You
Good morning, BlizzCon day number two.
I am live here at the World of Warcraft stage.
We had a super exciting day yesterday with some MBI with some Wild Forever,
and it's going to be no different today.
We're going to be starting off the morning with AWC.
Tune in a little bit later for the MBI finals as well as some World of Warcraft panels.
But for now, I'm going to hand it over to Rook,
and we're going to break down the day a little bit further.
Thank you so much.
You know, this morning, I just snuck in and popped up on the Arena World Championship desk,
and I couldn't be happier that security hasn't removed me yet.
I'm kidding. Of course, I'm supposed to be here and honestly,
I am so excited because I cannot wait for
all the arena gameplay that we have ahead.
Normally, while I'm on the MDI desk,
I love watching arena, so being here live is going to be just as
exciting for me as it is for all of you.
Now, the teams that we are about to see are
the best teams from around the world,
and we can't wait to see what they're going to bring as they compete and clash,
head-to-head cross region live at BlizzCon.
I'm your host, Rook, and I'm here on desk with Ven, Sufa, and Ziko.
This is going to be a huge day, and I mean, Ziko, day two of BlizzCon.
How big has the event been, and have you been really loving it so far?
It's been absolutely insane so far.
I mean, just the energy, meeting everyone constantly.
You're running into people that you knew from way back.
And I think that has been the best part for me, just meeting old friends.
And even Ven, like, this guy is one of my closest buddies,
and I haven't seen you since, like, 2019 or something.
He never returns my calls.
So it's great.
And of course, the announcements, especially the Warpath
forever, I'm super stoked about that.
So I've been trying the demos too.
Yeah, it's going to be awesome.
I mean, it's been cool to try it out here on the floor.
And you know, Ben, you've been called out live now,
so you better start responding to Ziko's texts, all right?
I will.
OK, great.
Thank you.
All right.
But I mean, it has been a huge start to the event,
but we have a whole other day ahead of us.
And like we mentioned, Cross Region
is pretty big for our amazing teams here.
So seeing them face off is gonna be a really exciting event,
but of course we have our schedule for the day.
We'll be starting things out with the AWC tournament,
of course, then we're going in for the grand finals match
for the MDI, bringing that action since yesterday
the schedule got shifted over to today.
Now we'll also have another panel
because yesterday's panel about Wow Forever
was just the beginning.
We'll be looking at evolving a timeless world
later this afternoon,
and then returning for the AWC tournament,
But then another panel as well.
So if you want all the information about what's coming up
and all of the action and wow esports,
then definitely stay tuned all day.
You're not gonna want to go anywhere
because between the panels and our competitions,
we have so much world of Warcraft content
for all of you from beginning to end.
Now the Arena World Championship,
if you aren't familiar with it or maybe if you are,
follows a 16 single elimination bracket.
It's a little bit different here at BlizzCon Live
on the stage.
We'll have our quarter and semifinals best of five,
our grand finals best of seven,
And then maybe you can give people a bit of a breakdown,
whether they're new or old,
about what they can expect from the competition today.
Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be a very exciting day.
We've got the six best teams from around the world.
If we wanna take a look at the format,
it's going to be something that we start on the Grand Arena.
So each one of these series will start on the Grand Arena
in a blind matchup where both teams
are gonna be bringing their best composition.
After that, the loser actually has a double advantage
going into a, um, they get to select the composition as well as the map.
So it's very intense.
It is going to be very intense.
And as we see everybody flooding into the hall, the crowds that have been
waiting outside.
Hello, day two of BlizzCon.
We see you.
You've made it in first.
You'll get the best seats and everybody else.
Be sure to come join us on the arena world championship stage as we kick off
the day with some high octane eSports action.
But of course, like we talked about the format, then thank you so much for
taking us through.
We'll see these teams face off on these different maps and the teams themselves we definitely need to talk about so
Super maybe you can give us a loadout about who we're gonna be starting off with with a f tier and guild beam
This is f-tears first time we're seeing a lot of their faces for the first time
They're coming here as fresh North American roster. They are ready to tear up the scene
You can see their name is f tier and that's for a reason. They came into the competition playing mismatched compositions
They really wanted to make their stake in the tournament
They didn't want to succumb to the meta,
and they've managed to make it all the way
to the global stage at this point.
So I'm very excited, so much anticipation for them
to get them and get that North America
versus their blood going.
I mean, I think that rivalry is huge,
and especially when these teams are finally able to play
against one another here, not separated by a region.
It's something that they all want to really prove themselves
as not just champions of their respective parts of the world,
but of the world itself.
And all the teams we have competing today,
you'll be able to see here in our bracket.
We've got some big matches coming up.
And Ziko, what do you think, as we see everybody
that's made it here to our AWC Grand Finals?
Yeah, I mean, I am just super stoked
because this is not typical for BlizzCon.
We have a single elimination bracket.
We have flown in the best teams from all over the world
and they are competing for $300,000.
So, I mean, the nerves have to be insane right now.
You're gonna be playing in front of a crowd
And just if you even mess up one time,
that could be your ticket back home.
So I'm super excited to see what the teams are actually
bringing.
Yeah, I mean, you want to show up and just show
how good your team is in front of everybody live.
But also, when you're thinking, there's $300,000
that we can win, we could put our mark down
in, wow, Esports history.
Of course, this isn't where you want to freeze up
or not perform your best.
But some of the teams we have coming in then,
they're a little bit of newer blood coming onto the scene.
F tier, in particular, was kind of a big upset this past season.
Yeah, I mean, it is really nerve-wracking for all of the teams
because they don't get an opportunity to play against each other very often, right?
So a team like F tier, this is a young team, like you said.
We've got legends like Meat Monk, Saul, Dallas, and Laurel.
All these guys are phenomenal on the North American realms.
And some of the European teams don't really know what to expect.
Like, how good are these guys?
So I think this is a team.
If you're looking for a wild card, someone who brings in interesting compositions,
This is the team you're going to be looking out for and hoping it does well.
I mean, we've been talking about it ourselves.
And I mean, Zika, do you think they could win at all?
I think any single one of these teams could win at all because they're all scary in their own rights.
And like you guys already mentioned about F tier, they are coming in with, you know, they came in as a surprise.
They took down Welcome to the Jung, which has been the titan in North America the entire season.
You know, this is a team that we expected to be kind of Echo's rival for the longest time.
and they have been but you know across the pond so the fact that they were able to cause that upset
This is a team that can do some real damage here
And this is just a team that if you do underestimate them, we've seen them take down the best teams
So I think they definitely could yeah
I mean the potential is there
But I think they're going to have their work cut out for them because guild being who they're going up against is almost
kind of in the opposite situation right in established roster one of the most
experienced ones here in the field with Maro, Blizzo, Zepi and Lontar bringing
almost a decade of combined top level EU AWC experience. I mean Super, when we're
looking at them, what do you think Gildbean is going to bring in? Well, I mean
Maro is a veteran and he came as close as you can alongside Blizzo in the
previous Blizcon to winning the whole thing. There's one map away from winning
it. He came out of retirement to reform this roster picking up Lontar on the
side here with Zpie, and he's rounded out this amazing roster.
He's managed to close it all the way through here.
They had to beat Liquid from North America and a cross-region qualifier to get here.
So they've knocked out C-Dos team to get this position here on the global stage.
He wants this more than anything.
This is what the players have been playing for.
It's been seven years since we've had the last AWC,
the last time Ekko's had to defend their title,
and all these players are thirsty for that first place.
I mean, like you said, everyone wants to prove themselves.
I know that long-term in particular had some long-term ambitions of becoming a BlizzCon champion.
So, I don't know, but do you think this is the year he can make it happen?
Well, I have to wait and see. I mean, he did win the European finals when he was teamed up with Echo.
So, I mean, this is a player that is obviously phenomenally good on the different healers
that he does play. He brings a lot of experience, but it's different at BlizzCon, right? He needs
to team up with these amazing players that do have that veteran experience, like Zebi and
Mauro as well as blizzo blizzo obviously a champion in his own right so
Yeah, there's a lot of experience on the roster this have to come and perform
But I think a lot of people are expecting big things from this team
I think there are two and you know we actually caught up with both of the teams ourselves before the event kicked off today
So let's see what they had to say about the competition
Now now we see them making it all the way aya in the grand finals have tears feeling pretty good
We're just happy to be here, experience BlizzCon.
We're a pretty new team.
We formed, like, six months ago.
It's definitely intimidating to be the least experienced team
going up against teams that have been together for, like, many years.
They're kind of young, like, new comers.
We need to underestimate F tier.
They're a really good team, and see what they bring to the table.
Amy Josh goes down!
No ice block will be used today.
F tier's verse is just too much.
Qualifying for BlizzCon was just all of our dreams coming true.
Especially to beat a team like Dire Wolves was really challenging for us.
It was a great moment.
Can they do it? They do it!
Cedru gets deleted!
Unbelievable finish coming out from Guildbean.
I think we're kind of good when we're winning
and we're good when we're losing as well.
And we're really good at improving from the mistakes we're doing.
I think we just need to surprise them.
Because if the spectators are playing, they will be confident.
I think that's the weakness.
No, wait!
He greets it, and Guilt Bean are going to BlizzCon.
I wish you good luck, but at the same time, I don't.
So I see you and Darina.
Hopefully the best team wins.
You guys are a good team.
You guys practice a lot.
I wish you the best of luck, and you have the better team line.
Yeah!
I mean, you love to see the energy they all have coming in,
and that sort of determination to just take down the other team,
but also the just happiness of being at BlizzCon,
which it seems like a lot of the teams were feeling to have made it here,
but now want to go all the way and become champions.
I mean, when we were kind of seeing it,
Zika, what were some of your thoughts about how the teams are feeling coming in?
I mean, I've had some time also to hang out with the players in the practice area,
and it is very mixed emotions.
You can kind of tell some of these teams,
they're kind of keeping to themselves to being very, very serious,
trying to keep their cards very close to their chest,
and some of them are just trying to enjoy the event, have more fun,
And it's coming across a lot and especially on F tier
I think they have a really good mix of personalities there because I ran into Dallas and he was very bubbly
He was very like just fun to be around and then
He was hanging out a little bit with Waz and people like come here. Oh, don't don't hang out with this guy
Like he wants he wants to know all our secrets
So they have you know, they have some very like outgoing like fun people with the nails
have some people kind of reel them back a little bit and be serious. So that's cool.
It's good. You know, good balance on the teams all around and a lot of personalities across the
board as they get to actually meet in person and now compete and kind of mix and mingle.
And we will actually get to meet our teams ourselves as they come out and take the stage.
So Aya, can we introduce the first two teams of the day?
Yes, we can, Rook. I'm here. Did you just start? They are back there. They are ready to go.
Are you guys ready for our first teams of the day?
All right, man, you guys, we're late, we weren't here, there's nobody here, I'm glad those people are here now, amazing.
All right, let's bring out our first team, F tier.
We have Dallas, Saul and Laro.
Alright, of course they're going to have an opponent.
It is Guild Bean!
Welcome Zephy, Lone Tar, Belizzo, and Maro.
All right, let's give it up one more time for our first two teams up the day.
All right, Rup, take it away.
All right, I mean our teams are here. They are ready and they are settling in
but we have to give our official predictions ourselves here as everybody
in the venue coming in bright and early will start catching up with the
competition as well. So let's see if we can weigh in and give our thoughts after
your versus Guildbean Ziko. How's it gonna go? Why am I always first?
We're trying to leech off of your predictions. You're so good with the best win rate.
I had a good win rate in the regular season. Let's see how it goes this weekend.
I am actually going to go in favor of my European boys,
Gildbeen, they got so close, last BlizzCon in 2019,
they were one game away from winning the entire thing.
I think the experience that they have is going to shine today.
I'm thinking it's going to be close though, 3-2 for Gildbeen.
Okay, alright, Suba, how about you?
I mean, it's the first BlizzCon back, I'm North American,
I can't betray them at this point, I can't abandon them.
I'm going with F tier for this, I think they're going to have a secret weapon,
I think there's a curve ball from their roster in the wings waiting and I'm putting my faith in me.
OK, I mean, we've got big breakout player and I feel like that faith is not misplaced.
Then what are you thinking? Where are you leaning?
I think my prediction is going to come down to a conversation I had with LaRose,
where he basically said their entire team put their streams on the back burner
and they have been practicing in war games essentially eight hours a day.
So he said, no matter what happens, they put it all on the line for this BlizzCon.
And I believe I believe in the dream of F tier.
So I'm going to go 3-2 because I do not think this is going to be an easy series, you know
I don't want to sweep across all the way here and just make you the odd man out Ziko, but I
Kind of believe in the F tier dream look that zero to hero more Europeans on the desk
Where's he?
By as big North American on this side up no
But honestly seeing F tier come in seeing them take down welcome to the junk
I was shocked when I heard that they had come in and managed that kind of reverse sweep back up
So I believe they can go all the way.
I think they could be a big shock to the whole competition.
So I'm going to say 3-2 in favor of F tier here.
But of course, all of you at home can make your predictions too.
So if you are watching or remotely get in the chat
and let us know what you think.
And of course, we will see the teams compete here in just a moment.
They're going to be kicking things off.
Supa, we've talked about them both,
but do you think there's anything unexpected in store from these teams?
I think there could be some tricks at the sleeves of Meep at the moment.
He's found some new tech on that healer role
And obviously we're playing in the new patch.
So a lot of the teams have been adjusting to that and reiterating on their compositions.
And he may come in on a specialization that two weeks ago, he was saying he would never play at this level.
He might be coming in on it now that he's found a new discovery.
So I'm very excited to see what he's got.
I'm anticipated in that moment here.
We've got Dallas and Saul, and I was talking to them in the lobby.
And these guys are young.
Their dads and their uncle got them into World of Warcraft.
They were watching Ben Rookie playing in MLG back in the day, like over a decade ago.
And now they're here. They're on the stage.
We're watching them compete for their chance at their prize and glory.
But their first opponent, this is not a cakewalk.
This is an absolutely stacked European roster.
These guys are absolute legends with Mauro there on the end.
Laris here on the warrior.
And this could be a very unexpected blind pick.
There's been a lot of kind of meta discussion
between Retribution Paladin and Warrior is the main composition
for both of these teams.
They could both likely run those cleave setups,
but they also have the elemental shamans.
And that's something that we don't get to see very often is that North American
Ellie versus European Ellie, the North American warrior versus European warrior.
Which one's going to come out on top?
I mean, very interesting points, right?
I think especially in arena, those picks, how you're going to use them, how that
team can then kind of combat or come back with it.
That's huge.
And it can shift very drastically what the teams are able to accomplish, especially
coming into something that's a bit newer with this sort of season to end to be
picks and meta that might still be taking shape.
But we know that there are some really strong players for all of these
I mean, Blizzo, I think, on guilt being fed,
was really well known for Warrior.
I mean, he's a phenomenal player in general.
Blizzo, an absolute legend.
And I'm curious to see if he does lock in that Warrior.
That's what we know him for, his specialty on that class.
So this team has a huge depth in their roster
that they can bring in.
So I think this blind date is gonna be very interesting.
I think so as well.
Now, we are getting ready and amping up the teams
already to wake up BlizzCon and all of you
around the world as we come in
for our very first series here.
F tier versus Gilpeen in the arena world championship.
We're gonna have blind picks.
Do you have any expectations of Ziko
since we've been talking about it here
with the meta and the picks so far?
Oh, I think we might see Maro come in on Boonkin perhaps.
Maybe Boonkin warrior from Gilpeen.
Oh, here we go.
All right, here we go.
All right, super.
F tier versus Gilpeen, the first game of the day.
What an exciting matchup.
Here, Maro on the balancer.
I couldn't ask for a better game.
One here and Meat Monks on the misweaver.
The current balls have been thrown.
Blitz always getting blasted in the immediate first seconds of this match training on his guy by the sword.
Saul and Dallas are firing massive cooldowns to make that initial exchange,
switching some pressure to Maro, but here from the incarnation for Maro,
he's going to need to line up cyclones actively in this matchup to remove the healing of Meat Monk.
They're getting sleepwalks, but it's trekkered instantly by Saul.
Great communication there to break that crowd control.
Saul will recover, and this is a matchup that might be a little bit slower.
I don't want to say that it's going to be too slow at this point,
I think it's some good profit, but right now I might catch them off guard.
Long-time makes another big exchange, and it's game one at BlizzCon.
I think there's might be a little bit of jitters in these teams.
They're making some very conservative trades that they might have been able to get away with.
Yeah, I think as the day goes on, these teams will get more and more confident.
A little bit of safety coming in here.
Saul and Dallas, of course, have those huge, heavy-hitting cooldowns with the Ascendants,
as well as the Incarnation, but they're on the backflip for the time being.
They have a lot of cooldowns you can trade on if you need to, if you saw a lot.
Looks like F-tier will stabilize good pressure here on tomorrow.
Saw has a lot of damage loaded up right now.
We get on to Maul, looking for some psychones.
Can they find the crowd for, unfortunately, not able to?
He falls the rules away.
Two safety.
You know, what's interesting here is Mika's actually playing the undead and not a known...
He didn't expect to bounce through that thing in this matchup,
and that might give an edge tomorrow,
but at the same time, Blizzard's getting blasted, long-distance to trinket.
And F-tier have forced a major cooldown every single time they get crowd control.
If they can keep up this momentum,
They will be able to close this game very soon, which is unexpected.
This is a series that I was anticipating to take a much more up-tier time,
but we see counter-aggression engaged by Maro and Blizzard with that avatar and incarnation
glowing below their health bars, amplifying their damage.
But the beatmuff makes the exchange alongside Saul and Dallas,
and both teams are taking zero risk.
Any time there's an engagement, they make a trade.
Yeah, Saul on the run right now takes the damage.
I love to see Loltar getting aggressive here with the disintegrates.
On that preservation of Loka, really getting aggressive.
I mean, Lone Tower, when he can't get aggressive in that Gila roll,
really puts their team in a good position.
He's not afraid.
It's all right now, getting absolutely destroyed.
And Meat Monk will trade out that Life Kiku to keep him alive.
But that is a major objective that Gilbien just got out of the way.
We're switching their attention on Dallas here.
Dallas has been an MVP for this team after here
throughout North America's reign of terror on his part.
I'm really excited to see what he can do on the global stage here.
He is taking on legend, Liz Del Maro in Lone Tower.
with Dallas from the American, be able to step up to the plate and get a game one victory.
Lake sweep engaged by me. Blizzo is isolated. Perfect crowd control and he's trying to greet it out.
He's getting away with it. Goes for the intimidation shot onto the shaman here into the shockwave.
Great lockdown for Marlton. Blizzo, during that assault, totally shut it down and Nana could
likely be the name of the game between each healer that can be far below their health bar
to keep your eyes on that as this game progresses.
David's gonna get more and more typical for these healers as Dampening is just kicked in.
Dallas down to half Sol, finally getting topped off there, but Morrow and Blizzo, their offense has been graded.
The thing about these two teams is these compositions aren't common, Blizzo gets caught and is stunned.
Could go down here, but Lotar picks them back up, but as I was saying, these compositions are not too common.
I think both of them don't have a lot of experience in this matchup, so whether Kink might improvise,
I find that Wickedish will be in a great spot.
He said, alright, Morrow's just going to play storming on the entire roster, trying to get momentum going,
but Morrow's bled out by Dallas, he's trying to keep his leads going,
but Mara is actually out damaging them.
Saul at the top of the leaderboard
in that bottom left at the moment.
They have to maintain maximum damage in this match-up.
Should this match go to the defense
as it's looking like it's closing close,
airing closer to the four-minute mark
and another stone engagement on the blizzard.
But Meep's in the Cyclone.
Dallas is isolated down at half.
Meep is able to recover him between the Cyclones, though.
Great teamwork.
There's a lot of hybrid healing as well.
But then Saul and Dallas, they can assist each other
with rebokes and shooting surges
throughout crowd patrol on Meep
with paralyzing Gage.
by Neep into the leg sweep. Neep is getting aggressive, picking his moments. They chain it into the Cyclone.
They get two players to 50% and they force major defensive to those glowing icons below their health by diving the sword in the bark skin of
Mauro. Great push from F tier. They're just playing conservative, but now a counter-off.
Look at that pressure coming out from Guild Bean just seconds away from death.
Neep defies it with left cocoon, but now Dallas is still low and Neep is trying to allocate his resources effectively to recover,
but trading his trinket and left-handed leaves him as a liability. Dallas is still low at this moment in time
and Dallas needs to do more damage. Is he gonna be able to do it in time?
This is the ascendance from Saul. He is popping off right now getting a lot of damage here on Marlboro Blizzard.
Lontar seems to be able to handle the pressure well.
They're just playing very defensive, Marlton's in bare form taking out all the damage for the time being now pushing forward going after meat.
One more time. Can they take him down? Down to 20% health and meat somehow recovers.
T is on the run, getting behind the pillar,
Adelaide recovering, but these swaps on the meep
have been devastating.
Almost lethal as Meep is running for his life
around the corner, he's gonna need to find some opportunities
to sip some tea at some point from this game.
His man is starting to fall behind,
a paralyzed engagement going after Morrow.
Triple like sweep from Meep, he's not backing down
despite his defense being limited right now.
Dallas really needs to get something going,
he was falling off on the meter,
he's managed to pass Blizzard at this point,
but he really needs to get onto the heels of Morrow
in overall damage, so they wanna be able
to take this. We see a spear bastion pinning the entire team. Another swap on
Neath, and these teams are discovering their strategies throughout this game
because this is a matchup that we have never seen at this level of play. The
feral elemental versus the balanced rude arm squirter. The pressure is mounting on
both sides. Will Saul topple? He has some options left. You can make sure he doesn't
greet it. He leaps through behind the pillar. He's dispelled. Neath Mumpus, Neath Mump
escapes from the solar beam, rolling back around the pillar, trying to recover the
team. The dampening is getting higher. 27% healing eruption. Double pierce, fall
This is a regular chopper totem.
Aro gets low.
Lontar trades the time dilation.
They are starting to rot.
That preservation evoker healing is starting to struggle.
Yeah, this is a really scary situation here for a guild bean.
They're all rotting down.
Lontar struggling to keep them alive all down to half.
Dallas gets cycloned up.
Good control come in from Morrow.
And they get enough control for Lontar to recover.
Dampening is ramping, but Meatbone getting swapped to once again.
Can he survive one more time than Carnation?
This is the transcendence to get behind the pillar.
He is out on a side, but at the same time, Dallas is low.
a really difficult situation for me.
Moral 2, navigate, Moral slow.
Anyone can fall here, Sid.
Lizzo, is he gonna be greedy right now?
Dobbin, the short comes through.
He will stabilize, and they just wanna go after me.
They're trying to pressure the healer,
keep on on his toes.
They got him lower on mana at this point.
Can they close out the game here?
Gallows straight to Boxing, but his incarnation
is coming up in just a second.
Ascendence is coming up very soon as well.
They might be able to take out Lone Top.
It would be a major upset for Ziko's prediction here
if they can manage to take it this year.
In game number one, here comes incarnation.
Lizzo is isolated.
Are they ready for us?
Long-turn to the stun, is he gonna greet it?
He sits through it, he gets the rewind.
And Blizzo will recover at that moment,
and the mentality is now lost.
Here comes Spirit Bastion attempt from Blizzo,
pinning two targets, and he's going for the Warbreaker.
Massive damage incoming, but Maro is rotting.
Long-turn is struggling, Saul has defense, he can trade.
Blizzo's falling behind, he gets recovered for a moment,
just immediately cut back down.
Long-turn deep-press to a new comfort,
somebody follows it up with another cyclone.
Beautiful cyclone from Dallas.
Beautiful, pressure, Blizzo so critically low
into the end-counter as well, but he time dilates.
He should be able to recover,
Maybe not into a rake stunt house and getting crazy cocked over that triple fear to shut everything down for a moment
And Blizzo is back. He bought them enough time a hero play from from blizzo
What a tense situation look at long-tar though down to half popsy of city and scales makes himself a little bit more durable
Here, but this is such a back-and-forth match 40% dampening here in our game one of four a blizzcon
Looking like he wants to get some aggression out here and find the site
Loottar! Loottar!
Loottar getting swapped too, could get dropped huge damage coming in.
Dallas though in the cross attempt here by Gilbina.
He's going for it Loottar, he's going for it!
He's doing it!
The Black Sweep comes in, Gaddys is so low on health.
Loottar barely holds on by a thread.
He has no mana left at this point, his entire team is rotting.
If they can just stay on target, if they can just close it out, it can be a cross kill.
There's no mana for me.
Limited defense by Incarnation is up for Dallas.
He has to connect with their spamming sleepwalk on Sol.
He can't get the damage, Dallas gets caught.
Big incarnation by Maro and Dallas will be dunked, Gildabean takes game one.
Wow!
What an incredible, I mean we thought, oh you know how long will they possibly continue?
And yet this one dragged out so close between F tier and Gildabean,
but Gildabean manages to get that kill and closes it out.
I mean incredible to see here as they continue to sort of duke it out on the field,
but this was exactly what I think at any time could have gone one way or the other battle.
Oh, I mean, this was as close as it gets multiple attempts on Blizzo where he almost went down.
Lontar as well, a really close ball. After you're gonna battle it out here to the bitter end,
you know, to try to get the swim, but very unlikely they're gonna be able to do so.
Lontar still has mana. Blizzo and Maro are looking good, but you can't blame them.
They're there, they're finally tapping out. But what a game one.
You know, you don't want to let go when you're so in it.
And those moments where you almost had it are still so fresh.
But I mean, honestly, both of the teams
should be so proud because this was an incredible opening game.
I mean, Supa, when F-tier came in,
would we ever have expected them this past season
to compete at this level with the top teams like Gilby?
Oh, I think a lot of teams were underestimating,
you know, maybe not long time in that interview.
But some other teams, I think Echo in particular,
were kind of underestimating them a lot.
But I feel like they put on a show in that game.
They got very close to getting kills on Blizzow,
getting kills on Lone Tower in that match.
They definitely can take this.
I think map is going to be a critical factor as well.
Like if they can pick a larger map,
get it a little bit deeper in dampening,
then Lone Tower won't recover in that type of situation.
But at the same time, it's the first time
that they've lost at this level of play.
What is your response in that type of situation
is almost more important.
Yeah, I mean, and what they're going to do,
I mean, we'll definitely still have to see,
but we can get some glimpses into at least how things were
set up at the beginning.
Ziko, you were watching in more detail.
So what were you seeing in the breakdown of this first game?
I mean, first of all, there's a reason why everyone on this desk predicted a 3-2.
That was a nail fight.
That was as close as it could possibly get.
I'm just sitting here glued on the screen, and I have no idea how Lomtar is surviving
right before they get that incarnation back on Morrow,
and right before they pull the trigger and actually land the killing blow there.
I thought Gilbein is going to lose this game.
And before that, I thought, hmm, actually, maybe F-tier is going to lose.
So it was very, very back and forth.
There was a moment where Vlizl managed to stall a really long CC chain there on long-term.
He got a defensive fear on to stall, he got stuns on to stall.
He was just buying time for his hero to get out of crowd control and to be able to survive.
And both teams played, in my opinion, really, really exceptional.
I couldn't detect any nervousness, anything like that.
I think both teams just instantly locked in and gave us an insane game one.
Yeah, I mean some people might still be waking up right now, but the teams showed up and they were like we're going to zero one hundred immediately at the very start of the day.
And I know then you actually mentioned a bit about Longtarr's aggression as a healer and I was curious how do you think it kind of gives the team an advantage in some of those back and forths?
The thing is both of these healers are kind of known for that a really aggressive playstyle helping their teams out in that moment, but we have to replay here that you can break down, Z.
So this is the moment I'm talking about, he gets in cap road, he gets stunned,
and Blizzo hits the triple fear right here.
And if he doesn't do that, he's for sure toast right there, buying so much time.
Then we got this moment here, where also Lantar manages to survive in this position.
Looking absolutely crazy because they just swapped before that and had the FTR on the back foot.
And again, here, Mauro gets his incarnation back up right after that close call that we just saw on Lantar,
able to close it out. But this hero play here, you get such good defensive coordination because
Morrow gets the Cyclone on to Sol, then Lizzo ducks back for a second, gets the triple fear.
It's Sol as well with that. And then here also this leg sweep from Meepmunk was just phenomenal
as well. But Lunter had the appropriate response. And nice in-cap roar there as well from Dallas,
because sometimes when you run out of stuns, it can be nice to just throw a little in-cap roar.
It does break on damage, but it can buy you an extra second where the healer actually can't heal and then here
I mean at this point it's a battle of attrition where 40 plus percent dampening
Maro has incarnation rotated back up meat won't guys know who that's no man up to respond to it
And they just coordinate a good attack there to close it out. So
This is I didn't even realize this was a 40 percent dampening game
Yeah, if my head this was like, oh, this was a two minute game one minute game
You know because it was just action packed from start to finish and it felt like both teams could land a kill much much sooner
But you know place like the one that this will just make for example
Is the reason why they're even able to extend it to that point?
Yeah, I mean just seeing it continue to go on and on and on and yet both of the teams
Playing at this caliber
I mean it just goes to show how good this first series is and we talked a little bit during the game itself about some of the
Perhaps like unusual comp picks at least as we come in and this meta sort of still sorting itself out
But super what did you think the teams are trying to accomplish with the picks they brought in well for gild beam?
They don't really have a you know a top tier rogue mage
I think if they did they would likely be leading with that and so they've substituted in this balance druid
And I actually balanced your it is phenomenal in the current meta some some things that struggles against but not particularly what f tier
Have available. I think it can be great for the warrior. It can be great against the elemental shaman
So it's just a really good pocket pick from Guild Bean.
And I'm glad that they decided to break it out here.
And that's like the main outlier to me, is that Balanceried.
We haven't seen any of that throughout the season
leading up to this point.
And Mara is confidently locking it in here as well
on Imperium Domain after you want that large map.
But they also want the small pillars.
So if the Balanceried is trying to retreat away
from crowd control or Lone Tar is trying to retreat,
they're going to be able to catch them a little bit more.
But honestly, it seems like a pretty even match up
between the two.
So the map might not play too much of a factor.
I do wonder if Ftier will make any major adjustments as far as comps,
and this is where they're going to be tested, right?
You come off a defeat.
What's your response at the moment right now in this matchup?
Because Gilbeam, they're just calm, cool collectors, just lock it in.
They have to answer us that they've locked it in as well.
They're going to be playing the same match up here on Imperium Domain.
Yeah, they have gotten their draft picks in.
And I mean, Ben, with this, you get a bit of an advantage to some degree.
If you've lost, you have a chance to be able to kind of dictate a bit more
of what you might be able to do in the next one.
But with these teams, what do you think they're trying to do with these comps
that are bringing in for this particular map?
Well, I think for F tier, this has kind of been their best composition.
So I think in the blind pick, they led with their best composition.
And I think Gilbein knew that there's been a lot of mind games going on behind the scenes.
You know, they haven't really been practicing with Dallas that much.
If they're trying to make people believe that it's going to be
Laurel's coming in for all these games, but Dallas is a phenomenal feral jurid.
So it makes a lot of sense to me that after he's going to be locking this in.
But to Gilbein's credit, I think they read the situation extremely well
with the composition that they are running.
And we talked about it.
I mean, this is a single elimination tournament.
Winning that game number one, you're definitely
going to feel way more confident.
So I think for F tier, as a younger, newer team,
they need to really just take a deep breath,
shake off that loss for the second game,
because that was as close as it gets.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, when you have a loss like that,
you can't necessarily feel like, oh, we're out of our league
or something.
You're going, no, no, no, we almost had that.
We can do it on the next one.
And Ziko, they're going to need to,
if they want to keep this a bit more even, right?
So this is going to be a best of five, but of course, if you come in and take that first map,
I think it could give you that mental boost coming into the rest of the series.
Absolutely. But I'm actually feeling a little bit worried for Guild of the Beam,
because I think that game number one was, it just came down to small clutch individual plays.
I don't know how often you're going to be able to replicate that.
For FTR, I think in general, the game looked a little bit better compared to for Guild of the Beam.
So I actually think FTR is probably going to win this map, and I'm worried for Guild of the Beam,
because it's nice when you won the first map to keep walking in the same thing
until you're forced off of that comp. So I think they're doing the right thing
right here, but if they end up losing here, do they actually have a different
answer? We'll have to find out first. If the gates are open. Oh my god, they're just going immediately after Blizzow here,
Lozier's gonna rescue him back on top of Sol and try and carry the warrior to the
Shaman Shockwave Connects. They reverse it around with the snow bolt as well.
Blizzow and Morrow can crowd-controlled up. Big pressure on Blizzow in this
initial exchange. It does look like Blizzo is running that stone form as well, that dwarf
warrior, which we don't see too often, but it's very effective against the Feral Druids.
The lead effects in this matchup, and that with the preservation invoker is likely why
Dallas's damage was struggling so much in game one.
Yeah, Blizzo taking a huge hit of damage here early on, as after he was looking for an early
win, Lontar will recover. He's not going to be caught off surprise, but it does feel
like both these teams, they want to swap around, go after the healers quite a bit in the match,
So, it's extra stress here for Mip and Lontar. They have to read that situation and stay ahead of the damage.
Oh, big pressure on Blizzard. Lontar is getting a bit greedy here as he's deep-repping and doing damage.
Well, his team is getting pressured in the early game and they're kind of just fishing.
Trying to find a weak link in the first initial minutes of this game is huge loss at the speed of Bastion, the initial incarnations.
They're trying to just clutch somebody off-guard in this initial stage, but both players are doing a phenomenal job.
Long-Tar got stunned up for a moment, but immediately recovers at the time dilation.
Dallas now starting to get whittled down a bit as he's leaving the charge,
getting interrupted on Morrow into a Cyclone, shutting him out of the game,
switching that pressure back onto the Azul.
And I'm starting to think that they may have to do a healer swap to Long-Tar.
The warrior playing for the long of a Cyclone scan with Morrow is a lot of defense to get through.
Yeah, it definitely is. We're seeing a very passive game here from Dallas,
and Saul, they're really just utilizing this pillar, trying to just get away from Blizzo as much as possible.
but finally some damage here on to Saul.
Look at Saul, just in goes for him, just playing very passive as much as he can.
Blizzard taking some pressure right now, paralyzed onto Lontar,
Blizzard's low on health, he trades up the dive on the sword, but is it gonna be enough?
Looks like it will be for the time being, but a great push there by F tier.
That's some big defensive cooldowns.
Saul retreating, Meep dodges the solo being there,
nice play from Meep to avoid that crowd control from the balance druid.
Lontar using the obsidian scales a bit aggressively here,
and he's been throwing nose, I think, onto Blizzard as well, to provide some defense to him.
He doesn't have enough communion to fall back on.
He's still the intimidating shot.
Dallas taking some hits, trying to retreat,
and leaps on the outskirts of the map as well.
But they get stacked up for a shockwave, triple fire breath.
They're going to cleave them down,
but they reverse it with a paralyzing long-tri and isolate
Blizzo for a moment.
But that triple fear is just shoving them out of the game.
It's always playing patient this time.
He's going to save the medallion for that moment
that they lost in game one when they got triple feared.
He needs to save that medallion so he can trinket
Tremor, his team to be able to close out the game.
It seems like they're really picking their moment for offense, so whenever Neatmonk has the paralysis, that's when they're getting aggressive,
but Sol will just trade out the burrow.
At the end of that spirit bash, huge damage right now onto F-tier as Gilbein has had enough of them just running away,
trying to really get the damage rolling, but it looks like they will recover.
Cyclo now onto Neatmorrow, under fire just a bit. It is back and forth here in game number two.
The Dallas is doing a lot better on overall damage, and that's going to be critical in this matchup at the composition,
that these teams are leading with beautiful pressure on Blizzard as well.
during this time they get the emerald communion.
F tier are playing a lot more tactically.
They're retreating, they're baiting Blizzle around the corner.
They're isolating them to Stunlocking, but Neep does get caught by a Solar Beam.
Is that going to be game over?
Assault is critically low right now, Neep is repositioning, they're running, they're retreating,
but will they be able to escape? Life Kikun will be forced from Neep's fingers
as they switch to Dallas now in a stormboat around the corner.
Neep repositioned, but he's caught in the middle of a map.
Maro may be able to cyclone him in a moment, he does get the cyclone.
Dallas is running down, he trades with the Incarnation.
He's reversing it with damage, but he's met with so much pressure.
Maro is winning the pressure race right now.
Meet recovers once again, though, with insane heels.
Maro targeted down, but not even finding his bar skin in this position.
Defense is starting to get trimmed down on the side of F tier.
You see that master shift in burrow, not available for Sol.
He is likely a vulnerable target.
And he's playing so defensive right now.
The ring of peace comes down, so that will block Blizzo for the time being.
And I think Sol should get topped off.
Finally below Blizzo.
Well, a huge hit of damage takes it down to 20% health,
but Lonesheart quickly tops him off,
and both teams have fully recovered in this situation.
Salt is waiting for that very powerful Ascendance cooldown
coming up in roughly 10 seconds,
and that's going to be a huge opportunity
for F tier to get aggressive.
Another solar being connected on to Meep.
That yellow icon means that Meep was interrupted,
and he can't heal.
This team locks down to 50% health as a result,
and Maro is pushing in,
but Blizzle is falling behind.
That triple fear is available.
Will Blizzle be able to land it like he did in game number one?
He's still pushing the pace here.
Bladestorming, cleaving the team, punishing the vent for spacking and playing defensively at the pillar trying to maximize his damage.
Because right now, honestly, Maro is struggling on overall damage.
His damage was much higher in game number one. He is going to need to step that up as this game progresses.
Oh, big cooldowns available for Saul.
Blizzow's low on health. Can they tie it up? FQ is going for it.
Can they get the win? Cyclone here on the loans are Marwan, Blizzard above.
But at the same time, Saul is under fire once again back and forth on game number two between these two teams.
but it looks like F-tier will recover.
A borrow really just struggling like you said to find that damage.
When he needs it, Cyclone's coming up though, doing an excellent job in that regard.
Blitz will blow on health, another incapacitating roar into a leg sweep.
Lontar's in crowd control and Blitz is swapping out, holding on.
Beautiful damage here by F-tier.
Let me swap on Lontar, but he is ready for it, man.
Lontar is just cold blooded on that healer right now.
He's rescuing Blitz, and he gets to bring a piece away from it.
And he's played by Meep, but Meep's caught in the open, he's in the Cyclone,
And Saul has some options.
Is he going to greet it?
Another cyclone from Maro in this position.
There's a waiting, finding time.
Saul is so close to no big pressure
to come in with that paralyze.
Not enough damage, though, to finish it.
Nice offheels from Maro with that regrowth.
You see another pressure point here from Maro.
Is he clips in, looking for cyclones.
Looking for pressure.
Saul for a major clue down.
They're refusing to give it.
They cyclone them at low health, stopping the damage
and preventing his recovery at this moment.
And for those that are still looking to connect,
trying to march forward onto Saul.
One charge there.
Deep breaths.
Two players.
Meep is trying to assist, but he gets caught into a Cyclone, and Saul is on the run, and game number two.
Are they going to be taking them all the way here? Meep Cyclone once again, and Saul is so greedy right now.
Wrapping around the corner with Dallas, he gets caught in a massive tangle by Mauro, pinning him around the corner from Meep,
and Meep is so patient. I cannot believe the greed they're getting away with right now.
They're not trading any major cooldowns, and they managed to survive.
Well, usually done. I mean, for FGR, the Durans are not getting to them in this matchup.
they've seen more focus than even game number one,
playing a very calm strategy.
And they've had their moments of blizzard
in this match, parallelized here on the long-tie.
He trades up the Emerald Communion.
So another major objective out of the way here for F tier
as they play this very patient game,
just using the pillar, trying to line the site.
Gallus out at the same time, taking some huge damage,
trades up the survival instincts to survive.
That is a lot of pressure coming in from Guild Bean.
All right, let's see what this pays off for F tier.
It was around the nine-minute mark where we saw
we can really get explosive.
They've been playing a very slow game.
If Saul has not used his medallion the entire game, they analyzed that.
Saul probably used that aggressively.
He needs to save it for a critical moment, and that's the mistake that they're correcting from game number one.
Now in Dampening, they're swapping Lone Tar more.
They see that he has no medallion. They see that he has no communion.
Lone Tar needs to be the target right now.
They can isolate him and take Morrow out of the game with a Cyclone.
They can absolutely dunk on him, but they need to stay stable at the same time as they set that up.
Oh, Blitz has low on health.
He's Sol trying to take him down. Dallas just putting bleeds on everyone in this match. His damage is sky-high.
That is a huge difference from game number one that Sol is under fire.
He's out the Astral Shift trying to survive it. A Cyclone on Meatmonkey. Not gonna trade him.
Not gonna trade it. It's greedy. Back and forth here. They're going after Lohtar. Can they take him down?
The Spear of Bastion comes down.
Both Sol and Lohtar are very vulnerable in this situation. Who is going to fall first?
It looks like Lohtar will survive the legs, but he doesn't have the heals.
He's going to wrap around the pillar here. Looks like he will recover.
We'll keep stabilizing for a very scary moment.
Dallas, no trinkets, stun lock, meep stun, no trinket, and game number two, and will Dallas hold on like the coup comes out in the nick of time at that point.
Now, Sol is rotting down and they've been playing such a good game, such a solid defense,
but Mauro sneaks in and gets a cyclone, and Dallas is critically low.
Blizzo sends his blood in the water, and Europe are going to match point.
Oh, how brutal, but so fast and definitive when they came in here at Acuverse, Gilbina.
They are taking these points even after these deadlocks.
There's another one here, as we see the rest of F tier begin to fall.
I mean, these two teams are so closely matched in these deciding moments.
All it takes is just a quick exchange and it tips the balance.
Well, we look at it, I mean, Super, what do you think is making the big difference
when they're deadlocked like this and sort of giving that win one way or the other?
It just seems like the lethality from Marl on the balancerid.
Just that little cutting edge on the star surge damage is enough to force the kill
because they're getting really close on Lontar.
It is just not enough to finish him in the stun,
and then he's able to recover,
whereas the bounce through the pressure
is just more lethal.
It's more threatening in this given matchup,
and I'm trying to run the numbers here
on how Dallas and Saul could make their team more lethal,
bringing in with the Rhett warrior be better
in this type of situation.
Is it time to bring Leros in and go head to head,
warrior versus warrior here in this matchup,
because it just seems like
they just don't have enough finishing power right now.
I mean, it's true.
Vent, do you have further thoughts?
What do you think they could do to kind of make this something where they can be the ones that have that lethality?
It's tough, right? Because we look at Dallas, we look at Sol, they're at the top of the meters right now
So they're doing the most damage, but it seems like the damage is very spread out and Lone Tower are playing that preservation evoker
They use playing the flame shaper as well. It's very good at dealing with that spread pressure
So for Blizzard and Marvel, even though it seems like they're doing less damage, it's all basically on one target
It's mostly on Sol. They're doing a few swaps, but for the most part it's Sol under fire
So the strategy from up here seems to just be do damage don't die, but it's it been tough because they're not dying
Yes, I would love to I think the biggest reason for what you guys are describing is the fact that tomorrow is just playing out of his mind right now
On the boom team. There are so many moments where tomorrow is brought like here
He's setting up the offense here with Cyclones on to meet month and that is what ultimately leads him to the kill
So offensively he's on point with the Cyclones, but look here
There's one with the long time long. There's got nothing more of a cast yet the precognition and immediately get psychone here on to Dallas
And he's constantly making these place
Immediately recognizing. Okay. I need a defensive cycle right now or my teammate is going to die or have to use big cooldowns
And that is what's keeping them in the in the fight because earlier this game
You've been made a huge huge error that kind of had you know
ramifications throughout the entire match and that was that Lontar and Blizzo
just panicked and over that all their defenses at one point and then because
they had no defensives as soon as Emerald Communion rotated back up they had to use
that and then they had to continue it just caused basically a bad chain of
events for them which is what led to Lontar here having no trinket no Emerald
Communion and no Rewind nothing and a situation like that is usually a
guaranteed kill you just stun him, hundred over him the next time you have a big
cool down now but because Morrow is playing ahead of what is going to happen
he's kind of anticipating that this swap is coming he's there to block it and
then even at the end here he's there to actually set up his team for the kill so
for me this is just Morrow diff this entire game here and I mean they're
lucky that they picked him up because Morrow was in retirement for a long time
He came second at the 2019 BlizzCon, one game away, losing to Echo in game number seven.
And he's back and he's looking as fresh as ever.
That's to feel good. When you were so close last time, you finally come back and you're going,
you know what, I'm going to be one that's making these big, decisive moments.
And I'm going to be coming in so strong to hopefully win it, because I'm sure he has wanted to ever since
he was so close to having it.
But, you know, we can't discredit F tier either, because F tier has been playing very well,
and I think their journey has been a really interesting one.
You know, Van, you were highlighting how hard they've been practicing, but how do you think
the team has grown since they first appeared?
Well, I think at the beginning, I mean, Saul was just someone who only played enhancement
showmen.
Like, that was it.
Meetmonk as well, mostly just playing that monk specialization.
So they picked up these different roles, different specializations.
They've added a lot of depth through the roster.
And like you mentioned, I mean, they have been working really hard.
this is a very stressful situation. This is the first game of the day and they're already in a situation where if they lose
They're eliminated from the entire tournament like there's no loser's bracket
So if you're a new team, I mean you really have to rise to the occasion because you haven't been in this situation before you can see
Saul, you know, it's looking stressful up there if I was in his shoes
I'd be feeling very stressed as well as I think this is composition that Gilbeen is bringing
is it something they have a lot of practice into? So I think this is a surprise from Gilbein.
And FGR really has to figure this out. It looks like they're going to be leading with the exact same composition,
but yeah, they got to figure something out because this is a very dire situation.
I mean, that's a tricky thing you can do, right? When you've won and you have the advantage of being able to come in and pick the bracket,
or pick your draft right off the start, you can kind of surprise the opposition and go,
hey, maybe we know that you haven't played against this as much this past season,
And we can kind of try to make sure we lock this in because super if F tier can't win this one then they are out
So how do you think they answer what guild bean has brought in? Well, there's taken to their guns
This is their main composition. This is the composition that got them here
So they're not throwing any kind of random composition and desperation like we have to do it with this
How can we clean it up? I would say that their strategy is becoming predictable is the only thing
They're going warrior early game and then they try to go long tarlaking, but they're leaving morrow completely open
It seems like in balustrade is pretty durable target
But it feels like a little bit more pressure thrown at him
So he's not as confidently able to maneuver around me could definitely assist them
Maybe that map backfired because meep was getting a caught a lot in the middle of the map
So Melter access calcium another big map
But the pillars are a little bit more sturdy a little bit more big wide in this position
So if meep can avoid Mara they keep a little bit more attention on Maro and prevent him from carrying the game
They have to shut Maro down. Yeah, I mean when you start noticing that there is a player who is a huge problem
It's kind of on you to deal with that problem.
And hopefully they will be able to,
as we look ahead to this map,
this is a swing map for them.
If they're able to take it after,
we'll stay in the competition.
But if they lose it here, they are out.
There are no second chances
with a single elimination bracket.
And we only have today to decide
who our BlizzCon AWC champions will be.
The pressure is on both the teams, no doubt,
are feeling it and everybody coming into the venue today.
We hope that you can cheer them on
as we come in for this next map.
But then, I mean, right now, as a competitor,
I'm sure you know you must be feeling it.
Yes, I'm very stressed out for these guys.
You know, we're going into this third map,
no lower bracket, very difficult situation to be in.
And you're playing against not only a team
you don't get to practice against,
but also a composition you may not have that much experience.
So for a team that likes to be well-prepared,
this is stressful for F tier,
but this team can definitely rise to the occasion.
They're not out of it yet.
And if they start picking up a win,
they could start to believe and turn this series around.
So this is a very important match, obviously,
but I feel like if F tier can pick this one up,
things might start snowballing in their direction.
I mean, sometimes, right, if you can change that cadence,
if you can change what's been happening,
it does set the opposition kind of at this weird place
where they're kind of scrambling to answer.
So yeah, if they can win this,
it's possible that they can start setting
the kind of pace for the rest of this series.
But of course, they are experienced players.
They have seen a lot in their years playing in the AWC suit.
So do you think that they would be shaken in this moment or do you think right now?
They're just going you know what?
We've won these two and we think that we can take this one ourselves. I think they're gonna get locked in here
I think both these teams are about to dial in the stress is high at single elimination
There's no more second chances after you need to win three games in a row
And they are fighting one of Europe's finest roster one of the most legendary
rosters honestly of all time that's been crafted on their side in this newcomers playing non meta compositions
You know, I'm proud of what they've been able to do up to this point. They dismantled the dynasties in North America
And I think they can still do it. I still believe in F tier. I believe in the comeback
I mean, I think I do too. We love it here on our home turf and a F tier coming in
They have to win this one or they are out
But the pressure is on because Guilfeet has keep on keeping them on their toes then yeah
Here we go gates under or open and the game is underway here between these two teams
F tier needs your love staying in this competition.
It is an elimination game.
If Gilbien can win, good pressure coming in here from Saul.
Early on, while at the same time,
is a bit of a focal point here for the side of F tier.
But, he really has to recover his team.
Yeah, you can see F tier, same strategy.
Defense, run away.
They're huddling at the pillar,
they're cowering in the corner,
and Gilbien are relentless.
They've got Wiggle Room.
They can afford to lose a game,
and Blizzard knows that.
So, he's heroic leaping on top of his opponents,
He's actually gone known in this matchup.
He switched from the dwarf, so he won't have that stone form
or fireblood to be able to remove the bleed.
And that's, honestly, an interesting decision from Blizzard.
That's him almost disrespecting F tier, saying,
I don't need that defense.
I'm going to get some more mobility, possibly close this game out early.
We'll have to see if that backfires on.
Yeah, I do think the stone form seemed very powerful.
So not having that is going to make him more of a liability
in this matchup, but we'll see if F tier decides to capitalize on that.
Or if they're just going to try to go out for more and slow them down.
Once again playing very passive game, Neep dropping that ring of peace, that red circle on the ground
and that doesn't allow Blizzow to enter and makes it very difficult for Neep to actually have uptime on Sol.
So it's great defense there for F tier and they're really trying to utilize that to get into the late game.
Nice triple leg sweep there by Neep on the eclipse of Maro, the game that found the tower first in the initial stages of that activation.
Nice that they're from Neep and they're just all focused on defense.
Yeah, let's say, they're just floundering, they're struggling to just stay alive in this match.
They know they're going to need some dampening in this matchup.
Their damage is just not threatening, so they're just calering around the corner,
and Morrow is playing aggressively while charging in.
Blizzo is charging in, they're just trying to close up this game and not allow F tier to get to that E game dampening stage.
Yeah, Morrow on their fire once again, but it looks like he will get topped off.
Long-tark is playing very aggressive.
You've seen Morrow, Long-tark, Blizzo all just pushing in.
At the same time, F tier is just running away.
They're waiting for those cooldowns, those big moments, like the Ascendants.
So it's a passive strategy from F tier, but I feel like if Gilbeam, they play the defensive cooldowns well,
they could just kind of mitigate those situations, and F tier might just keep falling further and further behind.
It just seems like they're struggling. No try as full control of the game.
There's been almost no crab control applied to them, so I think there'll be one Lecksuit that are paralyzed.
We just see no offense from F tier. They're desperate.
Now finally engaging. Nice triple Lecksuit. They're picking their moment.
They found Mara with no Barkskin, but not enough damage to take him out of his broken time.
And Lone Tar just looks like a brick wall on this healer.
