[UPDATED] WoW Arena Tournament down to top three teams
by Zach Yonzon 
Oct 10th 2008 at 11:00PM
After three straight heartbreaking losses against American team Selective Queuers, Worldwide Invitational champions Council of Mages bowed out from the tournament today leaving only three teams to battle it out for the prestigious -- and kingly -- prize of $75,000. The Korean team of Hyoga, Snowstorm, and Student, considered by many to be the best RMP in the world, was the last Asian team in the tournament. They were also the last non-WLD (Warrior, Warlock, Druid) team to be eliminated, as the top three -- Europe's Nihilum Plasma, and the United States' Selective Queuers and Fnatic Orz all predominantly ran WLD throughout the competition.Selective Queuers ran a soft counter comp to Council of Mages' RMP by swapping in Rogue for Warrior, but otherwise performed as expected as RMP do not handle WLDs (or RLDs in this case) very well. Although the matches that managed to get streamed were fine examples of professional Arena play, the dominance of WLD teams showed just how strong the comp is in the 3v3 format. Despite brilliant play from Council of Mages, they simply couldn't get over the hump of a well-played WLD team.
Props must be given to Glick of Fnatic Orz, back-to-back winners of the MLG series, who played a Retribution Paladin in a double melee comp during one match against Made in Taiwan... and won. Hunters will also be pleased to know that Made in Taiwan skillfully fielded a Hunter against Fnatic Orz, splitting those matches 2-2. The remaining matches of the tournament will be played tomorrow, with the winner of the upper bracket match between Fnatic Orz and Nihilum Plasma heading straight to the Grand Finals. The loser of that matchup will face Selective Queuers in the semi-finals. With any luck, the matches will be streamed without hiccups on Blizzard's BlizzCon tournament coverage and maybe we'll see if Fnatic Orz truly is the best team in the world.
[UPDATE: Nihilum Plasma beat Fnatic Orz in the upper bracket finals, sending Nihilum to await the winner of the match between Fnatic Orz and Selective Queuers in the semis. This guarantees a Finals match versus Europe and the United States. Should be exciting to watch.]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, PvP, BlizzCon, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Guyy Oct 10th 2008 11:15PM
Nihilum vs. Fnatic Orz was epic.
Malkeior Oct 10th 2008 11:17PM
I was hard to tell from the vantage points given, but was Hafu tossing out Cyclones in those first 2 matches?
Guyy Oct 10th 2008 11:22PM
Yeah she was but, they focused more on Carekoala's than hers.
Malkeior Oct 10th 2008 11:48PM
Ah.
Galaxiaceles Oct 10th 2008 11:22PM
Yup, here is Orz's real chance at showing the world they are the best. With all the teams remaining being Warlock, Warrior, Druid, Orz can't be called out for riding their OP classes to victory, or get called out on LOLRNG wins, since everyone is pretty much on 100% even playing field, unless teams want to switch their setups a bit (and they'll lose, if they haven't gotten the picture yet)
I found it especially amusing how the commentators aren't stupid to see the "bigger picture" and continually comment on the state of balance in arenas. I loved it when he said "standing back and spamming lifeblooms is the strat." Give that man a high five.
As for that Asian team .. mad props for running a hunter .. and blowing Hafu up in seconds .... I cried a bit inside.
Hopefully, mr. kalgan can start balancing pvp around 3v3 ,.... especially when 75k is on the line ...
Malkeior Oct 10th 2008 11:53PM
Fnatic Orz lost to Nihilim...
shookone Oct 11th 2008 12:35AM
hafu proving to be severe weak link, totally reliant on peels and rngs from her very good teammates, they must be jealous of inflame and paperkat who are so free to play instead of babysit
much more aggressive nihilum exciting to watch, amazing play from all three members but unfortunate mistake from inflame in the loss
Evangelin Oct 10th 2008 11:33PM
It's so awesome seeing some variety in team compositiozzzzzznnzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Malkeior Oct 10th 2008 11:52PM
Cause gimping yourself is the right thing to do in the middle of a competition.
Renako Oct 10th 2008 11:44PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LY92Omi4dI
Someone's already put up the third CoM vs. Selective Querers match on youtube, if you missed watching these (like me).
Contrap Oct 10th 2008 11:57PM
Huh.
Arenas.
So, its WLD this month huh?
shookone Oct 11th 2008 12:00AM
fel armor change made it from good to completely ridiculous
Cow Oct 11th 2008 12:30AM
Zzzz PvP zzzz
Can we get back to real content, please?
Malkeior Oct 11th 2008 12:47AM
I'm sorry you suck at PvP. Please, accept this GTFO as my sincere apology.
thanninen Oct 11th 2008 12:53AM
Lol, carebear
Cow Oct 11th 2008 11:05AM
YEAH LETS FIGHT AMERICA'S ENEMIES IN THE ARENAS YEAH
Thander Oct 11th 2008 1:31AM
I'm a noob to this PvP stuff. What do RMP, WLD, RLD stand for? Maybe a link with definitions to the PvP lingo?
Fobok Oct 11th 2008 1:47AM
It's team makeup.
Rogue, Mage, Priest = RMP
Warrior, warLock, Druid = WLD
Rogue, warLock, Druid = RLD
Sibe Oct 11th 2008 5:53AM
"Lol, carebear" is ironic when talking about arena. Considering it is far from real MMORPG PVP, the term being originated from UO and the like against PVE games like Everquest, and if anything WOW = Everquest.
WOW is the carebear game, so I personally wouldn't use that term so lightly on a WOW website.
Cow Oct 11th 2008 1:47PM
Don't get me wrong. I play on a PvP realm, I'm not half bad at it and back in the old days I'd love heading up to tarren for a spot of warfare, and relish the epic battles within Blackrock Mountain.
But resilience and PvP gear changed things: now it's just a matter of losing 10 games a week, or buying a ratings boost, and you too can have your very own set of t5-t6 equivalent gear for no effort. I'm not sore about it, and I'm not one fo these elitists who believes that nobody should have access to epics unless they raid every day of the week: I just wish there were some kind of idiot check, even if it were to make PvP gear unusable in PvE.. Used to be that epics were indicative of a good player, but now the lines are blurred.
Most people don't want to PvE any more (at least on my realm), because what's the point? Months spent learning a raid encounter only to come out with epics that are usually less impressive than what you can get from afking a few BGs.
I hate to say it: but the focus now is on e-peen. That's all PvP is about. 'Look at me, I'm better than you. /spit'. I enjoy playing WoW with my friends, I like the feeling we get when we finally down a raid boss after working together for weeks to achieve it. Nobody cares about grouping any more, nobody cares about the guild: it's all about how great 'I', the individual, is. We have healers now who don't want to come to SSC because they outgear the raid, leaving the rest of us high and dry. It's a common problem, by all accounts: and I believe the solo-play PvP aspect of the game ('10 games a week are all I can take!') has a lot to account for that.
In no real order, those are my 2c.