MLG Weekend Preview, Why This Man Can Potentially Destroy WOW

Azael put together one of the best tournament previews I have ever seen with his MLG Columbus preview.  This is the first major tournament of the summer and we will see the very best American teams take on Hydra's Ensidia RMP. 

Here are the stories I will be watching for in this tournament.

History Repeats Itself:  Azael Over Hydra For His Second Title

While European players will quickly point to the fact that Hydra's RMP choked after taking a 2-0 lead against Edawg in ESL TV invitationals, let's just say with the allstar roster this team brings to the table (1st spot in Europe's best BG for most of season 5 and 6) and Hydra's reputation as the best priest in the world, they are automatically the squad every American team wants to beat in order to defend the American pride.  Hydra's first ever MLG tournament with hunter/double healer back in 2008 resulted in a second place finish, can he win it all here?

My prediction is no, as Azael will once again reject the priest hero's bid to win in America.  Modest in his own preview, Azael's rogue/lock/shaman is easily the second strongest overall team of the tournament in my book.  This is a very rare comp and they were already one win away from eliminating SK-Asia at ESL Global Finals in group play, when destruction warlock was very weak pre-3.1 patch.  Because no shaman in the world is on Kollectiv's level, element of surprise will definitely be on their side and I expect them to beat Ensidia in the grand finals with home court advantage.  American RMPs came a long way since the last global tournament, and I believe this team got enough practice against quality RMPs through the tournament realm, while Hydra's team won't be nearly as experienced in this match-up.

Hydra's teammates have yet to play a LAN tournament, and they will experience jet lag plus LAN jitters.  As good as Kalimist and Redkoala are, they couldn't provide enough help to save Hydra when Edawg went all out on their MVP priest.  I see Azael's team winning it all.

The Four RMP Teams In Attendance: You Better Have Something Ready For DK/BM/Pal

Yes, you better have a secondary comp if you go up against eMazing Gaming's DK/BM Hunter/Paladin.  As far as I know, Ensidia does not have a secondary comp and if they get matched up against eMazing Gaming in opening round, they may see a first round exit.  None of the Korean teams could beat this comp in the regionals.  This is what happens if you go up against DK/BM/Paladin without a secondary comp:



How will I rank the four RMPs?  I believe Ensidia is the strongest and Duelist Going For Gladiator is the weakest (they did not qualify for the regionals).  It is very hard to pick between SK-US and Complexity, but because Minti/Sodah/Venruki has been together longer and chemistry is so important to that comp, I will rank it like this:

1) Ensidia
2) Complexity
3) SK-US
4) Duelist Going For Gladiator

Of course, if an American RMP beats Ensidia in a mirror, we will definitely get some bragging rights.  DGFG was one game away from winning it all against mutilate hero ZOM's SK-EU last year, and Celex smashed his laptop in sheer frustration.  I am eager to see the Minti/Venruki/Sodah trio up against Ensidia.

Fnatic/Pandemic: No Longer Part Of The Equation

No matter how spectacular Yog is at three different classes, he alone can not be the lubricant that fills the chemistry gap in Fnatic.  The Hafu/Glick break-up means Fnatic will never have the same cohesiveness again, and a make-up night at the hotel won't fix it overnight.

Pandemic reloaded its roster with warlock hero Shinanigans, but Kintt/Ohnoes are just too washed up in my book.  Shinanigans will have to outplay both Glick and Azael significantly to carry the team past second round, and it is a tall order.

Why This Man Can Potentially Destroy WOW: Blizzard Sued In China By The9

It is rare to see a local operator suing the parent company, but it is what will happen in Shanghai Pudong (where Estel lived, go figure)'s supreme court on June 18th, 2009.  Blizzard is changing its operator from The9 to Netease for Wrath of the Lich King after repeated failures of The9 to get the product approved by the Chinese government.  Both companies are traded on Nasdaq, and The9's stock NCTY is down 64% in the last 12 months.  Netease's stock NTES is up 57%, now a market cap of 4.57 billion dollars.



In sheer desperation, Zhu Jun, CEO of The9 is holding 5 million player's worth of data in hostage AND suing Blizzard for his financial losses.  And it is a bigger issue in WOW's overall health than any competing MMO in my book.

Why This Means Something To American/European Players

If the Chinese government plays hard ball and decides to ban WOW from China (MMOs are frowned upon by main stream media, often compared to opium), then Blizzard just lost half of its 11 million players.  This will be a serious dent to the game's longevity and popularity, and ultimately hurt Blizzard's financial resources to improve the game.  The Chinese market does not have a flat rate, players pay by time cards and it is a very lucrative business. This is of course the worst case scenario, and hopefully won't happen as long as Netease plays its cards right.

The more likely scenario, is The9 drives a hard bargain and further delays the launch of WOTLK in China.  The9 will shut down all of its servers in a week or so, and 5 million players are wondering whether they will ever see their beloved characters again.  Should the data transfer fall apart, how many of the 5 million players will level a character from 1-80 all over again after waiting all this time for WOTLK?  Again it can be a significant hit to WOW's overall player base, and cuts into Blizzard's bottom line.

It is an ugly situation, somebody stop that man, he is up to no good!

Update On WOM Changes:

Bodi will be pushing the social network aspect of WOM, and his late afternoon to early evening articles will be quite refreshing compared to regular WOM contents. 

To our existing audience, you will still get 7 regular WOM articles a week, and I believe you will be pleased with the other two new writers as well.  Speaking of the KFC, I usually get the variety bucket.  Serennia-sama is already raiding with one of the top 10 PVE guilds so expect some PVE/raid coverage, although 75% of his weekly contents will still be PVP.  We will be getting a female writer and most likely an European star player to mix up the flavor a bit. 

Coming this Sunday afternoon after the MLG live blog, will be the debut of "Ask WOM" column, where you will be able to fire off any question, personal or professional to every one of our active writers.  We will do our best to answer as many of them as possible in comments.  It probably won't be real time, but our writers will try their best to get to them within 12 hours.  If this turns out to be a success, we will probably make it a weekly or bi-weekly event!