He's gonna stop him in force for his lossers.
They continue to push aggressively and push the paced Dallas and Saul,
trying to abuse that cat from shape-shifting and Ghostwope mobility,
but a solo being catches Saul.
They're switching to Meep.
He's trying to recover from pillar, rushing Wind Kick to recover,
and he's managed to pull his team back into the match.
But if their strategy was to win on mana,
Loatar seems more than ready for that.
Yep, seems good. He is a little bit ahead on mana for the time being, so it could be something that works,
but the games have not come down to that so far. I wouldn't expect them to as well, especially with how aggressive
he is. He's being guilty, me there, just not afraid to push in. Loatar as well, like you mentioned.
Just going for sleep walks and fire breaths, really assisting his team offensively, and F-tier has just been on the run for the entire game.
Almost the entire series at this point, and it's understandable, right? And if you lose this game,
It's over. So if you play too aggressively over extends a long time with no defense and leave an opening
You're just out your entire year is gone any opportunities to be a first-time champion the dream of every AWC
Competitors out for windows. So they are just focused on defense focused on surviving focusing on making no mistakes
But eventually they will have to switch gears eventually
They will have to commit to some form of offense and will they pick the right moment because right now
They're starting to fall behind salt rigs at the atmosphere Dallas
This is the air form of his incarnation. You don't want to do that.
That's a big damage hit and he's forcing the defensive form to live and to survive at that moment in time.
But they are pressuring Maro. Maybe Blizzo knew that. He knew that.
Oh, they're going to switch and go Maro this game, so I don't need the Fire Blood, which is really a heads-up strategy from Gilbete.
Definitely. We'll see what happens. Dallas now under fire once again.
You can see this team is just wrapping around the pillar. They are just playing defensive.
They are trying to survive. Gilbete pushing in to close it out.
Spear comes down, there's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide at this moment.
Lontar goes in for the depress.
Can they close it out?
Solz gets low on health, a lot of good trades,
but we love those aggressive plays coming in from TLT.
He's going to port back to his team,
but it's just Jokbeen are blasting through defense,
and they have so much available on their side.
I think if F3 even gets another two or three minutes out of this game,
they're going to have too much defense to work through to actually win it,
which will be exhausting, but they knock him out all around the corner.
Dallas with a clutch play right there,
and he's rooting Lontar to prevent him from healing.
Not enough to win, but it is a sign of life, Dallas,
showing those skills that we saw in the North American region
right there with that tactical typhoon
and tangling root combo.
Mar was rotting down.
The pressure is still there.
Dallas is top of the meter.
Saul needs to step it up a bit, though.
They do catch Blizzo.
Can they close it out?
They're so close.
Rewind comes in.
Lone Tart denies it.
And F-tier are fighting to keep the dream alive.
That was a close call.
And if F-tier picked up that kill there,
this entire series could be different.
Oh no, low on health and F-tier. Can they do it? They are really making it difficult here for Lontar.
Blizzo could easily fall. The dive of the sword comes in to survive, but now great pressure here for F-tier.
That triple fear again. Beautifully done.
Oh, the triple fear shuts down the momentum for their team, but Saul has some answers. He can stay aggressive.
He has Burl, he's Stormkeeper, but Blizzo is behind the pillar with Lontar waiting to recover.
Oh no, he did it! He did it!
is down and after managed to turtle it out and put a point on the board.
Oh, that's got to be just a heartbreaker for gilding, but after you're going to be
happy to pick up a point, beautifully done.
Look, you don't want to make it this far and go out 3-0.
After you said we're here on our home turf in NA, we want to win this and we have to stay in it.
And they did, they've gotten a point on the board and amazing to see how they just
They just paced that out how they didn't let the pressure get to them and they were able to come in definitively at the end now it seemed like they kind of you know bided their time throughout that until they could get the strike then what do you think from their strategy this time around it seems like they
change things up. Well I think what it comes down to for F tier is the classes
that they have available have a really powerful offensive cooldown so they have
these moments where they can do overwhelming damage and they're trying
to just stall it out so between attacks between attacks they're gonna be
waiting a little bit but once they have those cooldowns that's gonna give them
the confidence to actually push in get aggressive and find those moments. Yeah I
mean that's exactly what you have to do especially when you are at that point
where you're about to be eliminated so they were able to come back here but as we take a look at
the overall performance and some of the stats from the game. Super what are you seeing and
how this all unfolded? I mean just they were able to turtle all day they were able to play at the
pillar they played into that dampening strategy and they were able to flip the switch. That's the
important factor a lot of these teams that pick these late game defensive oriented compositions
they don't know how to flip the switch they just spend the whole time running to go.
Yeah, I mean, we can take a look at the replay here.
I wonder what actually happened to Longtah here.
He's just standing still there to watch the end of it,
and then he got leg swept there,
but we'll take a look at that in a moment again.
I really just love watching Blizzo,
how he responds every single time when he drops low.
This was a really nice exchange coming out there from Longtah,
but here during the kill,
it looks like Longtah is just standing around there,
and then he gets stun locked,
and then what is he actually in?
like right now he's just not doing anything.
Just standing there.
So maybe he had a tech issue.
I'm not sure.
But anyway, they get the leg sweep and they finish it off.
And to FTA's credit, this game was looking very, very solid.
The entire time they had good pressure.
I think that for them, like you guys mentioned,
this might not be a comp that they run into too often.
You can tell they're getting a little bit more confident in the matchup,
getting a little bit more confident with their targeting as well,
pressuring Maro more often.
He had some really nice plays from Dallas as well,
getting the typhoon.
And you can see,
Dallas is absolutely fired up here to be on stage
and deliver the first North American win here.
Yeah, I mean, wouldn't you be just knowing,
oh, we were here, this moment was so decisive for us,
and we are going to be able to stay here
and actually continue competing for our BlizzCon championship dreams.
Now, of course, as a little reminder for everybody though,
this isn't the only event going on here at BlizzCon.
There will be a wow forever deep dive.
So if you'd like to see that panel that's going to be happening,
go ahead and tune in to the main stage.
We will be continuing our Arena World Championship action here,
however, and witnessing what the rest of this series has in store for us.
Now, we are at this crucial crossroad for the teams, right?
We've got this 2-1 situation, and no doubt,
Guildbean want to be able to just keep
that strong momentum that they had.
But then like we were talking about earlier,
this could be a point where F tier is the one that
starts setting the pace for the rest of the games.
Yeah. I've been in that situation before where you're up to games,
you're feeling good, you're about to win,
and then all of a sudden the other team,
they pick up a win, and then you're like,
okay, well, maybe that was just a fluke.
Then if they pick up two wins, it's like, oh my goodness,
we could get reverse swept here.
It's a very stressful situation to be in.
But I think for Gilbean it's interesting because now they get to select the map as well as their composition with the way our drafting works
So Gilbean could run something else. I mean, this is a roster, you know, they do have
The Zpie on the bench if they need they could bring in him
So lots of different options available and this is the first opportunity they have to kind of counter comp F tier
I kind of feel like they're gonna be lucky in the same composition
I think both these teams just leading with their best foot forward and it's gonna be may the best team win in this matchup
Yeah, I mean, yeah, honestly, and that's what we love
But you can see the teams really competing on the same skill level and bringing their all.
And I think you bring up a really good point, Van.
And Supa, maybe you have some more thoughts on this with the picks they're going to be bringing in.
Would you say that Gilbein has more flexibility overall in what they can bring to the table than F tier?
I mean, I think their cleave is probably going to be a bit more polished, their ret warrior.
But at the same time, you know, maybe Saul could step up to the plate here against a Zpie's ret
if that ends up being the case.
If you go to a small map and then F tier don't want to lock in the Ellie Feral
because they're going to need to play defensively right and that will be very challenging on a smaller map.
So they might not lean into the feral elite depending on how that blind pick goes for them and as far as their strategy is concerned.
We do have an update as well as you noticed there did seem to be a bit of an issue there with the technical side for long time.
So we will be replaying that map.
Now, this is an opportunity, because of course,
Gildbean, they were just at this threshold of going,
hey, we could lock in this win.
We could get this 3-0.
But we've seen here that there was that energy,
there was that passion that we just got from F-tier going,
hey, we can do this, we can turn the tide.
So, Ziko, if you were in their sort of position right now,
what would you be doing to lock in and be able to replay this
and secure that victory?
I mean, if I'm on F-tier, obviously it hurts a little bit,
but it is what it is.
I think that you're just, you're just locked in.
You just do the exact same that you just did.
For F tier, I would still consider this a positive sign
because it looks like they are a little bit out of shape
against this particular comp
and against this particular play style
that Gilbeen is bringing.
So getting, when you're on the losing edge,
it's always better to get more games, right?
So getting essentially an extra game like that,
it's still not a bad thing
because maybe they figured something out in this matchup.
Oh, okay, Blizzle did go gnome.
Now we know ahead of time that he is gonna be gnome.
Should we still go after him a little bit more
like we did in the previous games?
Should we maybe go after Maro still
and try to pressure him more like we did?
You have a little bit more time to kind of reflect
on how your liver experiments,
you know, changes that you did from the previous game,
how they actually worked out.
So I would say this is still a net positive here for Ftier
being able to kind of reflect on that stuff, but at the same time, we'll see what they'd
say to you.
I disagree. I feel like this is going to be an emotional test right there. Like you just
came off a high thinking that you won and then there was a technical error for Loantar
which means we will be replaying the map and now you have to play that out again. And when
you're playing a dampening composition that needs to play 8 plus minute games and you
lose, mental on that is completely brutal because it's not easy to survive 8 plus minutes
against the best teams across the globe.
You're on match point facing elimination,
competing the entire year to get to this point,
dismantling some of the top members of North America
to get your seat at the table and fight for the crown.
And now, this is the biggest test
that they could have really gotten in this series.
I do see a point to it, and that's what we do all about.
It is a mental game, but let's see
who has the strongest mental here.
Game number three.
We're gonna be coming in here at tier versus guild,
being replaying that third map.
But then they've gotta lock in and they have to execute
if F-tier wants to stay in.
Yeah, right now, F-tier getting aggressive early on.
Once again, you're on the Marl end of Luzo,
so very calculated strikes coming in from F-tier.
It's just that moment of offense, and then they pull away,
but Gilbien feeling very confident.
That's the thing, if you don't have a lot of pressure
on your opponents, Gilbien is going to be the one
that feels confident to push in.
Lotar is going to be pushing in for sleepwalks,
getting the disintegrates,
and really kind of carrying his team's pressure.
He's getting very aggressive here,
just punching and kicking and having damage to his team
while wrapping around the corner.
He has to avoid sleepwalks of Luntar, and he has to avoid cycling from Morrow.
Those are two major threats that he can get caught in, and it's all he needs to cover on this sleepwalk at the moment.
Some of the burst, but it means that it may not line up with the intimidating shout at a critical moment if he managed to land a triple.
They usually bring a piece that red circle that Rukia was talking about last time to try and prevent them from pushing in on top of them and getting cleat damage.
They're focusing a lot of their stones on Grisso, but Warrior trying to limit him from getting the aggressive, getting through his target.
his target, limit his uptime, and just focus on ghost wolf, spam shape shifting, and avoiding
damage.
But when you get the double fear, and they isolate Sol, is this going to be it for him?
He has the burrow, meep makes the exchange, and the commitment there with the life between
their team, real stabilizing.
Now finally, Dallas is getting cyclones.
This is what I want to see from Dallas.
In game one, he's getting a lot of clutch crowd control.
I think in the early game, crowd control is valuable.
You have to make this win entirely.
I agree with that.
maybe plays from Dallas as well as Barlow on this one.
Finding this but Cyclone, Saul down to half.
Still a scary situation here in Meatmonk.
He traded that light give him a bit preemptively.
Normally he's very greedy with those cooldowns,
but in this situation, you can tell he's feeling the pressure.
Keep Saul alive.
Barlow and Dallas both under fire once again,
but the Cyclone goes out on the Dallas.
Guzzo is pushing in, gets the shockwave here on to Saul.
But Saul will just continue to retreat here with Meatmonk.
Vicky is very difficult for Blizzard to connect.
They're just on target here saw wrapping around the corner with meat long time moving in Maro on the back as well
They do have incarnation for Maro coming up very shortly
Here just immediate recovery with that birdie embrace massive healing you just get caught to paralyze fixed that up on blizzard triple leg
Sweet ratio combo nice crowd control from F tier long tires
Good you gonna respect with their that emerald communion was potentially not necessary that green icon at a 3m
That's one of his major healing cooldowns, but it also regenerates mana
So he decides to use that early to recover from that moment when he might not have needed it for that reason
But he will maintain his mana as a result of rotating it, so that's a very effective decision from Wontar
Knowing that this strategy from Ftier is going to drag this game on using his resources more defensively, more for the laning
Yeah, and Ftier, these are very interesting map choices because they're picking these large maps with just not utilizing them
What so ever just essentially using the pillar only, Baro and Blizzo both take quite a bit of damage, a huge earth shock there onto Blizzo
He almost gets dropped. It's a scary situation, and Saul and Talos crit at the right time.
The low tower is not prepared. Blizzo could easily go down, so they can't get a false sense of security.
Blizzo trades out the top out of the sword. Great pressure here for F tier.
This is phenomenal in terms of offense. They're holding Blizzo and Mara 50% health, only at the 3-minute mark in this game.
When we get to the 7-minute mark, they're just going to both be double killed at that point in time.
Can F-tier manage to hold on long enough? Nice paralyze, beautiful setup once again into the legstick meet.
Pissed there, low charge trinkets and blocks. Rewind instantly recovering his teammate.
That assault, but now he has no trinket, and he has no ammo convenient.
Miro and slow! No way! F-tier! So close, but Lontar is clutching right now,
managing to stabilize Miro at that moment in time, but there is clear openings right now for F-tier.
Yeah, I mean, F-tier, they feel like they're getting more and more confident and comfortable
in this matchup those moments of pressure are really looking good and guilty kind of
struggling to find another one. Another one, another big stone. Another one. And they do it! They do it!
They get the win, put the point on the board. I mean that's got to feel really good for F tier.
You're on match point, you're facing elimination, you fought you won, was a disconnect technical issue
and you have to play it again and you're just thinking no way we have to play that again.
They win even faster, they get even more effective, they get even more efficient,
They rise to the occasion and they stay alive.
They absolutely didn't, you know, Supa,
you were worried that it might affect them,
but they overcame it.
And as you can hear from the audience,
we are all cheering them on.
F tier managed to lock in that point,
even with the replay, and they will stay in the running.
Now, this is a huge boon to them, no doubt.
Not only does it keep them in the competition,
but Ziko, you have to be feeling good
when you have to replay, and then you go,
we want it and we want it even faster.
Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what I was talking about.
you had a chance to kind of review how your experiments went and review the
changes that the opponent made as well and I really feel that when you are the
team that's behind in a series if you can get extra games in like that I think
if you have the strong enough mental which obviously these guys do you're
gonna be able to come out on top and we see them just laser focused locking it
in and immediately just running guilt being out of the coolance completely and
and just how they're able to swap around as well.
I think this is the fastest game so far in the entire series.
They're able to go after Morrow, get him low,
get his cooldowns, realize okay,
we don't have enough damage enough, take him down,
let's switch to Blizzow, let's isolate him,
and immediately re-focus onto a different target
and take him down, and you can tell
the crowd is definitely behind North America right now.
We are in North America at BlizzCon,
and seeing North America pick up their first win here,
Let's see how they actually did it so.
This was a little bit earlier in the match
when Longtor had to use his free wind.
So that was his last major defensive.
Then they swap tomorrow here.
Morrow takes a tremendous amount of damage.
Duxing the bare form, gets the Cyclones out,
manages to recover, and then again here,
they get a stun on tomorrow,
then they get a stun onto Blizzow,
a paralyze onto Longtor.
So a perfect triple CC here,
and it's so important that they get that,
I think it's the elemental stun on tomorrow in a situation.
because Morrow has been at Thorn in their side this entire series.
Every single time they have a situation like this where they can go for a KO,
he's there, he's getting the Cyclones, not this time around.
This time around they triple CC, they have the damage to back it up as well,
and Morrow could have actually trinketed here, but he didn't realize
how scary that situation actually was.
He goes for the Cyclone, Sall immediately shuts it down with the Wind Shear there as well.
So you can tell that Eptir, they refocused,
And they kind of, we like to do that as well when we play arenas and say, okay, this is my target.
I'm going to be mainly interrupting this guy, mainly shutting him now.
And you can tell that that's exactly what they did on F tier.
They're laser focused on shutting down Maro and Solz just did a phenomenal job there.
Shutting him down first with the stun, then with the kick.
And they had just the coordination everyone on the same page.
And they took Blizzow down.
And that's what he gets from being greedy playing normal.
That's what you get, Blizzow.
That's what you get.
So, Tico.
Honestly though, it was really, really well thought through from them as you were all pointing out
Mauro being something that really was a decisive factor for Gilbeen in this first couple of maps.
But of course, this next game we're going to be looking ahead and we've mentioned that F tier is kind of running this sort of dampening comp and they kind of play around this.
But what are the considerations then that you think they need to take into account going up against what Gilbeen is bringing?
Well, I think that one of the reasons for their strategy is not only do they have these kind of hit and run specializations that they're picking,
but also we talked about Maro and how phenomenal he is. We know him as a mage, his control has been amazing on that,
but also on this balancer and being able to spam out the cyclones on everyone.
When you're on a pillar and you're just running around to the entire time, you completely mitigate Maro's ability to control the match.
It becomes a lot more difficult for guild being to find those situations where they can kind of isolate a target.
So it makes a lot of sense to me. We're going to rune the Lordaeron,
not those big pillars that FTR seems to really, really enjoy, but you can still use this tomb and maybe they just,
you know choose one of the graves that they can run around maybe they choose the car to run around but I do wonder what
Gilbein's gonna do in response here because it's not like a good feeling right like you're right on that match point
You're about to win the series going to disconnect and you go into a loss
So I'm like they are gonna be tagging in Z pie on the rep paladin. All right. How is this gonna change things for them?
Super this is some this is a zug-zug map
They are smorking here in game number four for match point Z pie is coming off the bench on the rep
for the elemental shaman, but
he has been polishing up that
blade on the retribution paladin,
and they are going to be absolutely
bringing the pressure to solve.
This is something that an elemental shaman
can struggle heavily with. There's a lot
of support from the rep paladin, a lot of
offhealing, a lot of freedoms for all
of the roots. So he's going to enable
the warrior to get a lot more uptime
than in the previous match, which means
that F tier man. This is going to be
their greatest challenge here. I mean,
still want to win this. So of course they're going to try to bring this and end it where
they can. But Ziko they are going to have their challenge cut out for them because F-Tier
is playing incredibly well. Do you think that F-Tier have kind of found their groove since
we started? Absolutely. F-Tier is looking, I mean the way they set up that last kill
was just 100% perfect. Everyone was on the same page. Everyone was locked in and that's
exactly what you want to see. And also you can just tell the way they're switching their
targets. They're all going on tomorrow. Okay, they immediately all recognize okay he's
He's not going to die. We're going to switch to our target, go over to Lizzo and then set
that up immediately as well. So I do think that FTR is for short locked in, but this
is a very, very scary composition to go up against.
Rhett Warrior is very, very brutal. They have a lot of damage. Rhett brings a lot of utility
as well. And when there's a place where you can chop someone up, this is the map. Let's
Let's see if Gilbein can do it, or if F-Tier comes in a fight.
This is F-Tier versus Gilbein.
Everything is on the line here.
Can Gilbein get that third point?
Or will F-Tier stay in the 22?
But let's see what they do.
They are gunning down Sol.
It's rune's a lauder on its BlizzCon, 20-2016.
And at the cemetery, this would be a fitting, final arrest
in place.
Will Gilbein be riding F-Tier into the scrolls
of these tombstones in this match?
It's going to be cutthroat for them.
BlizzO will be enabled.
He will have maximum uptime in this type of situation.
The roots will no longer be an issue for him.
Now that Zpie has entered the fight,
and with that off-hooking from the Rep Paladin,
F tier will have to survive even longer
and look at the momentum that the Rep Paladin brings
in the early stage.
Oh, at the same time, Luzo is critically low here.
Zpie is coming in cold in this matchup.
Is he ready?
Yeah, the Rep Paladin's gonna have
those very powerful cooldowns,
you know, like the blessing of smell warding the lane
on hands, but not the control of the cyclone.
So things are unraveling here,
and after it can get some momentum,
it could unravel very quickly here for Gil Bean
and be a really difficult situation.
Stunned out onto Blizzle,
won't start caught into that paralyze,
and it seems like Saul's able to use this team quite well
for line of sight.
I feel like after it's kind of able to continue
to the same trend that we saw in that last game.
Ooh, Hex though, that is a clutch play from Saul.
There's no deep curse from the bouncer anymore,
so Saul will be able to land Hexes at full duration
on all three targets.
The Saul can be the carry for the team
with that foul control.
It's a very threatening one to that entire roster.
They'll all be able to find these opportunities.
They'll have to shift gears from just kind of doing
damage and surviving to more tactical crowd control.
But they are just absolutely dog piling on top of them
at the moment.
Blizzow gets peeled away.
Cyclone unlocked.
Dallas is carrying once again in this position.
Meep is there for the backup.
And will Blizzow fall once again here in game four?
You can see the big trade.
He manages to hold on with the obsidian scales and recover.
But that's great for F tier.
Getting that much momentum, not even two minutes
into the game.
Yeah, Dallas.
So getting chopped up right now by Blizzow,
putting a lot of pressure onto the Feral Druid
that Zephyr and Blizzo really just trying to get on target,
get on top of Saul and continue that damage,
bring a lot of consistent damage to this match.
But we'll see what they can do.
Dallas has done a great job so far with the Cyclones,
as well as the stuns to slow down their regression.
And by Saul and Meatmonk, just a little bit of breathing room
in the map, Zephyr and Blizzo really trying
to get aggressive here on the Saul.
Hammer of Justice now on to Meet.
What is Saul going to do?
He's low on health.
But it looks like Meet has answers,
just not willing to trade them.
So greedy in that position, but he gets away with it.
making some clutch calls there,
wanting to stagger the defense,
long-term running out of options.
Paralyze another setup.
He gets stunned by Dallas.
Time dilation is up, and the gaining damage on Blizzo.
Zpie as well, taking some damage from the sacrifice,
redirecting damage to himself at this point in time.
The attribution palette isn't getting really as much momentum
as I was anticipating.
I actually am starting to believe in F tier here
in game number four if they can hold on.
And the opponent's caught, and he continues crowd control.
Finally freed up for a moment,
Sol, Dallas, pre-positioning, hammer of justice, storm bolt.
That is the combo that Blizzo and Zpie need to initiate more frequently to isolate Sol.
Meet counter-engages with the double-leg sweep of the zone,
walking down Blizzo and Zpie in that stun.
Both sides are recovering.
Manna reasonably even at this point at 3-min apart.
Dampening is starting to ramp.
Both these healers are going to start feeling the pressure of that healing reduction in this match.
Sol and Dallas, they've got quite a bit of damage here.
Mipha has a life-scoot and he needs to make the trade,
but they've been greedy with it so far.
Good pressure here for the side of Guildbean, and this is an elimination game.
If F-tier loses this there, out of the tournament, they need to tie it up here on Ruins with Dallas.
This is so low, what a close call.
Oh, really tense moment there for F-tier.
No way!
It's on my fault!
The life you could finally trade.
Neep is defiant, keeps his team alive.
I can't believe how greedy Neep is right now.
He is clutching it out at the final second, it's match point.
They will be eliminated from the tournament if they lose this game right here,
but Blizzard gets a full fear.
And they have the Trimmer. Great Trimmer totem from Saul to support meep.
Lone Tar is flying in, getting aggressive with the disintegrates.
He's gonna regenerate Nana with those as well.
So he's trying to stagger the lakin.
But these roots, these entangling roots on Lone Tar
are actually limiting the preservation.
He poker a lot as far as his movement and healing capabilities,
but his sleepwalking was secured.
Uh-oh!
So, fell behind.
Are they gonna be able to topple them?
Lone Tar is carrying right now.
He's getting so much prowl control.
He's doing so much damage as well at this moment in time,
but he gets caught and paralyzed. He's intercepted.
Rizzo is getting rocked as Lone Tar trinkets out
to clutch in the burden embrace and now there is no trigger for long tar no emerald communion
those are the two major mechanics it's deep eye that needs to carry the team through the
next assault.
Yeah he has to save the day, ascendance for sol coming up in just a few short seconds
he needs just a few seconds for that offensive cool down.
Willis burl underground will survive for the time being but f tier has a lot of damage
available whether they're going to pull the trigger but the offense from gildeen is just
over welding f tier sleepwalk on meatmonk sol's low on health what is meatmonk going
to do to keep him alive, Salsa solo at the same time though, Blizzow gets caught into the stun of the Northboard!
F2 wants to get the crosskiller here, but it looks like Blizzow will survive, but a very tense call that
will do everything at Lone Tower right there. They're still keeping momentum. Maybe they could sneak it in if they're greedy here.
Not enough damage, looks like Lone Tower is ready for it, but the cost is so much better right now.
Blinding Light, Invasion, and Z-Py with a strong play. Good combo from Blizzow and Z-Py with that crowd.
Teamwork and Saul is getting annihilated.
Meet makes an exchange, but now Talos gets swapped too.
He's retreated to the Tombstone.
Heidi and Bairporn trying to charge in
and get some stuns for his team.
He's engaging once again, and can they close it?
Bigheel comes in from Zephyr back on hand,
but the same time, Longtar, they catch up and swap it.
Every other community has at 1% health recovery
in the time, but they get to find Shield.
They blew out the entire defensive lineup,
but Saul, it will he survive, it's caught in the stormboat.
They're so close to taking him out.
He is burrowed. He burrows right away.
Meet, what are you gonna do?
Campany at 27%, so much pressure, so much on the line, the defense has been shattered on both sides, anyone can take this.
Oh, the ring of peace comes down, barely buying solid uptime, and he could easily fall!
You know, Bean's on rules of order on trying to get the win here, but Zephyr at the same time, he's low on...
No bubble!
No bubble!
That's a good beat, man, let's just do it after you're looking to take down Zephyr, but Loltzard keeps him alive.
In a very scary situation, I don't know, this game's gonna go up much longer.
Meep's in the stun to make it anything. They get a sleepwalk. He tremors it.
They break free. They should be able to recover, but Sol is so low on healthy struggling to recover.
Meep is struggling. They fought so battleantly to get to this point.
Can Meep keep Sol alive right now? He leg shoots the DPS.
Blizzo trinkets for the kill. An aggressive trinket. They can punish Blizzo for that.
They stun a blowjob. What's up Zedger? Can they actually punish him?
Can they punish Blizzo in this point of time?
Blizzo a shockwave. He's got in their veins to save Zepi, but everyone is rotting.
Sol and Dallas, they need to win with this momentum right now.
They get a paralyze. No trinket. Zepi, well seen in protection.
Can they purge it? They get the purge. They're rotting. They get the hex. They're so close to getting a kill right now.
Can Volchar pull this off? Time dilation. He has rewind available for these greedy.
Saul is getting lower in the midst of this exchange as well. And Zephyr, out of nowhere, could fall to complete damage.
He holds on by a threat, and this is that nail-biter match point.
Oh, it's happening at 34%. Both these heroes really feel in the pain here.
Saul down to half. Once again, they need to find a setup, a stun here on to Blizzle.
They need to slow him down. Blizzle with a blade storm.
It's all leaps away, just trying to fight and get away, avoid the damage.
They caught it!
Stop it!
At the point!
At the point!
They could easily fall down to 10% health.
The triple fear comes in to survive, but is it enough?
It didn't stop after, guess the second point.
The Punish!
The Punisher!
Dallas comes in with the stuns.
They clutch it out, and they take it to game number five.
They were facing elimination.
It felt like it was over.
They had the technical difficulty replay.
They had to go through the emotions of that
After winning nine minutes, they have to go to runes of Lordaeron, facing the blender of Blizzo and Zipai.
And now it looks like they are completely stunned. Gilbinar's stunned.
They can't believe that they are in this position.
F-tier are going to need to change their names to S-tier the way they're playing and how they swept the field this season.
Incredible to see the level of competition they brought to the table, especially as a total dark horse in the competition that came in season one
and overturn some of the key teams in North America.
It's just incredible to see them continue moving forward.
But honestly, we have to shout out as well.
I think just the players on the team.
Meep, in particular, I think this last time,
this new player, that's sort of this incredible powerhouse.
Super, what do you think really makes him
a standout player for F tier?
I don't even know the specifics.
He's got such a wild personality.
He will just be goofy.
He'll be dancing on stream and goofing around.
and then just immediately hardcore just focused,
laser focused and dialed in.
So he could be on any of those
and just be able to pull off a win.
He's quite a character to watch on his live streams
and hear now on the live stages well Zika.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, this game was very, very explosive.
And you can see here, Sol getting caught in this position
and the meatball coming in with a triple next week there
just to buy him a little bit of time
throughout the years as well.
And this was another crazy moment.
They get the double deep breath from Lontar.
Lontar sends the rewind.
We saw double offensive trinkets coming out from Blizzo and Zipai.
And then here, once again, they catch Blizzo.
They have no more defensive cooldowns.
Lontar is stuck in that leg sweep.
The time dilation comes out, but it's not enough.
And even when Blizzo goes down, he is so tough to kill.
He manages to sneak out with the intervening.
He manages to stall with the triple fear.
And he manages to just buy a little bit of extra time
in that position.
but it's not enough and FTR showing that they have
what it takes here, even on the ruins of Lordaeron,
even against the scary Red Warrior.
And it begs a couple of questions, you know,
bringing in Z-Py cold, benching, Maro and FTR
having a lot of experience into Red Warrior
where they didn't look as experienced into the boomkin.
I mean, these are all things that Gildbeen kind of gave up.
I mean, it was interesting, right?
That Z-Py swap, and we were kind of pointing it out
at the start because it could have been, I think,
a real crucial factor to sway things here.
But then, how do you think Zify actually
worked out for Guilty?
I think it's one of those things.
When you're a warrior, you just want uptime.
It's like you want whatever can enable you.
I feel like after they're doing a really good job, especially
with things like the Ring of Peace,
to just make it difficult for Blizzo.
And unfortunately, it's caught here behind the pillar
and taken down.
But I think the idea behind the Rep Paladin
is Mara was just not being enabled
when they're utilizing the pillars the way they are.
So I think the strategy of F tier is kind of forcing their hand into something new.
And it's like I mentioned, you don't fight a lot of teams that are going to be playing
a feral elemental shaman at this level, especially with a misweaver monk.
So we talked about F tier, they really are a wild card.
They're bringing in unique compositions that a lot of these teams haven't practiced and prepared for.
And under pressure, it's very, I mean, I want to say it's very cool to see that they've managed to kind of rise to the occasion and come back in the series.
It really is. And honestly, I, you know, I have to call you out a little bit,
Supa, because partway through this last game, you did say, I am actually starting to believe in F tier.
Even though I believe in F tier, you predicted that they were going to win.
Explained. Well, that belief was shattered a bit when they were down two points.
Oh yeah, sure. Okay. So it was just a back and forth. But now you definitely believe.
It was a turn code. I just switched sides. That's interesting because when they were down two,
I believed in them. It just goes to show that predictions can change
as you watch the series unfold and honestly between teams that are this good at this caliber,
it is exceptional and just showcases what makes Arena so phenomenal and so dynamic to watch and
be a part of it in any capacity. But then we're taking a look at some of the recaps that we got
to see with Blizzo. What do you think about the deaths and some of the damage that came in?
I feel like Saul, he really brought the pain there at the end of putting in a million damage
over those last 10 seconds. So really contributing there, but ultimately it was Dallas catching Blizzo
and that's done, but as team's playing phenomenal. I want to talk about Meat Monk as well. One of the
things that makes him a really special player for me is, like Supiti's mentioned, he's got that
really kind of chaotic personality where he's dancing around, he's being really goofy, but
he is so calm under pressure. Like, he's making these trades, or he's not making trades in these
scary situations where most healers would, you know, feel like, okay, I have to use Life Cocoon,
but he's just so greedy and his communication in game gives you confidence as a player that you,
You know, everything's going to be okay.
And I think it's nice to have someone like that on your roster.
Yeah, you want somebody you can believe in like that
and that you can really feel is going to always kind of be there
to make that right call in the moment.
And he's so slippery.
Those moments where you can tell that Guildbean thinks
that they just have him and then he's just out.
He's gone. He's gotten away.
Very, very crucial, especially when you're supporting the team
and the capacity that he does.
But I mean, Ziko, we have to see who's going to win this.
And it is so close.
The caliber of play from these teams,
Do you think they've only continued to grow or change since even season one?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, Gilbeam is kind of an old school roster that came back together for this
season with the objective of making it to BlizzCon and hopefully for them,
they want to win it.
Lontar is here to win.
The Bizzu, Zipai and Morrow have all been just one game away from winning.
So these guys are here to win and Eftir, I mean, this is a team that kind of formed
together and got stronger and stronger and stronger throughout the seasons.
And now we're finding them more and more in the upper echelons throughout the regular season, causing upsets and just sticking to their guns.
Well, Guildbean said that they were the only team that was capable of beating Echo.
And if they couldn't do it, nobody else would be able to do it.
They're one game away from being eliminated and not getting that opportunity.
Those words are definitely, I think, hanging over them in this moment.
Because then you also have to set up that Gibbs, right?
Well, if F tier takes them down, then can F tier take down Echo, which I think is something we'd all love to see Echo, of course, a team that even across regions is kind of a standard that so many others are compared to, and it's a rare chance the teams get to face off together, cross region, especially live at a BlizzCon.
So, I mean, getting to finally showdown, I think that it must be something that's really important to all of that.
I think especially moving into
BlizzCon, obviously there's teams that are favorites and
compositions that are favorites, but I don't really see it that way.
I feel like in this environment, in a single elimination tournament,
especially when these teams haven't had an opportunity to play against each other very much,
it really is anyone's game. All you have to do is win one series,
you pick up that first game, start building up a little bit of momentum.
Maybe the enemy team gets a little bit scared.
So it is a situation where really anything can happen.
And I think after is kind of proving that because I think a lot of people in the series thought consider them a huge underdog
Yeah, I mean honestly again them coming in like this
I think it's just a great showcase for anyone out there that kind of looks at competitive when you're going
Oh, there are these teams that have been established for so long
How could anybody get in there or really change things up?
You can it can happen and it's phenomenal when it does so after you have definitely worked so hard
And I think that practice is really paying off as we see them this big powerhouse here and now on the blizzcon stage
But Ziko this is a big game ahead of them. What do you think right now?
They're kind of trying to think through and strategize as we come up on this final game
I mean just look at the price pull right here. It's three hundred thousand dollars and
Winning the series. I mean you could go from fifth to sixth
Moving up to forty thousand moving up to sixty thousand so
So, the further you get, even if you don't win, you're winning a lot more money, and
that's also something that is all going to come down to one game for these teams, because
if you lose, like we mentioned, it's single and in.
You're out.
There is no lower bracket.
There is no second chances here.
There is just, yeah, that's it.
That's your run.
And I know personally, if I'm in this seat, if I'm in this situation, if I'm either one
of these teams, I would much rather be on F tier who are coming back into a reverse
wave than the team that was up 2-0 and just dropped two maps. I would not want to be on
the inside right now because if you're on their team, you just lost two back to back
and motion is going to be running high. You're going to be thinking about a lot of things
that you could have done better. Meanwhile, F tier, they just got momentum. We can do this
guys. We were down 0 and 2. We just got to win one more.
Yeah. I think that energy definitely drives you forward and we're seeing the draft picks
come out now. So, Supa, what are your thoughts? I mean, Zipai is staying in.
He is staying in. It's hook point, it's a small map. They believe in the cleave.
It seemed like they were shaky as far as their defense. There was one moment where
they used lay-on-hands, divine shield, long-tars major
cooldown at the same time. They just overlapped way too many of their defensive
options. So, I think for them, that was more rust than they had to kick off
for their synergy as far as that comp. And now that they've worked through that,
they get another second chance here on hook point.
Yeah, I know they're going to want that chance, right?
I mean, the teams, both of them here so close in our opening series.
This sets the stakes high for the rest of the day.
Then I mean, I can't wait to get into the other games,
but we got a score to settle in this one going into game five on hook point.
We are going to be heading in everyone.
I mean, hook point is a dangerous place.
The pirates aren't your only thread.
You don't want to get dropped a shark on your head or anything like that.
The teams have this limited narrow space that they're going to be contending in.
I think it puts a lot of extra pressure on them as they face off,
but the pressure is already just about as high as it can get here on the BlizzCon stage.
Ftier and Guildbean both want to be BlizzCon 2026 AWC champions,
but here and now one of them will be eliminated.
This is hook point. We're going to have Ftier versus Guildbean Sufa.
This is a huge one for both of them.
Seven years since we've seen North America go up head to head with Europe,
And who will be taking the first win? The gates are open and there is no going back.
Luzzo getting rescued immediately in on top of his opponents and they are going for the
croak. Initiating counter to all three members, enforcing ownership from Sol. And Blizzow has
that gas pedal down on the floor, but will he be over-aggressive and punished?
It's to be very careful in this match. You cannot get caught behind the pillar like we saw in that
last game for Gilbien though. They still need to find that offense, so it's a really difficult
balance you need to find in this matchup as F tier is not making it easy for them.
This strategy they're implementing with Fighting and the Ring of Peace has been super effective so far.
with position, and tries fishing impressively to ensure
that he's in the right salt.
This goes for the fear.
Where's the tremor?
Not available.
He chooses to stick with his fear.
It's a bit greedy with his will for sake.
And now he gets stunned.
He trick it like he comes immediately.
No overlap.
Clean play from Neith.
The Dallas now low on health is not a lot of options.
He's on the run in bare form.
Retreating away with his team, looking for cyclones,
as well as his moment in time.
I think the hex is from Salt.
And we need to see that he's able to start to secure those.
I'm not one that proud to pull by this.
So far, Gilbier's been looking good in this game
So far interrupt here on the Dallas and Timmy very important
They pull the cyclones of Dallas who is attempting to slow down Lizzo and Zivine by the time for that critical ascendance
To come off the pull down for Saul Dallas now getting swapped to hammer of justice on me
Well, please leave what they could do it here
Dallas on the run in bare form at the same time Z5 and Lizzo rotting down just a little bit
But the offense from Gil Bede has been great
That's a long time
But sanctuary
How they can remove those stuns is going to be so difficult for F-tier to get through that Rep Paladin utility and support.
Are they actually going to be able to pull this off?
It's like one on Luntar.
They're targeting Blitzow.
Means they're ticking.
Luntar is being played patiently here, holding at 50%.
Leaps to clear a blinding light at the same moment as Sol falls behind.
Into a hammer of justice, they swap on Dallas to feed trade survival instincts immediately in that exchange
when it's still getting rocked at the moment.
They manage to recover.
Here comes the heroism.
Big push from F-tier as they're ramping up their momentum.
Blitzow will respect it.
Trading the dive out of the sword the one with that ascendance rather now it will be misaligned with incarnation
And that's a big window but the Dallas is just pushing to get emerald communion before the incarnation
Which is about 30 seconds away for Dallas. That was a big push from F tier. They have a clear opening
Ring of peace once again. See by end was those trying to reconnect but I do like that. They're going after Dallas
They can't connect the salt
They're still putting out the pressure but salt in the meantime taking quite a bit of damage here huge hit meat
FG is falling behind, but I think FG will be able to recover them.
Define and go to the left, which has been a great so far.
Saul on the run, he gets interrupted.
Beautiful control here from the side of Gil B.
But Flizzo caught to a stun, paralyze, and a kick here on the Lontar.
A little bit of pressure started to develop, but Dampening advance just started to ramp up.
Another sleep, no Tremortotum available.
Dallas is in their phone. Another one from Lontar.
He's getting aggressive on matchpoint, trying to carry the team.
They followed up with Hammer of Justice and Saul.
It's critically low.
Overlap.
The first overlap, the first significant piece of error that we see from F tier, and even
one singular error will lose you the match at this level.
Can Gildbeam punish it?
They need to survive Dallas' incarnation.
Are they prepared for it?
They need the sanctuary.
They want your long turn on a heal, but it also seems to have recovered from that incarnation.
This is the window that F tier were setting up earlier, and they get nothing for it.
Pressure on these players cannot be higher.
The loser of this is eliminated from the tournament, so it seems really need to step it up here.
of justice now in a meet. Saul getting down low once again. Huge setup here on the low
tar. What is he going to do? The time dilation comes in. He will mitigate the attack but
burns through some of his defense cooldowns to do so. Ring piece dropped down once again
as Saul is retreating. The Storm Keeper is loaded up. Saul has a lot of damage available.
Who are they going to put it on?
Right, Saul. Storm Keeper. Oh no, it got rebuked. That Storm Keeper is critical. Saul is not
able to get that off. He's going to lose a lot of damage. He's trying to retreat to get
it off around the corner. He goes for it again. He gets the Storm Keeper. His lightning bolts
are ready to fly.
They're going to target with a long time pre deep breaths and
it's the whole team with it.
Long time is playing amazingly.
This is a phenomenal game from him in this position.
He's actually carrying the roster on that healing role and
how are we going to be able to shut him down?
We need to catch him in crowd control.
They do force the dive.
We start from the warrior, which is a major change from
blizzard.
And now he's popping avatar trying to ramp up and it's
really Zpie who's going to be tested.
We'll be able to hold on to his major cooldowns like
lay on hands and find that critical moment to connect them.
One thing I'm noticing too, MeatBunk finding beautiful likesweeps in this matchup.
This strategy allows it. Big setup here on Meat, though. What are they going to do?
He's got the Restoral. Will he make the trade?
Playing a greedy, not scumming to the pressure, his team survived.
They do have the cooldowns, but at the same time, Poliso is down to half.
Lontar has burned through so many of his options here, as well as his mana.
So it's a very close game here. Dampening is getting higher.
Poliso's low on health, match point, Cyclone on Lontar.
And he makes the trade with his Trinket and won't have that available for another two minutes.
Oh, man, Saul is critically low right now as healers in the sleepwalk.
It's match point, it's game five.
There's no going back at single elimination
in an entire year of competition on the line.
It's been seven years since we've had a Flizzcon.
And will they be able to hold on?
They do for now.
Big pressure on Blizzo.
Lontar trades out as Emerald Communion.
And this is a check point position for them.
The warrior has no defensive cooldowns.
Lontar has no defensive cooldowns in that invoker.
And this is where Zpie will be tested.
Will he make the right calculation?
They're getting aggressively forced.
Barrow from Saul, keeping their momentum at the same point in time,
but they need to be ready to flip to defense at any moment.
Yeah, Saul used that ghost wolf to try to get away,
and the store-bill comes in, he gets caught, sleepwalk on Meep,
and now Saul is in danger. He has the Astroship.
Will he make the trade? He does. Super durable right now in this situation,
but is it enough? Does Meep have to trade with a life-due?
That would be a disaster in terms of overlap,
but the pressure from Gilbeen is immense,
but at the same time, Blizzow's vulnerable if they can land that stun.
Oh, the pressure on Meep right now. Everybody on his team is low health.
Dampening is so high and they are struggling.
They're dog piling on top of Saul.
They want to close it and his meep ready for it.
He pulls up a miracle.
He stabilizes the team and now Bliso falls behind.
Paralysed!
They're catching it!
They're so close but Zepi is there with that important lay on hands
that I was talking about.
Critical play from Zepi right at that moment in time.
And now momentum is swinging in their favor.
Saul falls behind.
Deep breath engagement from Lontar.
He's pushing for it.
The win.
Can they do it?
But Thalus is there with a cyclone on Lontar.
Seconds away from his trinket.
He's holding on by a thread.
You can tell that the tension is high.
They've been playing this entire year for this moment.
Yeah, both these teams playing out of their minds,
but it is dangerous.
The blinding light comes in at the same time.
Blizzow's low on health.
It is a race to the finish between these two teams.
And I don't know how much longer these healers
can keep it up a full hammer of justice lands onto meep.
And Saul is still on the run.
The shockwave comes in.
They're bringing a piece to deny.
And Saul stays alive at the same time.
Zephyr and Blizzow are getting low.
Who is going to fall for the divine shield trades?
And Blizzow has to dive on the sword if he needs it.
He has it, but won't charge him.
Won't charge no mana to keep this going, but Mipha's almost zoomed as well.
Anyone can take it at this game.
It can come down to a 2 versus 2 at some point here.
Is Zephyr, is he going to be able to hold on?
Is he going to be able to hold on?
Lothar is struggling, and with absolutely nothing left, does it?
Pulled up a miracle, he gets Blizzo back to 80.
He gets Zephyr back to 80% health, and now he's on DR for clone.
He's going to be able to free cast Saul loads up the stormkeeper.
One last round of lightning.
Can Saul connect it?
Can he get the crits?
And can he fall?
He is so close!
They deny the killer here from Meep.
They overlap defense though. Meep is vulnerable.
He gets caught in sleep. They trimmer it right away, but they are struggling.
There is no mana available for either side at this point.
Anybody could fall there. Seconds away.
Can they hold on? Bust here, protection comes through.
Zpie divine protection as well.
Defense from Zpie is solid. There is no overlap. There are no gaps.
He has changed his team together effectively.
And now it's just one final push away.
Yeah, Sol's desperately trying to survive.
Does he have the burrowing? He needs to get away!
Guild Bean wants to close this out. It is such a close match here.
Sol and Dallas in desperation. He gets underground, but I don't think Dallas is gonna be able to survive.
And he falls. Guild Bean does it.
Guild Bean does it.
And yet this was a brutal matchup. We see this death coming in. F-tier still trying, but you can see Neatmump's face just crushed to come so close at BlizzCon.
This has come so close to overthrowing these veteran teams, but the Old Guard stands strong.
Gild Bean have come back in their dreams for a BlizzCon win.
Are still possible.
What an incredible series to buy.
I feel like I am still reeling.
That was Grand Finals quality right there, and that's the first series of the day.
So we're just getting started.
Gild Bean light a fire under themselves here in this match point.
They cleaned up every mistake that they made throughout the series and left no openings
for F tier to take advantage of.
Absolutely heartbreaking for them, but it's just the same for Gilbeen.
They've been fighting for years.
Tomorrow, the last time he was here, he came one game away from winning BlizzCon.
He's letting the other team know that this is brutal for these guys.
They're putting everything on the line.
They know how hard the situation is to be able to work through and F tier put on a show
for us.
So I think that deserves more than a round of applause for both of these teams.
couldn't ask for a better first series on the day. Yeah everyone give it up for our first two teams
of the Arena World Championship here today. F-tier and Guildby. They've given us an explosive start
to the competition. I mean Ben, like I said you couldn't ask for a better start. Just think about
how intense the competition is this season. My heart can't take it. I mean that was just way
too close. Way too intense between these two teams but I mean Guildby, it's a battle back there. That
That was such a close game number five, but you also got to hand it to FCR.
I mean, they really, you know, came back in the series.
They fought hard.
And this is just such an impressive performance by both these teams.
It's like you mentioned, competition is so high.
It's so fun for me as well to see these different regions kind of cross
and are able to do battle.
It makes the competition so fun.
It does.
And you know what?
We got to enjoy all of this.
We can hear from the teams themselves and how they felt as we have a representative here from Guildbead.
I would you like to give us some insights with tomorrow?
Hello, I'm here with Mario of Guild Bean.
First of all, congratulations on that win.
You've got some fans in the audience I can hear as well.
Come on.
All right, you were saying right before we went live with this interview that it was
too much for you to be on the bench.
What does that mean?
The last one minute of that game was so stressful.
It was like the most stressful experience of my life.
I thought there were hundreds of things.
And it was like I thought it was completely over.
and I feel like playing is much easier than sitting on a bench,
but we just thought the right order pick was going to be better, so yeah.
Yeah, I mean, you guys were able to almost,
they got the reverse rebounding clutched enough at the end.
I mean, what kind of happened there? How did that unravel exactly?
I mean, to be honest, I don't think the first two games we maybe shouldn't have won.
It was kind of like closed and I don't think they played as good as they did
from like the third game onwards.
And when they started playing better, it felt like the matchup wasn't that good.
And then we had some technical difficulties.
So our healer's keyboard was not really working for two games.
So yeah, but I mean, heads up to them.
They played really insane.
And I mean, they deserved it just as much as we did.
Amazing.
Well, your team has a ton of BlizzCon experience,
a ton of LAN experience.
But it's been quite some time since I've been able to see you guys in person.
What does it mean to be back on the BlizzCon stage?
It means everything to us.
I mean, for us, I said it before, we did a whole goal this year
was to make it to BlizzCon, be here.
And I mean, now we get to play the rematch of the BlizzCon finals 2019,
last time BlizzCon happened and yeah we're really looking forward to it and
try to do our best. Alright incredible final question grand finals are you ready?
What did you say? The grand finals are you ready? We're ready. Alright well you can send it back to Rook but
congratulations once again tomorrow of Guild of Beam. Huge congratulations indeed
Guild of Beam really put it on the line and they absolutely excelled we can't
wait to see them finally have this chance they've been waiting for to come
back and compete on the BlizzCon stage even further. But Ziko, you were kind of
our eye in the sky for that last game there of the series. What did you think
going through it all? I mean exactly what Maurer just said. I have no idea how
they won that. They had no cooldowns. They were completely like I mean look at the
look at the right hand side of the screen. Lontar has burnt through
everything. Zipai is dying. BlizzO is dying. He's got no mana left. How do you turn
that into an actual win here they just get insane amount of pressure they get
this long CC chain and look how well time that is. Neat Mox Trinket is just
one second it rotates back up through in the middle of it and they have pressure
on Sol. His burrow comes back up right in the nick of time right before he's
going to go down but Dallas also is taking some serious collateral damage
and that is the power of hook point as well you know it's been it's been the
team of the weekend honestly. We've seen in Warcraft forever. Some people go into the
drowned city. They're trying to attempt the shark and we can see the shark here as well
doing some work for Yield Bean. And yeah, they're able to just power through with just
sheer pressure and Dallas is going to be the one who falls in the end. And I thought it
was very interesting what Mauro said as well about being on the bench because it is a cold
decision to tag Zpie in, lose on Ruin's order with Zpie, and then you decide, you know what,
we're going to run that back in game number five, single and limb, everything on the line,
let's do it. And they managed to do it in the closest game possible and turn it around and win
the series. Yeah, I mean, when you see it go to that map five, and especially when the competition
is this fierce, you can just feel your heart racing with every single second because really
it could go either direction, but we can see where this landed us here on our bracket. So F tier
and Guildbeam in this incredible five series, I could just unbelievable Guildbeam emerging as
our winner. They will go to face Echo, but we can look over the rest here. I mean, then our next
up series we've got Streamer Zone GG, one new travel. This is going to be an interesting one as well.
I mean, it definitely will. We saw in the upper bracket where we have Echo going up against
Guildbeam. Those are kind of the veterans of Europe for Streamer Zone. It is some newcomers as well.
So we've got some very interesting players like P make on the mage. For example, he is the young the young Finnish player
Incredible on that mage. So this roster primarily focusing on that rogue mage
But a really really strong roster and then for one-leand travel once again
This is a team that a lot of these rosters haven't had an opportunity to practice against so they're kind of a wild card
I could see them doing incredibly well, but we'll have to wait and see what happens
I mean, we are and honestly with the stakes set so high after our first series
I think we are all ready to just see what the rest of the day has to bring.
Unfortunately though, we will have to take a short break.
So sit tight, don't go anywhere, and
we'll be back with even more Arena World Championship action.
