run.  DK+BM hunter train and Emazing scored a quick and dirty win.  Here comes Dalaran arena, and Emazing for some reason went away from the priest training strategy.  This is what Realz does to you, he gets into your head and now Emazing is having a very tough time figuring out what to do against RMP.  Will this be a serious momentum killer for them?  Will Ensidia be able to beat them with alliance RMP when they meet again?  SK started on DK to force a trinket, blind and quick swap to paladin, incredible play to keep their priest free.  Can Emazing adjust to Realz's coaching?

It is funny how only moments ago, European players are talking about how bad WOTLK is and how stupid the Emazing comp is, and once again, RMP proved it can adapt to any situation.  Payce's death before bubble in game 1 will almost certainly come back to haunt him rest of the tournament.

Pandemic (DK/Rogue/Priest) vs Team EG (Rogue/Lock/Shaman): 3-2

Both teams are 1-3 in this tournament, and with Ensidia, SK-Gaming and Emazing locking up top three, the loser of this series is most likely out of the tournament.  I expect Pandemic to run cleave against RLS instead of putting Shinaniganz up against Azael directly.

As good as Kollectiv is, he can not  make up for restoration shaman's mana deficiency.  EG managed to put up a lot of pressure on both DK/Rogue in game 1, but couldn't score a kill before Kollectiv ran out of mana.  Raw DPS from DK/rogue forced Kollectiv to spam heals something the shaman class just can't keep up for a very long time.  Pandemic killed Zyz the rogue to take game 1 after Kollectiv ran out of mana.

I still don't understand why teams start on healers instead of a destruction warlock in the beginning, as Pandemic did it again here in games 2 and 3.  Just way too risky to let Azael get free casts off, killing Ohnoes almost instantly both games.  Play it safe, start on lock, switch to rogue/healer right after!  You are a cleave, you do not have the CC to keep the lock from hard casting, why cheat?  Terrible coaching on Pandemic's part.

And that is what Pandemic did, good hard pressure on Azael at start but Ohnoes got caught into a rogue vs rogue duel, unable to get to Azael.  Azael's free cast almost killed Ohnoes before his own rogue Zyz went down to rogue/DK burst.  For the fifth series in a row, Pandemic is in a 2-2 tie.  The loser of the next round is as good as out of this tournament, so much stake on the line!

Game 5 Pandemic ran the exact same play I run 100% of the times against destruction warlocks as DK/rogue/priest, train the warlock and ignore everyone else!  Full DPS pressure on Azael prevented him from getting off any hard casts, Zyz alone can not do enough damage to score a kill on Ohnoes and Kollectiv was again turned into a heal bot and his mana ran out.

As big a fan as I am of Azael, it is sad to see his team missing the final four.  They have to win their remaining series against Fnatic and Complexity, and Pandemic just needs to win one more series having the tie breaker which should be very simple against Fnatic. 

Hopefully EG will stay together for American regionals, and Blizzard should give shaman significant buffs in the coming months.  Kollectiv is amazing but his class is just not cut out for high end arena at the moment, especially in offline environment without mods.

Gravitas (Rogue/Mage/Priest) vs Complexity (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 0-3

Will Gravitas run RMP against their old rival?  Or will they go with cleave?  They are also 1-3 and must win this series to have any chance of advancing.  As it is Gravitas went with their washed RMP and it was a quick and painless 3-0.  Venruki-san and company toyed with them with shadow dance + arcane, followed by mutilate/frost in the final round.  They had complete control in every fight, took target swaps in complete leisure.

The RMP comp requires 100% confidence that is why you never see top RMPs bring secondary comps muchless players.  Gravitas needs to either stick with Didy and devote themselves to cleave, or go back and play 1000 more games as RMP and get their touch back.  As it is they are a 7 out of 10 club in both RMP and cleave, and that is not going to get it done at this competition level.

Fnatic (Rogue/Lock/Shaman) vs Pandemic (DK/Rogue/Priest): 2-3

Fnatic is giving up on Glick as warlock, will they do better as cleave?  They are the only team without a single series victory, and Pandemic needs to beat this series to stay with Complexity for the last spot of final four. 

A big problem for retribution paladin is that like warrior, going defensive with shield takes away all of his damage, while DK's frost presence doesn't prevent him from dishing out damage nearly as much.  Full DPS pressure on Glick and he was forced to bubble right away and went down quickly after bubble wore off, two games in a row.  Glick didn't look comfortable on his paladin at all.  They can't really go RLS either as Pandemic beat a much stronger RLS in Team EG earlier.  They are in a 0-2 hole, what can they do?