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Welcome back to the Arena World Championship.
We've got a little bit of a swap out on the desk,
but I mean, Chan, the excitement from the first series
was unreal.
Did you get to catch any of it offstage?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, that's one of the best series to start off
that we could possibly ask for, isn't it?
It is, honestly. I mean, a nail-biter from beginning to end,
but of course, we have a pretty interesting next matchup as well
with Streamers on GG and One Moon Travel.
Do you have any expectations?
I'm curious to see how China's going to do at this tournament.
It's been a very long time since we've seen them compete at this con.
You know, AWC has finally returned there,
and now we finally get to see them play here.
I've had to talk with some of the players,
and apparently they're going to do a lot of damage,
streamers only took out I mean a lot of damage is definitely something that you
want when you're just trying to kill anyone you can on the enemy team so I
think that'll work in their advantage for sure but we're gonna talk a little
bit about streamers on GG to start in more detail and then maybe you have some
more insight you can give us about this fresh team here in the AWC yeah they're
a very interesting roster primarily focusing on that rope mage so you have
the condo of P make and root hit through Hitty who are big veins in Europe I
I mean, they haven't competed at BlizzCon before,
but these guys have many accolades under their belt
in the AWC as well as in an online environment.
And then of course, you have Next,
who's also a phenomenal healer.
You know, we don't know too much about him,
but in the European region,
he is extremely well known and in the AWC.
And then of course, Jamie,
he is a veteran of this competition.
He's had many times.
So you have some of these younger players
like Ruhiti, Pimaek, and Next,
and then a veteran like Jamie,
you can kind of well round the roster, dial them in,
help them pick those compositions,
but I do expect we're going to be saying
a lot of growth from these guys.
I mean, hey, if it works, why not use it?
I mean, big, big achievement for them
to be able to bring that to the table.
And I think it's really interesting here
because this is an individually strong group,
but I think BlizzCon for Streamer Zone GG
is really going to be the first test
of what this kind of new team or this formation of team
under Stream Zone GG can really do.
Ziko, do you have any expectations
of what you think they're gonna kind of become?
Well, I think Streamerzone GG has been a big rival
to Echo in Europe.
They've managed to take maps of them
and even win cups against them in the Rogue Mage mirror.
So they are a very strong Rogue Mage roster,
but at the same time, there is a live audience here.
There is a single-limb tournament.
There is a lot of nerves on the line.
Jamie did compete in the Guild Clash
and he has competed in BlizzCon in the past
and he actually won the Guild Clash event.
So Jamie has a lot of experience, like Ben mentioned,
but at the same time, you've got three newcomers
who have not played at the BlizzCon stage before.
So we'll see how they can perform.
Yeah, here live at BlizzCon,
I think we're really going to be seeing
how this team is going to come together
and what kind of name they're going to make for themselves.
But there's also another team out
to make a name for themselves here.
And Chan, I know you were able to speak to them earlier.
Can you give us some insights into one-loon travel?
Yeah, absolutely.
Unfortunately, two of their players
weren't able to make it to BlizzCon.
And because of that, they're a three player roster,
and they also have to bring in a substitute Rogue Alastor,
who actually has competed here at this point in the past.
I remember him, super good Rogue.
He's gonna be joined by Ling Ling Chu on the five mage,
as well as the killer W.
Now, something interesting about the mage on this team
is that it actually translates to 007 in English.
And so he's happy to go by that as well.
But these guys, man, I've been hearing from the war games,
these guys are absolute pumpers and of course I'm expecting them to play very aggressively.
I'm going to I'm excited to see what they're going to show us today. Me too. I mean it's
great when we can have all the different regions here together and of course that travel is
tough for everyone and trying to coordinate it. So even having the team they're able
to bring here today I think we're going to see some strong competition and these players
honestly have a long history from what I understand. I think many of them have been playing together
for more than 10 years with the players describing themselves as good friends who have developed
the strong coordination, then do you think that having that history together is an asset
for you when you come into play?
Oh, absolutely. I have that familiarity. You know exactly what your teammates want to
do, and especially when you're playing composition like Rogue Mage, you know when you need to
switch from playing offense to defense. So it'll be interesting to see what they can
do. But I think this team, they kind of want to prove what they can do in their region.
You know, a lot of the competitors, I don't want to say they're counting them out, but
I feel like they're feeling like they're maybe one of the least experienced teams here in
these kind of rogue mage matchups, but that can work to your advantage. If you have a really interesting play style or any really interesting strategy, you can pull off these surprise wins and in a competition like this where there's no lower bracket, you start picking up some wins and they can't figure it out. That can put you in a really good position.
I mean, we even saw it with F tier, right? This unique kind of composition coming in and then a lot of their teams going, we don't totally know how to answer this. So if you can bring that surprise element, I think it can give you a really strong advantage, like you're pointing out.
And especially when the regions don't get to play together every day, that's something where even those differences and maybe how EU has been handling things or NA or CN that can then kind of be an advantage for you as well.
But Ziko, these two teams coming together, it's sort of a chance for us to see some new faces, see some new configurations.
And what do you think about having kind of new blood coming into the scene to shake things up?
I think it's great. I mean, it's been a lot of, you know, veterans playing well for a long time.
So it's really nice to see a lot of these newer teams able to compete, able to go the distance.
You just saw it now with Gil being the old, you know, the old man.
and we're not able to come out on top.
But it was really close and FT here honestly did such a phenomenal job again in that series.
So again, it could happen here as well with Streamer Zone GG.
A lot of these teams are formed like that where you kind of have one very experienced,
you know, more seasoned player and then you have a couple of new guns,
you know, coming up through the solar shuffle system, coming up through, you know,
ladder play and joining these teams and that streams on GG has worked very well for them so far. They are a really, really strong roster from Europe. So I'm excited to see how China is going to be able to do against, you know, a really nice team here.
Me too. And you know what? We can hear from the teams directly themselves. We have a video prepared for you where they got to share a little bit about their passion, excitement and competition for the A WC.
What a devastating finish. That was an insane finish here coming out.
Beautiful setup. Just dying to damage here.
Throughout the year, we had a lot of ups and downs as a team.
Specifically, P-Make or Mage is sort of brand new to competitive and stuff.
So for him, he had a big learning curve to step up, which he did really, really well.
We managed to win a few of the tournaments and stuff,
and we segmented it as one of the better teams, I would say.
We have made some adjustments to the game, and we are now quite familiar with the game.
Our strategy is that the combination of the two teams is not so different.
But our advantage is that we are now a relatively long-term version of the game.
So I feel pretty confident going into it.
Different players have different ways of thinking.
They have different understanding of the game.
They want to be in touch with each other.
The only thing I would say to one on travel is good luck and just have fun on the stage.
Just enjoy the game.
This is a great experience.
So be careful. You will have trouble.
I love the energy for one one
moon travel. You have that moment
of, yeah, we really love this
idea of being able to change
ideas and we're out to have an
amazing time at BlizzCon and
then that final touch like you
better watch out.
But honestly, these two teams,
I'm very interested in seeing
what they are going to bring
because again kind of crossing
those regions coming in and
especially streamers on GG, like
we mentioned this new roster
under a familiar name. But of
course, Brunhidi and Jamie, we
got to see Brunhidi in the
video as well. Our experience
Our experienced players that we've seen before Ziko. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I don't really know what to expect
compositionally here because one new travel they qualified with the rogue mage paladin
So I'm interested to see if the healing meta is because that was not a comp
But you're like in Europe in North America. That was not a comp that anybody really played with the paladin
It was mostly about the Druids was mostly about the prezzy voker, you know different kind of healers
So it's going to be interesting to see if they decide to still go with that or if they if their healer is more of a multi-classing
player and
You know on streamers on GG
I feel like we're gonna see the rope mage druid probably and they're just gonna go all out in mirrors here
And if you are on one room travel, I think that's something that you're very comfortable with
You get you get to play your style you get to play your composition and you get to play a matchup that you actually
actually have a lot of experience against, so I think that could be some positive signs
here for China.
Absolutely.
I mean, again, you never know what kind of curveballs are going to come our way, and these
teams, when we haven't seen as much of them or seen them come into direct contact with
one another, it's so fascinating to see how it actually shakes out.
And now thinking about one loon then, I mean, they said that they really were just excited
to get to come here, right?
That getting that experience, to give everything that they have and leave with no regrets was
something that they really wanted to do.
But how do you think that you leave with no regrets on a BlizzCon stage?
I mean, you got to win, right?
You just got to try, you know, try your best, make sure you practice all that good stuff.
But if you win, you're definitely going to have no regrets in this situation.
But we'll have to see what they end up running here in this game number one.
One thing that I have heard and I do expect from these teams is some rogue mage mirrors.
We might have some different healers, but these games are very fast.
You do not want to blink.
You might miss the games.
I've heard that these can be incredibly explosive, especially with the nature of how fire mage plays right now
The combustion is an absolutely insane cool down
So this is going to be my prediction is this is going to be a very fast series
Oh, do you agree, Cheney? I think it's gonna be a really quick one. Oh, it's gonna be an extremely chaotic game
Of course, like I said, I think they're gonna play very aggressively, but I also think that streamers own that GG
I think they are, you know, they're definitely one of the best road majors at this event
and they made Echo, the final boss, sweat in those mirrors big time.
I don't know how, you know, if one long travel is going to be able to withstand it onslaught,
but streamers don't, they're a fantastic team, and for me, they're a real contender to win this event.
Interesting. From what you saw of streamers on GG in Season 1,
what do you think they would need to do to get to that point to overtake Echo,
or did you think they already were looking like they had the potential for it?
I mean, I think that Echo, when they're on their game day, they're the best team in the world.
But we're at BlizzCon, it's single elimination, the pressure is on, the crowd is here, anything can happen, any mistake, set them behind, and I think streamingzone.gg, they can punish that, I can really see them going very, very far into this one.
Alright, well I mean that's stiff competition for one-lin travel, but as we've said, we don't exactly know what one-lin travel will bring to showcase here, and especially too, if they've been taking stock of the competition, if they've been studying, if they've been practicing, there's a lot they may already have in mind to try to combat.
that. Yep. So from one on travel, I think, you know, they mentioned it themselves. Their
comps aren't very diverse. They'll be sticking with the assassination rogue, the fire mage,
and then W can flex between the Holy Paladin or the priest healer. But I'm not sure how
that's going to do. Like we said earlier, I think restoration drew into healer meta as
well as the Pesovoka is much stronger. The Holy Paladin, you know, can dispel those
poisons against the assassination rogue, does have the bot for the death mark, but ultimately
Druid CC, next getting it in involved.
That's going to be really tough for them to handle
and for them to shut down as well.
Interesting, interesting.
I mean, it brings up an interesting point
with these discussions, right,
about your sort of quick, intense offensives
or your kind of longer, more sustained,
kind of dampening sort of strategies.
I mean, then, what do you think the advantage is
of having a really aggressive style coming into AWC?
Well, you put your opponents on the back foot, right?
You don't want to be in a situation
where the enemy team is just,
they're doing all the setups,
they're putting out all the pressure.
You can't get anything going because not only does it give them confidence to continue to make that push
But you really just can't actually find a win condition yourself
So I think in this series in this matchup in particular
Aggression is going to be key finding those really crucial setups and I actually you know surprisingly want to think about it
I know Paladin isn't super popular right now
But if they do decide to leave with that Paladin you do have those cooldowns like the blessing of protection the blessing of sacrifice that I
Think can be very powerful into what most rows are playing right now
which is that assassination road.
So, you know, just thinking about the matchup,
it seems like they do have a shot here.
I mean, it could be a great way for them to kind of,
like you said, just immediately come in
and put your opposition on the backflip.
So hopefully they are able to do just that.
And I mean, when we have players coming in
from all around the world,
because we know World of Warcraft is a game
that has touched people's lives,
honestly, just about in every corner of the globe.
I mean, Ziko, how special is it for players
to be able to come together to face off
and to be here in one place together.
I mean, this is everything.
For a world of work up here,
this is what the game is all about.
This is what you work towards the entire year.
These guys, you know, they start together,
you know, playing together, becoming friends,
and then they go on this long journey.
They have to qualify through the normal cups.
They have to gather points,
they have to play through the finals,
they have to secure their seats,
and they have to eventually get their BlizzCon tickets
and show up here.
and it just means so much to every single player I've talked to.
They all love it here at BlizzCon.
They all just want to be able to take home that trophy
and become the champions.
So it's just beautiful to see everybody coming together
and putting a face to a name as well.
And even for me, just as a caster,
has been super amazing to see the players and, you know,
oh, hi, I'm this guy, well, I'm that guy.
And you know, there's somebody that you've been talking to
online, but you don't they don't stream so you don't know how they look. So it's
been a really awesome experience meeting the fans, seeing the crowd, seeing
everybody come in here to watch some wild PvP, which we all love.
I mean it brings it to life, right? You finally get to see the people behind
the screens, behind the characters you've seen in game, and to know that,
hey, this is who they are and we can all be together in this one space.
I mean it's fun, even just seeing their personalities, even just hearing from
some of the players directly. I mean Chan, has that been something you were a
player yourself but was that something for you when you were competing that felt
really special to be able to meet those people and see them face-to-face?
Yeah absolutely I mean the best reading in the world is when you see your mates
that you've played with over these months over these years and you finally get to sit
beside them in person, compete with them at the biggest stage in World of Warcraft
Arena. I mean yeah that's where you want to lay it on the line and these teams
are going to do exactly that we're gonna be heading into our first game very
very soon with streamers on GG and one moon travel. If the series is anything like the
last we are in for a treat Zika. Yeah, wow. We want to see W tagged in on the Holy Fountain,
our very first one, and we are seeing the, okay, already a safty on W, combustion being
popped here for PMAG, a lot of pressure coming out immediately. Next, actually, Judy, you
sit the blind, now caught up in a cold arch here, you make the views of trouble. Knights
to trade off Greater Invisioner in a second.
Get the nice little lead set up here onto Iles star as well.
And just trying to create a lot of spread pressure.
Here comes Runehili as well though with the Kingsman doing a lot of damage here onto Ling Ling Ki.
And getting stopped there by the Dragon's breath for a moment so far.
Both teams kind of dealing with that opener pretty beautifully.
Both majors flipping through the early combustion trying to rotate that cooldown back.
And no major defensive really being used here on either side yet.
Yeah, absolutely. Alasdor having to use his death mark in the open. Not really getting too much with it.
Kiddishot lands on him. Smoke bomb as well. Hasn't figured out his trinket. Nice shoot from onto W.
Can they get more Flokker's Shadows? Get figured out by Alasdor. I think he is going to be okay with this now.
W gets put into the Garrick now. Trinket's finally on the blind. Brindhidi, it looks like, is able to top Alasdor up now.
But Brindhidi, that was his death mark committed from him.
Yeah, but he was able to actually get Alasdor's trinket there, so that could be a big, big opening on the next combustion,
which Pimek has right now. So let's see if they try to set that up or if they try to
decide to go for a bit of a major race here.
Ruhiti is going after the leading key right now, doing a lot of damage to the key with the combustion.
Doing a decent pressure there, but not in any conflict.
And here we go, here comes the set up. Pimek with the combustion. Big hands coming out here onto
Alistar, but they own hands, gets traded with the bubble from W. So a major, major defensive
and these Rogue's folks are absolutely lead though, Ruhidi though has to trade on his trinket
and now he's gonna find himself in a very nice situation both mages also falling behind the
only part of this is struggling to keep the mages alive in this position what are they going
to be able to do here W finally recovers his mages here around the pillar but these are not
looking too good here for one lint travel. Yeah W had to put his double there as well in order to save
both his teammates from Ruhidi of course having to use his Ruhidi instead of Pichs that I want to
Alistair now full quality W. Welcome to PD Shot ends. Evasion comes out from Alistair. Looks like he's gonna be okay.
No combustion for a while now for P-Made, but next time that comes through he's gonna be big trouble.
From PD to the PD Shot, but next not in any CC. Very hard to W to get on top of next.
He's on top of Alistair, just excellent decision from him.
Kiting away in the tree form right now, that does end, but the combustion is available for P-Made in 5 seconds E.
Yeah, and that is going to be absolutely scary. And now we can see one Lune travel ripping up combustion themselves,
trying to get something going here on the remake eventually.
There it goes.
Another damage, but here comes Combustion.
Alotar gets bumped immediately.
remake though, Mike is flopped here.
Higgs on the temple here from Alistar.
They're trying to take number here.
He's got no trinket.
It's caught on the table.
And no cloak as well.
China might be able to do such an explosive game here
in game number one between these two teams.
The first time EU and China clash here
in the last seven years,
remake though needs to be very careful.
Needs to be very cautious.
You don't have to use that ice block to go down in this position.
Lingling key gets kicked, going for the polymorph.
He gets a full poly on the next Alistar.
He needs to be careful as well though.
He gets caught up in a kidney shot and W finally coming out of that sheep
should be able to restore his teeth, help back the cold.
Yeah, but there is a window now.
From here to the kidney shot, can they commit to your combustion is available.
Using that kidney shot before the combustion is available.
Not a big fan of that.
Next had no trigger, so there was a kill window for 1-1 travel.
But now, strings are pushing in.
Who may want to W?
Can they get any follow-up CCs?
They're looking for Alastor. That's not the trick. It just gives these players a shot. It's nice and early
But he make now he has his combustion ready and they really have a massive opportunity now to take advantage of that
Yeah, let's see it. He make what are you gonna do here Alastor though taking huge damage in the kidney shot
Don't be you get skip roadside us. He might just die in a roadside. It's huge damage coming out here from streams on Alastor though
Nice defensive place here. Nothing back to the pillar
But it might not be enough he gets kidney shot
But it's not gonna be enough and that is going to be game number one going for streamers zone
Nice defensive maneuvers from Alistar, but it's not enough that get road silences there onto the holy power
Then really putting him behind there towards the end. Well, I would definitely say Chan
You were right. That was a pretty quick one here right at the start
I mean streamers on GG taking at that first game of the series. What do you think really tipped it in their favor?
Oh, I mean at the end there Alistar using the flick of shadows P make
Had the you know the foresight hold the combustion
Just wait a few seconds right after that. They get a nice setup going and it ends up going down
But I mean I'll be honest. This was a little bit sketchy it for streamers own WG
There was a time when bring he didn't have to drink it in the cloak
You know next step to trade out his drink it iron box to save him the next time you're getting these full downs
You know, maybe it was this game one but that was looking actually not too bad for one one travel
And the set of some trimmers and WG it was else where one one traveling and have to use it
Interesting. I mean, while they're traveling, we were saying they're kind of here to sort of prove themselves and introduce themselves in many ways to the rest of the global audience.
I mean, Ziko, can't you show that they did have this kind of stronger presence? What did you kind of see from it as they were coming in?
Yeah, I mean, they did phenomenal here. You can see it here on the scoreboard, even, Aznar and Ling Ling, he actually talked about the damage, but it was just a little bit more precise attacks coming out from the streamer zone.
But this was a very close game, they were able to force out all two nows and then can tell us exactly what happened.
Yeah, it just felt like throughout the game, Streamerzone had really clean setups, you could tell they're very practiced in this mirror.
You could just tell, anytime Next wanted to get aggressive and push in, he was going to go for proc control and that really is one of the main advantages of that restoration Druid is you have that NS Cyclone, you have the Disorient into a Cyclone,
and you can really help isolate Alistar in these moments.
And I think that's the thing, that was a difference maker in this game for me.
It's just the fact that Streamer's on, they had these cleaner setups,
they were slowly whittling through the cooldowns.
However, one in travel, especially W, I really liked what they did here,
where they're using those Paladin utilities early on in the match to try to stay ahead.
And that's when we saw the damage differential as well,
is because they're trading out the blessing of sacrifice, the blessing of protection,
early on on those setups so they don't fall too far behind.
So I want to continue to see that and just find those openings find that that ability to isolate a target
Maybe find a hammer of justice on to a next on that restoration druid as you land that kidney shot
So you can just really isolate and start forcing out those cooldowns
I think that's one of the things that's so exciting for folks
Maybe that have never played a lot of PvP or seeing arena for the first time you might not know exactly
What you're looking at or what's going on although you all do an amazing job bringing it to life
And I think the thing that is so fascinating and so fun about it is that it's so dynamic and how you are using your kit your utilities
Your cc's because you're really trying to answer another human being and combat whatever they're bringing at you
So when your timing that can be really crucial and Ziko I mean with that
It's something where how do you think these teams kind of strategize and when they're pacing that how they're using it?
And what do you think can be a big advantage to them when they take those considerations into mind?
I think that trying to use the death mark as a KO a lot of the time
Or to bail out those big the long CD defensive pull-downs like the divine shield that is going to be key
I didn't actually like what streamers on did they send the death mark early with a smoke bomb and
Just drink it out of that and that's completely fine trade to make instead
The combustion rotates back up much much quicker
So I want to see these teams try to capitalize on the combustion hold on being so short
force out some cool downs with that and then go for a big hit with the death mark and that's what's
Ultimately going to set them ahead and what Ben said about the here is also very interesting
You know one team having a holy pile in the other one having the druid CC
I think that's also something that they should play around as much as possible
Yeah, how they're going to take that into account and that's going to execute is a really big thing
And I mean the draft we just got a look at it
Did you see anything from it Chan that kind of stood out to you are they coming back in the same kind of a state?
I think you know
Unfortunately for one and traveled they really only have the rogue mage today
I'm really not expecting anything different out of them, but I think really it's going to be very similar games the entire series
It's gonna be bloody. It's gonna be really chaotic the combustion one-minute cooldown from the five-mage
That's the main thing to look out for from the five-mage and then from the assassination road
It's not just a death mark on two-minute cooldown
It's that Kingsman on the one-minute cooldown and so when they layer those offensives
You know, they can either do them together or they can split them out on different Sunday yards
If you're doing that, we're going to force way more full rounds, of course, we do get the same match up here,
Ganks on opening, let's see how they appreciate OpenerZ.
Yeah, let's see what they decided to do here, Asgard, sneaking in here on the road, trying to get a sap,
but it looks like everybody is in combat here, so he's going to just have to open up a vertical road.
We're here already going after that mage, and I do like what both teams are doing, going after the mage early on,
I just could build up some momentum, and Blind actually being committed into a hammer of justice again here in the opener here from China, so being very, very aggressive.
Sacrifice being early traded here from W, and I think he might have actually stacked some cramp circles there as well, but Blind, very, very nice play there from W.
Yep, the combustion now over for PMAG. Pick damage onto him actually.
Last thought, using his deathmark and his keychain combo there.
From Hiddie, does have the deathmark available.
Both teams just trading out the fences, iron bark, and a hand of sacrifice
printed out from both healers.
But from Hiddie now, he's got the deathmark.
That'll be the next sign of damage.
Pimek now, right now, taking a ton of damage.
Next, not in NECC, should be okay.
W with earlier, very nice play, sacking the blind.
Bob comes out onto Alistar.
Hodge onto Nex, let's see what happens.
Yeah, let's see what they do.
Pimek isolated, running away for a little bit,
but those bleeds are still taking Alistar long back in.
Can they force the ice block here?
here, next kid's got road silence, but manages to sneak in a huge heel right there, you make
the pink cognition, wants to get aggressive, does have to come bust him here in just a
couple of seconds, he's been rotating back up as well, so a lot of offense potential
here for streamers zone, can they get some crowd control though onto W, that is the big
question, he's been brought up in a full kidney shot, they get the full poly onto W and immediately
Alastor ducking for cover, but he's line of sighting his healer here in this position,
You have the limited of run to make there to make it back his team. It but can I just to recover outside for now?
Same time a lot of pressure onto the mage that both teams managed to recover nicely done there
Defensively from one and travel. Yeah, but bring he did take in some of damage right now
Next has to do a ton of work iron bar finally available for him. She's not to use it
That was the Kingsman from Alistair that was the combustion from the W to the poly now
Let's see what they can do with that bring he to get stunned up on his go
Yeah, and they get a big big shame here if they can continue it on to next is the question
You get to the road silence. Do they have a kidney shot? Another road silence.
They're looking for some cradles. Maybe they're looking to swap the next actually.
You should be very careful in this situation as well.
It looks like they want to go after him with a hodge. There it is. Full hodge.
They're going after the next. Big swap here onto the healer. Looks like they just want to triple bleed.
Next did respond there with the bark skin.
So they don't want to over commit and waste too much time there as he is going to be able to survive that situation instead.
You got to focus on AoE bleeding. If you can see it on the damage done here, China is leading big time there.
but cooldowns starting to look slim. W already using his trinket in this situation.
Next time he gets caught up in a polymorph it could be the bubble.
Yep, they're going after PMA. Full blind on the next, it looks like.
Throw from Braheedy. Oh, but there's the bubble.
Lingling Tue taking a lot of damage as well. PMA as well.
Double combustion coming out from both teams.
And right now Alistair, he has to use QW potentially.
Smoke bomb comes out from Braheedy, but he's too scared to chase right now
because enemy makes a lot of combustion as well.
Yeah, and that is another huge cooldown here.
But W is going to have at least his trinket rotated back up.
And that really is the name of the game when you're playing as Paladins.
It's all about those breakers.
As soon as the Paladin has no sacrifice, no bop, no bubble, and no trinket,
you can get him into a nice long CC chain, and that is ultimately what's going to win you again
if you're a streamer zone, but at the same time, they have a little bit of offense here to work with
on the side of 1-1 travel, and they make something happen, potentially on the green hitting.
It's definitely comfortable with this trinket.
Out of the start, though, okay, big trouble, huge damage coming out here,
But once again W out of craft control they'd have to use his human racial there, which is a pseudo trinket
So his actual trinket is now in cooldown. So big big trouble ahead here on the next setup
Busions ready for Alistair if Frunhidi can survive trades out the cloak of shadows right now for Zico Alistair is in so much trouble
They need to catch him before the cloak of shadows comes out before the evasion lands if they can fall
He trinkets the evasion is next you need so much healing is able to top him back up and now they're looking for it
How are they going to set it up?
Cheap shot, onto W.
Fuki, near the outside!
This is it!
He's not going out!
Set, comes out.
No way.
W somehow managed to sneak in the sacrifice
in the nick of time and save his rope.
That looked like a complete KO was about to happen,
but good offense as well.
Onto Brunhidi from China here.
They're looking very, very scary as well.
Just able to drop him in just a matter of seconds.
But now next, what is he going to do?
He has a little bit of breathing room here.
His entire team is top.
He could be looking for some offensive cyclones.
has the bash as well to set it up and the next time they get a crowd control on to Alistar
I don't know how they're going to be able to survive there's still a little bit of time left
for W is going to have his cool down to rotate it back up so he's playing very far back there
the kid is out on to Alistar with W not in any crowd control should be able to power through it
and actually kind of a wasted go here from streamer zone now one new travel is going to have a little
bit of room here to make an offensive play here comes the combustion big damage nice defensive
dragon's breath from p-make to slow it down for a little bit but still a lot of pressure on
both of these rogues jammed. Yeah, W actually have to trinket. They get blinded or they
trinket. Do they have damage? P-Mec does have the combustion available. Half-blood, combustion!
That was an insane instant blind there on the trinket. Continuing the chain. Streamer
zone looking dominant here. That was a really, really nice split-second decision because
it wasn't DR blind, but it wasn't enough to actually net them the kill. Streamer zone
up now 2-0 in their very first round. It's looking good for EU right now. It is indeed
should be feeling proud and I'm sure everybody watching around the world in the region are probably very excited to see this continue to go in streamer zone Gigi's favor
But with two points on the board
This does put them at that possible winning advantage and one then travel have to really figure out how they're going to answer this
Or if they even it can't I mean chan seeing how they kind of competed here
Do you think there's anything that they can do to secure this victory?
I think they just need to go again and just try to play better
There were moments in this game again where Bernoulli nearly went down
You could tell they saw the win condition onto Alistar W had no human trinket Alistar had no trinket
Didn't have the cloak to have the evasion
They were just talking about that next setup and but he didn't nearly went down almost dying because you know that's what they were
Focused on so for me, I'm seeing a bit of nerves retrievers in the GG
I think you know if one on travel does bring it back in game three
There is a potential for them to go further
Actually, you take the whole series, but it's an uphill battle now. You're down zero two, you know stuff
I mean, yeah, you have to try to overcome that mental that worry. I just you know
Hey, this is the deciding match and you have to be able to really stay in it
But you're right one win travel had these moments where we could see they almost broke through but we'll look more at this over with that
Yeah, there's a really kind of interest. There's a lot of close calls like we talked about so very back-and-forth game
But there's kind of an interesting dynamic and strategy difference between these two teams or it feels like one win travel
They have to keep teammate can check and I think one of the reasons for that is that he may can go and isolate
W a lot in the game Calvin can't defend
Themself nearly as well against the mage as a restoration druid
So you're kind of forced in this situation where you need to go in the mage
And that's a big advantage for streamer zone because I feel like the clear path to victory is
Going after the road getting these setups like this like we just saw where you get the trick it out of the way
And now all of a sudden one of them travels in a situation where nobody has any cool downs
They're just slowly whittling down and like channel talked about you have these very powerful offensive cooldowns like the Kingsbane as well as the
Combustion that you can rotate through essentially every 30 seconds every kidney shot and if you don't perfectly
Reactive those situations the game is over very quickly. So I think one loon travel
They're actually doing a really good job keeping themselves alive
They just need to find better targeting and I don't know
Maybe they could do it all in on the druid
Potentially maybe they do need to just focus on burn pity
but I think the reason why they're going after P make more just because they kind of have to in this matchup as a
Paladin's bit of a vulnerability to crowd control
I mean
I think that's a very interesting kind of point for them with one line travel to keep that in consideration
But when you are being forced to sort of focus as it gives streamers on GG just as was pointed out that
Advantage of knowing where your attention is going to be and then figuring out how they want to use that to their advantage
And I mean Ziko streamers on GG of course like we've mentioned a name people know
But this configuration of the team is really kind of out sort of
Coming together in their synergy their structure their identity
It's been still developing over the course of this year with the play we're seeing here
How do you think they're coming together for you? I think this is looking pretty good for them
They're playing a matchup that they're very confident in they get to have you know their players shine individually P-Make and very you know
Offensive on the mage and likes to get in there likes to go for college likes to get you know
Be very disruptive as well when you play against him
and Wondern Travel, they're gonna have to deal with that.
And to Venn's credit, I kinda like that idea
because we saw it, they went after Nexna one time
on Wondern Travel, they got his Barxia Mephisto,
he never went back on him.
I wanna see that, I think Paladin's work the best
when you are not respecting your opponent at all.
You're just fool-zucking it, go after the healer,
send everything you have,
don't try to rotate your cooldowns defensively
to just survive.
Rotate them while you're trying to all-in someone.
And I think that's when piloting works the best.
So that's what I want to see from them.
Because right now, Streamer's on a pretty confident,
just playing their normal game.
And yeah, they're not really being tested too much,
aside from a couple of panic moments.
I love that.
How it works best when it's just utterly disrespectful.
Yeah.
That's the secret.
I love it.
I love it.
I mean, we'll have to see how this play is going to go.
But you know these two teams must have a lot of respect
for one another as they come in here.
streamers on GG versus one loon travel with this is a possibly winning game
here for streamers on GG. They just need one more point to secure their
advance here along as we look ahead to our grand finals. But one loon travel
they have a chance here. They've had moments where they've nearly broken
through and we can only hope that here in these dark damp sewers they will
bring a shining ray of light and find that chance. Yeah absolutely gates are
already open now. We've seen the opener how they approach that Alice
So choosing to wait for Brunhidi to open most of the times, we'll see if both rogues walking past each other.
If they can find anything, potentially a sap on to the next, not able to have that happen of course.
But I think in the opener, combustion is going to get ripped.
King Spain is going to get pulled out, but it's just going to get iron bar and a sack and so we can slow open the D.
Yeah, let's see here what's inside to go after.
We find Brunhidi here, immediately shutting him down, combustion immediately gets traded here.
Coming in with big aggression from one new travel.
Let's see if they can actually net themselves any defensive cooldowns, it doesn't look like it, next ceiling throw up lined right here, and next, choosing to sit these vines is very intelligent, because he does realize that he could be a potential target, they chain it with a hammer of justice, can make it for me across as well, it does not look like it, nice counter spell that shut it down from PMAG, being disruptive on that mage yet again, and this is basically all your offensive cooldowns, except for the rogue offensives on the side of one noon travel, and they didn't net you anything.
Yeah, there's the desktop player from Alistar on the teammate.
He's gonna go on a mage now instead of Bernhidi as much.
StreamersZone.gg is pushing themselves, got the sack out of W.
He'll also cool down to both teams now.
Next, of course, has the R&B available for the next two sessions in 15 seconds.
So I think right now, StreamersZone.gg, very nice offensive plays,
pulling ahead of that strong opener from Wondon in travel.
Bernhidi now on Sunday. Let's see what he's gonna do with this.
Next, he's pushing in, he's going for the CC. Watch that.
Alistar into the finish shot.
W gets the first hammer of justice there, but the chieftain comes out,
on 2W, next to the side, Long gets immediately interrupted.
Beautiful play there from Ling Ling Ki.
And now we're going to see E-Make here trying to get something going as well
on the opposite side, but then the combustion gets ripped there as well.
I like that from Ling Ling Ki.
He gets the counter spell, instantly sends the combustion as well,
just to generate a lot of pressure for his team.
But they are able to capitalize on it, and here comes the smoke bomb.
All to Brune, here he actually is sitting through that smoke bomb here,
and not falling for the bait.
And now counter-killing shot. Counter-smoke bomb!
coming out, huge set up coming out from streamer zone.
That was beautiful, I love when folks do that.
They do a kidney shot and then they have to commit into the kidney shot and
then they do the late bomb because you don't want to drink in a kidney shot at
the last second, you want to drink it right away and
that is just perfect execution there from streamer zone.
There is some of that incredible timing and decision making that we were
highlighting that makes arena so dynamic and amazing to see our streamer zone GG.
definitively secure this for themselves 3-0.
Now, of course, one would travel.
They traveled all this way, and they
said that even being here was something
that they were already so proud of.
Of course, they would have wanted to keep going,
but I'm sure they've learned a lot already,
even from this experience with everyone
as they were hoping to.
Now, I mean, Chan, this was a big one.
This was an exciting one.
And while it went very swiftly in streamers on GG's favor,
there was still a lot of potential for it
to go either way in key moments, right?
Yeah.
I mean, this last game was perhaps not the best.
for one on travel side, but Magran Arena, you know, hook point.
There were opportunities where they could have won the game if Streamerzone did mess up.
I wasn't too happy with the defensive play from Streamerzone in game two, but, you know,
they recovered from it, they fixed their mistake, and they punished the mistakes from one on travel.
Of course, this is a, for me, like I said earlier, this one winner containing team.
And I think that, you know, they played well today, they pulled it off.
This is the first time on stage for P-Mac for Next and it's a really good start to their day.
I mean it has to feel good when you nail that first series and you're already feeling like
we can move ahead and we can keep up this momentum. So I'm sure that they are feeling
really good with that and with their performance. And I mean, Ben you were over there watching
on the analyst desk. What were you observing in the details of this last game?
I mean there's just beautiful plays coming in from both sides but I mean ultimately what it
What it comes down to for me is streamer zone. They are very well practiced in this matchup
in Europe. Rogue mage is a composition you see quite often. They have a lot of practice
partners that they kind of refine their strategies with and against. And you saw it in the gameplay,
the way they were able to get crowd control in the healer, isolate the Rogue. It just
seemed like they knew exactly what they wanted to do. And unfortunately for one-lun travel,
it just seemed like they were healer disadvantage a little bit. The powder, I don't think,
I feel like W had a great
performance on that paladin with
the way he rotated through his
cooldowns and kept his team alive.
So I'll shout out to one then
travel, but I feel like streamer
zone. They're just more equipped
for this matchup. Indeed. And I
mean, our semi finalists, we'd
love to hear from them directly.
So I know you have streamers on
Gigi on the stage. Let's hear
how they're feeling after their
win. I sure do. I am here with
a Brune Hitti of streamers on Gigi.
Now just now you were telling
me this is your first ever
BlizzCon. Now you have the victory
on New York City. You're
Now you have the victory under your belt. How are you feeling right now?
I mean, I'm feeling amazing, especially because we didn't really know what we were going to,
because there was not much to find about a region like China.
No one really knows anything, but we tried to prepare as much as we could have.
I mean, we knew they might play Rogue Meshpalla then, and it came down to it,
and we spent workings a lot. We played a lot here, even in the practice area, and paid off.
Yeah, I mean, speaking of learning things about China, they locked in Hookpoint with Rogue Mage,
Which seemed like an interesting choice. Did you guys have any reactions to that?
We actually thought about it before, that they might pick maybe like a small map if they lose the blind pick.
Because I think it's kind of good to play aggressive with Paladin.
Because I think if he just stays back and kind of does nothing, it's very hard to finish versus the rest of the grid.
So I think it was smart pick by them to be honest. I would say it kind of paid off.
I mean, I think it was the closest game, almost died in the bomb. So I think it was a good pick by them.
Amazing. All right, well, looking forward to your next series.
What are your reactions? Are you confident for that moving forward?
I mean, I'm pretty confident. We're gonna have some time now to go practice a bit and
Prepare a bit more for the series
But obviously facing the first any team the first seed so there's definitely gonna be hard games
Think it might also come down to another of mage and you'll see but I think it's gonna be amazing games to watch to be honest
All right. Well, congratulations once again and good luck on your next series
Great to hear from
who are you? I'm so excited
to be here. I'm feeling so
excited to be here. I'm feeling
so much excitement and
screamer of Zone G.G. Especially
in the wake of that win. Love
that First Blizzcon energy. I
know some of us. It's our
First Blizzcon. It's mine at
least, but it has to feel good
to compete on the stage and
then you know we were talking
to you just before this about
some of the match and what we
just saw. But do you have any
further additions? I feeling
for their team like we
mentioned. They're kind of a
newer roster. So being on the
stage and coming off of 30
especially in the matchup,
It's got to be a huge confidence booster and it's also a great way to get the nerves out of the way, right?
Because we mentioned this is a single elimination tournament. If you lose, you are out. You are eliminated.
So there's only a few series last year in the AWC.
We still have, you know, our first seeds from both North America and Europe yet to play.
But I feel like Streamer's own with this performance, you can tell they're really up to the challenge.
Beautiful smoke bomb here on the Alistar. Light smoke bomb. And it was just a little bit too late there when we get that win.
but it really shows the masters they are on the specialization and if you want to be masters at anything
Rogue mage is a good bet
I love chance additional extra laugh there. I mean you do you agree champ?
We know that heart is being the fourth on a team with an excellent rogue mage
Oh, that was your strat, huh? That's what you did when you were playing. It's the strat. You're always a strat
I mean, like you said, streamers
on GG coming into it like this,
getting those nerves out.
I think that's a really big thing
to just be able to get acclimated
to the stage and the energy of the audience
so that it doesn't throw you,
but also say you can use it to kind of drive you forward
and keep building on what you've already done so well.
And of course, this was a great series to see from them.
We hope to see one in travel again in the future.
We're so glad they made it out,
but streamers on GG will be moving ahead
moving ahead and facing later on Gator's back,
which I think, you know, even we heard in the interview
is gonna be some pretty stiff competition Seiko.
Yeah, I mean, this is gonna be a real, real test here
for Streamer's own.
Gator's back has been the best team in North America,
in my opinion, by a long shot this season.
They have just got everything,
everything's clicking for them.
And if there's one thing that is extremely scary,
it is when it's a rest of Druid meta
and you have to play against Cops Z-Boy.
And most of these healers are all alting.
Next, he's doing great on the rest of Druid.
You know, Lumpur's doing great on the rest of Druid.
But Cubs has been playing the rest of Druid his entire life.
He is a different beast when it comes to playing that healer.
So that is going to be very scary for all of these teams.
It definitely is, but it's going to be very exciting for us, at least.
I mean, I know we're looking forward to it in CHAMP
with all of the series ahead.
Are you amped up for this AWC?
Oh, it's insane.
I love LANZ.
This is the best event for AWC every single year, and I can't wait to see who's going to win this year.
I mean, the series coming up, it's going to be an absolute treat for us.
I love Red Mage Mirrors, I'm a big fan of them, I think we're going to see a ton of them today.
It's due or die.
It's so nice the teams just gave you what you were hoping to see exactly.
I mean, it's really kind of them, but honestly, we are looking forward to it.
It's going to be a wonderful time, and we will have AWC going on throughout the day,
but we have a little something else coming up next.
Now our scheduling shifted things over and the MDI Grand Final still have to be decided.
We have a champion to crown over.
There it is the day of champions, honestly, between MDI and AWC.
So very soon our teams will be taking to the stage to decide it all for the Mythic Dungeon
International.
We'll be back soon after a break to find out who the champion will be.
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It's been a long journey.
We started off playing for fun, just all streaming together, just trying to have a good time.
It was very hard to actually get here. Long hours of playing, long hours of watching.
Our goal was making it to BlizzCon and we did it.
I never, never came to BlizzCon before.
Meet all the people, play at stage with all the players.
And just seeing everyone that you know from online, that you've been playing with,
we are at BlizzCon.
I see all the fans and everyone having like good energy and being hyped about the same thing.
It's just such a sick thing.
A lot of my team have never been to these events before.
So for them to just come and kind of have their rookie showing like be the winners like they want them or anything else right so
It means a lot. It's a big deal to play BlizzCon. Yeah, I'm very excited
I would love to leave BlizzCon's BlizzCon champion. There's a title that not many people say they have
I wouldn't leave BlizzCon with a win. Definitely if we can win the champion
That would be the memory of the lifetime. It would be nice to win this BlizzCon and to get the trophy
This is like winning the Olympic games. I would say kind of easy. Just see them. Yeah, just see it's easy
Of course, I'm the best player in China.
At least, I can be the best player in the world.
Competing a BlizzCon, just being able to play video games in general for a living,
I feel very blessed to be able to do that.
To be here and kind of have it all culminated on one final day,
and it's all pressure and a lot of emotion.
It's been my dream for the past few years.
After Sunday, I don't want to be over.
You know, but a son.
I probably will be very happy,
but at the same time, I think I might also like cry or something.
It's like a final test.
At the end of the road, it feels amazing.
When you're here, you realize it's all a bit of...
It's been a really fun season for all of us.
Hopefully we get the world we work for.
This will be the end of this season, but I honestly think it's the beginning of something very good.
Our home, Azeroth, her untold stories call to our hearts, revealing lands unexplored,
forgotten secrets, and new horizons.
I
I
As they're all wrecking us back, to home, to adventure, forever.
MSI, take the next step in upgrading your visual experience with MSI's QD OLED monitors.
To last, brilliance ahead.
Gigabyte, upgrade your life.
Secret Lab, pro-grade ergonomics for the highest level of play.
We didn't get enough of the Mythic Dungeon International yesterday, and we are back for more today.
The grand finals are about to kick off!
The ultimate showdown of the best Mythic Plus speedrunners in the world, and you all are here to see it!
We can't wait to witness that I am your desk host, Rook,
and we've had a swap here from AWC.
Zyro, Dratnus, titles, good to see you again.
I mean, the excitement is real,
and I think these grand finals are going to be incredible titles.
This is the stage that everybody has been playing for.
It has been seven years since the MDI has been back at lane,
and we are back at BlizzCon,
and we are going to be crowning the BlizzCon champion here today.
I mean, there's so much on the line,
not to mention the prizes, the trophies.
I mean, taking one of those home and that prize pool,
that would be a real achievement as well for these teams.
Not only that, but it's a huge achievement
for both of the regions up here.
Dr. Anderson, now we're talking about this on stage.
You have to go back five years
for the last time a Chinese team won the MDI.
It was asked her why back in Shadowlands, 2021,
it took down the TGP.
They almost took down an MDI,
but ended up wiping at the last moment
and now throw the Rime Finder back in the day.
It was impressive.
It's to be huge for big lucky.
And you have to go back seven years
to the last time that North America won an MDI.
and MDI was in Sydney, the 3-0 of Method NA over Method EU.
So either way, we're going to have a long drought broken here at the finals.
This means everything to these two teams.
And of course, if you're just catching up the format of today,
we'll be our grand final.
So this is not a best of three.
This will be a best of five.
They will have even more chances to run these dungeons as fast as they can
and become champions.
Now, of course, we have our draft rules, but there are also prizes to be won.
$300,000 here on the line for the teams.
Now though, as they look at the drafts,
as they look at how they'll kind of move through this,
I mean, Tettles, what are some of the considerations
for both big, lucky, and liquid
as they face off on these maps?
I think that this series is going to be electric.
Big, lucky, they were able to shock the world yesterday.
They toppled the number one seed in Dignitas.
Dignitas had a couple of deaths in their dungeons.
Will big, lucky be able to get that magic back
at the exact same time for liquid.
I think that's the best
composition.
And I think that's the best
composition.
Liquid, especially whenever you
talk to some of the mandatory
competitors, Liquid has what is
described as the best
compositional lead on this stage.
They had this warlock, this
vengeance demon hunter.
It looked exceptionally strong,
but consistency.
I think that we talked about it a
bunch yesterday.
Consistency tends to be that key
takeaway where I feel like we
haven't had very many maps, if
any at all, that have gone
completely deathless.
It's true.
But I mean that new season, it
But we have to talk about these teams in more detail because that's your right.
These teams both have a lot to show and mandatory first up here.
I mean, excuse me, big lucky up first is one of the ones that I think we are going
to see absolutely shine.
Big lucky a CN team, a lot of content creators, but well known mythic plus runners.
Grant knows what have they really shown us here in the competition?
I mean, it started with an upset yesterday against Dignitas, but this is a team
that I think in a best of five setting where we're going to be seeing
You can't hide right in a best of five. You have to do so many different dungeons. I think big lucky are going to have a bit of an advantage there because I think they're going to have had more opportunity to prepare more of these dungeons. So I really like their chances here on China. One player particular here, Sean.
People know was broken. Sean to Henry shun shine way back in the day. He's a superstar over in China. I played with him at limit 10 years ago. This is my first time seeing him in person here in BlizzCon. So one of the reasons this event is so great.
absolutely I mean just incredible seeing how they've even come through this whole
season up to this point this whole year that has led them to the grand finals
big lucky I think when they started they weren't sure exactly how they would
measure up it was their first time competing in speedrunning and they have
just come to such great heights I mean Dratus it's been amazing seeing their
journey yeah and you know it feels particularly good to win after you miss
count as well against the team formerly known as missed count now
a great team as well. Very sad to see them go yesterday, but big lucky their polls in a lot of cases it was a little bit more conservative.
They would split things up to be a little bit more slowly gathered and into bosses, but sometimes that's what you need to avoid debts.
Both of our series yesterday hinged on debts or wipes determining the victor.
So if big lucky can continue to avoid that today, that might be all they need to win.
I mean consistency is key, like we talked about, but Tettles, there's also this added pressure of really only having BlizzCon to compete.
So those moments that you take risks, those moments that you're more conservative, I think it's more important than ever that you make the right choice.
Yeah, I really think that you have to have strategies that you feel are foolproof. I mean, that's where it really came back to bite Dignitas yesterday.
There's a couple of deaths. I remember that one at the very end of Denim Nalorak. It was just that 15 seconds, and 15 seconds tends to lose you a map in the end.
It does but you know both of these teams big lucky. They're saying we can't afford any of that here
We've got it even tighten up
We have to come in here strong today and especially when their competition is as strong as they are liquid just continue to build
Momentum over the season and for a newer team at least to the MDI
They have some real fans here in the house
Give us some info about this incredible team. I mean just listen to that crowd these guys are fan favors for sure
Obviously home soil you got you got to give it to him for that
but the players on the team, Bumi, Sevi, Yipz, Wolf Disco,
has shined.
These guys have been around in some capacity
for the better part of the past five years,
in their absolute beast.
All of them, five-time back-to-back race
for World First Champions.
But they've never gotten that MGI title.
Can I try something real quick?
Let's hear it.
If you are a Liquid fan, let me hear your cheer right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is hostile territory, I think, for Big Lucky.
So yesterday, whenever they were actually
able to take down mandatory, Yipz was on that stage
with Aya, talking to her about the competition.
He seemed fairly emotional.
He looked like he was actually welling up
at just the heat of the moment.
How big this stage truly is.
And then I talked to a shine back in the green room
after he came off the stage and he was coming out hot.
He basically has not won a tournament since 2018.
He said, it's coming home.
It's been so long, eight years since his last tournament win.
He's ready to win BlizzCon here today.
He wants this and the whole team does.
You can feel it as they've come in,
as they've put down every single run
that we've seen them in.
And I mean, Dragno's,
Their performance has been pretty incredible.
I think they are so well positioned for this.
Look at their specs here.
Look at the damage meter from these replays we have
from yesterday.
They were the only team to play that vengeance demon hunter,
to play that demonology warlock,
and they made it look like those were by far
the best options this time around.
Will that continue to hold up in the other dungeons though,
because we are gonna be moving
some very high keystone levels today.
After they took down mandatory yesterday,
Jinji tweeted out a tweet that said,
GGs to Liquid, they had the best meta read.
He believes that the composition that Liquid is running is the best on this patch.
Interesting. Well, now, with what we've seen from Big Lucky,
Zyra, do you think that they're running anything that could answer that?
I'm not quite sure. The Mage, they've kind of stuck on for quite a while there.
It's really good for particular bosses in the dungeons, particularly one with Damage Amps,
but it's over all seems a little on the low side.
Big Lucky was also notably the only team to change a spec
in any of their dungeons that we've seen so far.
So that might mean that the other Dungeons we haven't yet seen them in they might have something new for us
It's like a holy fountain to me. Exactly. Holy Valley. I was cool. I love holy valley
I mean look at one of the things we've even been talking about with all of the eSports competition across the week a weekend
When you have regions coming together
There are these differences
There are things that might show up in one region that don't always show up in the others and the way that these teams have to
Kind of meet that and answer that I think is a huge part of how they even approach a global competition like this
But we're going to see these two showing down very soon, and we have to consider as well the dungeons will be going into
We've got our first band coming out and tunnels. You don't seem very surprised by this
I'm not super surprised by this. I think that that blinding veil on a 19
I've talked to the competitors the two hardest dungeons murder row 18 blinding veil 19
If there's ever a dungeon that we're going to see wipes or potentially even multiple wipes
It's going to be that dungeon
I was talking to big lucky prior to the series start and they described it as a high key push
when they pull two packs at a time.
I mean, look, when it's that tough,
you want to see something like this come in as a big challenge,
especially here to kick off the grand finals,
because the stakes are going to be higher than ever.
And those deaths do count, Ratnos.
It's interesting as well, because yesterday,
I believe Liquid banned out the Temple of Cetralis.
But this time around, they chose not to ban that one.
So I wonder if that's sometimes you see in an MDI.
I don't know if this is something
you'd ever do at BlizzCon.
But sometimes what you do is you ban out something
in an earlier series, not because you're scared of it,
but because you have something incredible
that you want to save for the Grand Finals.
So maybe we've got something like that from Liquid here.
Oh, now you've done it, Dratnose.
Could be.
Could be.
I think we're excited about it.
What are you going to rain us in, Tettle?
I think Murder Rows is probably just
their top tier band, because, again,
that dungeon is extremely volatile.
Whenever you go up, count, mount,
and you have to get like 65% of your enemy forces.
We did see Dignitas actually wipe to that pole
at the very end of the dungeon yesterday.
I think it's more just like trying
to reduce volatility if you're Liquid.
That being said.
What you were saying about big lucky that leaves the door open for liquid if they have some fast strategy in that blending veil
Big luck. He's only pulled two packs at a time
Liquid can pull off their strat. They should be able to win
I think it is hyperpolic about two thousand
Okay, it's a plus 19 key. How much more can you pull in that dungeon three? Okay? All right
So yeah, my mistake my mistake if there's any place to rise to the occasion and pull it off
I mean this is the time and the place you have everything on the line
You have blizzcon history in the making everybody give it up for some mythic plus speedrunning because we have a lot to look forward to
The team I'm no doubt feeling that energy and we will be getting into it
But we have to give some predictions before the teams take the sage because for all that we've been talking about these two
Who's gonna win it?
I will go
3-0, Liquid.
Liquid fans in the house approve of that title, so you've won their approval. Well done, you can remain a caster and represent.
Dread knows how about you, where are you going?
I don't think it's going to be a 3-0. I do think Liquid's going to win though. I'm going to go 3-1 for Team Liquid.
I think the blinding veil, that's a big opportunity for Big Lucky though.
Okay, alright, Zyro.
I think you're dead on I think big lucky can definitely take a game, but from what the gameplay we saw yesterday
Liquid just looks unstoppable. I'm going 31 liquid
Okay, all right now liquid fans. I know you're here representing in full force although
I know big lucky has fans out there as well around the world
So I am going to apologize, but I'm not going to apologize. I will be the big lucky believer on this desk
They have already totally changed our expectations.
We never thought coming in that they would stand up to our two time reigning champions and take them down and they did it.
If there's a time for them to rise and show that CN is back, that they can be BlizzCon winners, this is the time.
So I'm going to say three to big lucky.
All right, I stand by it. I stand by it.
All right, controversial.
I know, maybe, but so brave. And honestly, I think there's good evidence that big lucky really have shown that they have just continued to expand and grow in this competition. And that where some of their teams have stumbled, they've been able to still find opportunities to turn that into a victory. And especially with a fresh season like the Zyra, I think that can be a big advantage.
That's really the overarching thing for this competition, right? Is that the Dungeons came out a month ago. And most of the players have been in the race to world first for three of those four weeks. So the practice has been minimal. They really haven't gotten to.
really haven't gotten to hammer out their strategies, which is why we saw them yesterday
from all the teams was still so impressive.
I mean, it's going to be impressive either way.
And honestly, we've got to welcome these teams on the stage.
They have to run and we have a champion to crown.
So we will be bringing them out here in just a moment, but everybody give it up.
Here we go.
bring our teams in on this stage
and welcome them with a bunch of applause.
All right, are you guys ready for our teams?
Amazing, all right.
Give it up for Team Liquid.
Please give a warm welcome
to Gumi, Yips, Ashae, Ex-Sepi, and Holt Disco!
Alright, let's give a warm welcome as well to their opponents in the grand finals.
Big Lucky!
Please welcome Sean XCM Strawberry, Xiao Xiao, RJ, and Loda.
Oh, I love this.
We got a flag right here.
Amazing.
Amazing.
I don't know if you guys see that.
Awesome.
Awesome. All right. Ruck back to you. Thank you so much. I we are very excited to see all of the fans from around the world for both of these two teams are finalists in the grand finals of the mythic dungeon international big lucky and liquid.
I cannot wait to see these maps that we have ahead of us speedrunning at its finest and Dratnus. They are going to have to run faster than ever if they want to become a champion.
Yeah, it's going to be all about maintaining a fast strategy while minimizing the potential for a full team wipe.
Even a single one might lose you a dungeon and that might well lose you the series.
It might and they don't want that because Tuttle's like we've been talking about.
This is something that means so much to these two teams. This has been a long time in the making for them.
It's the difference between $80,000. We have a $300,000 prize pool.
The winner will get $150,000.
The loser, unfortunately, will be getting a $70,000 prize pool.
It's a huge deal, but also, more importantly,
it's those trophies that you can see on stage right there.
It's the chance to call yourself a BlizzCon champion.
It's so infrequent that we are able to crown
BlizzCon champions on the MDI stage.
Very rarely happens.
The fact that we are back at BlizzCon
is a huge deal for these competitors.
I mean, absolutely, because being together with the community,
proving yourself in front of everyone,
there is no feeling like it.
and Zyro taking one of those trophies home.
I mean, that's not just a memory,
that's a legacy that you've made.
Yeah, I mean, like Zettles was saying,
we've only ever had one other in-person in BI
and that was seven years ago,
so it's crazy that we're finally back.
Looks like the players are about ready to get in game though,
Ruck.
It does indeed, and everybody,
the grand finals are about to start.
Linding Vale is radiating its light upon our competitors,
but they will have to stand up to it.
It's one of the hardest dungeons we've seen
this weekend, will they be able to challenge it and emerge victorious? This will be a big start for
them in our best of five. Can Liquid come in and prove that they are not just strong in the race
to world first? They are also MDI champions or can Big Lucky represent for CN and show that around
the world they should be recognized for their skill? Zyro, this is it! Everybody give it up for the
Mythic Dungeon International! And Trattonos, we are into the Blinding Vale 19. What a brutal key.
Just for comparison for people that aren't aware on the live right now. The high-key pushers are only doing 21 strato
Yeah, the fastest to plus 19 on the live servers is about 25 minutes
So we will see how much faster our MDI competitors will be able to do it both teams
Starting off strong with a large full bloodlust popped as well a little bit more count
It looks like four big lucky has been gathered then for a little bit actually it's very much the same set of enemies here
It's a pretty dangerous one big lucky are playing that holy ballad and again that we did see from them in the murder row yesterday
Pretty cool option. Although the rest of Druid damage you can see is quite significant
Yeah, I think it was Bryson that was saying anybody who doesn't play rest of you
It is trolling but then Loda played holy ballad and then won his series
So he's really trolling on the grand final stage
I wonder if it's just more of a comfort pick because like they like you were saying earlier
It's a high pick. They're just trying to play comfort probably you just they want to make as few mistakes as possible
Zero deaths is a huge deal. That 15 seconds starts to add up a lot.
Yeah, another difference I'm noticing here, we've got the full dwarf gang on the right-hand side there for Big Lucky.
Whereas Liquid are playing, uh, they've got some night elves. Three night elves, two dwarves.
Night elves potentially for the fixate on the dino?
Could be, yes. We'll drop that. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of stuff that you can stone form in here.
You know, there's a lot of debuffs that can really mask you, and sometimes you'll have to see what the play is.
The both of our teams go up for the same direction here.
That's one of the interesting things about the draft blinding fail. You can either take a left or a right route.
I think, pretty much, anybody not named a vague usually goes.
I love going right for fun. People get very confused when you do that in your punk keys.
But, big lucky getting in boss combat first here.
An advantage for our Chinese competitors.
And so, Liquid, really the star of their show has been Wolf Disco on that warlock, but for Big Lucky,
the Rogue has often been on top of the damage meters at the end of the day.
It's actually shunned on the Blood DK, popping over a million DPS as the tank there for Big Lucky.
And that Blood DK burst is absolutely insane, but again, yesterday, Yip's on the vengeance,
even Hunter was consistently out DPSing his Blood DK competition on the vengeance.
so we'll have to see he's able to match that when they do get in combat with the council in a moment.
But you can see here, Liquid has opted to pull a significantly higher amount of trash in this first section of the dungeon.
Big Lucky only had 25% count with a little bit of trash on top of the boss, so they'll get a few more than that.
But Liquid might be close to 50% by the time they start pulling the boss.
This might mean that they'll be able to skip some more of the very end of the dungeon trash,
which can be fairly lethal, or maybe there'll be something in the middle that Big Lucky will find instead.
Maybe after that dinosaur boss. I don't know either way liquid now in boss combat as well about 30% HP behind
But they have some offensive cooldowns coming up soon to try and equalize things
Yeah, keep an eye on that demonic tyrant cooldown for Wolf's disco when that comes off cooldown for the next 25 seconds
He will start to catapult to the top of the meters and once again
Even though you've stood enough the same burst that shunned it on the blood VK
He's holding pretty steady at a cool 400k right now. Yeah the consistent DPS
It is from burst windows, but you get so many of them over the course of these fights as a vengeance demon hunter that your overall
Damage becomes very impressive as well. One thing we were talking about as well a lot yesterday that it might be worth
Revisiting for anybody who's just joining us for the grand finals is the rogues. Why we are seeing so many teams
Opting for the assassination road. It's not just that overall damage that you're seeing there
So much of the damage that they get to deal is to those priority targets.
Whenever you have extra enemies nearby, you get bonus damage onto your main target for assassination rogues.
So really, really valuable damage profile this season.
Yeah, there's a lot of those targets in this dungeon as well, but it kind of seems like we lucky skipped past a lot of them.
In that first area, there's the Hydras or the Grow Keepers. Of course, there's that mini boss that spawns after you kill the third boss off.
The rogues are going to be vital to kill those off, and that's also something the Arcane mage has been at.
pinmage is good at. Their funnel isn't as strong as it was maybe perhaps back in
war within season two but they still have a little bit of funnel on the
garage. We'll have to see if that's gonna help them kill out that many boss a
little bit faster here. You can see though pulling the boss early they've been
staying ahead 30% on the boss this entire time. Can't be paced on the boss damage
which is where Liquid was strong yesterday. That lead is indeed holding it steady for
big lucky Liquid putting up competitive boss damage but one problem for Team
Liquid is we talked about the road benefiting from these extra targets. The
Warlock just kills off all your extra targets before you get to farm them for too much damage
So it's a little bit parasitic the relationship between the demo lock and the assassination road
It's not their fault man. They can't help it. Just they just press buttons and things around their target
Exactly, exactly. Nothing you can do about it
Either way the overall damage is capable of putting out in the fact that it's a one-minute pull-down class
That's that's the key for the beat. It's so flexible. Just always have damage for every single pull
There's nothing that they're doing damage. First boss goes down for big lucky here
Let's see what the next pull is on the 19 key level
Are they going to be capable of pulling all of this trash on top of the next boss?
Shut is moving ahead. Looks like that might be the play.
This is the MDI strategy. Trash on top of bosses, they're going to be going for it.
This is very dangerous. Whenever you pull these two packs on the bridge,
if you pull them around the same time, they both cast their abilities at the same time as well.
So things can start getting very lethal.
Big lucky getting into boss combat right now, and they're going to have to contend with the boss mechanics as well here.
knockback, a little bit dangerous as well, but looks like they've got things timed pretty well,
and there's one very important interrupt to make sure that they get here. You can see they've got
a triangle marker, I think. Oh no, it's the diamond marker on that dysaurion cast they need to interrupt.
Yeah, the big deal with this boss is the roots, right? Every time those roots come out,
you either need to DPS them down or hide them away. I get pretty much every single person in
both of these comps has a way to break the roots every single time, right? I'm actually a little
worried about Wolf Disco on the Warlock Demonic teleport. The circle that you can break roots with
is actually a little bit too long sometimes to get every single cast
sequence. You usually need an evoker buff to get that, so maybe he'll have to stand
under the boss to break out those roots, but with their top it should be pretty
easy to break those roots out. Yeah, big lucky one of the nice things that Holy
Paladin does is give you blessing of freedom, which gives not just you, but
one of your friends as well, a very easy way to break those roots, but liquid
getting into boss combat now as well. You can see at the bottom of the screen
liquid a little bit less than a minute behind, but at the top of the screen,
I've got about 10% more count and they'll be gathering even more here onto this boss.
I mean, that's the same pull for both of our teams going for that crazy pull on this 19E level into the boss.
Any bad overlaps of Erkestan from the boss with any of the AOE from the Trash Day pull could instantly bring them incredibly low,
potentially even one shot a player. You have to look at the cooldowns available for them across the board.
Ipsu's already blocked the last resort, but I think he doesn't have his cheat net.
Whereas over on the side of Big Lucky, they pretty much have all those full, it's available to them still.
Yeah, that was actually a worrying thing here for Yipz, that last resort on cooldown.
I think something that didn't proc for him at all yesterday,
but now today it is not going to be available, and last resort, it's an 8 minute cooldown,
so very long time that Yipz won't have that safety net available.
I have to see if it's going to be an issue for them, as Big Lucky is still holding steady at about that same 30% boss HP.
Here they've dealt with all of the trash they pulled on top of the boss as well.
that those things that the Rogue is not going to be getting as much funnel,
and you can really see on the damage meters that starting to show for them
is Boomi is doing about 200k more DPS on this boss, 300k actually.
They're letting those adds stay alive for a very long time for funnel damage here.
Yeah, the last couple of enemies going down for Liquid in just a second,
we'll be able to see exactly how much of an enemy force's advantage they have.
It is 14% count in favor of Team Liquid,
whereas 30% of the boss help in favor of Big Lucky.
I'm not sure which of those is better. My instinct is that Big Lucky have the better side of it.
Yeah, I mean, looking at the week the rest of the dungeon works,
and of course we didn't see this dungeon yesterday, so we don't have any previous information as to what teams would do in a WMBI-style pull of this dungeon.
You can pull so much trash with that third boss. You can pull so much trash with that fourth boss if you dare to.
Let's see what Big Lucky's plan is.
Oh, slow fall! Here we go!
They actually slow fall down with the mage. That's something Liquid is not going to be able to do.
Yeah, very cool. A little bit of mage utility there for Big Lucky.
a beautiful landing into the Shroud of Concealment as well, the combo from Big Lucky, and that's going to let them move right past this annoying and dangerous and very hard to gather pack that lives at the top of the bridge there.
Getting in combat downstairs and I would not be surprised if this entire platform is going to get pulled here with the Druid boss.
Right into Light Ward and Rula here. The big thing about that Shroud, they skipped the burn, right? That burn with its screech cast.
If that goes off, everyone's disoriented, that easily wipes the group.
You're taking disoriented, use the boss to pretty much attack anyone,
and that can result in very, very quick deaths.
That was actually a lot of our deaths yesterday with healers going down to mobs.
When the boss, when they were pulling the boss and getting everything gathered up.
So it's good that they don't have that in the pack to contend with.
Liquid starting to deal with the dino on their side.
That's the second boss going down for them.
When you can see in terms of dungeon progression, they're almost a minute behind right now.
Yeah, they actually lost some time on that second boss split,
but they're gonna jump down as well. No slow fall, no problem.
We've got Wolf Disco on the back of the seven there on the travel form druid
So liquid have also found a way down without having to wait for that flight path
Will the 14% count make up for the minute in dungeon progression difference right now liquid going for a shred of their own also
Skipping past that bird that I was talking about earlier. They already have a ton of counts
They don't need to pull as much trash on top of the boss and you can see they're actually going for the safer side of trash
They don't have that nasty mob on top of the boss that Big Lucky has to keep up.
Yeah, Big Lucky has basically the whole platform in it.
It does look like Liquid might be grabbing some of that in later,
but we'll have to see how that works out.
Meanwhile, Big Lucky's Shun's Perg now has been popped as well.
Dropping super low there.
Activates the Vampiric Bloodbow with the Rune Weapon rolling too.
So he should be okay for a time,
but I'm starting to get a little bit worried here about Big Lucky's health bars.
This trash has been alive for a very long time.
The boss is now inside that pulverizing Strikes combo,
So they're going to have to spread out, and if anybody overlaps this, it could be very lethal for Big Lucky.
Stoneform is lighting up across the board for Big Lucky to get rid of those initial bleeds from the boss's abilities here,
but the next time that comes out, they're not going to have any of those available.
There it is.
There's the next one, so Lotus would have to do a ton of damage.
Bubbles himself to get rid of his own bleeds, so it doesn't have to worry about that, but he still has to heal up.
Actually, no. It was close. They didn't block, so they're good.
All of those bleeds are gone once again, and they're able to just sit here and freely DPS the boss down.
This Saptre is being annoying, though, jumping out.
Yeah, no Ursel's Vortex available, but Deathgrip does bring it back under the boss.
Oh, and now it's going to start channeling the spirits of the veil.
And this is a little bit unfortunate because it is inside those light puddles.
So it's going to be a little bit tricky to have some good space to DBS it down and down goes XCM there to the Grievous Thrash.
That is the first death for Big Lucky.
BattleRest is available. It's been cast. When will it be accepted?
Okay, so 15 seconds of death timer advantage now in favor of liquid big lucky still with the lead in terms of dungeon progression
Still with a boss health lead as well, but they are down now an enemy forces by about 10%
We had an invisible there on the frontal there canceling it on the mage
They didn't have to deal with as much of the damage as they otherwise would have in the meantime liquid has started to make up ground
First boss, they were behind 30% second boss there behind 30% now
I'm starting to close the gap a little bit 25% on this boss the death from the road certainly was helping
I think it might have actually been on the death are pulled out as well
So even worse for big lucky here and really the trash count differential has not been closed up that much big lucky
Maybe pulled three or four percent extra trash here, but where is that extra 9% trash gonna come from?
Yeah, like we could easily grab some of these flying insects onto the end of the boss if they wanted to still a scepter in
Combat for them as well doing its thing, but big lucky get the boss down
one death, but the boss is still down first for them.
They've got Shradd of Concealment back up
and are now leaving the exact same way they came.
Let's see how they attack the end of the dungeon here.
They're actually going to grab that pack that they skipped fast twice.
Grabbing the big patrol as well, and there is the Potatoed Matriarch.
One of the most iconic mobs of the Blinding Vale.
It's worth so much count as well. It's almost impossible not to play it.
It's almost like that when they made that pot fix. They're like, you know what?
Yeah, you're playing this pot.
You've got to pull this mob. We're increasing the count, but we're actually all the acid adding all of that count to the potato
So here we go massive pull here for them. They actually get that burden from the pek that they skipped earlier
Do you think that was on purpose? It looks like it was yeah, I saw them turn around and hit it with a death's caress
I think so everything now gathered up here for big lucky
They've got a nice little spot here over by this hill that's allowed them to gather all the enemies and spawn those potato eggs
Nice and close meanwhile team liquid skipping out with a sigil misery
So they are in combat with that pack it might come later although we see Mel now activating for gifts
So that will drop combat in theory it looks like they're still in combat back there though
I think this skip maybe went to Ryan look they're all disoriented
Oh, no have that historian cast going off to set me in combat there with enemies that I don't think they planned to be in
Come down he goes to that thorn maw is able to release here
So this isn't gonna cost the actually I think they did use that beer as maybe a soul stone
pre-placed on him but the Varks get rolling to try and recover this but I
don't think Liquid plans to pull all of these enemies. This looks like it was
completely unintended that Screech going off in disorienting and that was the
worst-case scenario now they're tied up on the death counter they don't have
that 15 second advantage meanwhile big lucky their pulls going swimmingly no
mistakes for them whatsoever Liquid now have to do a massive pull of their own
and Dratnos we already identified they already pulled more trash if this
gets them to 100% what are they gonna do for the rest of the dungeon they
They already have a plan for what they're going to do with the rest of the dungeon, with the rest of their pulls.
Are they going to be able to cut something in a good way?
Probably not, because if there was, they would have already just been pulling this pack as part of the plan.
So I don't think this is good news at all for Team Liquid.
Meanwhile, big lucky, I finished off this pull.
The Windrush totem on top of the mountain, giving them a little bit of a speed boost, and then relocated forward.
They're taking one of these thorn maws and heading over to this left-hand pole here.
So we have a couple of casters these radiant spell sores that they do need to interrupt especially on their volleys and bring them forward
They've now gone in to one of the big tree guys as well
Are they gonna take this directly into boss is ready draknos?
I think this is going to be a boss pull with all of this trash all of these last years
They've got a behemoth in there have to keep an eye on shun. Is he going to need that purgatory here?
Lost his popped and the cooldowns are available across the board lighting up on the cooldown managers
It looks like Perg is back available as well.
So one of the big failure points for Big Lucky being a tank death
is much less likely as long as that purgatory does still exist.
Shun, rolling between those defensive cooldowns beautifully here.
And this pack with Bloodlust,
it's actually such a nice cooldown defensively for these Sand Lane,
Blood Decays, the Icebound Fortitude.
Up next, everybody trying to keep these cooldowns rolling
just a little while longer until the trash starts to die
and the danger goes away.
They shun, dropping super low again,
but Death Strikes back to full.
Meanwhile, over on the side of Team Liquid,
we're going to see Cheat Death taken once again from Bumi
here, just as it came off cooldown.
Gets activated.
Once more, but Xer down for Big Lucky.
That's going to be their second and final battle
res of the dungeon used to bring him back here.
Any further deaths for Big Lucky would probably
mean a loss for them.
Time and time again, though.
Yesterday, Liquid proved they had a ton of boss damage.
Big Lucky, though, already with the boss down to 50%,
Another set of damage buffs coming in from those orbs.
They need to make sure none of those hit the boss.
Otherwise, it'll start pulsing for AoE damage on the group.
Looks like they've started to clear them up.
There's still a couple more that they could extend if they want.
Rogue grabbing a couple of them.
Shun taking the last one with the AMZ, or AMS, rather.
Looks like they're going to be good.
Big Lucky might be running away with this.
To motion order down now, a lot of Defensives
are starting to be exhausted by Big Lucky,
but we're getting back now to a second round of offensive
cool down soon here another arcane surge available in a moment shun back inside that
vimperate blood but boomy down four team liquid that's going to be their second and final battle
res as well as you can see look how much count they're fighting they have 98 percent count
and they're in combat with another 16 percent here they haven't even pulled the boss yet big
look he has the boss at 25 percent all they have to do is kill off this last set of lashers make
sure these orbs don't hit the boss and they might be on the version of upsetting liquid in the
Just 20% left on the boss separating Big Lucky from a 1-0 lead in this series.
All of the trash has been taken care of. Just a few final cycles of mechanics to contend with.
But with purgatory still available, I think this is going Big Lucky's way.
The final life beam comes out and the boss is gonna go down. It is a 1-0 lead for Big Lucky.
There it is! Big Lucky have had some big upsets this weekend here in the grand finals.
And even with those sets, they have come in strong here at the start in one of our hardest dungeons of the weekend.
I mean, there was so much at play in this one, and I cannot wait to break it down,
but we had this discussion, Timer versus Count, Progression versus that early planning.
planning. Trattnos, what do you think ultimately made Big Lucky more effective in their approach?
I think the failed skip for Liquid when they were trying to get back from that third boss room,
I don't think they intended to grab all those enemies there. I think they were trying to
Shadow Melt skip them, and I think they got some healer combat that was not intended,
and that really was the nail in the coffin for Team Liquid. But Big Lucky, like I was saying at
the start of the series, I think the higher Keystone level of this Blinding Vale really played to
to that team's advantage. I mean, it's absolutely a huge part of it. That dungeon is so brutal.
And I mean, we'll be looking at it at Tettles in more detail with you, but that's a hard
one for them to tackle. How do you think they approached it? It's interesting. I talked
to both Sean and Loda earlier, and they said if they were able to win the Blinding Vale,
they thought that they would have a chance in the series. They said that they had to
be able to win map one. Well, they did indeed. And they've taken it, Tettles. Give us more
and fights on the map as we saw it.
Yeah, so the first pull, it was actually kind of interesting.
It's exactly as you described it earlier, Rook.
It's that difference between would you rather have 15% count
or would you rather have 50 seconds?
And that was kind of the interesting takeaway
from the very beginning where Liquid did
an additional pull in the beginning.
But on the right side, you can see, big lucky,
they're getting their bosses pulled earlier.
They've actually more further progressed the dungeon.
And historically, whenever you look at the NDI,
you would rather be the team that has further progression
inside of the dungeon, as opposed to the team
that has 15% enemy forces, it's a lot easier to get count, especially on top of the bosses.
And so something that I was looking at whenever we were doing a replay is how much trash is
Big Lucky going to be able to get pulled onto these bosses, and particularly that second
and that third boss. I really also like these skips from both of these teams whenever I first
talked to Big Lucky, I was like, ooh, this is fancy. They do a nice slow fall into a shroud skip,
but then it looks like it was maybe a little bit faster for like, what does it just like
fell down and they just signed the shroud themselves. So it ended up being pretty net neutral.
And I thought that this death from XCM on this third boss,
I thought that that was going to be a pivotal moment in the dungeon.
He gets hit with the AoE, then he gets hit with the Grievous Thrash.
It ends up taking him out.
We've seen this weekend a couple of deaths,
actually being some of the most pivotal points in all of the dungeons,
where it's a 1 15-second death, cost Dignitas their series yesterday.
I was wondering if that was going to happen to Big Lucky,
but unfortunately, after this second boss, after Light Warden,
there was a little bit of an incident,
Let's say with a sigil of misery skip. So Dranas you said that you thought it was healer aggro
I think that seems pretty reasonable to me, but it also maybe looked like one of the
Raptors didn't get caught in that sigil of misery. It got broken out early
And then once that leaps to a target
Wolf disco has a hard time of actually being able to like position himself in a way that he can get away from that mob because
Of course wolf disco is on that door. So look at the packet
It was caught in sigil misery and somehow one of these raptors gets out. Oh, there it is
Wolf Disco in a shine, you know, they can't be night elves and it's like, uh, well, what do we do?
We're in combat with the entire pack and then they end up pulling so much additional count now
So he doesn't have dying to this grievous gash, but their their entire strategy is completely wrong here at the same time
I think that big lucky's route was just faster taking all of that trash into the final boss here pulling it on top of the boss
And just being able to AoE it down
Okay, ignore the second up. It's okay. We didn't need it
You know what that was a second battle as it's fine, but big lucky you're now up 1-0 in the grand finals here
Which is absolutely remarkable. I mean it is when we came into season one
We wouldn't have expected just how far they would climb but big lucky this whole year have been rising to this moment
To be ready for the grand finals and honestly while big lucky were arguably the underdog coming into this
Zyro this seems a lot closer than you might expect. Yeah, it was incredibly close
I mean the question that we've been talking about this is an MDI staple
It's would you rather a progression would you rather I've count and I think time and time again
We always all say we'd rather have the progression and they lucky walked away with it. They got the progression, but we're done with the high keys
Let's get back to the MDI speed running here in this next dungeon. I think is pivotal
We saw both of the teams were on this dungeon yesterday
They were within 10 seconds of each other on their timers within one death time
Yeah, crucially liquid were they were so fast in this dungeon and they lost by a death, right?
So I think liquid have a very very fast plan for the den of Nalirak
I mean
I'm sure they want to get that next point on the board right because if you can even it out here then it doesn't feel like there's
Too much of an advantage going either way, but if you have that first win titles
It already starts to give you some of that momentum moving ahead
Momentum is kind of a funny thing because it's always like a concept that we talk about
But it's hard to really tell how much it matters especially whenever you're playing in front of a crowd
how letting those nerves get to you.
How can you be clutch on that day?
And I feel like over the last five
raid tiers there's no team that's more
clutch than this liquid team.
Whenever the going gets tough,
they always show up and they always deliver
and they're down 0-1.
Are they going to be able to reverse the tides?
I mean, we were all there.
You guys were all there, right?
Watching the race to world first, right?
There they are.
Tuesday, Reclear was terrible for them.
Yeah.
They get some insane progression on Wednesday.
They know how to clutch up.
So if there's any team that can do it,
seen liquid but big lucky they got to be feeling good about themselves right now.
I mean Zara was going to say now the race is one thing this is the MDI and this team has to prove
themselves here because they haven't had as big of a history in the MDI as they have elsewhere here
on liquid and big lucky they've come in and they've already done a lot of what people consider to be
the impossible. I mean Tubbles do you have some more thoughts? I was about to ask is this map a coin flip?
I think liquid have a huge advantage in this one from what we've seen so far. I think this is a big
opportunity for them. I think they need to win this map as well to equalize the
series. They definitely want to. We know that for sure, but we're gonna be getting
into this next dungeon den of Nalarak. Now this is one that will also put up a
fight for our teams. We've seen it yesterday, but today Big Lucky and
Liquid have to face off in it. Now of course Liquid, they want to come back and
get a point. They want to be in the running, but Big Lucky, they already have
that run themselves under their belt, and they're coming in now to see if they
They can add another point on the board, Zyro.
Yesterday, when I was talking to Team Liquid
after they won their series, they
seemed to hope it after winning their series against
Mandatory.
It was weird because you would think
they'd be pretty happy with themselves
after taking the series, winning, going to the grand finals.
They were worried about this denim dollar.
I feel like, man, our practice time was over a minute faster.
We just got really bad RNG at the start.
Just have you got canceled twice on his incense grab?
That stick that gives them 5% versatility for 10 minutes.
Looks like this time around, though.
They got it.
They're clean.
Yeah, they've got that incense, that 5% versatility.
Both teams setting up a large bloodless pull here.
Shun's help bar, looking a little bit sketchy,
as it always does for those blood decays,
but able to stabilize into that fan blood, into that AMS.
Two of those starvation effigies though,
pulsing on, big lucky there.
Big max HP reductions across the board for them,
but it looks like they are gonna be able
to finish off these most dangerous enemies.
Meanwhile, Liquid already have killed off their pull.
They're already now separating once again
to go and gather more of these offerings.
six total ones that you need to activate this boss.
And one of the nice things about having all these night elves,
these stealth classes, right, the road, the druid,
is it's very easy for you to go and activate these offerings
without having to actually fight any of these enemies.
I didn't even know that there was a second bush off
on the side that a stalker comes down.
I'm trying to stop you from getting it.
That one seems free if you've got someone
that can just sap it or CC it.
And for me, of course, I was able to take care of that
for Team Liquid and start to regroup with the team.
One of the strengths of this comp that we keep going back to
is the fact that they have this one minute demonic tyrant
on their group.
They use that cooldown on the first packet by the time this has all been gathered.
They have that cooldown once again ready.
Last time around, they had to take extra time together.
This book is as heavy.
Had to go back and get that buff for them.
This time around, he's with the group ready to go.
Yeah, they're about ready to go into the boss here.
Just got to wait for it to activate, but you'd see they are in position to pull it as soon
as it becomes attackable.
Team Liquid in combat now with the Horde Monger, and they've got all of this extra trash coming
along with it.
We'll have to see if the double funnel comp from Big Lucky is going to be enough to make
up some boss damage here. The earlier spawn of the horde monger for Team Liquid is going
to put them about 10% ahead. Yeah, they are a little bit behind on enemy forces going
into the boss, but let's see how much things change. I think they even have a little bit
less trash onto the boss as well. So I think Big Lucky are going to gather a bit of a count
advantage here, but Liquid definitely got in combat with the boss first. However, the
HP difference between these bosses is closing. Big Lucky are accelerating here. That Arcane
in search, still rolling as well.
One of the things as well that we need to keep in mind,
we were talking about this dungeon yesterday,
this is a nasty tank dungeon.
There's so much in here that does so much
to the long for the tank to be played perfectly.
Having that curse of exhaustion available
from the Warlock helps out a ton.
Absolutely, yeah, big extra point of safety
alongside those purgatories or last resorts
that our two tanks do have access to.
But yeah, a little bit of help from your DPS players
can go a long way for your tanks in here,
Suits as well, actually very effective on those matriarchs, but when you're pulling as many as the MDI teams do, sometimes you can't sue them all, so you've just got to tank them, even with that enrage stacking up as you kill off the couplings.
Of course, the shaman very useful for clearing these mushrooms here. They can drop down that poison cleansing tone and make sure they don't have to worry about those debuffs for too long here.
They can do two sets of them, and then they're in a little bit of trouble for the third set if they do get their boss dropping very low for both of our teams already.
Liquid action starting to pull away on the boss as well.
They were 8% ahead when Big Lucky pulled the boss.
They're slowly starting to gain more of an advantage here.
Yeah, you can see though, the count differential
is about 6% in favor of Big Lucky.
So they get that next bellow, and boss jumping to the middle.
But it is now an 11% HP advantage in favor of Team Liquid.
They get the next of these spoiled supplies.
And I think this is the one that they won't have points
in poison cleansing totem for.
So we'll see how they decide to handle this.
It looks like it's going to be a couple of single disfells.
Oh yeah, easily handled actually.
That looks like poison cleansing, Totem.
Maybe they didn't use it on one of the earlier ones.
Yeah, it looks like they had no issues with that whatsoever.
Same thing on the side of Big Lucky.
They're actually starting to catch up a little bit.
Now once the boss is in execute,
that was the second Arcane Surge coming out from RGBC there.
That means he's not going to have that cooldown
available for the next pull,
which we know is going to be a massive one.
All right, Liquid take down the boss,
and you can look at the state of their cooldowns as well.
They are going to have everything available
for this next pull.
As you can see, the Sevi ran back
and grab that extra incense so they're
going to have 10 more seconds, or 10 more minutes,
of that 5% versatility buff.
They go into this next big pull, big lucky,
opting to not bother with it as well.
They still have the incense from the start of the dungeon,
but it is going to fall off in about six minutes here.
Percent of tongues this time being used to make sure
that those casts are a little bit longer.
Don't want to let an errant cast go off from the group.
Although they are using a lot of A OECC
to make sure things don't go off.
A little bit easier than just coordinating kicks here.
Meanwhile, Big Lucky just shrouded past all that trash that Liquid are now fighting.
That 6% trash lead that Big Lucky had is going to be used here to let them skip past this.
They are still now going to need a little bit more trash from this part of the dungeon,
but all of this should equalize.
And I think that's the reason they can't send Loda back to gather that incense.
I think they want to make sure that everybody is moving together and getting in that shroud.
Is Big Lucky going to stop here?
I believe this is what they did in their run against Dignitas earlier yesterday.
It looks like this is the plan for them.
They don't want to go all the way to that avatar of Windsor at the end,
blocking off the boss from them, taking it a little bit easy.
This alone, though, is still dangerous.
Those avatars of determination can do a lot to the group if they're not in position.
Yeah, it's very nasty when you have so little space because of these harsh winds,
and then you get all of that space denied by those massive AoEs from the bare spirits there.
So, being lucky, still finishing off that pack.
Liquid, having Fumi run forward a bit,
Tricks of the trade active as well, and tagging in even more of this trash.
Looks like it's going to be a pretty similar poll here for both teams.
NA forces count after all is said and done should be about the same.
Shun drop super low, depth strikes himself to safety.
And when you're looking at the Blood Decay, it's not just that red health bar you need to look at.
It's that blue runic power bar below the health bar.
Whenever they have high runic power, even if their health is low,
as long as they're in melee range or something, they are one global away from safe.
It's once that runic power bar is low,
that's when you need to start being terrified for the blood decay.
Yeah, I'm usually not too worried about the blood decay,
as long as they have perg available and still have runic power like you were saying.
The yo-yo experience of blood decay is a universal experience for pretty much every healer.
Yeah, easy shun, they're completely full on runic power now going into this pull
as they move on to the winter squall.
So this is a little bit tricky as well because once again, you've got a very small space to play this in.
They fight the avatar of determination on one side of that circle so that when it does its area denial, they can then move to the other side.
Barry heads up way to attack this pole. Meanwhile, Liquid charging forward as well looks like setting up a very similar idea here.
But big lucky, definitely have a bit of a lead in movement through the dungeon because they were able to just shroud pass that first pull after this boss.
We'll just go as literally doubling the damage of his teammates right now using that Demo Warlock to perfection.
And he's not done yet. He just popped another Tyrant on this pack, so he's gonna stay up there and continue doing massive A.W.E damage.
They look he doesn't care, though, as they've already dealt with the Winter Squall and are moving ahead to spawn the Sinsmills Winter.
Yeah, a little bit of channeling time. They do have one of those frigid roars in the back to worry about.
It looks like they've actually grabbed a little bit more trash to take onto this boss as well.
I think for Team Liquid, Yps will be able to do this, because that Vengeance even hunter, very mobile.
So he can go ahead and leap after this, get low, and go and grab a little bit more trash.
Well, look at this. Liquid has caught up and actually now surpassed Big Lucky in Trash.
And like you said, Yipz is going back to pull that exact same count that Big Lucky has now amassed on top of the boss.
That means Big Lucky's going to have to make up count in that final section of the dungeon.
It's just a pretty dangerous trash.
Yeah, I think they're going to be getting to about 79% here once they kill off everything under the boss team.
Liquid getting in combat as well.
25% boss HP advantage in favor of Big Lucky.
Now once again our two teams are so evenly matched here, but liquid getting those offensive cooldowns going here on full
It's actually mostly just the tyrant on whole but in about a minute here 45 seconds
We are gonna have every single dps player in CDs for liquid well disco
Absolutely carrying the team on his back in this dungeon this warlock has been doubling his teammates
But the better part of the past four minutes
Is it going to be enough to catch up to Big Lucky?
Gipson second on the damage meters as well.
Four team Liquid, that vengeance, Steven Hunter first.
Whenever you can line up your fiery brand and your meta,
you can deal such incredible amounts of DPS
as that annihilator, vengeance, Steven Hunter.
And then sometimes you'll get a meta proc on top of that as well.
And everything will be great.
Your DPS players will be very confused by the damage meter.
Meanwhile, though, Big Lucky also absolutely chunking this boss here,
you're moving it now towards the sort of end area.
One of the things that you don't see very,
you don't see talked about very much in the FDI,
but just making sure that when a boss dies,
you are right by the exit of the room
is a very important skill.
So figuring out exactly how many cycles
you're gonna have to do,
and then manipulating things such that
when you finish that last one, you are by the exit.
That's a couple of seconds.
That could be the difference
with teams as evenly matched.
Look at Liquid go catching up here
with that use of cooldowns like you were talking about.
When they pulled the boss, they were 30% behind.
Now closing the gap to just a mere 10% with the count advantage rather.
Yeah, that's tiring.
I've had to expire there for Wolf Disco, but still huge damage overall coming out of Wolf Disco.
Fumi and Asha now beating the tank as well, exactly what we'd love to see.
But Big Lucky are going to be the team that takes down the Sentinel of Winter first.
Liquid hot on their heels though, 10% less than 10% on the boss between the two teams.
Big Lucky going to be moving now to the final section of Dungeon.
It is a 4% trash advantage for Team Liquid,
but a 15-second time advantage for Big Lucky.
I don't know which of that is better.
Well, I do know that Liquid is going to make up a good 5
to 10 seconds here based off of the way
they end up skipping this back.
Let's take a look at Big Lucky on the right side here.
To skip this trash, obviously both teams
are just going to run around the first pack.
They keep an eye on RJBC.
He is the man to take a look at here.
He blinks into the trash pack, places his ult or time down,
going to run off to the side, let his teammates through,
alter back, hit the G and Viz into the shroud we go.
On the side of Liquid, it should
be a lot more simple than that.
All we have to do is run to the side
and place a nifty little demonic gateway,
instantly pressed, instantly used by the team.
Saved a few seconds there.
Yeah, right into the shroud there, 14 Liquid.
Meanwhile, take lucky getting in combat there.
With the bear pull at the bottom,
you can see a couple of crowd-controlled mobs
that they're going to leave to come in for later.
But they're going to take this up the stairs
and start fighting the miniboss.
Meanwhile, Liquid, very similar idea here.
The goal is to start this RP as soon as possible,
so that you don't waste any time waiting
for that required time.
We'll have to take a look at what the bloodlust used
to be for our teams.
That's been available for the past minute now.
Is it going to be used for safety,
for crashing top of the boss?
Or are they going to use it at the most opportune time
with cooldowns when all the trash is already
dead for pure boss damage?
That was one of the difference makers for Liquid
against mandatory yesterday.
What are the teams going to plan to do with it today?
It looks like Liquid are going to be holding on to it for a while there.
As you can see, the Ascendance goes by without the LUST being pressed.
Same for Big Lucky though.
They are also cool holding onto that Bloodlust.
Nerds of Steel for both of our teams here in the finals.
Big Lucky now traveling back down the stairs.
Little U-turn there.
They need to go and grab some extra count and take it onto the boss.
Liquid, very similar idea.
Although I'm not sure they actually need that.
Yeah, they don't need that third pack there that is by the other staircase.
So that is the 4% count advantage in favor of Liquid.
That might allow them to get in position to pull the boss first.
The problem is, I think they're just going to be waiting for RP up here.
They are going to be waiting for RP for just a little bit.
The boss should spawn in just a couple of seconds for them.
I like the Hex tech, though, from Big Lucky here.
They're in combat with that path.
When the Hex breaks in about 45 seconds from now,
it'll slowly work its way up, and that'll be more A.O.E. for the group.
Booby dropping incredibly low there.
Holds onto the Chief F, though.
But look at this cold team still holding steady on the Bloodlust, not Popgap, but either of our teams.
They're waiting for those cooldowns to come back.
Big luck, he actually tanking the boss basically right by the wall there.
That's going to minimize the impact of that knockback at the end of that bare combo.
Next set of Echoing Roars being brought out and they'll take Nalarak back towards the end of the room.
Liquid though have accelerated, even though they pulled the boss second, they are now in the lead on Boss HP.
The Bloodlust still available as well for both teams.
Will they be able to use this to send the boss home?
65% to 67% for Big Lucky.
A little bit of a difference there, but it is closing.
RGVC using the Arcane Surge now.
I was wondering when he was going to press that button.
He's only going to get one more use of it for the remainder of the dungeon.
It might have been the play to save that for execute,
but they wanted to make sure they lined everything up with Lust.
All of the cooldowns now active on the side of Big Lucky.
Lust now popped for Liquid as well.
Tyrant's come in just a few moments here.
What is the damage from Big Lucky though?
So they're now 5%, 7% ahead.
Big Lucky, meanwhile Liquid still got some cool downs rolling,
trying to close the gap again.
Zero deaths for either team.
So this is just going to come down to who
can kill the boss first.
19% for Big Lucky.
14% for Team Liquid.
This one is going to come right down to the wire,
but Team Liquid at the end here able to accelerate.
They're going to get the boss down first.
Liquid equalized the series.
Liquid did it! They have evened this out here in the Grand Finals.
They were not willing to let Big Lucky get another one, not here, not now.
And they have taken this Den of Nalorak 4, that ourselves, but this was a very close map.
Now, honestly, both of these teams, we saw Liquid get that early kind of time advantage,
but then there was a lot of back and forth. And in Xyro, where do you think they really saved time last time?
I mean, that's as good as it gets right there, guys.
That's as good as it gets right there.
DPS raised to the finish.
Both teams sub 10% at the same time.
It's just class from both teams.
Absolutely incredible performance from both of them.
And you can hear the cheers for Liquid in the background.
I mean, titles, these two went head to head.
And it was impressive seeing this run,
because honestly, it could have gone either way.
I mean, look at that.
13-41 versus 13 minutes and 52 seconds for big lucky.
Like you said, it really could have gone either way.
If anybody had a death, it would have been problematic.
For Big Lucky, they were ahead for 11 minutes
or something like that.
It was that ending sequence.
It was that last bridge and getting the boss pulled
and how Liquid did that slightly faster
that really cost them.
So let's take a look at the replay here.
At the very beginning,
Big Lucky gets a little bit more trash count
and actually comes off the first boss just a hair faster.
I think that they're about even,
but the fact that Big Lucky has a bit more count.
And then Liquid ends up doing an additional pull,
Whereas Big Lucky ends up shrouding into that second area of trash.
That's where I felt like the Big Lucky strategy for this dungeon was just a hair superior.
And you're trying to compare two different routes, and a lot of the times it's hard.
But generally as a viewer, the thing that you're looking for is like,
who is the most progressed in the dungeon? Who is the furthest ahead?
And for Big Lucky, they were consistently pulling a little bit more trash into the boss,
getting a little bit more count.
And it's like trying to figure out where those puzzle pieces align for Liquid to be able to slingshot
and push a little bit further ahead is kind of an interesting point.
And this was the point in time where I thought that Liquid was going to fall further behind.
You see on the left side right there, that you're doing a trash pack while Big Lucky is electing to shroud into that second area
with an additional about 6% enemy forces that they pulled into that boss.
That 6% enemy forces basically didn't cost them any time. It only cost them like 8 seconds or something like that.
And so then, Big Lucky was 14 seconds ahead on the second boss.
Because, I mean, you can even see it on the screen right here.
They are just continuing to progress further into the dungeon a little bit faster.
They're running down that ice bridge.
And we talked about how the liquid composition is supposed to be a little bit better,
but we were trying to figure out at what point in time does that actually show up,
because Big Lucky has a lot more priority damage.
It's interesting, you were talking about them being ahead for the first 11 minutes,
because they weren't able to backtrack and get that incense.
11 minutes is when that versatility buff fell off for them.
That's when Liquid became the team that was just doing 5% more damage for free.
Yeah, and I mean, again, like I said, 14 seconds ahead on the second boss,
I'm feeling like, okay, even though Liquid is slightly ahead in terms of count,
about three and a half percent. They have this gateway skip that saves them, I don't know, three, five seconds, something like that.
I was like, ah, this is going to be an incredibly close finish.
And I think that the setup of this pull is actually what equalized the entire map.
The fact that Yipz was able to get this pack gathered as fast as possible,
and I actually think this is the advantage to the Vengeance Demon Hunter.
Just look at how fast he can actually get everything grouped up with Infernal Strike,
and just the mobility of that Vengeance Demon Hunter.
It is one of the best tanks in all of Mythic Clust because of its versatility,
and just how good it can perform.
That was an incredibly close map, though.
I really felt like it was on a knife's edge the entire time.
Could have truly gone either way.
We saw it within 10 seconds right there.
It really could have, but Liquid were the ones
who swayed it in their favor and ended up clutching it out.
And you know, Zyro, you were kind of highlighting a bit
about Wolf Disco on Demo Warlock as well.
Just how strong was that contribution to the team?
I mean, you saw the overall damage.
That was pretty good. 500 nil.
pushing 700k DPS man that that is an absurd number but looks like we're
already into the next dungeon.
We're wasting no time.
Our team's off on their runs make some noise.
Congrats NOS.
Game three of Liquid versus Big Lucky.
We are in to the Temple of Scythralis for the first time this weekend and the first time in many many years.
A battle for Azeroth dungeon and they are already both in combat with that first boss here.
Hatter is an aspects, of course, you can only damage one of the bosses at a time in the remake of the dungeon for this expansion.
Still gonna stop them from pulling a bunch of trash on top of the boss and leaving it down as is tradition in the MDI.
I was just thinking, man, this best of five has now become a best of three.
It's closer than it's ever been before.
Who's gonna ride to the occasion here? Both teams proving that they deserve to be here.
Moda swapped over to that restoration droid again from that Paladin they played in the first game for this and the last dungeon.
So a little bit of a composition swap, but otherwise the teams are at heaven on the same thing for the entire series so far
It's a plus 17 dungeon as well
This time around just like that then I'm now Iraq first boss about the same HP for both teams
It looks like they've also pulled the same trash look like both friends on the right hand side to start this dungeon as well
Usually I'm live I go left but right seemed like the choice for our teams here
You're gonna have to pull in at least one pack on the left side in order to make up count the dungeon
So it looks like both of the teams have done just that.
Pulling in that extra pack in the final moments of the boss here,
just to get a little bit extra damage on top of the boss.
This is so good, again.
For the Demo Warlock, have to come back into it.
They're pulling the trash on the one-minute cooldown timing.
They get a ton of free-cleave on that trash.
They don't have to worry about focusing it down.
Whereas on the side of Big Lucky,
I'm not really sure where that damage is supposed to come from.
Both teams doing a good job of placing those wind zones
behind where they want to go,
and then getting pushed forward again towards the exit.
always thinking about what the next thing that's going to be.
But it looks like Team Liquid a little bit faster on this first boss.
It's going to go down for them at about that 203 mark.
Meanwhile, Big Lucky about 5, 10 seconds slower on the first boss.
Very similar count for both teams.
Stampeting War going to allow them to get through this gauntlet.
Let's hope that nobody gets hit by any of these error barrages.
A little bit of a roadblock there for Liquid as they run down.
Big Lucky, no mistakes from there.
And any player gets hit by an error on the BlizzCon stage.
That would be a...
You never really get to forget that one.
Wouldn't be forgotten.
XTM, unfortunately, stuck behind the Aerobarrage there,
but of course doesn't want to profit G-Vet for no reason.
Both of our teams through the gauntlet safely
now start to gather up the next pole.
Now this is an area of the dungeon
where I feel like the Blood Death Knight for Big Lucky
has a huge advantage.
There are so many casters
that you want to get into these poles
and Death Grip plus Gorphine's Grasp are so good at that,
whereas Team Liquid are going to use
a little bit more coordination,
making sure they land an initial interrupt
or a knock to make that happen.
Yeah, and I'm kind of surprised both teams stopping here,
not heading down to mark this cavern here.
I imagine they'll be pulling all of that as one pull as well.
The question again, the cooldown usage
has to be perfect from the teams here.
Two minutes were expended on this particular pack,
pretty much across the board.
There's almost going to be nothing available for any
of the teams except for just that lone tyrant
from the Warlock for Liquid.
So it's going to be a lot more of a dangerous pull
for Big Lucky.
Yeah, let's see what they decide to do after this trash starts
to go down Team Liquid, traveling down the ramp now.
A couple of remnants still alive there,
but the Coralusk rider, I think,
the most important thing before they can continue.
They've got that first interrupt.
Is it going to be the whole room, Zyro?
I think it is.
Oh, yeah, everything being pulled together.
Double swarm rider, infinite casters,
but like you were saying for Liquid,
it's going to be a pain to get these in.
They need to have perfectly coordinated kicks,
and it looks like all of the tenders are now on top of it.
Yeah, once they're this close,
And now they are subject to those sigils from the Yps.
The sigil of misery comes out into an incapacitating war.
We've got a chains and a silence available soon for you.
It's actually no silence, but a chains in a few seconds
that can help interrupt as well.
But the pull so quickly gathered up here for Liquid.
Big luck, they're not too far behind,
but Liquid's kind of starting to open up the gap.
They've been behind in both the previous dungeons.
Right off the rip, it's the first time
they've secured such an early lead.
Now you can see them moving through back into the dungeon,
deeper into the room, avoiding those lightning puddles
that they're leaving behind.
Big lucky, about 30% HP difference on this trash.
There should be lucky, had one of those healers
cc'd off to the side.
Liquid didn't bother with that,
so that's something they're gonna have to continue with
later on, looks like it's just now being gripped in
for them, so that's something they're gonna have to continue
with.
No, it's still cc'd off on the side actually.
The tent is just still sitting there.
I think they're walking towards,
I think they wanna break it out,
but not having the time to do it necessarily,
that polymorph is gonna expire,
actually they're re-hexing it, okay.
So they want to keep that thing CC'd, and now they do rip it in eventually.
Wow, man, it's been so long.
Is there actually something that you can spell steal as a mage off of that guy?
Yeah, I think there used to be. I don't know if there still is, but the boss now pulled 4 Team Liquid.
Marektha, the second boss here, changed a little bit from the BFA version.
Yeah, you know, they're a little nicer. There's actually a visual for the charge now, so you're not going to have someone get one shot by that unless they're really not paying attention here.
Of course they need to make sure they have stuns available for the routes when they go out.
You don't want to let your DPS players sit in those stuns for too long.
That's going to be the main thing I'm looking at.
Also, we'll have to see if they're very, very clean about getting through that air mission,
or if they can just one phase.
I don't think that's going to be clean.
It's a plus 17 key.
It is very hard to one phase this boss.
But maybe, yeah, you can see from the energy bar though,
this boss is definitely going to borrow.
They're going to have to deal with at least one set of adds.
I wonder if you have lust if it's maybe possible to make it happen.
but of course, both teams opting for that lust right at the start of the dungeon.
You know, Intermission Phase coming here for Team Liquid.
They get the boss down at 35% and Big Lucky pulling the boss quite a bit behind.
They were about 40% behind on boss damage.
Liquid now need to DPS down these snakes.
I feel like they've been doing that for the past month.
They have to do it once again here in the Global Finals to spawn the boss again.
If you see that burrow charge coming across the room, everyone dodging it.
Expertly to make sure they don't get one shot.