Glick went back to destruction warlock and Pandemic couldn't put enough pressure on him.  Ohnoes was locked down and Glick managed to get off a few hard casts, and Pandemic lost game 3 with Ohnoes eating the full burst.  Instead of putting out more pressure on Glick in game 4, Pandemic went on Hafu's shaman, didn't they lose enough of those games to Team EG?  Glick got off his hard casts killing Ohnoes again almost instantly.  Who is coaching this Pandemic club?  Did Kintt have too many wings that his brain can't function anymore?

Fortunately Kintt cleared his head soon enough, and he called the lock training play.  Huge damage pressure on Glick, quick swap to Yog and they took the final game.  Pandemic is now 3 and 3 in this tournament, Complexity is 3-2, who will hold onto the last spot?

Gravitas (Rogue/Mage/Priest) vs Ensidia (Rogue/Mage/Priest): 0-3

I am surprised Gravitas went with RMP against Ensidia after they were already swept 3-0 by Complexity.  I guess they are already out of the tournament for all intents and purposes, so they want to go out playing the comp that made them famous in the first place.

Surprisingly they played much better this series in RMP mirror than their previous match-up, they were lose with nothing to lose and after they lost game 1 in a hurry, they almost scored a cross kill on Kalimist (whose clutch single tick bandage kept him up for the next penance tick).  Game 3 they did score a cross kill on Kalimist, but mage/priest mirror with Ely out of mana, they just didn't have enough in the tank. 

It was a valiant way for them to go up against a much stronger team.  I was harsh on them in my preview and throughout this tournament.  Still, I just don't see any energy left in this team, they need to regain the passion for WOW and play live ladders, go for the #1 spot in their BG.  When they held the top spot in BG9, everyone feared them.  Today, everyone laugh at them.  The duelists need to go for not just gladiator, but furious gladiator to get their touch back.  If they can't push for the top spot in their own BG, their sponsor needs to find someone else who can (I recommend Billian, the #1 man on SK-100's RMP).

Fnatic (Rogue/Lock/Shaman) vs Team EG (Rogue/Lock/Shaman): 3-2

Two teams already out of this tournament, for Team EG it was a crushing blow as a lot of people picked them to go into the finals, for Fnatic they should be playing loose as no one expected them to win anything.

Game 1 saw Yog playing much more aggressively than Zyz and Kollectiv made a huge mistake not hitting his lust early.  They were behind in momentum all game and Zyz went down eventually in rogue vs rogue duel.

Game 2 and 3 saw Team EG taking full advantage of their superior shaman, they went for a quick opener on Glick, CCed him right after and went on Hafu's shaman.  Hafu can't defend herself nearly as well as Kollectiv can, and she went down very quickly two games in a row as Team EG took a 2-1 lead. 

But the Hafu chase backfired as she managed to jump off the bridge in game 4 and barely survived the burst chain, and Zyz overextended himself.  When you leave Yog/Glick open for more than 10 seconds, you are going to pay for it that is what Team EG did.  Will Fnatic pick up their first series victory of the tournament?  For Team EG they are already demoralized from tournament favorite to elimination in opening round, will they see a huge embarrassment?

Why is Team EG still going on Hafu?  She may not be as good as Kollectiv, but you can't leave two DPS open on your rogue at all times, one of them being destruction warlock.  The decisive game 5 saw a near trade of Hafu shaman and Zyz rogue, but once again Hafu escaped with 5% health, got behind the pillar and healed up, while Zyz went down for the count in game 5.

Does Team EG need a serious re-tool?  Is the rogue/lock synergy strong enough for LAN play?  Those are the questions they have to answer going into American regionals.  Zyz usually plays much more defensive than he did at this tournament, but he made some very questionable decisions with his survivability cooldowns.

Team EG is probably going to stay around a little longer as they did qualify for the regionals.  For Fnatic/Gravitas, both sponsors need to wake up and smell the coffee, realize there are much better talents out there with a stronger passion for the game.  Gravitas and Fnatic just didn't put in anywhere near the practice time they used to, and it showed.  Look at what Emazing did in their first ever tournament, and you will realize fresh blood + intensity is much more important than name recognition when it comes to winning tournaments.