Big Lucky now going to go into a burrow phase of their own to try and host their bosses.
healthy. Yeah a little bit higher as it does start that borrow phase. Meanwhile
Liquid now ending that phase to save a straight into that room can form
convoking spirits contributing a little bit of that healer DPS that is making
the rest of Druid such a powerhouse pick this weekend. A more set of mechanics
coming out here for Team Liquid some stakes to be AOE down. The Warlock will
gobble that up no problem whatsoever if you hand it to Dan will do the trick.
They're not even worried about killing off those adds. They're just gonna let the
Rogue used it for Funnel, Burek that's going to be going down here for Team Liquid way ahead if they're lucky.
They're only just now starting to come out of that burrow phase.
Alright, a nice lead now for Team Liquid. The Stambeating War popped as they move past this first agitated Nimbus.
Let's see if everybody can avoid getting stunned by these rotating Orbs. Nicely done.
They now CC one of these Storm Callers. They're going to Gateway past as well, some of the team, but it does look like they're pulling almost all of this.
They've just CC all the casters, so those might come in on top of boss.
You got a big thing here as well as to make sure you DPS down the side of the anomaly
so you can start to spawn Galvastar.
They're going to focus most of their damage into those.
And then hopefully still have some trash left alive to take the use of the funnel on the boss.
And Cedar actually manages to AOE everything down.
Big lucky though, gets corrected down on their side.
We have about 30 seconds behind.
We've seen in the past Underdreados.
That's close enough to kill.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's one death.
Or potentially even just faster execution from an even map.
but right now Liquid definitely a little bit of an advantage.
If you need to spawn this boss soon,
you can see those static anomalies getting very low.
Once that 6-1 dies, the boss will start to spawn.
So you can see that last one there jumping around.
That's what they want to focus down.
And down it goes.
So now that boss, RP, is starting.
Meanwhile, Ashaan going to go and reactivate that hex.
Make sure that there will be one CC caster that can come in later.
Now this boss has also changed a bit from the BFA version
as Liquid getting in combat.
And typically you want your DPS players to each soak one of these pillars.
The healer also able to do it.
Your tank should only do it as a very last resort as it does increase all of your physical damage taken while you're in one of those beams.
But of course Wolf is going to carry. He's just going to stand and turret.
If what happens to the spawn pod item, he might soak it, but said he's going to take care of that for him.
They're going to let this Warlock sit back and free cast. Of course he's not going to pop the computers right now.
Okay, now he has a shine with the top of his pile.
But look at the damage from the Vengeance Demon Hunter. What is this class, Rados?
Again, it's all about lining up that fiery brand and that meta, right?
Fiery brand, hey, it gives you some damage reduction, but it also deals damage and increases their fire damage taken.
And then your meta gives you those voidfall meteors.
Now if you use all those on pull, you do a lot of damage on pull, the only problem is now you have no defences available if you need them.
Now let's see if Big Lucky does have any spell seal tech.
You get back in the day, I haven't played a mage this batch, but back in the day you used to be able to spell steal that damage buff that the Nimbus has buffed themselves with.
That's something that might be available to them. It's a little bit of extra damage for the mage,
but they're still so far behind. That will help close the gap just a little bit, but you can see the mage is doing it.
Yeah, I mean, looking at the damage meter, I think it's a very solid theory that that might still be there.
So you can see actually a double beam going into Loda for a sec.
A lot of damage, even just from two of them, is able to stabilize for long enough for that beam to get intercepted by another player though.
Liquid about 20% ahead on the boss.
They keep on dealing this damage, but Lust is going to be ready in about 45 seconds for Liquid.
I wonder when you use it in this dungeon because the last boss is not a traditional DPS boss, right?
It's a healer boss.
Right, I mean, the healer Lust is still really good, especially if you can get a one phase off on that boss.
That can save a ton of time having to go through an entire extra phase of killing off the adds
to make sure your healer can heal the immune boss once again.
That would be massive.
And either of our respender was pulled that off.
You'll have to stay tuned to find out.
but for now Liquid starting to open up the gap on Galvast once again off the back of the demo lock damage
We'll just go absolutely shredding this boss down a 25% boss lead has now ballooned into a 35% boss lead
If they're gonna start to open up the gap even more here Dranos
All right
We've got a little bit more health to get through but it is gonna be team Liquid taking down Galvast first one more boss
Left in the dungeon, but first we have an exciting
dodging the stun orbs gauntlet. Let's see if anybody gets stunned this time.
Oh, okay, wait, that's dangerous, but they're able to take it before the wave of orbs gets by them and nobody gets stunned.
They actually kill the spark channel. You don't necessarily need to. You can move on, but look at this. We're splitting up.
They're not doing this solo. Boom's actually gonna solo this side here.
He's gonna have to find a way to CC both his adds when they spawn.
If he tricks us over the orb guardian, then he can maybe CC.
No, he's just here.
OK, all right, so he's brought the Orc Watcher from the other side.
And maybe they'll be able to fight two of them.
Yeah, there's two Orc Watchers in this poll for Liquid.
Yeah, so what they can actually do is the casters on one side,
they can herb a CC them.
They can sap them.
They can hex them.
Or just go configure them.
A shyness just over there.
Over there, K.
A shyness just happily just channeling the orb healing
himself.
Big lucky, only just now getting to the gauntlet.
Liquid looks like they've already got both of the eyes
available, though.
Yeah, once you finish off those eyes,
You can just take these temple disruptors forward and liquid are doing just that they are now running down the final section of the dungeon
Big lucky though. It looks like have a bit of a similar plan here
They are also hyper focused on getting these eyes of sceptre list restored liquid though
Just a little bit more trash to pull before they can do that last boss the twisted hexer there at the very bottom of the stairs
We are in combat with so many of these conscripts as well
It's not going to be a heal or lust for Liquid though, as they pop it for this pull.
The second that trash that was next to the boss area dies, they can get in combat with the boss
and spawn it. They need to kill the trash as quickly as possible, but they will not have the lust
for the healing phase. Is that going to be an issue for them? Is Big Lucky going to do the same thing?
Yeah, we'll see when Big Lucky decides to use it, but that trash that needs to die for Liquid,
it's that one tormentor that has just gone down, and the triangle mark texture, which is also down,
So Liquid now able to pull the boss. Now this boss starts at 25% and you win when it gets to 100%.
Your healer has to heal it, but big luck here having deaths now from these disruptors.
It looks like some healer aggro there may have happened and they've lost two of their players.
Vyrez was available for one, the other it looks like had to either release or onk
as they're now going to run down the staircase as well.
Meanwhile, Liquid over to the side here. Once that purple beam is being channeled into the boss,
It's unable to be healed for a little while so they need to finish off this essence defiler before they can continue healing the avatar
Big lucky's only hope at this point is for either too liquid to wipe or versus sebi to not have a way of
One-facing the boss without the bloodbust big lucky. They're holding on to the lust
They're not using it to clear this trash out their boss is gonna spawn later
But if sebi's not able to one-face that could be the decider here
Debbie now focused down by some of these faithless tormentors has to do a little bit of kiting very important to make sure that you keep them all
Groups together as well whenever you're the healer here
You don't want to move in such a way that those tormentors split up
It looks like the sigilla chains from Yip's is gonna help gather this set of them each of those tormentors that you kill does do a
Small amount of extra healing to the avatar as well
So it's nice if you can spawn as many waves of them as possible before the next main phase begins
Big lucky now in combat with that boss as well and they're holding on to that lust
They might be able to use this healer lust to do a lot of that boss's health in a single go
First phase liquid's gonna get the boss to about
65% as the next set of ads spawn and they get another one of those shadow beams on top of the boss making the boss
Big lucky able to get the boss that 34% mark that liquid was able to before the first healing phase as well
They still have the Lust in the back pocket.
Is that going to be enough to make up the difference here?
I'm not sure.
That is a lot of help to try and make up.
But there it is.
The Lust comes out.
Loda starting to spam those Regrets to Swiftman as well.
Going to do an instant huge burst of healing
onto that avatar of Cessaralist.
But Liquid already have it at 75%.
They're already into that next healing phase.
Big Lucky need to not just catch up.
They need to overtake as well.
They have 30 seconds of death timer disadvantage,
but they might be veiled out if Liquid got another one of those defilers to spawn.
That could be an opportunity for Big Lucky, but only 8% left.
4 is a 7 to heal here for Liquid. Just a little bit more to go. He's almost oom, though.
Every setup for our inters is more healing on the boss. Can they make it up than they do?
Liquid secure Game 3 and put themselves on match points.
Liquid have taken the next point and this sets them up to just have one more win
and then become champions this is huge for them at a very exciting moment
titles big lucky finish the boss there while we did cut to the in-screen and
liquid one because the 30 seconds of death differential big lucky also finished
the boss they did the one-fifth yes if they had if they didn't have those two
deaths I'm pretty sure big lucky's winning that map geez again this is so
close between these two teams it's absolutely incredible absolutely
incredible to see and a liquid in this one they did seem to have a faster kind
strategy at key points.
Stratnos, what do you think made up that time for that?
I liked the start of the dungeon for Liquid.
I liked the middle of it.
It seemed like they were gaining 10, 20 seconds here.
I agree with Tettles though.
I think if you can one phase that last boss,
that is by far the single biggest infusion of timer
that you can get in this dungeon.
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely something to keep in mind,
but we'll actually be able to look at this
a little bit closer.
Tettles, what are your thoughts on this map?
All right, so similar to Stratnos,
I thought that this map for the first,
I don't know, I'd say 95% of it was the Liquid Show.
You know, Liquid, they start the first boss.
They're four seconds ahead on the first boss.
Not too much difference on Ataris and Aspects.
There is a little bit of a difference in terms of the time
that it actually takes to get the second pull gathered,
especially when you have to binge the Steven Hunter
versus that Blood DK.
Blood DK running down the hallway, a lot slower.
The more difficult, right?
You have the infernal structure on the Vingus Steven Hunter.
It just allows you to get packs gathered a lot quicker.
But then, Liquid are able to spawn Marek the way earlier,
like 30 to 45 seconds earlier.
And that is a huge deal, actually.
Being able to focus down those trash mobs
that required that boss to get spawned, like you can see on the left side of the screen
right here.
Big luckier still, just like, I think there's mobs that are like 55% HP there, meanwhile
Liquid already has the boss spawned.
And what that yielded to Liquid is then, then to be 30 seconds ahead coming off of this
boss, allowing them to continue to accelerate further and further ahead.
Then after that, it was Galvast, and Liquid somehow, I think it's copper-ligged, they
were 40 seconds ahead coming out of Galvast.
And so again, like I said, it was just kind of the Liquid show, and they put on this extremely
cool strategy as well, where they were doing both of the orb sets for the gauntlet simultaneously.
We didn't, I didn't really think about this before coming into the season.
Extremely cool.
Big Lucky did end up doing something similar.
So I think that this was maybe a well-known secret for these MBI teams, but an insanely
cool strategy.
But for Big Lucky, those two deaths, they ended up having two people get meleeed to
death by some of the defiler trash mobs that are kind of in this area.
That ended up costing them 30 seconds.
I think that the strategy, kind of like we talked about at the very end, where you would
bloodlust to do that healer bloodlust to continue to heal the boss.
It seems like a much faster strategy, and if Liquid had saw that, they would be like,
oh, you know what?
We're going to do that instead.
But at the same time, big lucky, I feel like you have to be kind of kicking yourselves
a little bit, costing yourself a map that you should have, you should have won with
a much better strategy.
Yeah, you never want to have those deaths, and of course it happens.
These dungeons can be extremely perilous, especially early in the season, but big lucky,
you know, some of the practice time they had.
Yeah, Tettle?
That was so cool.
Liquid finished.
Big Lucky was at like 98% of the boss.
The boss actually ended up resolving right
as we cut away from that screen.
I mean, honestly, so impressive.
And this has been such an incredible grand finals.
Now we will be heading to match point.
Liquid have two points on the board.
We've got a map ahead of us here, Voidscar Arena,
that could separate Liquid from championship, winning,
victory, and Big Lucky from going home,
or could be an opportunity for Big Lucky to come back, Zyra.
And this is a dungeon we saw from Team Liquid yesterday.
I'm going to be honest guys. I didn't really see any weaknesses in their strategy first map of the series
So in theory this should be one of their most practice maps, right?
Okay
Well if it is practice then we'd hope to be able to have that time but from what we've kind of seen from them
Do you think that they're going to be able to pull this off?
Can they bring this back and even it out rat nose?
I think so I think this is one of the greatest warlock dungeons ever there are so many good pulls for that demo lock that we saw them use in
This dungeon yesterday nifty little gateway as well that they can use it's not one of the highest impact gateways
But after that first boss skip a pack save a little bit of time don't have to do any stairs right the escalator
For you instead. It's very nice. Okay. I think the first
I would say a minute and a half of this dungeon are very pivotal
How quickly are teams going to be able to get into that first boss room and get that trash gone?
Let's start it at the same time actually getting the first boss spawned
That's whenever you will do like your first check-in and be able to kind of understand like where the teams are ranking against one
other is like when is that first boss getting spawned because the the back half of the dungeon is fairly consistent between these teams
It is pretty consistent, but I mean again
There's always room for surprises and especially if they can get the jump right off the bat
I don't think you're right, but we're gonna get the jump here everybody. Can you make this room shake for these teams?
Can you let them hear you?
One more dungeon for team liquid to finally get the NDI trophy that they have never been able to get before
Big Lucky with their backs up against the wall going for the first China MDI champion in over five years.
Do they have what it takes? What are we going to see in this dungeon?
First off, of course, like Tedels was saying, we need to get to that first room as quickly as possible.
Big stakes here for both teams.
Big Lucky are going to swap back to that Holy Paladin again for Loda, a comfort pick at this point.
They also have that Mage once again in here.
Wild Team Liquid already done with that first mini-boss onto the second here.
A little bit of a dangerous pull, but they're just chaining forward though, and you can see
by the way they're playing, they know that they just need to focus damage into this mini-boss,
because that's what opens the door. They can just leave this dominated brawler at 5% health,
kick it if it does another one of those roars, and not worry about it otherwise.
Yeah, and you can see they're actually just perfectly cleaving down these arms of destruction.
Again, I feel like I'm broken record here talking about this Demo Warlock pick,
but it really has been the standout star for this team.
It's just so good for always having damage.
This mob will die so much faster for them because of it.
Now, did Big Lucky go to the other side?
They did. They went left. Yeah.
They're fighting the warrior, mini boss.
Not one that I usually like to fight.
Very scary here. You can see, like in the AWC,
they're all in that champion sphere.
They are able to get the AMZ down.
So I guess it does sort of help group them up for that,
and they're able to kill it off in time.
Blessing of protection actually used there as well on RJBC from Loda.
A lot of physical damage on this side of the room, so maybe that's why they decided to go this way.
They're playing the Holy Paladin. That's a great anti-physical damage healer.
Once again, just like at the Temple of Satherlis, Liquid dealing with that many boss significantly faster than we saw from Big Lucky here.
Once again, off the back of the Tyrant Cooldown, being up once again from Wolf Disco.
They're already through the first crashback as well and are ready to spawn that first group.
Lots of dangerous enemies in here.
Chidagoth probably the highest amount of DPS on the group
that you're gonna have to contend with,
regardless of how you play it.
Brutup there does a lot of damage.
Every time he takes a step,
but Sleeper, one of the most dangerous mobs in this area,
is the Turtle with its protective shell,
providing damage reduction to all the nearby enemies.
So focusing it down when it gets stunned is very valuable.
Yeah, the nice tech that big lucky have available
to them with the Blood Decay
is the second that Turtle stuns itself,
They can rip it in and cleave it down with the damage app on it.
They don't have to worry about focusing damage into it.
Liquid don't have that available in their toolbox.
So they'll have to figure out another way to deal with that
once it happens.
For the time being, they've got it off to the side.
They're not worrying about it too much, just cleaving down
all of this trash.
Yeah, looks like they don't have.
They might not even be in combat with it yet.
It's off over to the side somewhere.
All of this extra trash, though, getting pretty low.
Four team liquid.
Chidagoth nearly dead.
And there you can see that dome coming in from the left hand
side.
Four team liquid.
That is the protective turtle.
And as soon as that shell guard goes down, they are going to want to focus it down.
It goes close enough for the sigil of change, so Yip's going to grip it in on top of the rest of the trash.
But the trash is not living that much longer, so all you have to do is single down this poor turtle that's now stunned and taking extra damage.
Alright, nicely done by Team Liquid. That's going to be the boss spawning for them first.
They are going to take a little bit of extra trash into it as well.
That's going to help Boone do even more damage to this boss.
And they've got a couple of cooldowns here, although not much.
It's just gonna be a tyrant in a few seconds, and gotta wait a minute for a shine in Boomi's.
I feel like we're broken records again, just the tyrant available, but that tyrant is so formidable, so much damage coming out from the Warlock every minute.
Liquid though, pulling the boss almost 15 seconds earlier than Big Lucky.
Big Lucky have to make up some big boss damage here.
Yeah, a little bit of damage will be available for them soon as well.
that arcane surge coming up cool down in just a sec here and the shaman and rogue ones soon
to follow both teams on a very similar cool down cadence in this dungeon. They navigate
through this room. They're making sure to bait all of these images over on the same
side so that they can always have a safe direction to move for the dodges afterwards.
So far so good for both of our teams here again. We just keep a steady lead on the first
boss here. It's a single target race to the end here, but the pathways can handle
that verge after this, right? We saw Liquid going for a double harrower plus
mini-moss pull on their end, whereas what we saw from Mandatory was more of a
bigger, a bigger, safer AoE pull, but I think it's a lot of count in that area.
Yeah, the harrowers they were about to see, there are some of these enemies that you think about.
You're like, why would you ever pull this? It's so dangerous, it's got so much health,
and then it dies and you get 8% count. You're like, okay, that's why we're going to pull this thing.
So that is Liquid's strategy after this, at least it was yesterday.
Still not sure what big luck he will be up to, though, at the top of those stairs.
First, they have to finish off this boss.
It is about a 20% health advantage for Team Liquid
as they're getting ready for this final push on the boss.
It'll be a little bit awkward, though.
A shine and multisco both cut off from the rest of the team
having to travel over that void zone
and now dodging a barrage of these projectiles.
But they're able to dodge them, and Tazro will go down for Team Liquid first.
20% ahead of Big Lucky, right into the gateway from Wolf Disco.
He's got that Soul Shard popped.
Gonna cast that gateway, they're gonna take the elevator right up to the top here
in just a moment after mounting up, and we are on to the next pull for Team Liquid.
First of those heroers pull into the brutal overseer, but they're not done.
They're gonna run up and grab the next hero as well.
Every single one of these AoEs has to be soaked.
There could be some nasty overlaps, right?
I know some of you have two of the heroers.
I love how Wolf Disco is like, yeah, you guys have to soak that.
Not me, though. I'm a warlock. I'm busy doing damage right now.
You've got top to me. I'm busy doing damage.
Every warlock.
I've got a cast.
Loomi drops super low from that soak, but it is a calculated risk by Team Liquid.
They know exactly how much damage that's going to do.
They know Wolf Disco's casts are more important than splitting that damage more ways.
Once again, another slam coming out.
These are going to be constant throughout the fight, and at the same time,
they need to make sure they're focusing down that overseer.
Every single- every single time the shield goes up, it's the ramping damage from that.
Can very easily kill you off when you talk about soaking all of the same weak damage down a player.
Yeah, this is a lot of damage.
Meanwhile, big lucky are gonna go the other way.
They've got these Void sides instead.
A lot of screamers over here as well.
They need to make sure they interrupt every single one of these fears.
There's a brutal overseer as well on both sides.
Very annoying mob because the longer it stays alive,
the more often it puts a big shield on itself.
That means you have to just take even more time to kill it.
Liquid focusing the Overseer down on there, and it goes down in just a moment here.
They do not want to get another shield. They're able to beat it.
That's huge for Team Liquid over on the side of Big Lucky.
That Overseer, I believe it's already dead for them.
They've been deep-yesing that down, focusing down on their side as well.
But Liquid, already done with their trash, already moving on to the second boss,
whereas Big Lucky, they're still dealing with the remains of this pull.
Yeah, you might be thinking, like, this is a much bigger pull for Big Lucky,
but because those Harrowers are worth so much count,
Team Liquid are going to end up with basically the same enemy forces
What all is said and done here, but they get in combat now with the second boss taking it over to the right hand side
Near that pool where the first ad will spawn from big lucky not far behind either. They're now taking the portal upstairs as well
Not many cooldowns available here for big lucky as they had as a boss liquid though a perfect lineup for them as they had the death mark
Available on full they had the tyrant available on full
They've already got a trough system to 70% only now as big big lucky is pulling the boss
Gips, like you said, has the boss in position to keep down the ad when it's fought.
So you can make sure not to get meleeed by that as a tanker.
You can very easily get comboed up by the boss.
More here gonna put his damage to the group, but that's something that said he can't heal through.
They have this first ad spotting in just a moment.
Boss HP about 30% in favor of Team Liquid.
That first toxic creeper being kited by Yps through the boss.
He's doing a little bit of side strafing, which is gonna keep it moving a little bit more slowly.
Ooh, he does get auto though.
You gotta look out now. Look at that debuff on Yps' frame.
That is a 5 minute debuff.
Goes away when the boss dies, but it means he's taking 50% increased nature damage,
and there is a lot of nature damage on this fight.
They're dropping a little low there, but he still has the last resort in the back pocket.
If he has to use it here, I'm sure he'd be okay with it.
He'd like to have it for the next route,
because they're going to go for some pretty massive pulls there.
But for the time being, looking okay on the side of Liquid.
Big Lucky made up a little bit of ground on this boss,
but only 5% of the boss really closer.
Remember, they were 30% behind when they pulled the boss.
They'll take anything they could at this point.
Both teams keeping it so consistent here with how close together it is just one death could make the difference
Yeah, the previous series between liquid and mandatory was decided by a massive pole at the top of the stairs here
We'll see how this works out for team liquid. It's very near in their future
Big lucky have been accelerating a little bit on this boss
They close they close that gap from 30% to 20 on the boss HB
But Liquid's still gonna be the team that gets this boss down first. Let's see how they set up this next pull
This could be the pull that decides whether or not they are MDI champions
Team Liquid standing strong match point for them if they win this series
They win BlizzCon, but there are some nasty enemies in the way here every single one of these devouring brutalizers
Is a potential white point if a tank does not take one of those brutalizers if it goes on a male ADPS player
They could get one shot. We saw it happen to mandatory yesterday and that that turned into an entire group life for them
They need to stay clean here. Yipps carefully adding this second brutalizer into this hole a slow chain of extra enemies
Lots of very deadly poles around here that you do not want to get in combat with you can see that devour cast coming out as
Well on the low HP screamer
They want to make sure that they finish that off before the devour finishes
Otherwise, the Brutalizer will heal up and get a damage buff.
That would be very, very bad news for Team Liquid.
Bumi's cheat death is going to be used there.
Cloak of Shadows potentially.
No, it's still available.
Okay, so you've got a little bit of a safety net,
but it does need to be used proactively.
Meanwhile, big lucky.
What are they going to do up here?
I can see some enemies coming in from the right-hand side
for them, something that Team Liquid didn't do.
It looks like they also are interested in at least one.
There's the second Brutalizer as well.
Two of the Brutalizers.
Ari dead for Liquid here.
They're gathering up the third now.
Also with the Void side, that's a scary mob on top, but that need to make sure that they're able to deal with the cast from there.
Shun gets the lay on hands to survive here. Very dangerous moment there for the Blood Decay.
Can it increase his armor for a bit? Actually, very nice little Holy Paladin talent that might help him stay alive,
but look at his health bar just yo-yoing around wildly.
Oh my god.
That's what we can use. He's still having trouble stabilizing though.
There's just so much damage coming in there. Looks like he is going to be okay building back up that runic power.
Meanwhile, on the side of Team Liquid, this trash pool getting super low as well.
Yip's still with that last resort available about to get back to meta as well.
I mean, that was the bubble stack used from Lota as well.
Big Lucky is running out of cooldowns.
If Shun gets in trouble one more time, he could go down very easily.
They have literally nothing available.
Shun dropping low once again on this pull.
Easy to find a way to stay alive.
Brutalize going out on the main.
We'll live through that once again with another Vant Blood.
But they are in dire straits over on the side of Big Lucky.
This is such a scary pull for those Blood Depth Knights,
but it does look like shun has been able to get through the worst of it still a bit more trash going to be needed for big
Lucky meanwhile team liquid are going to take 10% more count onto the boss
This is it liquids through the pole one more boss left one more pole of trash
They have the bloodlust ready for this pole all they have to do is live through cronus one final time
And in a will have its first champion in seven years
Stamping or pop they're up at the top of the stairs already and there is that bloodlust
Let's see just how quickly they are able to take this boss from 100 to 0.
Cool Down's available here.
Everything across the board. Ascendance pops. Deathmark on the boss.
Tyrant available. Bloodlust active on the entire team.
I've spread out for this crash here.
Afterwards, need to make sure they get these orbs into the planets around them.
Need to make sure they don't overlap. Need to make sure they don't accidentally
try to go for the same orb. The communication is there.
They've got three players in different spots. They're good to go on here.
Ashaa just needs to get around that last one and they're good to go here.
In the meantime, Gret knows the Bloodlust push as the boss sub 50 already.
That boss already nearly dead here for Liquid and Lust is still rolling.
Meanwhile, Big Lucky hot on their heels here.
A little bit more count needed, but they are running up these stairs as well.
But this is going to be such a scary pull.
They're taking a Void Siphon to the boss.
Big Lucky doing everything in their power to keep it close to give themselves a chance.
But Liquid is so far ahead.
They have most of the trash that already.
Boss sub 30%.
Big Lucky only just now pulling the boss.
Just a little bit more count needed here for Team Liquid as well, but it is dying under the boss.
25% HP as Big Lucky. A big burst on pull here. They've already got the boss down to 75%,
but Team Liquid just so far ahead at this point. Last few trash mobs going down for them. They
need to finish off that shaman as well, but there's just nothing that Big Lucky can do.
The boss 10% HP here for Team Liquid.
There is no way they could lose it from here.
Team Liquid are gonna win the MDI.
3-1, they are your champions.
Liquid have done it.
They have taken the championship here at BlizzCon 2026.
They had something to prove, and they proved it.
They have taken this for themselves, and they have stood here on the stage in front of all
of you, proving that NA is a high contestant as well as the mythic dungeon international
that EU can't reign forever.
I mean, this was an incredible series, and Liquid have had a journey through this season
that is so powerful, Teddles.
A shine coming off the stage yesterday.
He said he hadn't won since 2018.
He said it was coming home.
He was hot after that mandatory win.
Liquid came out.
They lost that map one in the blinding veil,
and then they hit the three maps in a row
to be able to take it down and win BlizzCon 2026.
You know, after that first win from Big Lucky,
you can tell they were feeling the pressure,
but they did it regardless,
and they absolutely definitively have proven
That team Liquid is going to be your coolest Con 2026 champions.
I mean, this was amazing, Dreadnought,
to just get to see them come in here and to know that for so many of them,
like Tuddles was saying, this has so much meaning.
What a deserving group of players as well.
They played those series so well.
They came in with that meta read as well.
The only team on that vengeance even under the only team on that warlock
able to make this happen.
I mean, it was a lot of just incredible play.
And that was a masterclass run from them there.
I mean, Zyra, we can see the players now moving across the stage of the audience.
Everybody here just beaming the cheers going up.
We are very happy to say once again that here and now,
they are going to be raising these trophies high.
And we can say this is Liquid on your blizzcon!
Twenty-twenty-six missing dungeon international grand champion.
And the crowd is electric here.
Oh my gosh, it's the first time that we've had the blizzcon.
MDI here since 2019 and you guys all in the audience have been showing up and cheering them on the entire time.
We have absolutely loved being here with everyone and the teams have too.
This has meant the world to all of us and just being with everyone live.
I mean, you can feel this race in a way that even when we're remote, the excitement is there, but this is so intense.
Now, Aya has our winning team, your champions for the Mythic Dungeon International.
Aya, they've got to be feeling good right now.
Hello, hello, everyone. I am here with Team Liquid, our new BlizzCon champions.
All right, well, Stevi, you guys have had an incredible year. You just came off a win
of Race to World First, and now you are BlizzCon champions. How does this moment feel to you?
I mean, it feels amazing. We've been chasing a tournament win for a few years now. We've
been so close so many times and being able to finally accomplish it in front of a massive
crowd on the land event. It just was awesome. Thank you guys.
All right, it's
you guys obviously have such incredible friendship and incredible bond. We can see
it on the screens. We can see it here in the room as well. What does it mean to
share this win with people that you've shared such highs and lows with? I mean,
these guys have been friends for so long and it's one of the probably the best
team ever played on and we're also good to be each other and we're kind of
like a family so it's just amazing to be on stage and be able to win with everyone. It's awesome.
All right well Tisco you can see out in the audience how many fans, how many jerseys,
how many flags of Team Liquid supporters there are. How does that feel? It feels amazing.
We've been here for one month and it's just been continuous support from start to finish. From
from the race to MDI.
There's so many people being so nice and friendly.
It's awesome.
Thank you, everyone.
All right, speaking of one month,
you've been staying at hotels, Airbnb's.
I know some of those competitors
have been practicing in the internet cafes.
How does it feel to finally get a moment to rest?
Amazing, I'm going straight to bed.
Well deserved, well deserved.
All right, I'm coming to you.
We are back here on the desk, but, oh, sorry.
Aya, please continue.
I got one more, one more, Rook, hold on.
All right, any final thoughts from you?
Anything you want to say to the folks watching back home?
I mean, just thank you for the support.
All has been so many years.
I've been chasing this feeling,
and there's like nothing better than doing to you
a lot of bliss going in front of like amazing crowd.
Thank you for the energy.
Just thank you all.
I have nothing else to add.
Just words can't describe this feeling.
All right, one more time.
Let's hear it for Team Liquid, our MDI.
the Blue Scone Champion.
All right, I do have a special guest as well.
We've got Kyle Heartline.
He is our lead World of Warcraft designer and he wants to say a few words as well.
Woo, that's okay.
I've almost fallen on that stage a few times, but I can't come on over here.
All right, we came from humble beginnings with MDI.
You and me, the whole crew backstage.
How does it feel to finally have MDI back on the Blue Scone stage?
It's about time.
Mythic Dungeons have been a part of WoW for 10 years
and we've been dreaming up MDI ever since then.
And it is such a treat to have it back here on the stage,
players from all over the world and all the fans out here.
Thank you so much for your support and your love.
And we'll keep this going for as long as we can.
You bet.
And it's just an honor to be here representing the hundreds of people that work on wow behind the scenes
Thank you so much, and we won't let you down
All right anything else you want to add let's just give it up one more time for your winners liquid
All right now we're back on desk honestly
I've just been so excited to even just talk about and relive that moment
I mean liquid huge win for them and it means so much to the team with their history as well as just knowing they can round out this year
I think really having accomplished pretty much everything titles
So you say their history they lost the MDI and were within season three by
16 seconds last season they were incredibly close to dignitas as well taking that
It's basically as far as it could go and now liquid after a race world first victory
They are now your blizzcon champions.
This is electric for them.
Congratulations to those guys.
I know they've been working so hard for this.
I've just been kind of sitting back soaking in the moment.
I mean, we've known these guys for so long.
Obviously, even pre-team Liquid,
so many of these guys have been so close for so long.
Ashain himself has gotten second place
like 10 times in the past five years
after winning the very first MDAC Mobile Finals we had
way back in 2018.
Him finally getting to the top of the mountain once again.
That's a crazy story in and of itself.
We called the team like the merger of Perplexed and Liquid
And like that was how it started all the way back in the world within and since then they started out and they were extremely good
And they just continue to get better and better and better every single season until they are what we see them today
I know and you know we asked coming in these are strong players
But can they prove here now that they are champions and they did they did that they proved it
They're not just strong players, but they are an MDI blizzcon winning team
They've finally taken this for themselves after all of those close calls and you love to see it here in the hall now
I believe we should be able to revisit that winning moment
But when you saw them just coming in the dungeon at those last second stratness
How are you feeling? There's that moment where you can just see that the boss is low enough
They've made it through the hard overlaps
There is nothing between them and the win and you know how that feels for the players as well when they realize that those
that the team has been able to
win the game. And the team
has been able to win the
game. And those uncertainties
have finally been resolved, and
they're going to win the MDI.
Absolutely incredible feeling. I
know. I mean, just knowing that
it comes down to that and just
seeing how that hard work is
paid off for both the teams is
incredible. And I mean, we do
have to look at the actual game
that they played so we can think
a bit about that as we look back
on the bracket and everything
that happened here now, of
course, here in this final
series, we saw big lucky go up
What do you think ultimately was the big deciding factor for their win?
I mean, in the first two maps, it honestly looked like Big Lucky kind of had out-outstraded Liquid.
But man, when Liquid got into form, there was no looking back for them.
They just ran away with it. The second they got that lead in the third map, there was no going back for them.
I do think we've been talking so much about Liquid. I still want to shout out hats off to Big Lucky.
This is the best Chinese performance from a team that we've seen in years.
They played amazingly well.
Hopefully they continue to keep playing because we would love to have them back.
but still into the day, Liquid, first North American champions in seven years.
Unbelievable. I think if you simulate this series a bunch of times I think
there's a lot of outcomes that end up going to five maps. I do think that this
void star arena though was pretty liquid-favored. I think that there was
kind of an interesting decision point between the right versus the left
strategy at the very beginning of this dungeon where you end up getting master
if you go on the right, you get versatility if you go on the left, the versatility buff
should be a little bit better, but ultimately Liquid were 25 seconds ahead
coming out of the first boss,
the engine being 45 seconds ahead
coming out of the second boss.
And then a brutalizer also for big lucky ended up
like the devouring brutalizer mob at eight a mob
and then it healed the full.
And so that lost people lucky a little bit more time
on the back half.
And I feel like this map was really just one
that was liquid to lose.
It was kind of a narrative that we had across all
of the teams coming into this weekend.
The more consistent team that has the better strategies
that can execute them with 100% efficiency
without any deaths,
those were gonna be the teams that were gonna win.
We knew that there wasn't a ton of practice time
since the beginning of the season,
that the teams were going to be able to put into the dungeons.
And so we knew that the team that showed up at BlizzCon
were able to clutch up and not have those deaths
whenever the moment was at its most impactful.
That was going to be the team that
was going to be able to win.
That was liquid today.
It was.
It was.
But you know, like you mentioned, big lucky.
Chicks will be so proud of themselves.
I mean, Dratos, initially when they came into the season,
this past season, they were just saying, oh, really?
We just want to qualify for BlizzCon.
And then once they did, I mean, I feel like they went even
farther than that.
They decided they were going to take it all the way to the end, and there was that winning moment, the end itself, when Liquid took it.
I mean, the energy was so real.
Brandon, what were you feeling as you saw the team celebrate?
I was so happy for Team Liquid, but yeah, of course, Big Lucky deserves so much praise as well for making it here,
for competing in the way that they did, so much to be proud of, for all of our MDI competitors as well.
Dignitas and Magnatory, who we saw yesterday, incredibly deserving players as well.
I hope that we see all of them again. Me too. I mean this whole year has been an incredible year for mythic plus
Speedrunning or otherwise for those of you who are out there playing yourselves as well
I mean Zyro, how have you thought that this year and midnight has really kind of kicked us off with everything in?
Oh, I mean one thing's for certain. You know if anyone is a demo lock for high-key pushing
I'm looking I'm looking for a group that that glass looks disgusting, but no, I mean this season has been awesome
the crowd. You guys have been
awesome. Every time something
happens, you guys roar. Oh my
god. The players are hearing
it. We're hearing it. The
feedback is amazing. You guys
have been amazing standing room
only here like the entire hall
was absolutely packed with
people. There was a moment when
I looked out and I just went
all I can see are people and
everybody is here enjoying this
moment together, both live and
around the world with the mythic
plus international. I mean,
this or mythic dungeon
international excuse me. I mean,
it's just been such an
and incredible competition, and it's just kicking us off as we look ahead to even more in the future.
But of course, we have to say a huge congratulations again to Team Liquid, your 2026 BlizzCon grand champions.
I mean, phenomenal play, phenomenal dungeons, and we are looking forward to everything the future has in store for them and our other competitors.
Now, we will be taking a break here on the stage, but we have a panel coming up for you with some developers very soon
that I know you're all going to want to definitely stick around for.
And later in the day, some more Arena World Championship as well.
So don't go anywhere unless you just need a quick drink or snack
and we'll be back in a few minutes.
Let's go.
BlizzCon is brought to you by Fanta, lip-smacking deliciousness.
Want a Fanta?
Nintendo Switch 2, NVIDIA GeForce RTX, Game Changer.
Our home, Azeroth, her untold stories, call to our hearts, revealing lands unexplored.
Forgotten secrets and new horizons.
I
beckons us back to home, to adventure, forever.
What's up BlizzCon?
I want you all to imagine Duskwood.
You all know Duskwood, right?
It's a dark, creepy forest, crawling with spiders and wolves.
Haunted with undead ghouls and skeletons.
The guards of the night watch, torches in hand,
patrol dangerous roads,
keeping their eyes out for a certain abomination.
There's dilapidated buildings, abandoned farms, it's a terrifying place.
Now that you have that image in your head, let's take a look at the real thing.
Boom.
There we go.
All right, so we have classic deskwood here, right?
Darkshire, town square, around 2 in the morning.
It's awesome, right?
Iconic, definitely a fan favorite zone.
But it might not be as dark or creepy as you remember.
When I remember deskwood, I imagine
the light of the full moon illuminating an eerie cold
fog.
There we go!
I'm just going to let that sit for a couple seconds, yeah?
Alright, I remember graveyards teeming with skeletons.
The dim warm glow of torches guiding my path.
Thank you. I remember the silhouettes of terrible creatures lurking in the fall, this feeling
of dread and danger around every single corner. And of course, most of all, I remember constantly
looking over my shoulder in the Ravenhill Cemetery, hoping I don't run into this guy
and potentially lose another one of my hardcore characters.
Now, this is the dustblod that I remember,
and this is what we're so excited to talk about here today,
how with WoW forever, we are evolving our timeless world.
But before we jump into that,
let me bring my buddy Jason out onto the stage,
and we'll do some quick introductions.
So, my name is Matt Heyman.
I'm a lead environment artist on World of Warcraft.
And I've been at Blizzard working on Wow for 15 years,
which sounds like a long time, right?
But believe it or not,
15 years ago we were starting production on Missa Fand area.
But don't worry, I've been playing Wow since
that launched back in 2004 when I was in high school.
And my favorite way to play WoW is hardcore classic,
but I cannot wait until hardcore hits WoW forever.
Hi, my name is Jason Scott.
I'm a lead software engineer.
I work with the graphics and engine team.
I've been with World of Warcraft for about three years,
but that was after more than 20 years
in visual effects and animation for film and television,
both on the art side and on the technology side.
But my personal history of WoW goes back a lot farther
than the three years I've been at Blizzard.
All the way back to the beta.
Back to May 2004, this is my actual WoW beta invite.
You can see the date right there.
So my appreciation for WoW long predates
my being able to work on the game itself.
All right, back to Matt.
All right, thanks, Jason.
So, what does it mean to evolve a timeless world?
Well, as I'm sure you've seen so far at the show,
that we're making some aesthetic changes
to the world of Azeroth.
So let's start by looking at our overall visual goal
for a while forever.
Azeroth, as you remember it.
Sounds cool, right?
But what does that mean?
Well, we wanted to take that original vanilla version
of Azeroth and combine it with the version
that lives in our heads, where our experiences, nostalgia,
and our imagination all shaped the way that we remember it.
So how did we go about doing that?
What did that process look like?
Well, first, we started by looking
at all the content coming to WoW forever.
We knew that we were going to have a bunch of brand new zones
that players have never seen before,
like the Zephyrus Isle, starting zone
for the new Skyborne race, which is still playable here today.
If you haven't checked it out, it's literally right back there.
And then we have the River Glades, another brand new zone
coming to the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms
right next to the Red Ridge Mountains.
Players will probably check this out around the mid-level 30
area.
And then we knew that we wanted to expand and alter
some of our existing areas, like how the city of Dalaran
is now fully present right here next to the Altrac Mountains,
no longer hiding in its purple bubble.
And then of course, finally,
we have all of our existing zones, around 40 of them.
That's Theramore.
So you've probably heard this before,
a couple of times here at the show,
but we consider the world to be our main character.
But I like to consider it as a cast of characters
with each and every zone having its own unique color palette,
mood, atmosphere, its own essence.
So that created a bit of a challenge for us.
How do we take brand new zones
that players have never seen before
and make them feel like something that's always been there?
Well, simultaneously, take our existing zones
and breathe new life into them
to really turn them into that version that you imagine.
So there were two components to making this happen.
Come on, Felwood, hurry up.
There we go.
Our arts and engineering teams collaborated to develop a bunch of new rendering updates
for a while forever.
That would help us enhance the look of the world.
And then, of course, we would create new art assets to build out these new spaces, our
new zones, our new dungeons, and our new raids.
Now, changing a world that players have cherished for such a long time has risks, and so we
wanted to make sure that we approached it carefully and responsibly.
So we developed a guiding artistic principle that we followed every step of the way.
Everything must be authentic.
Everything we create, everything we change, everything we add, must be authentic, authentic
to our world, authentic to our art style,
and most importantly, authentic to all the memories
that we have of that vanilla Azeroth.
We're not here to change things just for the sake of change.
We know that you all love the vanilla world,
and so it's really important to us that we respect that.
Now, let's take a look at a quick example.
Here we have vanilla Durotar,
outside the gates of Orgrimmar.
Everyone loves Durotar, right?
Durotar fans, maybe? Okay, cool.
Now, as an artist, it might be tempting when I get new tech or new tools
to go in and just change everything, because it's fun and exciting.
As an example, maybe the whole zone changes to have a cool blue atmosphere.
It feels natural and realistic, but that's not Durotar.
Or we could go even more extreme and change the atmosphere to a foggy green atmosphere.
But again, neither of these are authentic to Durotar.
The correct approach is to go in with purpose
and lean in and push the fantasy that Durotar already has.
Durotar is an arid but vibrant landscape,
full of red rock canyons, dry cracked earth,
and a hot, sweltering atmosphere.
So you see, authenticity was so important
to creating a Durotar that players remember.
Now, authenticity was equally important,
or maybe even more important,
when it came to creating new assets for WoW Forever.
You see, our models and textures
are the foundation of WoW's art style.
And it's an art style that has changed over the years
with every expansion.
But for WoW Forever, we wanted to maintain
that iconic vanilla look.
There's an edge and grittiness
to the way those assets look.
And it just feels like WarCrafts.
So, if we summarize,
the way that we created, wow, as we remember it,
is a little bit of old and a little bit of new.
We're creating assets that maintain
that timeless, iconic look,
and we're bringing in new rendering updates
to help breathe new life into our world.
So now, to give us a more detailed look
at those rendering updates,
I'm gonna pass it over to Jason.
Thanks, Matt.
So,
to achieve the visuals we wanted for WoW Forever,
we were able to innovate
in several different rendering technology areas.
And each of these was chosen
with the goal of being authentic, as Matt said,
with enhancing the look of the game
so that you can be that much more immersed
in the world of Azeroth.
So we're going to look at these technologies in three groupings.
Fog, lighting, and water.
And now each of these is actually made up
of multiple technologies.
We're going to use these groupings
to help illustrate things.
And as I talk, we're going to play some examples.
You have a better idea of what it is that we've done.
And there's one more thing.
These aren't just individual items,
individual components that we decide to work on.
Our artists and our engineers collaborated to bring them all together
with the goal of giving us the look of WoW Forever.
So let's get into the details.
All right? First, let's talk about Fog.
Fog has been integral to WoW's look since the very beginning.
All right? And if we look at some examples from vanilla WoW,
we can use that to understand how we've used Fog over the years.
We've used it in a variety of ways.
to create zones like this one.
A gloomy, spooky, dark swamp like Dust Wall of Marsh.
Fog helped us create the mood and the ambiance
we wanted to provide for the players.
Or we might create a zone like this one.
This one, right?
Where we use fog to make a light and airy atmosphere.
Here in Dunbaro, in the mountains around Iron Forge,
We can use fog to create vistas or give a sense of depth.
If you didn't know, each zone had its own unique fog
created by our art teams.
But if we go back to the beginning,
back to the launch of WoW,
we use fog out in the distance for a very particular purpose
related to game performance.
So if you didn't know,
we have limitations on our view distance
or our draw distance at the beginning.
And that's the distance at which from the player,
we're not really able to draw what else is out there
in the world.
And so in order to not really show that to the players,
we would hide that in a wall of fog.
And we have some other examples of this.
As we stand in the Barrens,
you should be able to kind of look over and see into Durotar,
maybe a little to Azharra,
but we need to be able to control those sight lines
for those reasons.
And over the years,
we were able to improve that view distance
and work on that fog and improve it,
but we didn't want to be bound
by any technical limitations anymore.
We wanted to creatively control
what we were able to show you out in the distance.
And in addition, with fog,
we wanted to have pockets of fog
that maybe you could walk through,
we could surround a player,
or maybe we could hide things in the fog.
We wanted to be able to shine light through it
or have it have shadows,
or have it move, have dusts and dirt and particles and texture.
Now all these things can be done in a system called volumetrics or volumetric fog.
So it became our goal to replace
our original distant fog with this new volume fog technology,
and while forever has given us that chance.
Our engineers and our artists have worked together to develop
a system to control fog like we never have before.
Now, we can increase that sense of creepiness in Dust Wall and Marsh.
And we can see the effect of wind in a zone.
We can feel the texture of dust.
We can see it sweep across the plains of the Western Plague lands.
If you didn't know, each zone has its own unique wind, as well.
We've also been able to adjust that sight line
between the zones that we were talking about.
And so now, when we do stand here in the Barrens,
and we do look over into Duratar,
we can start to make out land formations.
We can see, start to see into Azhara.
And as we look up, we can even see Nordrasil atop Mount Hyjal.
This gives us a sense of the expansive world that we have in Azeroth.
Now, another example of this is back in the wetlands.
We're not bound by that view distance.
Now we can see the backs of the mountains of Dunmerow.
As we stand and we look across Menethal Harbor,
We look across the Bairdon Bay,
we can start to make out the violet citadel
of Dalaran in the Altrack Mountains.
Our new fog is one of the biggest visual changes in WoW's history.
Now, in some of these examples,
you might see rays of light were commonly called God rays.
You can see this really vividly here in Ashen Vale.
These rays of light come from our ability to shine light through the fog in a process
called scattering.
You can see this on the path with the lights on the path as well.
And the size and the shape of those rays come from what's blocking the light or simply
what's casting shadows into the fog, whether that be from the trees or mounds or anything
else.
Now, these rays are incredibly beautiful and we're so excited.
get to bring this kind of imagery to the game.
So this is a natural place to go to our second set
of technologies, lighting.
So as you saw in Asheville, we have some beautiful new lighting
that comes with our new fog.
But in trying to achieve the lighting,
we realized there were a couple of additional areas
we needed to adjust.
So I'm going to use some time-lapse footage
from the Badlands to help explain what I mean.
So here we have the Badlands in Vanilla Wow.
And we're showing some of the sun and the moon
that sets and rises behind the mountain.
At the risk of destroying the illusion,
we're going to point out a couple of things,
a couple of attributes,
to help illustrate what we needed to adjust.
So in order to talk about lighting,
you need to be able to talk about shadows.
In fact, there's two pieces of shadows
we're going to talk about.
So let's start there.
The first is if we look at the mountain,
we see as the sun and the moon
go up and down behind the mountain,
you'll see a little bit of some rays that we had,
but they're not really getting properly blocked or occluded by the mountain.
The second is if you look at the shadows from the tower,
as the moon and the sun change position in the sky,
those shadows don't do anything.
Right? And in fact, those shadows shouldn't even be there some of the time
because the mountains should be shadowing as well.
Now, these kinds of qualities came from the fact that historically,
our suns and moons' position in the sky
did not actually line up with the light we were casting into the world.
Now, we've known this from the beginning, and a lot of you knew this,
but with our new fog, this is going to become really, really obvious.
Right?
If all we did change some of that overwilds history
and get some of the light to change position,
it didn't really change that much and achieve what we wanted.
So now let's look at wow forever.
You can see as the sun starts coming up to dawn,
as streams of light just come popping over that mountain.
We get similar rays from the moon as well.
And you can look at those shadows from the tower and from the mountain as they're getting
properly cast into the world.
Okay?
Let's look at another similar example, this time in Morgore.
All right?
Again, vanilla wow, as it basically was on day one.
And you can see those shadows from the trees aren't moving.
All right?
And again, later on, later expansions, they did move a little, but not very much.
And now again, wow forever.
So to achieve this, to achieve this, we need to change a couple of things.
The first thing is we need to make sure everything in our world was properly shadowing, right?
We needed to make sure the mountains, the terrain, the land formations were properly
blocking the light as it was coming into the world.
And then secondly, we needed to make sure that the position of the sun and the moon
more closely aligned with the light that was coming in.
Now, there are still some creative and artistic choices we make, but this is so exciting that
it makes the world that much more alive.
But there's another lighting aspect here we have to talk about.
With all these new shadows from our fog, from our terrain, our world had a chance of getting
a little bit darker.
Let's talk about what that means.
So here in Elwin Forest, there's always shadows,
whether it be from trees or something else.
So we're going to make sure you see where those shadows are.
And what we've done historically
is we've filled in those shadows
with a kind of a flat, low level of lighting
called ambient lighting.
And that's meant to simulate how light from the sky
or light that bounces around the world
fills in the dark areas, fills in the shadows.
But that ambient light never quite accomplished
what we were really wanting.
You'll see it is quite flat.
If you look under the stable, for example,
it should be significantly darker in there
because there's less opportunity for light to bounce inside.
What we really wanted was a way to calculate
how lighting was bounced around the world.
When light hits a surface,
it picks up the color of that surface,
or they have less opportunity in a dark area.
This system where we have light that indirectly bounces
or indirectly illuminates something
is naturally called indirect illumination
global illumination, right?
So let me show you what that means in WoW Forever.
Now when we use our global illumination system
to fill in those shadows,
we get such a more natural, integrated, immersive look,
immersive view to everything that's going in.
You can even see some of the red light
as it bounces off the top of the stables
and hits the sides of the chapel.
You can see green light as it filters through
from the sunlight, filtering through the green leaves
into the shadowed area behind the tree, right?
And you can see in the stable, it's a lot more naturally dark.
Right?
Because there's less opportunity for that light to bounce around in there.
So now if we compare these, you can see how it was with our ambient light versus with
our global illumination system.
You'll see how much more life it brings as we look at that.
Now, we can actually visualize this.
We have an example from Stranglethorne Vale, and I've added to the bottom left a visual
of the light that's bouncing in the world, right?
Not the sunlight, but just light that's bouncing.
And you can see as the light bounces around,
it picks up so much green,
you can see little patches of red and brown from the path.
As we go down deeper into the jungle,
you'll see how much naturally it gets dark from the light.
And you'll see patches as the sunlight punches through
and picks up more of that color that's coming through.
This allows our artists to craft the style,
the lighting that we want in the zone.
And as we place objects into that environment,
they're more naturally reacting to how everything sits.
Here's another example,
this time from the border between the Barrens
and Ashenvale.
And this is time lapse footage.
So you can see how our global illumination system
changes as the time of day changes.
You'll see is how light starts to come through
in the screen right side.
And you'll see it has more and more light
bounces around the scene, picking up colors from the green leaves,
the red leaves of Ashenvale, and just filling in those shadows
so much more naturally.
So as you can see, in our world, our light comes from the sun
or other lights that we place.
And then the rest of the dark areas
are filled in by the sky and light bouncing around the world
from our global illumination system.
And we built a custom ray tracer,
built on a mix of existing ideas and new technologies.
And we're very, very proud of it.
But the most amazing thing is,
while we've designed this and it runs
on our recommended hardware requirements,
we've been able to optimize this
and this runs completely
on our minimum hardware requirements as well.
So all Valve forever players get to enjoy this.
Now, as we travel down the South Fury River here in Nijara,
it's a natural place to go to our third set
the technologies, water, all right?
Water is another rendering technology
where we wanted to bring more life to the game.
And there's a few characteristics we wanted to hear.
We wanted to work on the movement of the water
from waves, wind, the flow of water.
We wanted to work on the color, enhance that,
the look, how light hits it and the transparency
when light comes off it.
And we wanted to work on the reflections,
how and what water is reflecting.
So, let's first talk about movement.
I'm going to have some examples
played through to show some of the controls that we can use.
We did have some movement in original WoW in vanilla,
but it wasn't quite what we wanted.
Now, we can control the size of waves.
Whether we might want to adjust that based on
the size of a body of water,
whether it be a lake or an ocean or the depth of water,
we can adjust the wind.
Again, we said there's unique wind in every zone,
and so we can pick that up and react appropriately.
And we see all these things that come together.
Do we have the different kinds of water life that we want?
Another type of movement we have is the flow of water.
And you can see, we did have some simple kinds of flow
or movement in the water, but it didn't really flow
as a river.
But now and while forever, we can have those rivers
flow down as we want them.
They move following the path of the river.
They bend around rocks and land formations as they hit rocks,
it creates foam and has some textural quality.
So we can see as it interacts with the environment.
Here's another example here in the Red Bridge Mountains.
And we see is how big this river is,
how the water completely flows around.
And our artists have full control over this.
even against gravity because we actually have some
magical rivers in Azeroth that go uphill.
So, but now, let's look at the look of the water.
Again, we'll play some examples of
the controls that we can have,
and we worked with Art to open up the controls.
We wrote a completely new water shader.
We even had artists do some paintovers to
show what we might want to be able to change.
We can affect the density of the water and how light is absorbed and how it changes the colors of objects underneath the water.
We can change how light is reflecting and hitting the surface of the water and at different depths to be able to control the color
to give us whatever kind of body of water we want from murky to crystal clear.
And all right, on to our last part, reflections.
Again, we didn't really reflect anything at the beginning.
We couldn't. Sorry, I have time-lapse footage here,
so we can see even as the time of day changes,
nothing's being reflected.
All right. But as always,
if we look here in mile forever,
now we can properly reflect our entire environment with us.
We can see it as the time of day changes here in time-lapse footage,
properly reflecting.
We can see it with the ripples and the movement of the water,
all put together. Now I should also mention we can also reflect the sun and the moon.
And this has been a lot of fun for us. We can see again how it was at the beginning.
And now we can get these amazingly gorgeous sunrises, sunsets, and moonrises and moonsets
as well. So that covers just some of the rendering technology we've been able to introduce into
WALF forever. So there's so many more areas we've been able to work on, but let's look as we put
it back together. Matt? Thank you, Jason. Cool shit, yeah? All right. One thing I want to emphasize
is that this isn't a filter or a switch that we just flip on and everything looks magically different.
We went in and meticulously recreated the lighting
and the atmosphere from the ground up.
We took our original 1.12 vanilla debug client
and used it as reference, as our ground truth.
We stepped through every single time of day,
from midnight to 2 a.m. to noon to sunset to evening,
everything, and tried to match and recreate
the original vibes that every single zone had.
Now, how about we go through that process together
and build our own zone.
So let's bring back our old favorite dust wood, yeah?
Woo!
All right.
So here we have dust wood.
There's no lighting, no fog.
We just have flat models and textures.
Like I said before, this is our foundation of WoW style.
So let's turn down the lights and just add
a little bit of moonlight to the scene.
Here you can see it's dark.
If you're a fan of really dark nights in WoW,
This is probably what you've been looking for.
And I think it looks cool, but it's not playable.
It's a little too dark.
So let's bring in a bit more light.
So we're going to bring in some point lights.
These are lights that go on all of our different sources,
our windows, our torches, our lanterns.
It helps provide some visual breakup, some color distinction.
And honestly, it just looks really cool.
Now, let's bring in that global illumination
that Jason was talking about.
So our moonlight is hitting the ground, it's bouncing,
and it's lifting up our shadows a bit,
adding a bit of color.
But we're missing a whole other component.
We need some fog for our scene.
So let's add a base layer of fog.
So as you can see here, just adding in fog
makes the entire space feel darker.
Your ability to perceive details in those dark areas
just get completely vanished by this thick fog.
Now, let's bring in some of the light scattering
that Jason talked about.
So now, our moon is actually illuminating the fog,
giving us those creepy god rays here in Darkshire.
So now let's add some movement, some variation to the fog.
We're going to bring in some noise
to create that creepy, eerie, moving mist.
But we're not done yet.
So we're going to add in a little bit of ground fog
to really amp up that spooky vibe.
We're getting close to being done,
but now we're gonna bring in some of our post-process effects,
some bloom, some color correction,
really push things, right?
It looks cool, it's punchy, it's vibrant,
but we've probably gone a little bit too far.
We've probably moved beyond what I would call the wow style.
We have too much contrast,
can't really see what's going on,
so we're gonna pull things back,
Make sure it's aligned with an authentic version of Duskwood.
All right, so here we calm down some of the saturation,
turn down some of the bloom.
Things are looking pretty good.
So let's check it against our original classic version
of Duskwood.
And now let's flip it back to wow forever.
We still have Darkshire.
It's still creepy, it's still moody, it still feels like the place that we remember, but
it's really pushing that haunted, spooky tendency.
But there's one step left that every artist should go through when lighting his own, and
that's taking the player perspective.
It's really easy to light one shot like this and make it look cool, but it's important
that we run around the game.
We look at all the different areas
and make sure things are working cohesively.
Like Jason mentioned, here in the open or in Darkshire,
you've got a lot of moonlight.
But as you move into the forest,
as the canopy of the trees are overhead,
there's gonna be less light to bounce around.
Things are gonna get darker, things are gonna get spookier.
You might just wanna find a torch to carry along with you.
And as you can see here,
as you walk out on the farms and the fields,
We've got more fog, we've got more creepiness.
Who knows what mysteries you're going to find?
Now, this is the approach that we took for all of our zones
in a while forever.
Like I said, we went through and we
tried to authentically recreate the look, the vibe,
the mood, the atmosphere, all the characteristics
that make up these familiar places.
And I want to assure you, it's not just pretty sunsets.
Every time of day has a different look,
a different feeling, as long as it's authentic to the original,
I think we did a pretty good job.
All good.
Let's wrap it all up.
So as we wrap, Matt and I want to acknowledge,
we didn't do all this just the two of us.
We had a very dedicated team who were so passionate about crafting
all the creative artistic decisions,
and all the underlying technology
that brought all this together.
A lot of that team is here today,
so we'd love it if you give them a round of applause
as they're here in the audience.
So with that, we are thrilled that we got to share our effort
on evolving the look of WoW Forever.
And we're so excited for you to be able to go
and experience this yourself.
We hope you got to play the demo
You're here at BlizzCon!
We hope you get to play the beta when it's released next week.
And we are so excited for you to enjoy it when we launch Wow Forever on November 4th.
We hope you find your own visual surprises in our timeless world of Azeroth.
Alright, thank you all for coming.
Thank you all.
The Arena World Championship is coming up next, so feel free to stick around.
PlizCon is brought to you by Fanta, lip-smacking deliciousness.
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Welcome back to WoW Esports, here live on the BlizzCon stage.
We have returned with Arena World Championship.
And while we were just running some dungeons now,
we have some PVP heads to heads that need to go down.
I am your stage host, Rook.
And I'm here with Ziko, Suva, and Chan to start things off here
as we get into the real build up to when we're going to be
crowning an AWC champion, Chan.
Yeah, it's going to be a crazy game.
I think this is one of the best series we're going to see today.
It's the first time that we see Ekko play, and you know, you guys always know this.
I think that they can be the best team in the world if they're on the right, you know,
playing well on that deck.
So, very excited to see them, excited to see how Guild Bean is going to do into them,
because I've heard that Ekko is most scared to face Guild Bean as well.
It's true, you know, we have a long road until we have Champions, but we are going to see
some Champions play.
Ekko, like you said, such a powerhouse, they have racked up so many wins, and of course
they will be going up against Guild Bean.
Let's take a look at the full schedule for the rest of the day.
As you can see, we just got through that wonderful panel
involving a timeless world,
and we are now moving on to the semi-final matches
for the AWC tournament.
Now, we'll have another panel later, so stay tuned,
especially if you want all that information
about the exciting future of World of Warcraft.
And then after that panel, we will move on
to our grand final match that we'll be doing here for the AWC.
Now, of course, the tournament,
in case you weren't familiar with it,
will give you a little refresher.
It's a 16 single elimination bracket.
Now we had a couple of semi-finals earlier,
and we have more to go still.
Those will be best of fives,
and the Grand Final will be a best of seven.
But, super, can you give everybody
a little rough rundown of the draft rules?
Yeah, so in game number one here,
it's gonna be blind pick, which means both teams
have no idea what strategy or composition
is gonna come out of the gates.
The winner of that will then be out of disadvantage.
The loser can select their map.
The winner will then select their composition,
and then the loser will have an opportunity
to counter composition them, which will likely be very important in this series.
Yeah, those plays, those counter plays, the picks that you're going for, I think that's
something that, as we've already seen, plays such a huge role in how these teams are able
to show up and then take down the opposition.
And they will be competing for $300,000, which is a lot of money on the line, Ziko.
Now we said, of course, we're coming back here with Echo and Guilfbien.
How do you think we're going to see this shake down as we look at our bracket?
Well, the way I'm seeing this is the last time we saw Ekko and Gilbin play, it was at
2019 BlizzCon and it was in the grand finals and they went all the way to game 7.
The only difference on Gilbin's side is that they have a different healer.
Ekko is still the same core with Raikyuu and Wazz and I think back then they had Chas as
their healer.
So both teams have a different healer and I mean it was a complete bloodbath and I expect
nothing less today.
I know if there was a really good matchup for us to come right back to to amp up the action
This is the one
I mean these two teams have a lot of combined experience behind them and a lot to prove as they clash had to head here now
Super we have echo coming up first. Is there a little bit of introductory information you'd like to give us about them
I mean they're the reigning title champions. They're defending their title. It's been seven years since they've had to defend it
But they are an absolutely
stacked roster, Mercy, Raikou, just absolutely slaying it on that warlock and Maiden of course,
Waz. This guy is the player that everybody in the AWC has a target on. He is the guy
to beat. If you can take down Waz, you can take the entire tournament, and then JT,
a new healer flexing on this roster, some young blood on the team as well, mixing in with that
dynamic duo of Raikou and Waz. I mean, it's a powerful lineup, and you know, we did have a chance
to actually catch up with the players ourselves ahead of the matches today.
So we have a bit of information and perhaps some fighting words from them as well.
Echo is also up here. They're both like on the top tier.
And then there's like a gap and then there's another gap and then there's everybody else.
Echo is a defining team in AWC history. Through the years of competition,
it is well known that if you want to win, you're going to have to go through them.
It is going to be Echo taking the grand finals,
being crowned the kings of Europe.
They are the gatekeepers of the championship
and the holder of titles.
Having said that, it's your first BlizzCon here, Mercy.
It's your first BlizzCon here, JT.
Do you feel the weight of that situation?
For me, just like another usual day,
we've been practicing for this moment our whole year,
and now that we're here,
I think we're gonna smash everybody.
And is there really anything left for you
to prove at this point?
Proving ourselves at this point,
maybe is not what we're looking for.
It's more about continuing the legacy
Again, making sure that we still have it, even though the H is kicking in slowly.
The competition feels closer than it's ever been.
Out of all of your opponents, who are you threatened the most by and why is that?
I don't think we feel threatened by any team.
There's going to be maybe a lot of mirrors.
I don't play mirrors a lot, so anything can happen, but I think we're the strongest team,
so I don't think anyone's got to be us.
Over the years of playing together, how could you describe your progression as players?
I think we started off as like a very aggressive team.
We just wanted to get quick, quick wins.
Over the years, we learned how to play defensively
a lot better.
Is there anything that you'd like to say to your opponents?
Everyone needs to think that here,
there's the best teams in the world.
And maybe people think we're afraid of facing them,
but I would not want to be in their shoes facing us.
And he might just go down right here and right now,
and he will echo dominating game number four.
This year, the gap at the top feels smaller than ever.
Who is going to rise to the occasion
to be able to topple Echo?
is the defining question.
Well, you've heard it from themselves,
and they are ready to go and compete.
I'm so glad that you got to catch up with them, Supa,
and get some information.
Of course, echo huge contenders.
Chan, you're a little familiar with them or something,
you know.
But I think that they, even though they've proven so much,
they continue to just challenge their teams
that they're going up against.
And that is no different for Guild B, who
will be their matchup here in this one now.
We saw Guild B earlier, and we went through a kind of breakdown
of their team.
Can you give us a quick overview of Guildbeam's roster?
Absolutely, so long time previous healer on Echo has won basically everything that you can win except for BlizzCon.
So he's looking for that first major title win and then we got Maro often considered the best mage in the entire game.
BlizzCon on that warrior, but he's been more of a melee expert because a lot of these even was, you know, he's known for his role,
but a lot of them just end up becoming an expert at that role.
So, Blizzle, we've seen him on Windwalker, we've seen him on Demon Hunter, we've seen him on Warrior.
He plays a lot of different... He's the melee specialist.
If you need a melee, he's your man.
And then, of course, Zpie, who has been, I would say, the main kryptonite for Waz over the year.
He's been probably the biggest rival to any Rogue-Mage team on that elemental shaman.
Just a phenomenal, phenomenal player.
So, yeah, that would be great.
It's stiff competition, but I think echo will like the challenge now Jan
We have to get down to you and we have to start these predictions
But are you gonna lean towards echo? You know do you have a little bias there? Do you think you're going to be?
Ah, it's so hard to say because they think you know, they're scared of good being they really didn't want good being to beat FTR
But I think when you vote against echo, it's it's when you vote with your heart, right?
I'm gonna vote with my brain today. I just think it's gonna be a 3-0 for echo
I think they're gonna really show why they're the best team in the world
Okay, all right start us strong there with that prediction. I mean super are you gonna lean the same way you going 3-0 for Echo?
Are you going over Gilbeam? I'm not betting against Echo. I'm not interested in using it, I think it's gonna be 3 to 1.
I think Gilbeam might have some surprises here for us in the series. Okay, all right Ziko are you gonna keep this trend going?
Are you gonna switch it up?
Nice try Rook. I'm definitely not taking that bait. It's Echo all the way. I'm thinking of 3-1.
I think Gildbean will for sure win a game at least, but okay, okay
All right
Well, this puts me in the position of having to be the one person that probably is also going to go echo
No, I think I am you know what?
I'm gonna put some energy behind Gildbean because we did see them compete earlier
They've had time to kind of get in the mindset to warm up and we've seen this rise at the top
I think it narrower and narrower for echo
So if there was a time and place to see them really be challenged or to lose that championship crown then I think this is here
where they're playing across these regions,
to be kind of shown up.
So I'm gonna go Guildbean and I'm gonna go...
Three-one.
Ooh, it's confidence in Guildbean.
Not a game five?
Three-two.
I'm gonna go three-two.
But I think our teams are ready,
and I believe that they are more than prepared
to come out and show us an amazing, amazing start to AWC.
Let's go ahead and bring the teams to the stage.
Thank you, Rux!
Alright, let's do that. Let's welcome these teams to the stage. Are you guys ready for
some AWC to continue? Amazing love to hear it. Alright, let's hear it for Echo!
Give it up for Waz, Raikou, JT, and Mercy!
Shovec, was that you?
You yelling go easy on him?
Somebody somebody was yelling go easy on him. I don't think they're gonna be going easy on them cuz we have
Gilled being as their opponents
Let's hear it for Zpie
Lone Tar
Lizzo
Maro
All right, Ruff, send us home.
Go back with the AWC and the action is just about to resume.
You can feel the anticipation.
And thank you to everybody here to support these incredible teams.
Now we have a big matchup like we've been saying.
And while you're leaning kind of towards Echo, particularly you,
Chan, what do you think that Guildbean needs to do to stay in
this and really give it their all?
I think Guild Bean are going to have a really hard time because they need to overcome not
just the Roku Mage, but the Rogue Lock and the Mage Lock.
And I think on Echo you have the best Rogue in the world, the best Mage in the world, and
now the best Warlock in the world.
How are you going to overcome three STO comps?
Especially, you know, like, I think Guild Bean, we're going to see some interesting comps
coming out of them.
I think, I'm expecting actually to see Red Warrior come out of them, but then Echo has
to counter that and if they play something else rogue mage is waiting rogue lock is waiting. How are you going to overcome that massive obstacle? I don't know how good being is going to do it, but they have to play sick. It is single limb, you know it's due or die. Anything can happen and we have seen echo fall before.
full. It's true. Look, there could be upsets. And of course, this would be an exciting place
for them to happen. And I see a lot of the chat as well has been leaning towards echo.
I mean, with their legacy, it's no wonder. But I do know that for Guilping, there's a lot here
that they really want as well. Launter in particular has cited that he really would like to be a
champion and win on the BlizzCon stage. So, I mean, that's a kind of extra amount of pressure
you're playing under Ziko. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they got something that they really want to
play for and I think for all of them not just Lontar, for Gilbin, this is unfinished business.
The last time they were here they got knocked out by Ekko, they were one game away from taking it all
and now this is their chance to settle the score. It's single-alim which I think also
works in their favor because just like Chan mentioned Ekko tends actually to lose quite often
in the upper bracket and then just clean sweep the bottom bracket and then clean sweep the finals.
They're a very adaptable team,
but there is not a lot of time to adapt here at BlizzCon.
It's do or die, and these teams have had some time to prepare for each other.
So maybe there's a surprise waiting.
I can't wait to see the blind pick.
I know. I think that's going to be the real question.
We've seen some interesting choices already from the teams today.
Super, obviously, we know that a lot of these players are renowned for
various abilities that they have on various classes.
But what do you think we're going to see come out, class and spec-wise?
It really depends on the mind games here, right?
Echo, if they believe in their mage lock,
that it can beat the Elishaman as well as the Rhett Warrior,
then I think that mage lock is likely what they will lock in blind.
But then if Gil Bean knows that it's mage warlock,
they might have some type of curveball composition,
and if they manage to get that match up,
that's the edge they need.
They need surprise.
They need something that Echo hasn't seen,
something that they don't have a lot of practice into,
because that's when we've seen Echo falter.
Yeah, I mean, look, if you can just kind of knock your opponent off-kilter,
even if they are a top team and one that's often times the sort of bar of measure that everybody else has held up against.
I mean, I think that you have to try and play into that. You have to try and find any advantage that you can.
And our teams are preparing and getting ready here. I mean, trying to lock in Jan in front of this stage.
Is there anything you think that they're trying to do to even just make sure they don't get distracted or that the energy doesn't sweep them away?
I think once the game starts, they're going to fully lock in. But as the gates are counting down, it's going to be absolutely nerve-wracking for them.
for them. And you know, this is, this is really the first time at BlizzCon that we've seen
JT and Mercy compete, right? We saw them last year at GamesCon, which of course they won,
but at BlizzCon with a crowd this big, it's a completely different story. And of course
with JT healing, he will 100% be in the games. Let's see how he deals with that pressure
and if he can handle that.
I mean, yeah, it's very different. But you're at home just kind of playing or you're focused
locked in versus being in front of a huge audience on a stage with the lights, with the
sound, but I think that Energy Zico is also a real asset because when you hear
people cheering for you it gets you really empty up. Absolutely, I mean we
heard it in the previous series a lot of the time as soon as you hear that
crowd roar when you're getting close to a Kim, it just keeps that adrenaline
going. You can really feel the entire stage shake. So let's see what we get
here in the blind pig. Let's absolutely see as we get ready to come into the map.
I mean, like you said, when the whole space is just resonating the sound, it is such an exciting moment.
And I think that maybe everybody here could help us with that too.
We've got Echo and Gildbeam who are going to be facing off, and we're going to have our very first match in this series.
Now, like we've lined up, we have champions who have proven across regions that they are legendary PVPers on the side of Echo.
However, Guild being experienced behind them, wanting it so badly after being denied by Echo in the past,
there is a lot for them as they hope and just dream to become BlizzCon Champion.
Now, will they have figured it out? Can they contest whatever Echo has to put down?
We are about to find out.
Raise your voices! Give them your energy, Zupa! Let's get into it!
What is that? It's been seven years!
Barrow has waited for this rematch against Echo, and he is playing a marksmanship hunter.
This is a complete curve ball from Mauro and he got the pick that he wanted.
He wanted that mage matchup into the Hunter.
Mauro was flexing on that balance during to get here into the semifinals and now
flexing on that marksmanship. Hunter, it needs to surprise Echo.
This is the perfect curve ball, but will it be able to pull off a win Ziko?
Yeah, that is the question here. We wanted to see a curve ball and we got one.
Gilbeen coming in with a big surprise here. I didn't even know Mauro could play Hunter
and we're going to see here some big pressure coming out. Mercy actually is playing
the Shadow Fury, so able to get some stuns here for his team, trying to set up some damage onto Zpie,
but as long as they can get uptime on either Ryke or Mercy, it's going to be a great time here for
Guild Dean. Of course, big one-shot potential coming out at any point here, and this is where JT
is going to be tested, because somebody could easily die three CDs here.
All right, big pressure from that rapid fire on Ryke. JT is there to block Iron Bark and quick
recovery on his part. Now Mercy is setting up with double coils under Zpie and Morrow.
Morrow will make an exchange here, but now they're switching their pressure to Zpie.
JT clutching out a main stun on Zpie. He's pinned out in the corner right now,
getting blasted. Wontara is going to rescue him towards the Druid and try and get aggressive.
They're in the binding shot. Raku gets hit hard right now. Big crits and they get a nice block
so early from Morrow in a matchup like this. The main floor lock is focused on defense and
crowd control, so to force a cooldown like that, not even two minutes into the game,
is excellent for Jill Dean however now they need to focus on defense Lontar in a polymorph.
Oh Maro taking a lot of damage here Lontar does have a already used his community but he does
have the rewind available to himself and still have some emergency buttons and as well as Zepi's
extra utility from that Retribution Paloal. Maro though caught up in the Cyclone here going
things down for a second Lontar as well caught up in a bash and that is what the Mage lock is all
about. You just want to slow down your opponent get crowd control you see a full diamondized trap
actually onto JT, but no more follow-up CCs.
Sleepwalk coming through.
Big damage onto Ryke, forced into his second ice block,
already said.
Our predictions, our predictions right now
might be in shambles.
The pressure is insane from Guild being Mercy.
Critically low on health, and JT is struggling.
This is a matchup they probably haven't seen a lot
in practice as Guild being pulled out
in Marksmanship Hunter for seemingly the first time
on broadcast.
Is it going to actually work for them?
Is great pressure on Mercy?
They're baiting JT to switch heal over time effects
with a warlock by attacking him.
And now they will switch back to the mage, which puts JT heavily
by all.
He's forced to trinket the iron barks,
and he recovers in this position.
But now it is almost a checkmate.
Mercy needs to be on the ball with fears here.
Because of the double coil, but there's no cover on long top.
He should be able to easily heal through that incoming pressure.
And they have true shot.
They're pushing for it.
Any crowd control on JT, and it could be game over.
They land the diamond dice.
They need damage.
There's their rapid fire, just a little bit more, not enough.
Raikou is playing complete defense right now.
He's just on that pillar, hugging the pillar,
trying to get back.
He has teammates now pushing out into the midfield.
As JT jumps to his side,
Longer breaks his stun.
Morrow is getting pressured.
They're trying to push the retpaladin back
at the same moment in time.
Raikou just needs a couple more seconds,
but he's getting aggressive.
He's going for the red frost on Z-Py.
Z-Py stabilizes, stun on JT.
Where's the trap?
They get the trap.
Where's Raikou?
Is he gonna go down or not with the pressure?
It looks like he's taking zero damage right now,
despite that crowd control.
Yeah, beautiful defensive play here from Raikou.
still 125 seconds before he has that ice block so that kill window is narrowing
down here for give being they need to make something happen because all of a
sudden the chaos is coming through from mercy shadow fury mercy gets walked
through big damage all to mercy 20% HP there for a second full hammer of
justice as well mercy does trigger that one JT caught up in a full diamond ice
try right who has the ice book back in just one more second and right you is
is going to be feeling comfortable.
He might just have to press it.
Immediately has to use it the moment
and come back up full down.
Chance is out of it early.
Iron Bark used at the same moment to counter spell
Long-Tar into a Polymorph.
Raikou is getting aggressive in this moment in time
and will communion from Long-Tar.
That should seal the team back up here.
He does get cycloned on it.
Denying the heal to deep eye.
Almost going down right there.
Lay on hands to heal himself back to full health
in that moment.
Doesn't panic, doesn't get overwhelmed.
And now it's about finding the target.
They need to stay on Raikou here.
There's no ice blocks for him to immune incoming damage.
They need to get crowd control on JT, they need to stun, and they need the trap, there's the stun, there's the trap, now they need the damage, can Zpie get in there, they're pressuring Mercy at the moment, he still has some options to trade though, he's rebuked at the moment, he's going to gate across the map, beautiful position for Mercy, he's making more health stones, resetting for the late game, playing an excellent mage lock so far.
Yeah, I'm just looking all about survivability all about control and then isolating a target
Mercy is getting isolated right now. Had to use the unending resolve now trying to get aggressive with some cast
But he's getting sleepwalked on it. He's getting CC beautiful shutdown
Here's the handle of Justin as well the JT's out of crowd control can he keep him up?
Looks like JT is gonna be able to power through that. They're swapping over to the right
Beautiful damage coming out right here with no ice block. Mercy with no cooldown
This is a nightmare situation for JT his first game on BlizzCon and his entire team has nothing
He's gonna have to predict where the damage is going to land and he's gonna need to stay ahead here on the druid
There's the stun. There's the trap. Who is he gonna be?
Morrow!
Mercy!
Mercy! Might just fight right now!
Can they do it? Gil's been pushing for the win with that extra health stone saving Mercy in the nick of time, Sid.
Mercy's such a heads up tactician right now in that position anticipating that they have nothing left in making more health stones to heal
at that critical moment but JT's mana is behind which is not what you want as the mage lock.
You want to be winning on mana in the later stages of the match.
Now it's just a matter of getting Zpie to his target on that Refusion Paladin.
He's getting stunlocked having a difficult time at the moment caught into a coil.
It could be his divine shield. He's critically low on health.
Big Heels come through and it looks like he will restabilize.
Sleepbox on JT into a trap.
Mauro is getting excellent op control and Raikou is in the middle of the map.
Could JT do it once again?
He's greater in business. He blinks back to the pillar.
Line is siding with JT, they're rebuffing the mark of the wild,
racing their versatility and durability for the late game.
They're attacking Loatar a bit, he's got no trinket.
They see an opening there, they catch him in the shot, they see no way!
And they take it!
Ekko turning around in game one.
What an insane swap.
That was a wild, I mean you were right.
See that pivot was so quick there, but you can just see immediately
how it caught Gilpeen off guard and how fast he was to fall.
I'm so unfortunate.
Yet, this is Echo in peak form as we can see.
I have to say though,
Guildbeam seems to give them a good run for their money, Ziko.
Yeah, Guildbeam came in with a game plan.
They executed it beautifully,
but this is Echo we're talking about.
They know how to play this major warlock expertly.
They continue to maneuver across the map.
Every single time the kill target is going across the map,
the enemy team, they have to follow.
The red paladin is gonna have to go out in the open.
The healer is gonna have to follow the red paladin
keep him out of ground control and that is when you can see a situation like that where oh the healer has no
Trinket, he has no emerald communion, he has no buttons he can use while he's stunned, let's switch to him, let's set it up and they do so beautifully.
I mean very very efficient as we just witnessed right, but there were some interesting things that we got to see in that first game and I honestly think that Gilbean put up a strong fight champ.
Yeah absolutely, I mean the pressure on the Mercy, he always died the first time he got kicked, couldn't you see so many health turns, it's about 30% and then the second time he's underneath his ult.
And this third time when JT gets put into the trap, Trinket's late,
the AI bar comes through just in time to save Mercy.
This game was so sketchy for Ekko.
I think if you're a guild being, you're quite happy with this.
But of course, Ekko, as always, finds the win condition.
Honestly, I thought they were losing this game.
It wasn't going well for them.
They saw that Longtime was stuck in the middle of the map,
didn't have his Trinket,
and it looks like Zephyr actually tried to bubble Sankin,
but it just came too late.
I thought so too, honestly.
I wrote a note down that was just like,
Chan, is Gilbien making you rethink your prediction of 3.0 echo of that?
If we see this matchup again, I think Gilbien should win, because when you play mage lock, this is a defensive setup, right?
You have so much crowd control, of course, all three classes have spambles, CC.
What you want is the game to go into dampening.
The longer the game is going to go into dampening, the harder it's going to be for Lontar to keep up with all the pressure.
And once it gets to that point, Zpie can't stay in anymore, Mara can't stay in anymore.
But with the preservation of Urka on long time, it's just he has to play in the middle.
He has to play close range and actually find that win condition.
It's just so beautiful to listen to Chan talk about mage lock and going out to dampening.
It's just a classic.
I was just like, yeah, this guy is an expert at this subject.
He could not have a better person for this.
It's so true. It's so true.
And you know, those were some of the picks we saw that obviously played a role.
But this marksmanship hunter, I also wanted to talk about,
Super, how do you think that this kind of worked out for the team?
I think if there's not a rogue and there's no disarm, it's a great pick.
I think it can get a phenomenal amount of damage out.
The difficulty, though, is, was, is sitting on the bench.
So if you blind lock that Marksmanship Hunter,
he is more than ready to go to totally shut down
any type of pressure that that Marksmanship Hunter
is going to be able to get out.
That's the liability.
It really was that blind pick that's
so important in this series.
Losing that game, one, could unravel it for Guildby,
because they've lost their surprise.
They lost that curve.
They won the blind pick as far as their strategies.
The long-trip got caught out.
Zpie was too slow to react to be able to save him at that moment.
and now they've lost that element of surprise, which is pivotal to take down a team like I felt.
I mean, it's really true, right? You know, mentioning kind of as we were going through that game,
you're just saying, oh, I think this is the first time we've seen that Marksmanship Hunter,
at least on broadcast that's been pulled out. And that is something that can totally catch
another team off guard if you're not sure how your opponent is going to play around that.
So if they don't have that advantage, Ziko, what do you think they need to be trying to look at
now to give them an edge? I mean, it's got to be maps. Like, I think, yeah, seeing Dalaran Sewer,
seeing hook points in small maps like this, it's going to not only help your
red paladin connect to its target but it's also going to help your Prezi
Voker to have pillars while still being because they want to play on that mid
range as a Prezi Voker, you want to be able to go in get sleepwalks and then duck
back out spam disintegrates, get your your abilities off because they don't have
that crazy amount of range on them and at the same time it also limits Echo's
potential to drag you around on a large map like Negrand, which I think is the biggest
indicator of why we're seeing this change now from Echo. They don't want that matchup
on a small map.
Very true, very true. I mean, Chan, just like Zika was kind of pointing out here, the map
can put a lot of pressure on a team and how they're going to kind of maneuver it. But
as we start to see these drafts come in, what do you think the strategy is going to
be?
It's very hard to say, but like I just want to add on to what Zika's saying, man. We've
the reason why it's so hard is because of the big gateway.
And of course, Dalaran Arena comes out.
It's a small map.
You can't take advantage of that big gateway.
So Echo pivot to the rogue mage.
And Guildbeam, this is their answer, right?
Warrior, Rhett, Prezavoka into the rogue mage.
And I've heard that this is a really, really hard matchup
for Echo, so excited to see what's going to happen.
It is a smaller map.
I don't think Echo is going to be able to kite around
the entire time.
The Warrior, Rhett, I've seen right through die pre-block
even with the quarter rise.
I don't want to jinx him here, but I would love to see that.
Just watch.
OK, well, you can manifest that.
You can manifest that.
I'm sure the team is like, please don't.
But I mean, good points all around, right?
I mean, how is this going to play out for them?
And how is GuildBeam's answer with this comp
going to kind of contest with Echo?
Supa, do you have any additional thoughts?
I think they've set it up perfectly.
This is the best map.
This is the matchup that they wanted.
They came into this with a strategy.
They've got curve balls.
Like, this is what you need if you're GuildBeam.
But I imagine if you're Mauro, we talked about it
in the first series when he had to go on the bench,
like it's out of his hands now, right?
And he's been a very important MVP for the team.
So Zpie and Blizzard need to have amazing synergy
on that retribution paladin and warrior.
Their stuns need to be coming in, in sync on two targets.
You're able to isolate and burst down a target.
They need perfect support, no overlaps, zero mistakes.
If you're anything less than flawless,
you are not gonna be able to take down Echo.
No, I mean, you won't because as we've said,
they are phenomenal and legendary players.
But, I mean, Guildbean, they clearly come up
with an idea of how they want to try to purchase, right?
They don't want to just go out in the series here.
So, I mean, we've talked a bit about the comp
and everything else,
but Ziko, is there anything else that you think
that coming in here you need to try to do
to secure a victory?
Well, I believe it was Gilbeen that said,
if we can't beat Echo,
no one else is gonna be able to do it.
So they're very confident in themselves.
They have the experience on the roster to back it up.
And seemingly they have the comps as well.
I mean, winning that blind pick,
or sorry, losing that blind pick is definitely brutal for Gilbeam,
but that doesn't necessarily mean that the series is over.
They're showing us a lot of depth right now.
If they have a game plan where they can go to small maps,
lock in the cleave with the red warrior,
and actually win here,
that is going to reveal a lot in this matchup.
And then on the big maps, they can take it back,
and they're going to have to beat the mage lock on a big map,
potentially with the Cupid cleave or be the rogue mage.
It's going to be a rocky road ahead,
But I think focusing on this game right now is going to do them a lot you can't go beyond that
You just have to think about what you can do right here right now to try and stay in the fight
Echo have one point on the board and while the dustbin gilbine is completely down to the wire yet
They definitely want to even that score as they had here into the sewers
They're gonna have to try their very best to counter everything that echo lays down
They are a strong and dominant team for a reason but gilbine came in with a plan and with the classes to back it up
Supa, this is gonna be a huge one between these two. Everybody make some noise!
Single elimination. You lose three. You are out of the competition in the entire years of work.
On the line, it's been seven years since these teams went head to head.
And right now, Echo has the edge, catching Lone Tart, and punishing him.
And I can imagine he's beating himself up right now over that swap, and he will not be leaving himself open.
Now Raikou and Wazir and Stealth, they're sneaking on top of their opponents.
dragon's breath but blizzard blade storms to immune the stun lock there's a
great read from blizzard immediately on that crowd control laws is trying to
adapt we're just getting bleeds up he's not committing just yet there's the
kidney shot but blizzard is there to support long tires ready for the hits
he deep breaths to the new crowd control and stunning attackers as they're
leading back in on top of right to they're trying to shut him down during
the combustion they fear up jt they force multiple medallions from echo which
could be an opening they can exploit soon yeah jt has no trigger here they
could swap to him but no they don't have enough justice and continue to go
after this mage here. I would have actually loved to see a swap to JT if you try to take him down
at least in the next minute. The next time they have that hammer of justice potentially
and they could look for it but right now it's going to be all about Echo. They're going up to
deep by huge damage coming out here. Waz is pulling the trigger on the death mark. The Kingsbane
everything. Raku has combustion as well in 20 seconds. So good recovery here coming out from
Gilbeam but Nontar had to use the rewind and his trinket as well. So I revolt steam so just
out of pull-down basically at this point.
Riku just with that Emerald Communion,
JT with no trinket as well.
He's going to be at his team's mercy here.
Are they going to swap to him? No.
Going for the Hammer of Justice once again,
going after the Mage.
And so far, Riku has not really been tested.
There's probably a way for a second,
but he will recover as well.
So Riku had an amazing massive fizz during
Loatar's Hammer of Justice that interrupted
the incoming crowd control to follow it up.
So really well done from Riku.
communion but he gets punished with a cyclone by JT in response to the night
healing and they're following up with even more damage as DeFi and Blizzo are
both at 50% health. Hunter needs to recover two players critically well
how they go for a double stun they're trying to turn their defense into
offense instead but they're finding nothing on the walls during that entire
hammer of justice. Yeah let's see it here. Waz still taking a lot of damage.
Nicely here coming out there from Blizzo. This should be a long season and this
should be like it's ice block eventually nice all the time into the spear of
Bastion there from Blizzow doing a lot of damage but they are out of the
crowd control here and now Lontar finds himself in a cyclone it's very very
insane that JT goes for offensive place there before his meds is even fully
recovered but that's the kind of synergy that they're working with here on the
side of Ekko JT now finds himself in a stun, it's well blind as well no
pressure though again I feel like Duke Bean's pressure just isn't high enough
for that red warrior on this map finally right there is taking some damage can
they push for that first ice ball finally. It doesn't look like it right.
He's making a way once again to safety, building that distance and manages to recover.
Great recovery, great positioning from Ryker. This is a tough map to navigate as an age against
the Cleveland. He's just cutting on the top rampside, getting polymorphs as well.
Forcing the blessing of spell warning from Zpie is it immune's magic damage but not
bleeds. So Wask might still be able to snipe him right now. He's critically low.
Is he just going to go down again too? Gills coming in from Lone Tar with a
time dilation but a cyclone from JT. I love the cyclones from JT. He's just really wreaking
havoc in this game. Number two, he gets a full stun on Loantar forcing his medallion
off. JT is hard carrying this game. This run of the cyclone gets disrupted by Z5. Pyroblast
being channeled by Raikou and those hard-casted Pyroblasts. They hit very hard.
Yeah, JT though caught up in the stun. Could they get something here on the Raikou? Maybe.
So close.
Carderized is available. No, Raikou will recover. Once again, JT just sitting through that.
you're just greeting it again as well there with the massive heads and they
managed to stay alive without having to leave that high spot from where you are
that's fine there's only have one but you got a full polymorph and here comes the dammit team
mine is just gonna fall echo on match point
there's a great echo to match point and it was definitive there I mean just like
was pointed out at the end of the last game when echo decides they are coming
for blood they just go for it immediately vicious take down at the end
giving them another point however I mean it seems like this whole game right we
saw at least Gilbean in the last game kind of put them on the sort of defensive
at the start it seems like they weren't even able to really accomplish that here
in game two Echo was just holding strong and we're really really aggressive from
the start Zico. Yeah and that's the thing Raikou is so greedy with that ice
block Chan you know he talks a lot about Raikou going down without blocking
but it's because he plays like this that they're able to stay aggressive the
entire match because when you don't have that ice block we saw how we had to play
in game number one when he was down both his ice blocks all he can do is just run
and not really be a target but in a game like this it can be a big threat he
can do a lot of damage you can look for the polymorphs you actually set up the
game win like we saw here in the end and that all comes from the confidence
knowing that I still have my defensive if something goes wrong. It's true and
Chan we've got a bit more insight here so you can give us that in depth info on
ice blocking as well as we go. Yeah I mean with the fire mage of course you do have the
quarter rise so if you go to you know you're about to die it will you back up and then
have a massive dot on you but I mean look at right here like if he's frost he ice blocks
there every single time and that is the strength of fire mage of course for right here specifically
he loves that but Zpie unfortunately doesn't have the luxury goes down without using his
but well a bit of a to be honest a very huge defensive mistake when you do a pin side but
To give them some credit, man, BlizzCon and Zpie are struggling this entire game.
They're sitting at 40-50%.
And of course, if the Kingsman comes through, the combustion comes through at any point,
it's just so sketchy for them.
And so long-term, it has to do so much work.
It's so difficult for European to play.
And it's such a difference from this game one, right?
And when you're under the pressure at BlizzCon,
playing a matchup like this where the assassination broke,
the Fire Mage has these massive burst potentials,
this is what happens.
I mean, you see it just immediately caused that death.
and you're right, it's so fast, but you have to be on the lookout for it.
But you know, Gilbein, this kind of puts them in a place where they really have to win this next one
or they will be out of this single elimination.
So of course, I mean, they need to be figuring out how they're going to answer this,
how they can get a point on the board.
And that pressure, I think, is very intense for them, Supa.
I mean, they just lost their blind pick advantage.
They lost their best map pick advantage in this matchup in both times to no divine shield.
So that is just going to be nerve wracking at that point.
Do you start to doubt that the Rep Paladin is going to work?
Are they going to be able to deliver on it,
or should they just go back to maybe some Bretton Butter,
like some major warrior, or even maybe possibly the Moonkin warrior
that we saw from them in the first series?
Because right now it just seems like the Retribution Paladin
is just falling short.
Yeah, I mean, Ziko, hearing that,
do you think that that Rep Paladin is something
that should be swapped out at this point?
I honestly, even in their series, I guess, F tier,
I thought it was extremely cold that they locked it in after they lost and they did manage to win on it
But even when we interviewed Mara afterwards, he's like, how did we win that like we were completely out?
You know, we had nothing left
So I haven't really been a big fan of the red Paladin all together to be honest with you from Gilbin
I like the red hunter a lot more
But of course the red hunter into rogue mages are completely different thing and as long as and that's the that's the problem
when you're facing Echo because on the blind pick they're just going to lock in Rogue Mages
which is grading this everything and it kind of puts Gilbin in the situation where they have to lock in him.
I mean it's true, I mean we just saw their Chan, the picks that came in and it's kind of that same situation here
but is there anything you think that they can adapt to try to stay in this when they're not sent home from BlizzCon?
It's a tough situation to be in Rogue because you're down 0-2 at this point, you're on a match point now.
Like Sid said, they lost the blind pick, they lost the advantage, and now they just have to, you know, it's a Hail Mary on hook point.
The Red Warrior needs to come out again, and the thing is now, does the E-Pipe just bubble to you early, right?
This is what happens when you lose games in massive tournaments like this, where you don't press your defensive cooldowns in time,
and then suddenly everything goes off-stripped, it's a disaster.
And we'll see if they can recover from this.
You know what I mean, these guys are veterans, if anyone can do it, I do believe it can be them.
I do as well, but you know everyone it never hurts to get some extra energy in the arena for them
Can you raise your voices for Gilbean cheer them on?
There we go, even if I hear some echo fans out there booing in the distance
Gilbean definitely feels that and we all like a good series if you can you always want it to see want to see it go
To five so if they can stay in this we will continue to see this back and forth between them
We know that Gilbein want this. They lost to Echo in the past here on the BlizzCon stage. They want to win now, Supa.
They have been fighting for a championship title for so many years and only one map will eliminate them at this point.
There is no more room for mistakes. The gates are open. There is no turning back.
Ryke was moving in. They're trying to find them and stealth. They don't. They meet them with a double dragon's breath.
This is a dangerous start for Gilbein as they pull the trigger immediately on their combustion.
Zpie with an immediate response in this position to make himself more durable throughout this assault.
Waz is now stunned up. He is the target. Of course, Global Shadows are targeting JT.
And that's what you pointed out. In the last game, you wanted more swaps to JT, Zpie.
Yeah, and that is looking beautiful. They got his Bart skin here, and now already he's in Tree of Life.
So if they can get a nice setup on the team again, they could potentially take him down, or at least force his trinket.
Let's see if they can end up doing it right now, going after Raikou in the meantime.
but pressure is looking kind of good so far for Echo actually,
getting a Cyclone onto Blizzow, isolating Zpie in a kidney shot.
Zpie definitely struggling right now.
Lontar gets crowd-controlled there, nice sanctuary though from Zpie.
The free Lontar out of that stun on his Trinket.
Beautiful place from both sides there to recover from that sketchy situation.
But Zpie, it's like Chan said, if you take too much damage,
all of a sudden we might see early cooldown usage here.
And right now, that Barc seems to have forced up JT, has rotated back up,
but they're not going to be able to capitalize on it whatsoever.
And that is because of JT's excellent positioning.
It might just be game over here. They've already forced so many cooldowns.
They have another combustion.
They shockwave it for a moment to try and stall damage,
but Z-Py is getting absolutely clobbered.
He's going to trade the lay on hands there and play very conservatively,
just immediate trade on his part for the combustion.
But now it's a Kingsbane coupled with it as well,
positive taking zero damage.
Echo looking undeniable, just looking untouchable.
The Good Bean are finding no momentum in this matchup,
even despite all this crowd control
that they've thrown onto JT.
Waz is just walking it off.
It's just glancing blows towards him
and full down by cool down.
Good Bean are being whittled down another kidney shot,
cheap shot, engagement.
Raikou trying to find a polymorph.
Will he be able to secure it?
Yes, he will.
However, the time dilation did sneak through
in the midst of the crowd control chain.
They can see if I have a bit more durable right now.
Buying time for Lone Tarty to get out of crowd control
and healed him back up.
Now as he buys charging in towards JT, they stun him.
They're trying to switch back, they're getting under Ryku, and they're trying to swap off the heal over time effects of the rest of the Jards.
They're switching between the Mage and the Rogue, trying to target whoever doesn't have a lifeblood currently.
Yeah, it looks like maybe they're trying to go for an outlast strategy here, try to attack JT's mana bar maybe,
but so far it's not looking too good because Waz and Ryku are also ahead on damage, and JT and Lontar both hide on healing.
So if it goes the distance, it's going to come down to just being efficient.
Lontar, looking for a sleepwalk, gets it onto JT.
This is going to be a big setup, and that is going to be JT's trinket.
So Wazz right there was caught up on a stun, and JT had to trinket the spell, and Wazz
still taking a lot of damage, and had to trade out the Cloak of Shadows there as well.
So now I want to see her pull all in on JT.
He's got nothing left, just send him.
Yeah, they do have the stuns, and they have the Avenging Wrath.
Is he probably going to be able to connect here in time?
Can they risk it?
so far away in the corner of the map.
And when is Zpie going to make that commitment?
Is he going to cross?
He sees a pyroblast being casted, taking half a cell.
The Lone Tar with quick reactions
heals it back immediately.
Now they are charging forward.
Fire breath connects.
I think Raikou's going to be the target.
They're trying to stun down the healer.
They stun JT.
They storm bolt walls.
They swap off the life bloom.
They catch walls in the middle of the map.
But he still has evasion if he needs it.
Iron Barf, it looks like it should be enough.
JT recovers the team.
Now Lone Tar in power control.
Zpie once again defensively at the pillar.
The waving Lone Tar's heals.
Because if you manage to recover,
Lizzo's leaping in aggressively trying to get momentum with that intimidating
shot. However, he used it aggressively. We've seen him typically use his
intimidating shot defensively and now that he doesn't have it to peel attacks,
that could be dangerous for Guilty. Yeah, we'd actually love to see him to use it
to set up this warp onto JT, but we're not gonna get to see it. Instead, it's
gonna be Zephyr here getting chopped up behind the pillar, giving each of King's
Band coming out from Waz, and now Waz actually finds a stun behind the pillar
out of his healers line of sight, but manages to recover without having to use
any major defensives. Nontar's still holding onto that rewind as well so both teams have
answers here. Keep going in this fight mana so far you can kind of even between both healers as well
and so far these fire breath purges are really doing a lot of work here for Nontar as well
removing a lot of the healer of the time effects. Please look at Swap too! Swap Bump! Big damage with
no death mark available still though. Good pressure coming in here and immediately Zipai is going to
use his bubble there to try to save the day. They pinned down Raikyuu to try to turn it around to
forces ice block but nice dragon's breath nice disarmed immediately the
sense of reaction coming out from echo the sleepwalk does a lot of work there
though onto JT they're going after Westale here Stormbolt coming out as
well but it's DR'd and it looks like they are going to recover after getting
that big defensive cool down from Z5. Oh no Z5 is he on for Barrens he had to use
the barricade slow as well both players could go down at any moment see by
taking tremendous amounts of pressure at this moment in time and they face
elimination at this point there are no second chances it is single
elimination, will Z5 be able to hold on and pull off a win in this position?
There's still so many cooldowns for them to have to work their way through and
Dampenny is just getting higher that number at the top center. 24% it means
that team is reduced by that value. It's gonna get more and more intense from
this point. You see another intimidating challenge, AT, aggressively but
finding no real momentum. They're line of sighting the combustion, trying to avoid
Ryku and his Phoenix as much as possible and just stay alive but there's the
blind into the gouge. Waz is setting up for the win.
Lone Tart trinkets it, and they punish his trinket.
His emerald communion comes up very shortly at this point
in time. Pressure is mounting on Raikyuu.
Dampening is the double-edged sword.
He's working in favor of Gilbien as well in some regards.
But JT just has perfect positioning.
He's not compromising. He's not getting too close.
He's picking his moments.
And unless he overextends,
I'm not sure if there's going to be an opening.
Right now, it's basically Waz.
They need a double-stun escalation on Waz.
Yeah, they can find it. They are going for it right now.
This is a kill attempt coming in from Gilbeam.
Can they take Waz down?
They charge to reconnect.
The blind is there on JT, but one more second,
and he has his trinket back up.
And fortunately, for Gilbeam, Waz, too slippery
in that situation.
They had no trinket on Waz and no trinket on JT.
And now, here comes the pressure from Ekko.
We're going after Blizzle.
He's taking a lot of damage.
He's trying to reconnect back onto Ryke group,
and Lompar has zero mana left.
He has the Emerald community,
which is gonna give him a little bit,
but they are running out of time on the side of Gilbeam.
This is combustion, and Blizz is in the middle of the map.
He gets a double fear.
Beautiful timing from Blizz in that position,
but now he's dismantled, still limited defense.
Stamperny has very high at this point.
Long-term time die-lights to reduce damage,
but now he's met by a cheap shot.
Waz is engaging.
He's peeling for Raikou at the same time,
but is it gonna be enough?
Whoa, he could critically low.
Can they do it?
Can Gilbeen stay alive?
Another kidney shot, Cyclone Blizzow.
Alone in his position, Leon hands 30 seconds away.
Just 30 seconds can Blizzow hold on.
He's got avatar.
He's boldly going where no warrior has gone before,
with nothing left at this point.
Blake storming for the win can he get the pressure he needs right now to actually do this he is so close to it
They need more damage. They need to connect with Lizzo. Can't they pull him back to the pillar?
He's so low is he gonna come back in time? It looks like he will hold on a pillar
They stun lots of the storm ball. They're trying to take a moment of reprieve
They're 10 seconds away from lay on hands and with that cool down they can make a very big committed push
I don't know about that. What else has left mark?
He has kings bang insane damage coming in from wise right now. Blizzle is on the run
Bladestorm is it gonna be enough to save him here?
Lothar has so much work to do and I don't know how he's able to do it the lay on hands connect
But he's got so much damage from echo pushing for a seat in the grand finals
They just need a little bit more, but right you need to be careful. He's got no
Carderize you could die before blocking here. Yes, we extremely careful big damage
He's talking right through, and he will press the ice book this time.
They can win, they can win, they have fear, they need it, but he's kidney shot, he needs
to drink it.
He's died by the sword, he's so close to winning, he's so close to winning right now.
Right through his first life, he gets the fear!
He mounts the business, right, he blinks away, Greeter in business, Blitzel leaps in, and
now he's got to die by the sword, he needs to prepare, is he going to get the preparian
time?
He gets it, he prepares, but he's dying through it, but he is so high, star surgers are crashing
in, he just wants to connect, he just needs to connect, he's so close to the win, the little
And the ball goes down!
Guild Bean stay alive!
Was choosing to fight this out, but I don't think it's likely.
He's got smoke bomb.
Maybe two versus three.
Could be on the table with no mana.
If Zepad doesn't bubble or something like that in this position,
but they should be able to hold on.
Sleepwalk is there.
And Guild Bean, man.
They had to sweat it out.
Oh, no, he bubbles.
He's not messing with him.
I'm not messing with him this time.
There'll be three times in a row.
Guild by Bean are doing it.
There's a point on the board.
There is a chance.
I mean, we said as much guilt.
Bean have been so close before and they have lost to echo.
They want to stay in this and fight it to the bitter end.
And this is exactly what they had to do.
The BlizzCon dream is not dead for them yet.
And in fact, they really, really committed to this push.
This extension as we got to see Blizzow as well going so far out to try to take right.
I mean, that was a huge risk.
That was crazy, but it was a little bit calculated too.
I mean the death mark came out from Waz onto Blizzo and they just said you know what that's just rely on the lay on hands
We're just gonna keep pushing over on to the mage and see what happens
And they had the blessing of spend awarding as well and in Zpie's credit
We you know talked a little bit of smack because he died without bubbling a couple of times
or you know let his teammate die as well without bubbling but in this game
he made sure that he gave Blizzle all the support he needed to reach his
destination which was of course to put right here on the shopping block channel
it was indeed Chan take us through what you saw in this game yeah absolutely I
mean this is where Raikou had his polarized force right and we always
talked about how sketchy that is for the fire mage but you would be they wrote a
defensive cooldowns very very well and I do want to commend Zeeq Zeeq
fight more on that as well. Zico like you said, you know he bubbled into the smoke bomb to save Blizzard early in the game.
And then at the end there comes in the Leon hands when I thought it was over lots of zoom comes into the Leon hands the
Sang the spell warding sorry, and they actually end up getting the kill on right you here
You look being this was this was a pretty good game from them
But it still feels a bit sketchy the first level to game it doesn't feel good at all as
Damping starts to ramp up though
You see the vet warrior the constant pressure of the vet warrior right who's scared why is it scared and then we always see
Blizzow catching J2 with these fears without Trinket.
We do indeed. I mean, impressive to see the back and forth.
And you're right, it felt like at any given moment,
they were constantly dancing on like dangerous edge.
Just not sure if they were going to be able to lock it in,
but risking it all, champ.
And Blizzow, this is the thing about him, man.
I remember facing him in Legion in BFA,
he was always so good in these high pressure moments
to keep going, to trust his teammates, to trust his healer,
to keep him aggressive.
And this is the scariest thing about him.
Normally when you see a warrior in his kind of position, he's running backwards to the pillar, waiting to get topped up,
but it's so damp at this point and he knows he can get the kill, and that's why he's the best warrior.
I mean, it was phenomenal. You're right. Like, that level of skill, that aggression, but also that knowledge of just how far you can push it and risk it
and still be able to come back. I mean, impressive play. And Supa, this was honestly, I think, exactly what we wanted to see for Guildbean,
especially since they said that they thought they could take down Echo and that maybe nobody else could if they weren't able to.
Yeah, I mean, phenomenal on their map pick and their comp advantage.
They don't get that for the rest of the series.
They have to win on Echo's territory.
They have to win against the grain with their composition.
So what is their blind pick?
What is their overall best answer into Echo?
Because I think the Red Warrior will have an incredibly challenging time
dealing with Mage, Warlock, and look at the map.
Look at the map.
Oh, Warlock, Elin's all waiting with Bensir Frostmage.
You can just sense it on Imperium Domain, excuse me.
I mean, it's definitely something that's going to be a difficulty for them, but they've started to find their stride.
However, there we go. We see it locked in here. Ziko, is this spelling doom for them or are they just deciding this is it?
We're going to go with this.
This is the ramifications of losing the previous two games.
When you're facing, like Chan said, a team that has triple S tier comps with the best players on each role,
you're going to have to pick your poison here. You lost the blind pick, so you can't just ping pong back and forth
and continue to get at least on your wins, you know, good matchups.
You can't do that because you lost the first two.
You have to pick.
Do I play a red warrior into Mage lock on this map?
Or do I pick the Cupid Cleave here
into potentially a rogue mage on this map?
Both options pretty terrible
and it's actually not even going to be the rogue mage.
It is going to be the rogue lock here.
Now, this is something that Chan has a lot of experience with as well.
Yeah, Chan, tell us more.
I like to see Mercy play. Like I said earlier, I think he's the best Warlock in the world.
We haven't gotten to see him play too much. Of course, he did play earlier today, but
since he's joined Echo, he really hasn't been playing too many games. It's always been the Rogue
Mage or some other comp. But now we finally get to see him on his main class, on the Warlock.
I've seen him play this in WarGames, in practice. I am not happy for Zpie right now, or Mara, or
Lanta. These guys are going to struggle because KaleSport hits so hard now with the destruction
and buffs. And of course, with was supporting him, setting him up was, you know, he understands
exactly what he's cast the needs. He always supports them to cast. Mercy's gonna get double
care spots off the entire game. And even long time, he can die in the prison vote because
he has to play close range. It's going to be a very scary game for guild bean. But if
they do win this game, I can, I feel like they can really take the series. I'm so sorry.
Could you say that a little bit louder? If you're doing this game, I really feel like
they can take this. Oh, that would be great for my predictions. Thanks,
I would love that since everybody else here went echo.
Yeah, I think that would be fantastic.
So Guilping needs to lock this one in,
not just for my predictions, but for everybody else
and supporting them out there.
But it is going to be challenging, right?
This is a big open map and they could be sitting ducks.
Supa, how do you play around a map like this
with the comp that they're running?
I mean, it's going to be very challenging.
Zpie will be tested in this.
If he overextends in the wrong spot,
gets feared or cycloned in a corner
and his teammates get isolated, it will be game over.
So for me, it's all eyes on Zephyr and his positioning,
his cooldown management.
How can he enable and protect his Hunter?
At those critical moments in time, this is a matchup
I didn't expect to see.
I didn't expect to see Mara on the Hunter.
And we're seeing the Rogue and the Warlock.
I thought Rogue Mage was likely going
to be running most of the show.
But in this series, we are seeing quite an expansive roster
from both sides.
It's a huge map.
And you can see those pillars are very tiny.
There's not a lot of points to the line of sight
against the Chaos Bolts.
There's almost nowhere to hide.
And it seems like this is going to be probably their greatest challenge.
Lizzo kept them alive, and now he needs his team to deliver the win on the most difficult map.
I mean, it's going to be a huge challenge, especially with all those open spaces.
You were just outlining.
Echo have the advantage here.
They have two points.
They only need one more to move on and have that championship crown in their sights.
But Gilles Bean, if they want to actually make the dreams that they've held onto for so long a reality,
they have to get another point on the board, Ziko.
Match point here, Ekko looking hungry and they are tagging in the Waz Mercy combo here giving us a little bit of a treat in the semifinals.
If Ekko wins this match, they will be the first team to advance to the grand final where they will await their opponent and let's see what Gildbeam can do to stop it here.
I mean, Maro on the Hunter sneaking around right now.
This is the opener, Mercy is going to be the target here for Yieldbeam and a decent opener so far getting good pressure
but look at that immediate spear coming out off the non-tar, Z5 is going to be the target of choice here as well
taking a lot of pressure, big swap off the motto, the inferno to call in,
motto already having to use the survival of the fittest there, already dropping quite low
and non-tar already burning through some of his own cool-bounds.
Okay, so Mercy is running the wild.
It's very intelligent in this matchup, there's a lot of magic crowd control that he'll be
able to remove from JT, so they're going to have to cover that with things like Hunter's
Mark to try and prevent his dispel, and if they can win that 50-50 on the dispel they'll
get pressure, if they lose it they will be very challenging for them, and every time
they lose that gamble they will fall further behind, but they do catch was around the corner
here and force JT to use Iron Bark, they sleepwalk and there's that imp to spell, it removes
the sleepwalk from JT, and that imp is going to be MVP, I think of this matchup, Z-Pass
trying to get to a target, but you get the vortex back on the rescue.
The targeting the warlock, they're trying to swap on heal over time effects again in this matchup.
They switch back to Waz, they catch him, they get his cloak.
Explosive damage from Morrow and Zpie, however, Waz does respond appropriately.
Yeah, but Waz now with no trinket, making a very, very interesting situation here.
Forgiveness being that they can connect like that.
Again, the problem is, like you mentioned, that Imp is going to be standing in their way here for Mercy.
And Lontar also had to use his trinket, so openings here potentially on to Maro or Zephyr as well.
They get the diamondized trap, which cannot be dispelled by the imp, so a little bit of extra protection there, at least against that.
But still, where is the pressure? Where's the damage going? Both healers able to deal with it so far.
And it's going to be Zephyr here on the back foot, Waz, just getting up his garotes, getting his dots taking.
Maro's going to be the target of choice, but Lontar able to spam heal.
You got a sleepwalk on two wads, but fortunately it broke a little bit early.
It looked like they wanted to sleepwalk him behind that pillar.
And now look at Mercy.
He's already on the opposite side of the galaxy here.
He's ready to load up those cast bolts.
I mean, Echo, they trust that they'll win in Dampening.
They're putting very hesitant.
They're not going on top of them.
They're providing their time and waiting for their moment to strike.
They're putting very passively.
I wonder if that will come back at them or not.
Because usually Echo, they're aggressive.
In the interview, they said they had to play aggressive and they're like, push in.
But it's really only the waz.
We can see flaws on top of the entire enemy team, but the rest of them, they're off the screen, they're so far away from the engagement and echo.
They're hesitating, they're pulling away, they're just trying to drink, they're trying to reset, but they do get counter-engaged on now.
Stunned into freezing trap, mercy in the middle of the map, he's gonna port back to the pillar.
This long-term does get shut down for a moment, Goroz being applied, flaws is ramping his damage.
Our sleepwalking JT, where is the dispel? Looks like it's not gonna hit this time on JT. Hammers are down, no trinket.
When they find enough damage with the true shot,
they really needed pressure. They don't find anything.
And now they swap on Lontar.
It was that mode communion. He's probably honestly happy
that he's gonna regenerate Nanna, but they immediately switch targets.
They've got two targets. Loads, match point for Gilbien.
They still face elimination, and Mercy catches them in a coil,
blasting them down from midfield, and look at Lontar's team.
Just absolutely in shambles right now.
What happened to Lontar? He's still dying.
Finally, the deep rep is gonna immune some crowd control
and get him out of that CC chain.
That was an incredible push by Ekko.
And now all of a sudden though, Mercy could be the next target here, but he is on the other side of the map.
Oh my god, Mercido with the fast trinket.
He sent the whole spellbook there, used his underneath resolve as well.
Claw coming out defensively all tomorrow as he is taking a huge chunk of damage.
Both teams super explosive at this point in time, but I am worried for JT.
I am worried for Mercy.
He'll be in hat a real shot here and taking down the warlock if thinking executed perfectly.
the scattershot, there's the chopper, look at Mercy, he is running for his life with those
chords as well, building a lot of distance.
JT gets away from the crowd, Mercy has an infernal, he calls that down, on to Maro,
they stun Zephine, Zephine needs to bubble this time around, a piece of the target,
Karotze are hitting multiple targets, they're able to find their damage by a heavy amount
and the entire team is starting to rot, Hammer of Justice on the warlock, just trying to get
around that imp dispelled, but it's not really going to get too much value, they do get the
binding shot, now they get the int, stun, where's the trap, did you get the diamond
Nice, and they target.
No, Maro is the one still just dying at the moment.
Unable to get to Mercy.
Mercy has adapted his strategy, knowing
that he's vulnerable and making himself just not
a target whatsoever.
Waz pushing forward, realizing he's got his medallion.
He's got evasion.
So Waz is throwing himself at the enemy team and baiting them,
saying, all right, stun me.
Try and attack me.
You will make an even trade and deny all of their damage.
They have to go on the warlock in this position,
but they're just getting intercepted.
They can't move off the pillar.
They're locked down.
Jaspal to flying in.
It's match point and Kim Gilpeen find the line to push through and achieve victory
before Scattershot pushing in on Mercy.
They're taking their time though to do it.
ZPY is so low, LongTar is so low, LongTar has been struggling this entire match.
I mean, look at the damage meter. They're almost getting doubled.
Yeah, it's brutal for the Cuban fleet to try to connect back onto their target.
Mercy just playing heads up here, making sure that he's always far away.
And I honestly think that should slow up to wise just to make him, you know,
leave the pillar but smoke bomb coming out.
On tomorrow, one chaos bomb is going to connect.
Luntar out of breath.
It's no hope for the deep breath to try to stabilize there,
buying himself some time to get out of that smoke.
Beautiful play there from Luntar,
but Pudan's not looking good.
He's taking seconds on the Ember of Community.
Tomorrow, have to use the Churchill here,
his biggest defensive Pudan out of the way.
Z-Files still has that bubble,
but Luntar gets stunned there by the Inferno.
Big damage still coming out.
The chaos bombs are raining in.
Mercedes playing aggressive now.
That JT has his Trinket back, but she also has his Trinket, and of course that unending result, only 40 seconds away from Mercy,
basically completely recovered from that blunder earlier on, and now Ekko in the driver seat.
They need to get an Emerald Communion off successfully, but if you get Cycloned on it, it's GG.
They Cycloned him. If you can't connect the Emerald Communion, this entire team, 50% at this point, comes out of the Cyclone there and recovers.
They've managed to actually pause the game for a moment, they get a stun, it's dispelled by the Ember.
They force spoken shadows at least, but Waz's evasion is only a minute away.
Another kidney shot, enters ducking into the skies, but they're targeting him.
They find Lone Tar. Is he ready for the attacks?
It's deep in damp and he's just gonna use Emerald Communion while he's on Cyclone Demenation Return,
so he can't be punished. He regenerates the team, he gets some mana, but here comes another vanish.
Kingsbane is available. Coils are available. Waz and Mercy could do a lot of damage at any moment.
Who is going to be the target? Waz falling behind the volley.
Managers to recover huge heals from JT. Maybe they swap JT as well. Maybe they just risk it.
They risk it all, facing elimination at this point in time.
They force the Barskin on the swap.
They're keeping JT on his toes, and that's exactly what you need.
If you're going to be able to topple Echo, but look at that pressure.
Look at the momentum.
Mercy is just getting them in a stranglehold at this point.
That was an instant dispel onto JT there on the hodge.
Beautiful work there from Mercy.
And now Lantar looks like he's going to be the target with Maro.
He rescues him in, into a HAL of Terror.
This could be very, very dicey here.
Mercy so quick to respond there.
Again, building that distance, doing such great work on the warlock.
Nice gateway here for JT, realizing that he is a target that could easily chop here.
And now Waz is well doing left behind.
Gilding shop coming out, Waz trying to stay alive in that situation.
Didn't have to use any cooldown to deep wreck up there.
It's a little bit late, but they do force out the trinket.
And Waz could be swapped through as well.
But everyone at Gilding is dying.
There's no better left.
Moro's got nothing and they will fall.
Echo will advance to the grand finals.
Echo have done it. They have taken this to three points, which means they have secured the first spot in our grand finals.
Now Gildbean really did look like there was a shot at this. They played incredibly well and they definitely came prepared to try to deal with what Echo put up for them.
But it's Echo. How do you face them when they are legends and constantly outplay their competition? I mean, super brilliant from both of the teams.
of the teams, but I think Akko is just amazing to see how well that they have a handle on this.
The adaptations, I mean, I don't think they anticipated these types of compositions throughout
the entire season. We have never seen a hunter come out from Gilbeam. We've hardly seen the warrior
either. Akko just absolutely flawless performance, great adaptability from all four players in this
series. They didn't get thrown off by that first game with the Frostmage and the pressure that was
thrown to them. They had strategies, they had multiple compositions, an excellent series,
Nonetheless, and tragically that will be the end of the run for Gilbean.
Their rematch will fail this time around and Echo continue to remain dominant.
Well you know just gives you more fuel for the next time though.
You know that they wanted this to be the blizzcon that they can come
and leave their mark in the Hall of Championship fame.
But of course Echo they outplayed the competition and it is well deserved.
Everybody we love hearing you raise your voices for the teams and very soon
We'll be hearing from the teams themselves, but Ziko, do you have any thoughts here as we look back on the series?
Honestly, I think Gilbein fought valiantly and they had a good plan.
It just didn't go according to their plan. They predicted the blind pick, they wanted this cupid's cleave to work and win against the mage lock.
And if they had, it could have been a completely different series, but unfortunately it took too long for them to come online in this series.
That last warrior game was very good, but it was a little too late.
Yeah, I mean there definitely seems like there were moments right where they really were showing that they could go for they could
Overtake echo, but Chan it seemed like like you said it was a little shaky throughout
Yeah, I mean that is also the nature right of facing the comps that echo has like I said earlier
They've got the three S tier comps available to them and the three best players of those classes
It's always going to be difficult, especially when those classes do so much damage, but guilty. They fought valiantly
There were a lot of moments where it looked like we could have gone either way
you know, I'm not sure if it's
the right way. Maybe if echo
had made a mistake, it could have,
you know. Born in Winsett. It
could have indeed, but it did go
echoes way and you're going to
be hearing from them. I can you
give us a bit more information
as we celebrate echoes when. I
sure can work. Rug I am here with
was from echo. All right. I love
every time this happens. You guys
You're moving on to the Grand Finals.
Coming into this weekend,
what were your expectations for your team?
Honestly, we did super good in practice.
We were like 80, 90% win rate.
And that could be super good,
but it could also be a massive curse
because you don't get to like,
actually have to adapt, you know, we're winning.
So we keep doing what we're doing.
But today in practice, we went like 20% win rate.
I'm not even kidding.
So I'm super stoked.
I'm happy for the boys.
This was insane.
Amazing.
Well, for guild bean in particular, was there anything that you had for for game plan for
that team?
For guild bean, they were super hard to predict, to be honest.
We always anticipate the world of mage, but they didn't even pull it out.
So yeah, I'm not sure, I mean, we won today, but this could have been a 3-1 for them or
a 3-2.
Yeah, I mean, you could just tell just the level of competition is so tough here at BlizzCon.
All right, final question for you.
Moving on to the Grand Finals, any word for your potential opponents?
I mean, honestly, I hope we face Calvish, but if we face next from Europe,
that's also going to be good games, but it's going to be a lot of R&D mirrors, maybe.
All right. Well, you heard it here. Congratulations once again. It's you, Echo.
Echo is definitely looking for what's ahead.
And of course, the Grand Finals are where every single team wants to make it
that they can become our 2026 AWC champions, but Chan, thinking back on this, we can talk
a little bit more in depth about what you were even seeing as an analyst on this final
map.
I mean, to be honest with you, I was very disappointed with Gildbin's performance in
this final map. We talked about it earlier in the game where Gildbin all behind the pillar,
WASP is chasing them, whereas Mercy and JT are 80 yards away just PD, EPS, rotation,
right? It's just so brutal. And it gives Mercy all this time in the world for freecast. And when
it gets to do that, look what happens to European's health bar. Everyone is 50% or lower. JT gets to play,
gets clones on Longside, gets his Trinket out of the way. And they're just constantly forcing
all these cooldowns earlier in the game. And that ends up biting them in the end because Longside
was good. JT still had a bit of a manner. But if they perhaps had a different game plan, you know,
going into this game, I've got to think who would be winning it. Because when they did make a push
on the mercy. It was so sketchy for Ekko. They got walled, they were helsted, dark packed,
JT streaked as well in just one setup. Yeah, I mean it was incredibly,
incredibly close. And Ekko coming in so strong, I think we saw him on the desk as well. And even
in chat with a lot of the predictions, so many people thought, okay, we've seen what guild
bean have to offer. But then they brought these surprises to the table that just like we heard
about in that winners interview really kind of changed things up and how Ekko was having to deal
with them. Of course, while Echo wanted this was a really good performance from both teams.
And I mean, we can look at our scores as well and see where this is all shaken out.
But there in that one, we know at least Echo will be moving on. So I mean,
Supa, from everything we've seen with our bracket, with all of the games today,
where do you think we're kind of settling in our final games of the day?
I mean, Streamer's own GG versus Gatorsback, North America versus Europe. Gatorsback are the last
remaining North American team. So if you're an NA fan, you absolutely do not want to
miss this next series. They'll be battling for their lives and battling to get into
the grand finals to go head to head with Echo. And Streamerzone have been a
roster that have beaten Echo in Cup stages in those Rogue Mage mirrors. So
absolutely equal opponents in that sense. So it will not be a cake walk for
Gatorsback in that regard. I mean it's true but Gatorsback we know very very
strong. Now here we can see of course in the series that we just saw Echo versus
built me not to take that 31 but it might be a different story here with
Gatorsback and streamer zone GG just like we were hearing Ziko I mean both of
these teams have a ton of potential Gatorsback of course is a really strong
contender here at the very top of the NA scene but streamer zone GG new
composition new folks maybe under a familiar banner but they are definitely
big contenders absolutely I mean Gatorsback the strongest North American
team and the last North American team if I'm reading this bracket correctly
Oh wow, okay, no pressure for us in NA.
Yeah, we got a number up in the desk.
I think we're gonna need a lot of crowd support
for Gators back because they got a tough opponent
ahead of them.
I mean, I would say even pretty even matchup
across all players, except for Cubsy.
I would think Cubsy on that rest of the route has the edge.
So Gators back on paper, looking better, but still.
Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be a tense one.
Super, why should people stick around for this next?
We just heard from Ziko a bit of the setup, but what do you think is going to be big about our next series?
It's North America versus Europe. It's been seven years since we've been able to get that rivalry going again.
So you absolutely do not want to miss it.
All right. Well, we have a break, but you heard it here from Super.
You don't want to miss this next one because we have NA and EU clashing live on the stage cross region here at BlizzCon.
So stick around during the break and we will be back with even more AWC action.
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We're going to have our two
grand finalists determined.
However, we've also got here
back in the desk. Then I mean
then we had a big matchup that
we just saw. We know the echo
will be moving on. But of course
Gators back versus streamers on
G G is going to give us another
grand finalists. Yeah, I mean,
I'm very excited for this one
for multiple reasons, but I've
been a huge fan of Gators back
But I've been a huge fan of Gators back throughout their entire season. So seeing them here
I think a lot of there's a lot of people in the crowd that are cheering for them as kind of North America's last stand
But also they're just phenomenal players. So I'm excited to see what they can do
That of course is going to be cubs II dazed
Cowabish and whiz K the absolutely legendary whiz K
We expect big things from this team
They're a young, new roster, but yeah, they bring a lot of talent, just raw talent as well as that expertise coming in from Cubsie and WizK, so you have some of the newer players as well as some of the veteran players coming together and they've been able to make magic happen.
Absolutely, Ben. And you know you said that we can hear NA cheering for them. NA, are you cheering for Gatorsback?
Oh yeah, I'd say we can hear them.
All right, Gators back.
Is there anything else you want to add on about this team,
stupid, because this is one that is a very top contender here
from NA?
I mean, there's been a lot of talk about Cubsie for years
at this point on that restoration jury.
He's going to have to be the carry for the team
and level up even beyond his previous titles.
It's a mix of Old Guard with Wizkint Cubsie
and New Blood with Dazed and Calvish,
which is just amazing to see new players getting
incorporated by those Old Guard.
It is.
And you know, we can hear from Gators back
themselves about how they feel because we got to sit down and chat with them a
little bit before the competition today.
And I go down to the two versus two, but days somehow hangs on and Gators back
is looking like they're going to do it, eliminating aft here and winning the
finals of North America. Gators back are riding a massive wave of success in the
North American region. Cubsie, dazed, Calvish and Whiskey have been absolutely
Smashing it and they are hoping to shake things up on the global stage here at BlizzCon.
He's pushing in, but is it going to pay off Dallas? Oh my gosh, just unhealable damage coming in.
Now the first question I had for the Gator's back is how did this team come to fruition?
You know, these are almost mismatched parts coming together as a team.
The big thing around the formation of our team was a timing thing where multiple other teams
kind of fell apart. We came together and picked up some of the best pieces of these teams and
made it into Gator's back.
Cubsie, what do you think has been the key to the success of this roster in North America?
Really just our strength as a Rogue Mage for the most part. As a Rogue Mage is such a
dominant part in the meta, but I wouldn't say there's any secret sauce. It's just a combination
of good players coming together, mostly.
Out of all of your opponents, who are you most threatened by and why?
Say we're not really threatened by anybody.
I think that we're the best team in the world.
We're here to prove it.
I think one advantage that EU has is they get to play Rogue Mage Miners all day long,
24-7.
So they lose, it's honestly kind of embarrassing, but I'm not threatened at all.
Shout out to all the fans for supporting us.
Shout out to DZD Army.
DZD Army, that's right.
We're nothing without the fans, so we appreciate them all.
likely the kill will be secured as Gatorsback chomp game one.
A team with a dream to shut out the competition. Gatorsback representing North America are
looking to close down their jaws on the global stage at BlizzCon.
You know it's great to hear them actually talk about it because Gatorsback is kind of
one of the more low key, more quiet, not always kind of as overt teams. So to actually hear
from them talking about their play, their strat, how they came together, it's great
to see all of that from them. But I mean Gators back big contenders and Chan, do you
think there's anything in particular that makes them stand out? Yeah, Cubs is the best
wrestler in the world and he has been for what the past 10 years by far the best wrestler
dude. And honestly, I think he's the best North American killer for many, many years
down as well. Having that as the foundation for your team is so important. And I want
to add on to that. When we came here, Mara said Calvish is the best mage. Me is better
than right. That's coming from Mara and I thought you know Mara at some point
even today. Top tier mage, absolutely top tier mage. To say that about Calvish
that's crazy. I'm really excited to see how he's going to do. Me too. I mean those
are big words to love too but honestly I think the team can do it. However they're
going to be going up against Streamer Zone GG and this is a team that's kind of
taking a new shape this season right. We have members coming in here some of
who are familiar like Rahid and Jamie but a lot of kind of untested sort of
group synergy between them on the team. Supa what do you think we're going to
to see from streamers on GG.
I mean, it's likely going to be that rogue, mage, druid setup.
They do have Jamie as the fourth player.
And I think most importantly, as a land veteran,
he has played at those kinds of regional events.
And so with all of this new blood on his roster,
with Nexper and Hivian Pimic never going to a live event,
I think that's where his role will be pivotal.
If they lose a game, keeping them centered
and keeping them going.
So for me, even though he might not be in any of the matches,
he's going to be very important to the mental game
for his roster.
I mean, that's huge, right?
that's a really big part. Of
what you're bringing to the
table at A WC. But streamers
own G G. Then do you have any
expectations for them? I think
this is going to come down to a
rogue mage mayor, to be honest
with you, and that is actually
in. I feel like there's a slight
advantage there for P. Make
Bernhidi and next because this
is a team that's been able to
practice this composition so
much against the top of the
top contenders in Europe, whereas in North America,
I feel like there's not that same high-level rogue mage
that unfortunately for Gatorsback,
they'll be able to practice against over and over.
So on paper, I feel like P-Making Droom Hitty
in this rogue mage matchup, if that's what it comes down to,
is going to have a semi-advantage,
but I mean, you can never, ever count
out Cubsie, Days, Calvish, and WizK.
These are the best players in North America.
My favorite thing in the world is that whenever anybody says
rogue mage, Chan smiles bigger than I think
I ever see you smile.
You just light up on the desk.
It's because if you lose the mirror,
it's because you were the worst team.
Yeah.
And with the egos, the crowd here,
I mean, what better series to win than a mirror?
But I was laughing because we make you miss this dragon
spread.
Hopefully, he doesn't do that in this series.
Hopefully not.
And yeah, you're right.
It really lets you kind of test your skill against one
another if you have that mirror.
If you know, hey, we're bringing the same thing.
So really, our skill gets to determine this.
But we have to make some predictions now.
And things are a little contested on the desk.
Well, I was the only one contesting on the desk last series, but let's see how it unfolds this time around. You know what?
We'll actually start over your bed. Oh great.
Haha, yeah, what brought you your predictions for the first series here?
You know, I had the opportunity to meet days to his family and they were very friendly very nice
And one of the things that said to me is I like me because I had continuously cheered for their team throughout the entire season
So I'm gonna continue to go with that one Cubsie days Calvish Wizk, I believe in the dream
even though I think this can be a tough matchup for them because I don't think they have the same experience in this matchup
I think they're gonna walk away with a win, but it'll be close three to two. Okay. All right, super
Where are you leaning? I mean, I think the advantage that they have is that it's a different combination of specs
It's not the fire mage or it is the fire major should say in the past
It was the frost mage the outlaw rogue so given that it's assassination and fire that's still reasonably new combination
We haven't seen that in quite a few years
I think that gives Gators back a bit of an edge in that matchup
doesn't play out the same way as a frost major rotating block.
So I'm leaning into North America as well.
I'm leaning into the Gators back.
I think they're going to take it three to two.
OK, we have two for the Gators.
But Chan, where are you going?
You know, my heart says Cubsy.
I want him to win.
I want to see him do well.
I think he's so good on that restoration dude.
Next is, of course, two.
But I think Cubsy just two steps above him.
So I want to say three, one, two, the Gators.
I think that they're going to win this.
Okay, well, now you've put me in the exact same situation as the last series.
But you know what? This time, I think I'm going to go with the crowd.
I'm going to say, I think Gatorsback, I'm not just biased because NA,
but really seeing them play, seeing them come up and just seeing
how subtly they have built themselves into this team, this powerhouse,
is something that's so impressive.
And I'm not saying that Streamer's own GG is not going to give them a run for their money.
They may even take this, but I think my heart is telling me that it's going to be
three, two, towards Gatorsback.
That's what I'm feeling, but we need to get these teams on the stage and we need to get this series started.
So let's welcome them. Everybody raise your voices, Aya. Let's bring the teams on.
All right, are you guys ready?
All right, let's get these teams on and get and going in this series. Please welcome Gators back.
Calvish, WizK, Cubsie, and Deist!
Alright, let's bring on their opponent, Streamer Zone GG!
Broon Hitty, Jamie, Hime, and next!
Alright, Rook, take it away.
You know it's not easy being the EU team at an NA competition.
You just, you know, look, you have to imagine.
You have to imagine from across the ocean all of the EU fans that are cheering here for streamer zone gg and streamer zone have a lot to prove for themselves as well right because they are kind of newer in this formation.
So then there's a lot of the line for them to kind of define themselves even to those NA viewers here. This is a roster that can upset a lot of people here today because they are a phenomenal team P make a brunhiddi next.
If we do go down to Rogues, we are like I said, I think they're actually more experienced in this matchup and they're coming up a 3-0 victory earlier today as well, so they're fired up, they're ready to go, and hopefully not too discouraged.
Hopefully not. Look, you just have to focus up and you have to play the game that's ahead of you, and they're absolutely going to be doing that, but you know Gators back, we have talked about the fact that obviously there's a lot of people rooting for them and they come in in a really strong position.
So, I mean, if they're going to meet Streamer's on GG, Gator's back,
is there a situation in which you see them showing a sign of weakness, Supa?
I mean, if they ever back off of Druid in here, I think maybe we would know that
there's some weakness there, but I doubt that we will in this series.
It's just going to come down to setups, it's going to come down to crowd control.
This is likely going to be a very fast-paced matchup between these teams
as far as aggression.
Combustion is such a terrifying cool-down.
Deathmark is terrifying.
Kingsbane is terrifying.
They're constantly cycling back up.
the Druid cycling you at low health,
changing you into some locks,
there's just so much threatening presence
in a matchup like this.
I mean, yeah, this is definitely a team
that has earned that spot up at the top.
And I know we've kind of gone through here with the team
and seen a lot with them with Gatorsback,
but I do have to ask Chan, obviously their picks,
the way that they play is a really strong contender,
but what do you think really makes this team
in and of itself kind of a threat?
Well, the Gatorsback set themselves the Rogue Mage, right?
As they relied on that one, Rogue Mage, of course,
is heavily in the meta at the moment.
I think they're North America's best,
but I do think they have a few tricks up their sleeves.
I was talking to them.
We'll see if they pull that out.
I think though, you know, I want to see the Rogue Mage mirror.
I think they have it in them to beat Streamer's zone.
I think they have it in them to beat Echo as well.
And I'd love to see the mirror prove, you know,
that you are the best in the world by winning as Rogue Mage.
Okay, all right.
I mean, Streamer's zone GG with this configuration
that we saw, if they're going to meet this,
as intense powerhouse and the rogue mage kind of combo.
I mean, then you got to see them play
over the course of season one.
What potential did you see in Streamer's own GG as a team?
I think just P-Make, Brunhidi and Nex, as well as Jamie.
They're all just phenomenal players.
I mean, Brunhidi, we ran a solo shuffle tournament.
He was actually the champion in Europe for DPS.
So an absolutely incredible player
who's had a very successful A to B season in the past.
P-Make, a very young mage from Finland.
incredible player and he just been grinding so hard, not only on the North American ladder,
also the European ladder, he's just been so consistent, so hungry to really prove himself.
So I think that's their big advantage here is they're looking to prove everybody wrong,
show everyone that they really can't do it. That's what you want to do, especially at BlizzCon,
when you are on this global stage and you're live with everyone here in the audience. I mean,
this stage is something that so many of these teams have dreamt of or worked towards and being
able to compete, I think is a really huge thing for them, Sufa. It's not just about the $300,000.
Yeah, I mean, WizK came as close as a player can come against Cedar back in 2018, I believe it was.
Just one game away when he was on the move. It was just one game away from Winnie, and now he's
found a new roster here with Peters back, and he's had massive success in North America,
and they look phenomenal. It's just a well-rounded roster. If Shadow Priest ever is in the meta,
I'm sure that WizK will be ready and waiting and eager to jump onto that train. But at the moment,
he's likely going to have to rely on his teammates here with that rogue mage and restoration spirit.
I mean, it's always tough when there's one that you really love to play,
but it just never seems to have its moment to shine, especially in the competitive kind of scene.
And I mean, Chan, being live here with everyone, obviously it is about that old scores too,
but the energy of the audience. When you're playing live, do you think that it makes those
wins and losses feel all the more intense as a competitor?
Oh, of course, it's the best feeling in the world and the worst feeling in the world,
when you have all the eyes on you.
And for a lot of these players, it's their first time,
their first BlizzCon, of course.
Will the pressure get to them? I don't know, we'll have to see.
But it's so exciting, man.
And for those guys, it's a dream come true.
Yeah, I mean, it's pressure.
But like you said, I think that amp up emotion,
even just hearing people here talk about the competitions today,
I've had people come up to me and say,
you know what, like I've watched it or maybe I tuned in,
but it's so different being in person,
the energy of the crowd,
or even people who had never watched AWC who are saying,
I think I'm going to watch now because I came in and I was just like,
oh, this is actually the coolest and being able to feel that emotion with
everybody live at BlizzCon is just such an incredible way for the community to come together.
So, BlizzCon, say hello to everyone around the world and the community even that couldn't be here today.
There we go.
It's one big community but also sometimes in communities you have
these competitions that kind of make us butt head to head
in these two teams that we have taking the stage now.
Streamers are on GG and Gators back, no doubt,
are ready to get going.
But we are waiting as we start out a few things here
on the stage.
So, Supa, we did our predictions.
But is there a world in which you see this going
the opposite way?
Do you think that there's a condition
where your prediction could get turned on its head?
You're asking the guy who's prediction win-raised very low.
So, yes, it could go the other way very easily.
I'm not proud of that win rate, but it is what it is.
I mean, OK, but look, I think, honestly, if you take it,
it's going to feel all the better even because then you're
like, hey, I believed.
I believed.
I believe in North America.
They're the last bastion of hope for the region.
The first time that they're going to be playing on stage
for some of their players as well.
It's very exciting to see that.
All the fans that they have as well backing them up
in this position.
Will they be able to pull it off?
We saw a North American win over in MDI as well.
The team liquid winning it.
So maybe Lux on our side here for this region.
So double NA, that would be amazing.
But we'll have to see how it all shakes out.
As we look over the bracket again,
now of course we have Echo waiting at the end.
And that has to loom over these teams then.
Yeah, definitely.
One thing I wanted to point out as well for like Guild Beam,
for example, when we saw that last year,
is I think everyone had an idea in their mind
of what they were going to run.
And they surprised me heavily by bringing in Maro on the Hunter.
So for this next series, Gators back versus streamer zones,
obviously both of them waiting to see who's going to win against Ekko.
Ekko's going to be watching this next series very closely,
but they might not go with the rogue mage.
You know, they might have some surprises up their sleeve for BlizzCon finals like this.
This is the time to bring out those secrets, you know, try to pick up an early win.
And if you can catch your opponents off guard,
you can quickly get an advantage in the best of five series.
I mean, it's true, we literally just saw it, right?
If you're bringing out some picks, like we witnessed in the last series,
that maybe haven't been debuted or you haven't shown them off in competition before, it's
definitely something that can be an unpredictable element for the opposing team.
And I mean, with these two is they kind of are playing through.
Super, do you think that you just have to focus on kind of your path to victory?
Or do you think you have to have it in your mind, this bigger strategy of, okay, well,
if we're going to face Echo, do we hide some things here?
Do we go all out?
Do we just, you know, hope that we make it to the end if we can keep some things in
our back pocket?
I mean, guilt being surprising, I didn't think there were many things that you could hide,
and the Markets and Schupunder was one of them, but what these teams have practiced up to this point, right?
The entire season of play has been mostly allocated to Roche Minge, so they're complete masters of it.
So for them to back out of that to something else, it would have to be noticeably more powerful.
I don't think I see that for any of the roster's remaining in the tournament, so I think the likely very limited surprise,
if any, as far as composition strategy is concerned, as far as gameplay though,
I think there is potential variety.
I think that there are multiple fair targets
and that's where you can create surprise.
Yeah, I mean, adding on to that,
I think they mentioned this earlier,
but Streamerzone, they have so much
Rogue mage mirror practice.
You get to practice against Echo, right?
Yeah.
Gator's back.
One thing that they're really nervous about is
who do you practice against in NA?
FTA doesn't play Rogue mage.
The ladder is not, you know,
no one from ladders in AFC anymore.
It's not the same.
where streamers aren't that well oiled,
very well practiced.
The question is, can the Gators adapt in time
and learn the match up in real time during this series?
Because I think that's what's going to decide everything.
I mean, that's huge, right?
Who you can practice against
and what kind of experience you have.
I mean, especially with the fact that in PVP,
I think it's very important.
It's hard to play cross region
or to compete at that level
where even a moment of delay literally means
that you've lost something
that otherwise you could have won.
I mean, then it's a different experience for them here being able to come across and face each other directly live
Yeah, we had a quote from one loon travel earlier today
But they were saying each region has their own idea of how you know, the game should be played how matchup should be played
And that's a great thing about blizzcon as you bring the regions together
And you get to see who has the best idea for you know these matchups and maybe you know
Team's not being able to practice against a team like gators back
They have a strategy in mind that will just completely change everything. We'll have to wait and see if that does happen
But if there is a team in North America that would be able to pull that off and basically make a strategy from nothing
It would be gators back just because of how good these guys are. I mean we'd love to see that
It would be a very exciting moment as well
And the teams are amping up to get into this series now of course between them both this and a kind of element right the
mingling or the different regions. Do you think, Supa, that there's much of a
difference in how NA or EU approaches arena? I would say that there's a
distinct difference between Chateau priests in North America mostly because
this case exists and then elemental shaman in Europe because of Z-Pie and other
phenomenal shaman like Jamie as well. I would say that's been one main
distinction is like a shaman or priest but right now the meta not really
pivoting in too much in favor of those specializations so it has pivoted more
towards Brokemage and I would say North America typically is behind as far as that, as far as
mirrors because there's just not a lot of them available in the region whereas Europe is just
completely dialed in on that they probably have like four or five that play the top tier,
S tier level of that composition so those are the main distinctions.
So with that in mind then Jen, as an NA team how do you kind of prepare to stand up against
everything that Europe has to offer? I feel like historically and it's not always been true right
But the European teams typically are a lot more scripted a lot more controlled and dampen up than the North American down the parts and a teams a
Lot more messy, but a lot more aggressive at the same time
Right and that's something that can really surprise the European teams because they're not used to that
They're not used to this crappy kind of play style that you might see coming out of NA
I mean, I think how wish of course
He's a new upcoming players. He's very young. He's on the mage
He's impressed us so much Mario gave him so much praise
Mage is one of those classes that can make so many outplays, right?
And when you put someone with that kind of talent on mage, it's beautiful
But at the same key can be said over on streamers side as well. He Mac is a European version of him. I
Actually love that you have that kind of we might have the mirror literally
But you also kind of have this mirror with the players too on either side
And I think both teams with those players
especially the newer ones to the scene, are really out to kind of prove themselves here at a big event like BlizzCon.
I mean, it's not easy when you're kind of crossing these regions to decide how you're going to strategize,
but in your opinion, Ben, which do you kind of lean towards?
Do you think Dambaning does have the advantage or do you think a more aggressive play style is something that can really shake that up?
I think it's really match-up based, but I do agree with Chan.
Like, typically the North American teams are a lot more zug-zug, like they're going to push it in,
They're gonna be swapping targets all the time. Maybe their crowd control is not going to be as perfect as clinical
But if they can cause a lot of chaos in the match, then they can easily get those wins if the script is kind of
Thrown on its head so to speak. I think one interesting thing about Gators back as well as Calvish
You know, he's likely gonna be playing the mage in this match up
But I know him as a rope like whatever I think of Calvish
I still think I was like, okay
This is like one of the best ropes that has existed in the modern era
So, as well, Cubsy, the healer has won multiple championships as a mage, so it's like everybody
kind of knows the roles of each other, and I think that's one of the things that makes
this team so threatening, is everyone understands what they need to do to win in a matchup like
this.
Alright, the wait is over!
We are ready to step in for the first map.
This is going to be Gatorsback vs Streamer Zone GG.
You've heard from us all of this setup about these two teams.
They are both out to prove a lot.
And although USA is resounding through the BlizzCon Hall,
EU has championed and been a major, major contender
in the arena space for so long for a reason.
Will Gatorsback take it or Streamer Zone GG?
I honestly think either of these teams could show up
and move on to face Echo in the grand finals,
but here and now they're gonna have to start that journey
as we see them come in here and face one another.
Gatorsback versus Streamer Zone GG.
Everybody make some noise for the first map of the series.
Super, what's off it to you?
It's been seven years since North America,
and you're up, we're able to go head-to-head,
head-to-head, and it's gone in this capacity.
The games are open, and they are already
blasting each other as we go to shut each other down.
Bays is the initial target for being
making the idiotic ones combustion.
The confidence will prove, comes in the backline,
in that tree of life, spamming with innervator,
and generating his mana as well.
Now Calvish is firing his combustion,
but both rest of Druids are in great positions
to just totally negate that initial exchange.
Yeah, Polterud is doing a great job handling
that initial aggression.
If line goes out on the next into a cheat shot,
looks like he's going to sit at great pressure here
for Gator's back.
This could be a collar on his end.
Ice block it is.
A great push by Gator's back.
All pressure back on Dazed.
They connect the death mark.
It's a completely different strategy.
P-Mage and Brunhidi are focusing Dazed.
Whereas Dazed and Calvish are focusing P-Mage.
And P-Mage is falling behind.
Dazed uses evasion to stay aggressive and stay on target.
They know that they might be able to topple them here with a smoke bomb potentially.
The Calvary's on the back foot.
Your Nidhi's trying to put his team back in the game.
Big Pyroblast connects in the Calvary, but Cubsie is ready and waiting to recover from that.
Tranquility behind the pillar from next here.
That glowing icon, he's healing Bernini through the smoke bomb, which was a checkmate position next to an amazing heads-up place right there to navigate that tough situation.
And after he's been cycling like Cubsie, Cubsie's moving towards next.
Next, next, actually, he's chasing him down at the moment, but he's not by an end cap.
More and more, and he's in trouble.
It's taking control of this game.
They get the dragon press.
Still in trouble!
Look at this damage from North America!
Gator's back!
Taken so quickly!
What a game by Gator's back.
Beautifully done.
The control comes in and they get the game one win.
You know, I'm not surprised that they named themselves after Gator
just popping out of the water in this sudden intense strike.
I mean brutal to witness but so good for them as they take this first map now Gators back
They went straight for P make and they would not let him go
I mean then why do you think that focus why that choice was that really what they wanted to hone in on right off the bat?
It's interesting because I feel like in this matchup you can go after any of the targets
I was anticipating going after the rogue a lot more
But I don't know maybe this is one of those things where Gators back is switching up the style going after the mage instead of the
and maybe that perhaps caught P-Make, Brunhidi, and next off guard in this matchup, so we'll have to see if you want to break it down.
Yeah, break it down, champ.
Yeah, I mean, this first setup was absolutely beautiful.
You get P-Makes and Porter Ryze right in the opener, and the reason for that is because next, I think, actually,
Iron Buck Brunhidi instantly on the combustion from Calvish, and what the Gators did with that is instantly some onto P-Make,
they pressured him through with the rest of the combustion, got the CC onto next, and then later on here,
Cubsy in cap draw into a sudden to next gets his drink it
Db on the shrink it and they just push through through follow up CC next is too far behind you may can't survive
This game was pure domination gators back Cubsy went in Calvish went in everyone collapsed onto next and just made it unplayable for him
You can see how uncomfortable they were. It was completely off-script. It was too aggressive for them
And they just broke apart and absolutely crumbled
I mean that was some of that interesting difference between that EU and a right and a if they leap straight in and they play with this aggression
It can immediately kind of throw them off and they're not sure how to rally super.
I mean, it was a fast one here at the start.
But what do you think this kind of indicates as we head through the rest of the series?
I just love that Gators back, their personalities are just total chill buyers.
They're just here to hang out, but the gameplay is cutthroat.
Yeah.
Do not want to be on the other side of them in game.
And that emphasis of personalities is quite crazy from their roster.
I did not expect them to topple Streamerzone.
So easily streamer zone has taken tournaments off of echo if they've won cups to get to this stage and to be just
Destroyed that fast in game number one streamer zone. They're taking it to a large map
They want to try and cool things off and I would say the European region broke me for a few years now has been mostly defense oriented
It's been mostly stay alive do damage
But this fire assassination version is much more aggressive and will they be able to adapt to that playstyle distinction?
I think that's going to be crucial for them. And then we have our picks obviously coming in. What are you seeing with the draft?
Well going to a large map of Tover on Arena and it will once again be a rogue mage druid mirror
So both teams feeling very confident in this matchup, but I will say I do agree with channel gators back
They looked very dominant in that game number one
They were pushing the pace from start to finish and they got a win and what a little under two minutes in that
Minute and thirty seconds
So I do anticipate that these games will be quick just based off the nature and the volatility of the assassination rogue and the firemage,
especially when you have both Druids pushing in, assisting with crowd control and really helping their DPS find those win conditions.
Yeah, and I mean, now this is the best of five, right?
So if you come in really strong like this at the start, as we've just seen, I think it does obviously give the other team a moment to adapt.
I'm sure they already expected there'd be some aggression in this play, but to experience it here in this moment,
probably immediately makes you kind of rethink some things about stratton what
you're going to bring to the table so with that in mind I mean super do you
think they're going to be more prepared from this assault that we just saw it
really depends you know their war games with European teams might have been
robes the best target and America's just like yeah we're just gonna go mage and
they didn't expect it they were anticipating it he saw the iron bark
like Chan pointed out they really thought Robes can be the focus point and they
just said no we're not going that way and that was the type of surprise that I
is talking about as far as strategy and targeting is really well done here.
Very, very well done and well strategized, right?
As you look at that, you kind of think maybe this is a choice that could still be
effective for us, but that would throw them off.
That's something that you can absolutely choose, Chan.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know about this 12-round arena pick.
I think this is a signal of like, what I've been said, want some time,
a bigger map to just catch your breath, right?
But if you're picking this in a mirror because you want to slow the game down,
That is not, in my opinion, a voter confidence at all, right?
Gator's Back knows that as well.
And if they take their pillar and collapse onto the pillar
that Nex is playing on, the same exact thing
could happen again.
Friends, it will be a little bit more difficult
because the pillar on Tolveron is so big,
the game's opening, take it away.
All right, we're coming in.
Gator's Back versus Streamer's on GG.
This is the second game of the series.
They want to get a point on the board.
Will they do it?
It's Ben.
Cup to just Star Surge is right away there.
All right, sorry, Nex to Star Surge,
he throws a global on the mage, getting combat,
Generating the little kind of backspots.
Dragon's breath has been engaged.
There's the cheap shot through.
Pity looks like a target.
Eventually no, they're back on P-Make.
He's able to jump into Invis and P-Makes
play a bit more defensive here.
Now, they're actually leaving the pillar aggressively.
Cubsie gets intercepted by the rake stun.
Dragon's breath engagement.
Next, choosing to use the medallion.
Cubsie pre-bear forms.
They're on the blind.
So he's not going to be a target.
He can't be polymorphed.
That was really excellent from Cubsie.
The in-cap flow instead.
They can load him.
Dazed, he's taking tremendous pressure.
In game number two, he drinks up the evasion.
and he recovers, and quite still, there's a clear distinction.
P-MIC is struggling, whereas Dazed is just trading totally effectively.
Yeah, I mean, it's very interesting.
Strategy is coming in for both these teams approaching the matchup differently.
Brute hitting though, getting down to half, and the gator is back,
really looking to strike back here.
Can't they take him down?
Ground control on next.
He's got no trinket.
But he's still having to poke the shadows.
Talos low on health at the same time, and Streamerzone is looking to strike back.
Right, Dazed. Let's see what you can do here.
He's gotten a kidney shot.
He's ready. He gets cyclone by next, but he got Iron Bark up right before.
We need to switch to Calvish. B make us fall in behind.
It's so much damage, but P make is actually doing a lot as well.
As Calvish gets low for a moment, and back into the corner, trying to find Frost Nova on the road,
but that's instantly dispelled, and we can see for Hiddie making his way over.
Caught the dragon's red kidney shot, no drink, big damage, cups he had there.
It's game number two, and will he fall? He is so low on health right now.
Desperation is knocking, and he manages to stay alive.
I can't believe it. The defensive smoke bomb denied Calvish from finishing him at that moment.
I thought the game was over. What a beautiful setup there by Gator's back.
But Brunhidding into fight and stays alive and at the same time, he makes it in danger.
Here comes the combustion. As the Europeans are looking to strike back here, on dazed.
Onto a cyclone, nice cyclone there by. Max is going to freeze his health
and not allow Gator's back to get a counter setup.
Alright, we get some combustion up for Pnake, but no momentum whatsoever.
And Brunhidding now caught in the kidney shot.
And then he's in a good position. Though Cubsi is there. Cubsi is just carrying right now.
The crowd's talking to Chaminet. Doesn't look like he can.
Next is free both teams are free. They're trying to find their time to find their moment
as Rniddy is going after Kalvashir next to Giddy and the Cat form.
And once Giddy combo points for a stun, is he going to find it? No he's met by a stun
out from Daze, but now Daze has caught into a kidney shot.
Kalvdy and the Braggens for Rniddy is rotting down to damage. Here's the Kingsbane commitment
onto Daze. Will he be able to deny his own death? Oh! For Rniddy! Out of nowhere! What is this domination?
Gators back are totally owning right now. Wow. Gators back. Every time they come back
for a win you can just hear in the back of your mind gator back again and they've done it I mean
coming in and taking this right away it feels like they're almost playing mind games the first
game we watched them just focused down p-make we're kind of going oh interesting they focused
the mage there and now they come for the rogue as they go and just absolutely take out burn hitty i mean
chan impressive play i mean this was again this was again true domination right the thing is about
the assassination record of fire mage is the damage is so high anyone can die but one thing that
really set this game apart is Gator's back got to go first, they got to use that combustion first
and that put you know streamer zone on the defensive, couldn't use their combustion for 20 seconds,
they end up getting the combustion back and they scored the kill because of that. They're just in
the driving scene and when you're in this aggressive position it's just so much easier to play because
Nex is scared, Pilimax is scared, Brunhidi is scared, but the Gators they're just jumping on him.
Take us into some of the highlights and deeper insights that you have about the game as well.
Yeah absolutely and this set up onto Brunhidi where they get their truthy cloak right,
So good, they get the Trigger from there and look at what Cubscy was doing to Nex at the same time.
He went for the Rake stun with the Shadow Melt, gets the Incap raw after that,
and Brunhiki has the Panic Defensive Smoke Bomb to survive.
And that's an offensive cooldown that he can't use later on, they still have to follow up damage.
Nex tries to Trigger desperately to try and save him, but it's just not enough because you're just so far behind
and the damage is so high coming from that Fire Mage with the Combustion.
I mean, then this has been such an aggressive push from Gator's back,
that it was a possibility that
they would come in and just
absolutely lean into that kind
of aggressive play style. How
do you answer this with
streamers on GG? You have. I
feel like you just can't be
afraid in the matchup, but that
that really is a style I think
of Calvish and it shows with
Gators back. They are really
pushing the pace of this
matchup. They're not afraid to
just use cooldowns early, play
the game really fast and get
your opponents on the back. But
for streamers own, they need to
not fall into that trap of
we're just playing defensive.
We're just surviving because in
you're going to lose. So you
have to find an opportunity to
find those setups to get
aggressive and try to get
Gators Gators back into a defensive
position because if not, Gators
back is going to walk away with
three. Oh, I mean, we've seen them
take it to here already, but I
think that's a good point because
if you are committing those
resources early with this kind of
aggressive push, there's the
possibility that that can leave
to kind of survive through and then use to their advantage.
I just feel like Cubs is such a flexible player.
He's the best defensive and best offensive rest of your it.
So he'll just flip as soon as he knows he's vulnerable.
He'll flip to defense mode when he knows
he needs to be aggressive.
He flips to offense mode.
And that is what is so challenging
about taking him down as a player in streamer zone.
They're afraid.
They're locking in another large map.
They're trying to get space to breathe right now.
They're just trying to push Gators back and hold them
rather than playing to try and win the game.
I mean, they have to because if they lose this one,
then they are out.
There are no other chances.
There is not another shot at becoming
a 20-26 BlizzCon champion.
They have to get a point here in this series,
or they will be eliminated.
Gators back are sitting comfy on these two points
and with this aggressive playstyle
that has just completely knocked Streamer's zone
off of their cadence.
But in our next map, it could be the final game
of the series.
Gators back with two points, Streamer's zone.
GG, everybody.
If you want Streamer's zone to have a chance,
you need to rally, give them your voices.
Shout out here in the audience and let's see if we can get this roll in Venn.
Oh man, this is so exciting. Let's see what Gator's back is going to do.
Don't blink, you'll miss the action. This is going to be a fast one.
Bowis gets corroded early on. Just good early control here from Brunhiddy.
Kitty shot here on the daze as Streamer's zone is looking to find that offense.
An early combustion by P-Make, but looks like Cuddy's able to easily shrug it off.
Brunhiddy caught in the smoke bomb. Aggressive play from dazed.
The next is ready for it. Iron Bark is active and that initial exchange
He's put them in great position, they're swapping on Kalvish, trying to get pressure there.
He totally shuts it down, breaking out of the stun, blazing barrier up.
Main stun from Kubsi.
Kubsi's just constantly getting his crowd control before next can't find anything.
He's caught in blind, he trinkets it and commits it, but he gets incapped on his trinket.
He's clutched plays from Kubsi that he's just catching those trinkets.
Kalvish as well with the Dragon's Breath, he's just finding those millisecond moments.
And look at this pressure, almost getting the cauterize from Pimic.
Not even a minute into this game and they're just floundering to try and get something going on dazed.
Yeah, get cycloned up. So they paused that aggression going after Calvish now
We're just kind of waiting here for Gators back combustion coming up at about 15 seconds for both of your ages
So a huge opportunity here Calvish and P make going for Fallen Wolfs
P make net is to find it now going after Calvish they cut the stun here onto Cubs
He can't they find more control looks like it will be a cheap shot on next
We're trying to get aggressive at the same time Calvish is on the back foot. Yes that combustion rotating back up
It's a huge opportunity here for them to get aggressive on the broon. He said combustion over on today's right now
Cubsie blocks it but he gets Cyclone and next is starting to find his momentum.
He's getting crowd control but is it too little too late?
Bruny Trit gets in close. A clutch moment for both sides as Calvish is struggling.
Wrapping around the corner trying to get back to Cubsie's side and recover.
And he should be able to pick him up in a few moments.
Now Bruny still does have the smoke bomb but here we go opening the smoke behind his force.
Just gets to the other door that checked me for the Cyclone again from Cubsie.
Cubsie is on fire. That is going to get the ice block before the cauterize.
Another cycle comes he is lawless execution right now, but you just get caught by a counter spell and then possibly capitalize on that
They are on it. They punish they get the kidney shot and cloak and punish cut you right there
Yeah, put streamer zone back in the game days to down very vulnerable in this situation comes
He does have some answers, but at the same time streamer zone is running out of cooldowns
They're running out of time cows needs to be very careful here
He makes getting interrupted as Gators back is looking to put some truck on the main both teams stabilized for the moment
but I don't think this game is going to last much longer here.
Both teams have checked me, turned me down, the roves, no trinkets.
Are they going to be able to connect the damage in time?
Blind, kidney, no trinket, comes in, comes in, in the nick of time, with the nature swiftness.
Blind and rough-killing, the Libby, and that's a lot of damage still.
They're lining up the death mark, comes in, and caprores in.
Oh, brother! Oh, my God, this damage is disgusting!
Gators back 3-0!
Wow! What a set-up by Gators back there.
really just turning the aggression around on a streamer zone and coming up with a 3-0 victory.
3-0 victory for Gators back and NA raised their voices. You can hear the energy as that win came
in. Gators back were dominant. They absolutely crushed the competition and took down streamer
zone GG. No problem. But streamer zone GG, they're in that last game. They definitely tried. You can
see that there was that moment where they thought maybe we can get some breakthroughs. We were
able to survive the initial assault. But you can see the gators in the audience
chopping for this victory. I mean, Super Street was on GG. Just wasn't able to
ultimately make them. They just couldn't adapt the North American aggression like
Shannon then we're talking about in the pregame just getting in their faces,
pushing the momentum, pushing the pace constantly, and the European defensive
mechanisms were not enough to throw them off. They were not and I mean it's tough
when you just are standing up against somebody who is knocking you down before
You could even get your bearings in a game, but Chan, you were able to kind of break it down more.
How did everything kind of unfold?
I mean, this game was a little bit better from Streamer's Own as you guys said, but the thing is,
next went for the push when they would get a go on to dazed, and they just turned it right around on them.
CC, next, and then I think Cuxi actually maimed his trinket with the combustion still rolling from Kalavish,
and the thing is the damage is just so overwhelming.
Next, he couldn't get enough lobes off before he got re-CC, and Bernhidi just ended up going down.
Perfect. This is the thing about Cubsy on Druid. This is why he's the best Druid.
It is, and the cheers are still going through the audience. I mean, it is true though. Seeing that play, it absolutely backs up your statements.
I mean, it's so impressive that dexterity and that just dominance in the field.
I mean, we're looking here at the death recap of the pity. Ben, what are you kind of seeing as we look over it?
Yeah, I think it's one of those things where either one of them.
All right, well, you know what?
Actually, it looks like our interview is ready.
So we are going to toss over to the stage.
We're going to have an interview,
and then we'll circle back.
We certainly do.
I am here with Calvish.
Congratulations once again.
You have so many fans in the audience here.
Is this something you were expecting?
What are you saying?
Were you expecting this?
Was I expecting this?
The mirrors are a bit rough, but I think we're pretty good
in that matchup.
So now, I don't know if you were listening to anything that they were talking about on the desk earlier, but Maro said that you were the best mage in the world.
Do you have any response to that?
I have a lot of respect for Maro.
I think Maro is a complete God.
So carrying him say that makes me feel really good about myself.
It gives me some confidence to run in and play super aggressively every single game.
Yeah, I'm speaking of aggression.
Speaking of aggression,
we definitely saw that showcased in that series that you guys just played.
Did you feel that level of aggression and what was behind that?
It was incredible, incredible to watch.
Yeah, feel it the entire game.
That's kind of like, that's how we like to play the mage mirrors a lot,
is we just get in there, get on top of them and make them just freak out.
All right, moving on to face off against Echo in the grand finals.
Are you feeling prepared?
are you ready to go feeling very prepared. All right amazing
congratulations once again a good luck back to you guys. I
really love that quote. We just make them freak out because
honestly if I was the one that was facing that I that's
exactly what I would be doing and we were talking about
bruhay before we went over to the stage were there any thoughts
you wanted to add on about that then. I mean I was just going
to say in this matchup it seems like both the rogue and the
major so capable of this these really explosive moments so
that's what makes it so exciting and also what makes these
matchup so short because you're seeing opportunities for the mage is completely one shot the enemy team and then the same thing for the
Rogue so we've got to keep our eye out on all these players. Oh absolutely and I mean Gator's back taking this series
It's no wonder because it was such an impressive play from them. Chan, what did we see in this last game?
I mean this set up on today's here, you know, they switched some damage on the tower
But I feel like Cubs is doing such a good job responding to all the pushes from streamers own right whereas on
on Sumer's own side, Nex gets caught up in the Cyclone from Cubsie,
came back as to go into a block randomly.
And then this setup right here, look at this,
cheap shot onto Nex with the combustion from Calvish,
which is about to be popped in,
in-caps raw combustion real frost into the main on his Trinket.
And Brunhidi just goes down because he doesn't have to cook the showers available.
But I mean, beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
All these micro CCs just coming through at the right time,
layering them all together and does not give me Nex the space to get away.
Yeah, these Trinket there, they should have survived that setup.
Yeah, I mean, but again, when you're just completely thrown by that team, I think it's hard to kind of have that bigger perspective in the moment.
You can lose your cool so easily and misuse some of those things or not take full advantage.
And I mean, we saw it with that death.
We saw it with that action.
And I mean, of course, Gators back are impressive and top of NA for a reason.
Now here with our bracket, this is going to mean that we have our two grand finalists, Echo and Gators back.
Super these two I think are going to be even more exciting than everything else. We've seen today. That's already been so good
It's best of seven. It's been seven years
North America against Europe echo versus Gators back and after seeing that momentum if I was echo like
It's not often that I would say I might be shaking a little bit
Yeah, I mean honestly when you see Gators back just do that 3-0 and then you hear that
Confidence of you know, are you ready to face them? Do you think you can take down echo and there's just that sense of like?
Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean that confidence is something that I think echo is gonna have to be wary of them
I mean they just re owed their practice partners, right?
So that's just that's a tough spot to be in but you could never count out echo
There's so many times where I mean echo they've just been so dominant for such a long time that sometimes we do count them out
But they always make us regret it. So I think we're in for an amazing grand finals
I think so too will NA be able to shake it up against EU with echo even with these long-standing
standing victors or are we going to see NA here with the energy of the crowd
chanting USA behind them can Gators back continue on and become champions this
year at the AWC championship I don't know but our grand finals are not yet
done they are coming up very soon we have a quick break so you can gather
yourself and then we have to be ready because this is going to be a huge
matchup
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Welcome to go again, the past, present, and future of hardcore.
My name is Nora Mills, I'm a lead software engineer on WoW Forever and of course the
classic team. Joining me today is these two awesome dudes, Chris Zeerhut, principal game
designer and honestly guy who knows just about everything there is to know about World of
Warcraft. Seriously, he's like an encyclopedia. And also none other than Aggrand, Josh Greenfield.
I didn't even get to his title yet.
Senior game designer.
Wow.
So the format of this panel is very laid back.
This is honestly not scripted.
I just wrote down a bunch of bullet points to make sure I pulled the right information
out of these two guys.
Basically, we're going to talk about how Hardcore went from
really community-driven idea,
concept to something our team got in there and started saying,
hey, we're interested in maybe talking about this thing and
working with the community toward an eventual pitch,
and then that launch moment,
how it was received and how our team
even received it and reacted to it.
Then finally, we're going to maybe
share a little bit of what to expect in, wow, forever hardcore.
So, yeah, to kick things off, for anybody who hasn't played hardcore,
or who isn't familiar with the concept as it relates to World of Warcraft,
you might be wondering, like, all right, does hardcore just mean,
I don't know, they crank up the game difficulty,
everything has a lot of health, everything hits really hard?
Like, what does it mean for World of Warcraft to be hardcore?
So, to kick things off, Chris, why don't you explain to the audience what is hardcore?
So, hardcore is a really kind of overloaded term in gaming these days, especially in World of Warcraft.
Does it mean you're doing, you know, mythic raider, myth of progression, high-end arena like we just witnessed here?
But that's really not what hardcore is about in World of Warcraft Classic. Hardcore comes back to
something a little further back in Blizzard's history when we first launched Diablo II.
It had a new mode where you could choose to go to hardcore instead of normal mode.
And when your character died, that was it. They're dead. You can't play anymore. They're gone. Start
over. And I remember back then when that came out, I had some friends that really liked to play
hardcore and I kind of teased them about it like, something's going to call you in the middle of the
the night when you're playing offline, you're dead, right?
But, well, hardcore ended up being a very, very different thing
than that, even though it took the inspiration for that.
It was inspired by what the community did,
the add-ons you built, and the ideas that came from you,
the influencers and streamers,
and turned into something really great.
Yeah, awesome.
I really love the story of honestly how it came from the community
and then turned into a kind of a collaboration
between our team and the community.
As you must have heard on our other panels,
like we are very interested in working with y'all
to make this thing the best thing it can be.
And so we really look forward to collaborating
with our players, I mean, for hardcore
and also into the future forever.
So for those who don't know, Josh was really
at the forefront of a lot of our conversations
in the very beginning with players
in the hardcore community.
And so Josh, why don't you explain
How did this whole thing start?
Where did it all begin?
Take us back to the beginning.
Well, it's a bit of a long story,
so I'll try not to bore everybody,
but essentially kind of the way it started,
I mean, it started when 2019 classics started,
and even before that,
there's always been groups of people
who want to do like the one life challenge,
where you have one shot and leveling a character to 60
without dying.
For us, where we really got involved in it,
was in our Season of Mastery server.
So Season of Mastery was essentially a special rule set,
fresh vanilla wow realm that we spun up in 2022 or 2021,
excuse me, and whenever we announced it,
everyone was, there was a lot of people
that were really excited to kind of do fresh vanilla again
and the hardcore community self-organized an event
called the Road to Ragnaros.
Yeah, exactly.
And by the time we saw information about that,
it was a couple of months before we were going to launch,
but we were locking down the build.
We were getting ready to be done with Season of Mastery,
or at least getting ready to ship it.
But we were like, man, that is really cool.
That would be super fun to support in some way,
but we didn't have very much time left.
And ultimately, there was one of our designers on the team,
Tony Trejo who is now an encounter designer on World of Warcraft. He does a great job.
He was like, guys, I think I can slam something in to like just give a little wink and a nod
to the community on this. And so he created a system called the Soul of Iron, which Soul of Iron
is pretty simple. You go and talk to an NPC in town and they'll give you a buff that says you've
never known defeat and then obviously if you die you lose it. And so we put that in, we put the
server out and, you know, road to Ragnaros was a great success.
A lot of people had a lot of fun with it.
You know, a bunch of groups made it to 60.
They got through molten core with 40 other friends who made it to 60 without dying
and they killed Ragnaros.
And so we just had so much fun with that, not just kind of like watching it,
but also playing it.
A lot of us leveled through that with them.
And so it always kind of stuck with us.
So fast forward to about a year later, we were, we had just launched
and the hardcore community had kind of spun down on Season of Mastery, and they ended up kind of setting up shop on one of our era realms, on an RP realm called Blood Sale Buccaneers.
Yeah, big shout to Blood Sale.
Yeah, and at this point they've gotten very sophisticated.
Nara mentioned the add-on and all of the the it kind of kept you honest and talked to each other
It gave you a death notification in chat. It was really really cool and
That's when a lot of us started kind of going hard at it. I know Nora. I know you went really hard at it
You know, I I love all the bunch of characters or well tried to anyway
but
Around that time
We just we're like, you know what this needs to be a real thing
We need to make this a real thing.
And so I was a producer at the time and so I spent a lot of time kind of looking at metrics and numbers and stuff like that as part of my kind of job.
And I started keeping track of what we call like the daily peak concurrency, which is essentially the high watermark each day of how many people are online on average.
And when I first started tracking this, it was probably 150 to 200 people online at once on any
given day, which isn't much, but it was a couple of pretty full guilds worth of people that were
doing it. So week over week, I'm tracking this, and this is like towards the end of the year in 2022
and our yeah 2022 and the once we got close to our holiday break it had gone
from like 200 350 500 a thousand and it was like getting really close to a
thousand and so we went on our holiday break came back from the break and it
was like 1500 it had jumped in a week that much and it's like this is real we
need to do something with this and so we kind of put our heads together we put
together a pitch and we took it to the kind of upper blizzard leadership and
said hey we'd really like to do this here's kind of the here's the graph you
know the really fancy looking spiky graph and I kind of want to say initially
there were a little lukewarm on it you know it was like it was like I don't
know guys it takes a long time to level it wow it seems a little risky you know
and it's like, trust me, it will be cool. Trust me. Trust me, bro, kind of saying. But
so Holly Longdale was our executive producer, and she was probably like 60 or 70% sold on it.
And she's like, Josh, I got to go on vacation. I'll be gone for two weeks. Let me think about it.
Let me think about it. And so I'm like, okay, you know, I walked out of it. I was a little
will despondent. So Holly used to refer to our team as team finger guns. And so we went
and we talked to one of our engineers, Chase McGuire, who ended up doing a lot of the implementation
for the final launch version. And we're like, hey, you think you can maybe put together
a prototype in two weeks? And he's like, yeah, sure, let's do it. And so we finger guns the
prototype together in about two weeks and I mean it wasn't it wasn't ship ready but it was it was
hardcore you died you stayed dead you couldn't use res you couldn't use on kiddo stuff like that
and so she comes back from her vacation she's like all right let's let's talk about this thing and
it's like well actually we've kind of already built it here it is and she she kind of did the
Jean-Luc Picard like facepalm like oh yeah all right cool let's do it let's do it and that was
was the green light. And so we were off to the races at that point. And as soon as we
kind of got that sort of green light, we kind of immediately went and engaged with the community.
We had already been, I've been in a discord chat for a long time with some people who
are really at the spearhead of the kind of hardcore community. I'm talking about people
like tactics, only black smoke, winky, Cargas, Sarth, you know, a bunch of guys like that,
really, really great people who are kind of really pushing this way of playing and, you
know, I was like, I kind of had to be a little coy with them. I'm like, well, you know, you
know, if we were to do this, like, you know, here, you know, people kind of tell us to
devour the storm wind. How would we, you know, maybe here's our idea for this. Like, what
do you think of that? And they're like, yeah, that's pretty cool, I guess. And, you know,
they give us feedback and we kind of, you know, iterate on that and stuff. And so we
We knew we were going to launch it.
We figured out what our release date was.
It was going to be in August, and we needed to announce it.
And around the time this was all going,
something that I think kind of helped us push over the edge
was there was an event called the Hardcore Allstars
that was happening.
Shout out to anybody who participated in that or watched it.
And it was about to have its finale.
And a lot of the same people who were in that chat with us
were working on that.
And we're just like, hey, could it be cool if we just went on there real quick and just said something?
And they're like, gee, I wonder what you're going to say.
So it was kind of a not very well kept secret, I guess.
But so yeah, they were gracious enough to let us go on to the show.
And we announced, wow, classic hardcore was coming.
And I got to say, that was kind of like the highlight of my time.
I've been a blizzard for 17 years.
And that was a pretty big moment to be able to go on there
and do that.
But ultimately, this is a thing that was by you guys
and for you guys.
We just kind of were along for the ride.
And it's one of the most special things
I think I've worked on at Blizzard.
In a lot of ways, I feel like, wow, hardcore
is the purest way to play vanilla wow.
We can never go back to the where we were at our lives in 2004 2006 or wherever we started playing Wow
But and it's hard for us to turn our brains off as gamers
You know what I mean?
but this is one of those things that it like forces you to play like you played back then like you were clueless and
But you are clueless you do have a clue now, but it still just forces you to slow down and
Super special so anyway, that's the story
What are some of the design implications of implementing hardcore in a game that wasn't
originally designed for it?
Those things had to come up.
How did that kind of come up?
How did we approach those problems?
Yeah, I mean, a lot of times it's just like, how does it work?
What are the logistics of doing certain things?
obviously it's a really big game and even those of us who have worked on Wow for 15 plus years,
there's things about the game that we even sometimes kind of forget. And so we had to do a lot of
testing like remember all of those little things that would kill you and what weren't fair and
try and create solutions for them and also sometimes make a difficult decision on what not to do.
It's like Velestraz. It's like well good luck figure it out and you know people did figure it
you can hear it out, you know, in the middle of it,
and stuff like that.
So it's just a lot of looking at the game top down
and trying to understand what needs to happen
to reinforce it for this style of play.
And also UI and things like that, like guilds,
like what happens when your guild leader dies?
You know, so like we have to communicate that,
hey, you need to hand over your guild to somebody else.
You're dead, and stuff like that.
And also like the considerations for,
this isn't Diablo, right?
This isn't like your character is done and gets deleted.
Like letting you go to the normal servers,
the normal era realms after you die is something that we think
is a great middle ground for like,
oh man, I've spent 200 hours playing this character,
like suck if it was gone forever.
It's like, well, you know, you're done on the hardcore server,
but you can go over to one of the normal realms if you'd like.
Awesome.
So hardcore was something that the community believed in,
we believed in,
for the first time ever we were about to ship official hardcore realms and that was you know
I mean anytime you ship a new product while forever we you know there's a certain amount of like
nervousness right there's this anticipation um but we I don't I don't think that I well I don't
know if our team was fully prepared for what that launch moment would be like. We actually have a
clip from a couple of players who would like to share some of what their experience was
like playing hardcore. I don't know if my friend backstage could put the clip up on the fancy
screens.
The redacted aspect?
You're just saying it because of this.
Okay, like...
OH!
Hardcore is a game mode in all the Warcraft, means a lot to me because it rekindled my
joy and my excitement for the game as a whole, only having one life kind of forces you to
take it slow and just enjoy the journey, which I think is great because the journey is the
the fantastic and most amazing part about Classic Wild.
Bro, can I even kill two Searing Ghouls?
Yeah, I'm gonna kill them.
I'm gonna use a health pot.
I can't, oh my gosh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
I'm dead!
I'm actually...
Oh my gosh, bro.
What does hardcore mean to me?
It's the closest thing you can get to playing the game back in 2004.
Hardcore forces you to go slow, enjoy the process,
not just go, go, go, do all your chores and log off,
but let me just sit here and game and build up my character.
And I love that.
So what did you guys think?
How did the launch live up to your expectations?
Like, did you expect it to be this big?
I was really surprised by one thing about hardcore.
I talked to her earlier about how I kind of didn't take it
seriously, like, you're just going to die.
You're going to get disconnected on the phone whatsoever.
And it ended up being a very, very different thing,
because World of Warcraft, unlike Diablo, is an MMO.
And you don't just play it by yourself.
You play it with your friends.
You don't go in a cave by yourself.
Remember, cave equals grave.
You want to go with other people.
So when that moment happens and you get disconnected
and Nora's disconnected, somebody like Josh and I,
we would hang around and protect her
until she goes offline to keep her alive.
So the experience changed a lot
because now people are depending on each other.
If the world wants to kill you,
and it's you and your friends and new strangers
that are now your friends against the world.
So you're working together in cooperative in ways
really don't happen in all of World of Warcraft.
And I think it results in hardcore having the very best community and social experience
in all of World of Warcraft and all of our history.
Well, as Chris mentioned, the world is out to kill you and that's not just players who
who are losing their characters in hardcore.
As a matter of fact, some of our beloved team members
had moments of their own.
I don't know if my friend backstage
can roll the special clip I have provided
in honor of Agrand here.
["Street Fighter II"]
Just a shortcut.
I
to be fair. To be fair. My
key bind got unbound because I
logged that character in during
maintenance to test the bug and
it went to my keep. I don't know
excuse.
I remember one night after a raid Josh started telling the story about how that happened.
You're not alone. I did one fateful morning on my, I think my mage was like level 52.
I thought up I hadn't had my coffee yet and I just, I was like, oh, I had time for a little bit of hardcore before work.
And I went to do some, oh, yeah, I went to do some quests.
And I entered a barn filled with undead.
It was a bad move.
Don't do the barn.
Yeah, but the thing that actually kind of surprised me
was just the overwhelming amount of people at like,
well, 6 a.m. California time anyway,
bombarding me with whispers and just messages,
guild messages too, just saying like, you know,
any mixture of go again, or my least favorite was,
what happened?
And in the moment, you know, I'm like,
I just lost my hardcore character.
So I was just, I was a little mad.
I was like, hmm, just don't ask questions.
But like, it's a really powerful community moment
when someone loses their character,
because it hurts emotionally.
I almost called out sick that day,
because I was so upset.
But the community rising up to support each other
and to egg each other on,
just say like, yeah, try again.
Like, you know what I mean?
I mean, like, you know, like be more careful next time.
Maybe have your coffee before going into that bar.
And I don't know.
It really is a compelling, I think, moment.
Now, that's probably a pretty good place
to start thinking about what new fun and exciting things
we have coming to wow forever hardcore.
Okay?
Yeah.
So, we're really excited for when we get to hardcore
at World Warcraft forever.
We won't have it at launch, but soon.
When we get to it, all these new systems and changes
we've introduced and how they'll impact
our hardcore experience.
Because we know in hardcore you like to put in
a lot of extra effort to make sure you're extra safe
and not gonna die.
So everything we've changed in trade skills,
where there's new recipes, new things to craft,
new consumables, better food, and all those things you can do to be better prepared and
the extra effort you can put in, over 600 new crafting recipes to help you be better
prepared.
And the camping system, so you can get together your friends, get a few buffs, be a little
bit more durable when you go into that cave together.
And so there's a lot of opportunities for a whole new experience in the parkour and
more dedication you can put into it.
Really excited about that.
Do you think the itemization changes that we've made could, you know, yeah?
Yes, so much like, again, hundreds of new crafted items, better drops from dungeons.
So maybe it's worth the risk to go in there and get those drops and help your journey.
Silver elites that drop new items that they never dropped before, right? All kinds of new stuff to collect.
Awesome. Well, I just realized, I skipped your story. Do you have a story to share about a death?
I feel like I just made fun of Josh.
I just kind of made fun of myself.
I need to make fun of you, too.
How many easy targets, it's OK.
So I want to tell a story about my family
and how much World of Warcraft hardcore
means to one of my family members.
So my younger sister is really into hardcore.
She plays in the Fieste Villager.
I believe the guild's called Phoenix that she's in.
And she played World of Warcraft with my two nephews.
They grew up with their uncle working at Blizzard,
working on World of Warcraft,
and absolutely worshiped the idea
and desperately wanted to play the game.
So when they got old enough,
she let them play on her account
and bought another computer
and so that she could play with them
with her older son, Sage.
And eventually her younger son actually chuckled over
her accounts, evenly named it after himself, Jeffrey.
And Sage and Jeffrey played together
and really had these great adventures
amongst the three of them
and a way they bonded together as a family.
Unfortunate tragedy happened seven years ago
and my nephew, Jeffrey, died.
And since then, my sister reclaimed her accounts
and logging into hardcore and playing in that community
has become really important and special to her.
Again, that's a tight knit community
where everyone supports each other.
When you die, it's go again.
When you need help, yeah, come.
We'll send some people over to help you get out of that cave.
When you have trouble, there's somebody who can help you
through a hard quest.
People can give you gold and items to get restarted.
It's such a welcoming and supportive community.
And she gets strength and support and a little therapy
and some joy and logs into the account
with a name is still Jeffrey every day
to feel close to her son.
And it's just an amazing thing for our family.
Well, that was tough.
Well, I guess I'll have to make fun of you later.
That was a heartwarming story.
Thank you for sharing.
Well, hardcore has all sorts of perils out in the open world.
There are certain types of perils that are perhaps less, I don't know how I would describe
a bit fun, fair feeling than others.
Can you tell us a little bit about what I'm doing?
Yes, so I'll tell you a story when I almost died
as a illustration of this new principle.
I actually haven't died in hardcore,
but it'd be fair I stopped playing at level 50
because Season of Discovery came out.
Haven't been back yet.
But my friend Sharif and I were playing a duo in Laqubadan.
I was playing a mage, he was playing a paladin,
and there's this quest called
in defense of the king's lands.
We are trying to go fight troggs.
You're going higher and higher up into the hills,
getting to riskier and riskier spots
to find these troggs to complete the quest.
So we're going up in the hills,
and it was a Saturday morning, so it was super crowded.
People everywhere, every single trogg in the place
it's not like was dead.
So we go further and further up looking for more troggs,
and suddenly, some of the players around us disappeared.
Some other new players appeared,
and every single location where there could be troggs
was fully respawned with every trod there could be.
And we're right in the middle of it.
And I just yell run over discord.
So I'm running down the hill as fast as I can,
but my tree's the pallet in, so he bubbled
and he's taking his time.
I'm running like crazy as a mage,
jumping in the middle of a pack of trods
and frosted over to lock him down,
jump off a cliff, blink at the bottom,
finally get away.
And while that's a great story,
we really don't like the experience that represents
where because there are too many or too few players
in the area where you are,
we need to refresh the world around you.
And when we do that refresh, suddenly creatures respawn.
Our creatures are there that weren't there before.
So we've added a new feature
that we wanted to get into World of Work Forever,
specifically for Hardcore.
You'll have it in the whole game, but it's for Hardcore.
When we need to do that world refresh around you,
A new UI will pop up and give you a warning.
Say, OK, in three minutes, two minutes 59, two minutes 58,
et cetera, we're going to refresh the world around you,
get to somewhere safe.
And there's a button you can push to say, I'm somewhere safe.
It's good.
Go ahead and move me now.
So no more are you going to lose your characters
to this sudden change of the world around you.
And the game will feel a lot more fair.
Awesome.
Shout out to our engineer, Daniel Schneider,
for working on that system.
I can't wait for you guys to check it out.
Again, beta this Thursday.
Hope to see you all there, at least for non-hardcore.
But you could, I guess, impose your own hardcore rules
if you wanted to have a little bit of fun,
a little bit of the player-imposed hardcore.
Yeah.
We will be testing that system in the beta.
Yep, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Well, are there any other interesting,
compelling differences that players can expect in WoW forever that they may not have had in
regular hardcore. So this is mentioned on another panel earlier today but it's worth repeating here.
In the past, when you died in hardcore, your only choice was to transfer to PDE.
Now, when you die in hardcore, you can transfer to PDE, normal or RP ruleset. So we know people
We know people like that tension in the world.
That's part of what makes hard core so fun
is having to pay attention all the time
and that tension is maintained when they go to PDP.
A lot of players get excited to do that.
We've got this new world, this unsolved game
we've been talking about, new talents, new ability,
new items, new trade skills, so much new stuff
if we're in New Zealand, new quest.
So it's a problem to solve all over again.
So your old routes to go through the world
aren't necessarily going to be the best,
even the right ones to follow.
There are new rare spawns all over the world
that have items that only drop up those rare spawns.
There's new world drops, things to craft,
the camping system to help you get to buffs,
to help each other and work together in camps.
And one thing I'm really excited about
is the application of the legacy system to Hardcore.
So you're playing Hardcore and maybe you get to level 2060,
you die.
Okay, I lost everything, that's sad.
But now, you're in a legacy point
when you get to 25 on that class.
So your next run is just a little bit better.
Maybe you get a little bit more rest XP.
Maybe you pick a little bit more resources
from your urban mineral nodes.
And so we start to tap into the gameplay you see
in roguelike games, which I love a lot.
Where you didn't quite make it to the surface this time,
but you'll be better for the next time and do more.
So a legacy system opens up that opportunity
for progression, even when you don't make it to level 16.
I love how the legacy system sort of allows you to,
I don't know, re-experience that journey,
even, I mean, in hardcore and non-hardcore,
because depending on how many points you earn,
where you're spending them,
things could be a little bit different, right?
It might make it a little bit easier on you, right?
Right.
How does it work, again, with the transferring
between hardcore and other rule sets,
those legacy system points?
So Anna talked about this this morning,
but the legacy points you earn outside of Hardcore,
in fact, all of your collections outside of Hardcore,
mounts, pets, legacy points,
all that do not transfer into Hardcore.
So Hardcore gets its maintenance, pristine progression,
separate from the rest of the game.
But if you earn them in Hardcore,
they do go to the others.
So you can transfer with them and bring them with you
when you inevitably die.
Yeah, that's pretty inevitable in hardcore.
I love the little screen captured on the graphic.
Another thing, Chris, too, is if you look at the legacy trees, there's a PvP one.
What happens in hardcore?
Right.
So there's a bunch of legacy challenges about PvP, and you can't really do PvP in hardcore.
So what we are planning on doing when hardcore launches is there are a bunch of hardcore
specific legacy challenges to do.
And we're thinking about even more expansion to that system in the future of hardcore where
we add new challenges and new ways to get perks that are hardcore specific.
Well, we love hardcore a lot. It sounds like you guys do too. What else haven't we covered
that we should talk about or should share? What interesting tidbits do we want to share?
I think one of the things that I'm most excited about with Wow Forever Hardcore is, you know,
of the skill expression of hardcore is knowing the world and knowing what quests are deadly,
what caves are deadly, what every cave is deadly, but you know what I mean.
And while forever, we're going to continue to make content at all level ranges.
It's not just low level content.
And so for those who really want to kind of challenge themselves, we're going to have
lots of new content coming over update after update after update, and you'll have maybe
different routes or different ways to go for those who are kind of enterprising and you
get to have even more skill expression of learning the optimal ways to level through
the river glades and what is dangerous and what isn't and creating like anything can
get stale if you do it long enough and if you get a certain level of mastery.
So being able to continue to add to opportunities to achieve mastery is a good thing and that's
something that we're super excited about with WoW Forever.
We kind of have this commitment to continue to add content
at all different level ranges.
It's really an opportunity for you
to develop a new mastery of the game.
We play hardcore to show what you know, what you've learned,
how much, how good you are at World of Warcraft,
you know where this quest is, where this monster patrols.
And now there's new things to master,
instead of just what we have from 22 years ago.
That sounds good.
So it's an unsolved game now with Wild Forever.
I'm particularly excited about the hardcore community.
Anytime I've jumped in, I've found players
who are helpful, kind, encouraging,
willing to help me out, help me survive, really.
And I've had a blast in the hardcore classic,
just jumping in with my friends.
Shout out to Oath to Order if you're watching this right now.
I also joined up with a fun little build called
H.C. cuties and they were very fun and wholesome.
Oh, there's some of them.
Yeah, I'm just an amazing community
and I really look forward to jumping in there again,
making new friends, perhaps some of you in the crowd
and you know, just, I don't know, hopefully surviving,
hopefully not going into a barn,
jumping off of a cliff, forgetting my bubble.
Just bring a friend when you go in the barn.
Yeah.
It's just a different kind of cave.
You mind if I give one tent tiny little tease?
But jeez, yeah, so we haven't forgotten about Makaraw.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, obviously Makaraw has been a,
I would say unexpectedly popular part of hardcore,
but I think we can all appreciate a good duel to the death.
And you know, something that has been asked of us
for a really long time is like,
what if we had a dedicated space for Makaraw contests?
could be kind of cool, could be something we're working on for a future update, maybe, maybe.
There you go.
Well, that was completely off script. I might get in trouble for that later.
That feels like a pretty good place to wrap things up.
I just want to say thank you everyone for taking this journey with us.
Thank you for even just today, just letting us kind of walk through memory lane,
share a couple tidbits about what we're excited to encounter in WoW Forever Hardcore.
If you are, you know, watching this from home also, obviously thank you again.
If you're here in person, however, please consider sticking around for the Arena World
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Here and now, champions are made!
This is the BlizzCon 2026 Arena World Championship Grand Finals.
The entire day has led to this and as the trophies shine on the stage, our teams are
looking to do exactly the same.
Echo and Gators back our top contenders, bringing the rivalry between NA and EU to an explosive
ad here at BlizzCon.
This is going to be one for the history books, Ziko.
Absolutely.
The crowd in here is electric.
Everybody's excited.
It's EU, it's NA, it's the top two teams in each region, finally facing off here for $120,000 just for this game.
Just this one game, the $300,000 prize pool, so much of it comes down to this and of course the glory of being a champion here live at BlizzCon.
Everybody, are you ready for the finals?
You know, we hadn't even started yet, but already the audience was going wild and we
have been through a journey today from beginning to end here at the Grand Finals where we have
had Echo and Gators back make it to the finish line.
Then how has the day played out?
I mean both Gators back as well as Echo has kind of had to wait a little bit at the beginning
of the day.
We saw after year go head to head against Gilveen, Streamer zone going up against One
Loone travel, but now with Gators back to feeding streamers on an echo to feeding guilty
We have the number one seed in Europe going head-to-head against the number one seed in North America
And I feel like this is going to be an amazing finals
It is I mean listen the Gators are already prowling in the crowd
You can see them ready to bring down echo
But echo certainly has something to say about that now speaking of our very first team echo is a name
I'm sure everybody familiar with the AWC knows
but super I mean what is the legacy this team has brought I mean I think it's
the duo it's was it's right to it's that rogue mage synergy between them it's
just been almost a decade I think of them it feels like at this point
competing together they brought JT and Mercy which are some new blood to the
roster but maybe that's what they needed to mix things up is to introduce some new
blood into the water here of echoing mercy at a nominal series earlier on
today such a tactician on that warlock but it's really for me it's about was
It's about Ryke who it's about that synergy and this is going to be another level of competition that the gators back me
Be ready for it. I mean definitely and they can't rest easy because gators back
I mean they came out of a 3. Oh there in this last series, but echo is definitely gonna have something to say about it
That yeah, I had an opportunity to speak with a was and on his stream
He has so many gold medals from all the championships that he's won
He told me that he uses the silver medals as door stops
What a bragging point that you can just bring out to people like, oh yeah, I want so many golds.
I don't even need to use my silvers for anything that's that important, you know?
And then we can take a look at the gameplay that backs up what Echo is able to do.
Supa, what just makes them such a powerhouse?
It's adaptability. It's just being able to turn from offense to defense on a dime
and to be able to take advantage of any opportunity that comes your way like this one.
They were losing this game. They were heavily behind.
heavily behind, they saw Lontar in the middle of the map
and clutched him out in game number one.
It was phenomenal.
And then obviously, head to head here with Gil Jean
and Ekko facing that retribution pattern
and that warrior, such a challenging composition for them
to be able to get through defensively,
but they navigated it so expertly,
just continuing to chain crowd control,
continuing to chain their pressure.
It was a phenomenal match from them throughout,
despite close call after close call.
Ekko has been a dominant force
that looking more than warmed up
ready to go and they were able to topple the Zpie almost effortlessly throughout that match and then in the final round here to secure
the match win against Kageel Bean, they were able to clutch it out with huge pressure, smoke bombs and big plays against them and even
despite Maro throwing that marksmanship hunter at them, they were more than ready. Mercy just adapted to it and if Echo is adaptable,
they may very well be unstoppable.
I mean, absolutely this core player group of echo particularly was right. Who is one of the longest standing partnerships?
I think in the AWC it's such a strong core for the team
But honestly when we get to competition, especially that crosses the EU and a worldwide CN as we saw with our teams as well
This worldwide divide you can't always rest easy knowing. Hey, we're the best
But what if a different region decides to overtake us and I mean that gap at the top is getting closer than ever Ziko
Absolutely, I mean we saw it in both regions echo normally. They have a pretty smooth easy time
You know usually they're up here and the next team is like
Here and then all the other teams are very close to that
So there's usually a big gap there and that gap has been completely bridged in EU and we saw the same thing in North America
Welcome to the jump dominating the entire like the last I don't know how many years all of a sudden now
Now there's Gators back, now there's F tier, now there is, you know, Dire Wolves, a lot
of teams that have been testing them and welcome to the jungle even making here.
So in NA it's been the most competitive season ever and I think in Europe as well.
So we're really getting the best of the best today.
It's such a good match up here at the end, but of course we have to talk about their
competition and Gators back as well.
I mean, then we just saw them dominate in this recent series.
Yeah, this team is on fire.
I think a lot of people here today were expecting big things from this roster,
but you're never really sure when a team showcases here at BlizzCon.
There's a lot on the line.
The stakes are high, but this team performed at an incredibly high level.
And I would say Echo watching those games has got to be feeling a little bit afraid.
See WizK there with Calvish, Daze and Cubsi, a phenomenal roster.
Calvish, I know him kind of as a rogue.
He was one of the best rogues in North America, now playing mage
at the absolutely highest level.
So even Morrow, one of the best, most accomplished majors in the entire game, says he is the
best mage, which I mean, that is high praise from someone like Morrow.
You have dazed on the road, WizK on likely a shadow priest, but I think kind of in that
cultural lately, but he is one of the smartest World of Warcraft players I've ever met.
So if you're going to have someone as a fourth on your team, WizK is definitely the person
you want on your corner.
Absolutely.
I mean, this team is so strong and so aggressive super.
We see some of their gameplay here.
What do you think really characterizes Gators back?
constant crowd control. Cubs is MVP, just chaining crowd control, millisecond punishes, and just immediate opportunities get taken advantage of by them.
And they were able to take out Streamerzone so rapidly. Streamerzone is a team that has beaten Echo in championships online.
So to be able to just dismantle them, not even two minutes into a game consistently and constantly keep your pressure up throughout the entire season, it was just completely remarkable.
I could not believe it. It was unbelievable. I'm just sitting here watching North America
to dominate streamer zone match after match after match or just not giving them any room to breathe. I
Mean and I really did look so strong
But I mean Ziko you're kind of represented a bit over here with EU. I mean you think this is time NA is gonna make EU fall
Oh, are we putting me on this spot here for predictions or what's going on here?
You can still keep it generic, but you know, this is just a strong team coming from NA
It seems like it's really shaken up the EU competitors.
Absolutely. I mean, I'm gonna be honest.
I was thinking like, okay, Streamerzone,
they might just make this an all EU affair,
but they completely destroyed it.
So now I'm like, well, you know what?
Maybe this is NAZ year.
Maybe it is time for a new champion.
Maybe. Who knows?
Both teams so far looking absolutely unshakable,
but when they clash, I don't know what's gonna happen.
up. Well, Zika, you brought up predictions. So why not do them? You know, then I started
with you last time. I put you on the spot this time. Yes. All you super. Give us your
predictions first. I mean, I don't think I'm going to do it. I don't think I'm going to
bet against the Gators right now. They are just looking so phenomenal. I think the Gators,
they're going to take this. It's going to be four to three. It's going to be closed.
It's going to be a bloodbath. These are the best teams in the world going head to head.
The first time in seven years, we've been able to get this at a live event between North
America and Europe, they're looking polished, they're looking fine, and they are ready to
dive in, but I'm leaning the Gators back.
Okay, Gators back.
Now, Ziko, you were talking a little bit about NAEU.
Where are you going to end up?
It's a tough one.
It's a tough one.
My heart is telling me I got to go with my voice over on ankle, but my brain is telling
me a little bit more towards the Gators.
And there's one thing I've learned in life is to never trust my heart with anything.
So I'm going with the Gators.
Sorry, so you're going to go with your head,
that is what you're saying.
Yes, exactly.
I'm going with the Gators.
I think it's going to be close though, 4-3.
OK, 4-3.
All right, then.
I saved you for last.
Are you ready?
Do you have your predictions?
Well, when we do predictions on these cups,
I feel like these two teams are always a safe bet.
You know what I mean?
If you want to go with the Gators,
if you're wanting to win in North America,
you're going to go with Gators.
If you want to win in Europe, you're going to go with Echo.
So now that they're going head to head,
I mean, this is a really difficult one to predict.
But I can't go against the Gators.
I'm just feeling the hype.
I think the Gators are going to walk away
in a very close series, four to three.
OK, for the third time today, you
have all made me the one that has to decide
if we're a unified desk or not.
Sorry about that.
Oh, it's OK.
You know what?
I've been putting you all in the spot, so it's only fair.
I'm going to have to represent Echo.
Because, look, Gators back.
I want to cheer for NA.
I do.
Trust me.
They've been such a powerhouse, but Echo, their legacy
really cannot be argued with and they are so strong.
We've still seen them be strong regardless,
and I know that they have an answer to this.
So I'm going to say Echo,
but I am going to keep it kind of in line with what we've been saying.
Since the best of seven,
I'm going to do 4-3 towards Echo.
No matter what, I think we can all agree that this is going to be a wildly close game,
and we need to bring our teams out here now so we can see for ourselves just how close it'll be.
Aya, can we welcome them all to the stage?
We sure can look. Are you guys ready for our grand finals?
These are the best World of Warcraft players in the world,
and it's all coming to a head right here.
NA versus EU.
Tale as old as time. It has been so many years since we've had this moment,
so I'm so excited to introduce our two teams for our AWC BlizzCon 2026 grand finals.
Please welcome Gators back.
Calvish, Wiz-K, Cubsie, and Dave.
the way from our European region please welcome Echo!
Waz, Reku, JT, and Mercy!
and we can all feel it these two teams are ready to face off this entire year has brought
them to this point to determine who in NA and EU is truly the best when compared to the world.
This is going to be a phenomenal matchup and we are going to have this first game coming in. Now
we've talked a bit about NA versus EU. Do you kind of lean more into this comp where you're relying
on the clock dragging out or do you go in aggressive? These are two very different play styles Ziko,
but do you think Echo with their flexibility, are they going to be caught off guard by NA?
I don't think we're going to see any flexibility right now from either one of these squads. I
I think we're going road mage, druid mirrors all the way.
Both teams are gonna just put their best foot forward
and just try to be as good as possible.
And they both look like the best R&D teams in their regions.
So I think that's what it's gonna come down to.
And I don't know who's gonna take it.
It's so hard.
I can feel the tension in the air right now.
I just wanna get into game.
I know, right, especially to see those trophies on the stage.
There's that reminder that champions are yet to be crowned
and that these trophies have to end up
in one of these teams' hands by the end of all of this.
But can there be an answer to this aggression?
Do you think Echo can sustain through that initial push
that Gatorsback is known for, Supa?
We'll have to see, are they going to play defensively?
Are they going to target the rogue similarly to Streamerzone?
Are they going to learn the lesson that Streamerzone had
to learn the hard way, which is getting completely dominated
by aggression?
I think that was Raikou, who are fully capable of it.
But Raikou does tend to want to focus on doing more damage
than the other mage, dragging the game on a little bit.
So whereas Calvish wants to be flashy,
he wants to get in there.
He wants to be the playmaker and we'll see which strategy ends up being better.
I think ultimately here, absolutely.
And you know, both of these teams have some incredible players, but we have highlighted
a bit was particularly this rogue legend who has nothing left to prove, but somehow keeps
finding ways to add to his legacy.
I mean, then do you think there will be key players on either side that are going to really
turn the time?
I mean, this is just about these rosters are just absolute all stars.
I mean, we highlight was all the time as the playmaker.
I think, arguably, one of the best for the Warcraft PVPers of all time.
There's just no doubt about that.
His communication and his ability to find win conditions
really guide his team to a victory is unmatched.
So it's going to be a difficult thing for Gators back to navigate.
But I think from Gators back, from their perspective,
what they need to do is what we saw in their last series
play very aggressive and able Calvish.
He is so fast and furious on that mage.
You play very aggressive and in your face.
He forces mistakes.
We're going to see if Echo can handle that pressure.
They're going to have to be able to if they want to be able to make it to the end.
And over on Gator's back, we can also kind of talk a little bit about WizK who we've mentioned a few times, right?
Now, this is somebody who was previously part of the move roster that reached multiple AWC finals
and came within a game or two of those titles, despite it.
And I'm sure right here right now he wants to be able to achieve more.
But it's been kind of interesting that he hasn't been featured as much for Gator's back the past season.
I mean, Ziko, how do you think the team has or hasn't utilized him?
Well, I think, so the first thing is Whiskey has been in the Grand Finals at BlizzCon.
So for him, this could be his moment where he actually wins BlizzCon and that's, you
know, been a dream of his for a long, long time.
So he's very excited and even though he's on the bench, he's for sure feeding his team
information.
He's for sure checking their talents, making sure everybody, because people when they're
setting up their characters, they always forget something.
We always see it.
Somebody forgets an end chance.
if we get something, somebody forgets to equip something,
there's always something going on.
And having that fourth player to make sure
that just go through all the checks,
make sure that everybody has their UI set up,
their macros, everything like that.
And constantly also, even in the middle of games,
telling their team, this guy has no trinket.
Watch out for this thing.
It takes the whole team, right?
You have to have eyes on so many different factors
in competition that goes by this fast.
And we are gonna be getting into this first game
very soon ourselves here. This is the Grand Finals Echo versus Gatorsback. A huge moment
for both of these teams to have come this far all year to this moment where they could
take it all. This is going to be a huge deciding point for them, Supa.
It's been seven years since Echo had to defend their title here at LISCON and North America
to come in guns, blazing, decimating,
streamerzone.gg, to get to the grand finals
for a shot to steal that crown.
The gates are open.
Yeah, let's see, what are they gonna do?
Immediately getting aggressive here,
all through both majors, identical opener
coming out so far from both of these teams.
But they are occasionally looking for that road swap,
and it's gonna be a drag, it's going to be a kidney,
all today's Echo, he's gonna pull the first punch here,
all today's, but he's sitting through
The entire smoke bomb there, not using his Trinket,
have big win here from North America.
And a great play by Cubsy using that tranquility
to heal out of line of sight and really deny
that smoke bomb attempt there by Waz, Ryku,
now under fire, beautiful crowd control on JT.
What is Ryku going to do if this ability is coming out
to deny some incoming damage?
And then of course the cauterize doesn't look like
they're going to be able to, but the damage here
is really high for Gator's back.
Beautiful crowd control from JT, catching Cubsy
in a maim stun through an in-captor,
but Ryku falls by Waz.
getting crowded on a date gets almost annihilated. Overlapped, they overlap that is an opening.
Echo are going toe to toe. JT is privately in Cubsie on that rest of the drill and if Cubsie
can't build a significant gap over him it will be very challenging for Gators back.
Yeah this is going to be very very scary Rock and when right against that next combustion
in seven seconds they might just be able to KO Gators back in the first minute here
let's see how they set it up right now they're pushing forward they know it's coming how is
These days, he's going to be able to survive this one.
He gouges last there, but he breaks for a second.
He's trying to buy some time.
JT pushes in.
Copsy, though, gets the first run onto JT to stall the setup here for a moment.
But there it is.
Full cheat shot on today's.
They got the in-caps roar as well onto JT, but Copsy delays the ground control.
But now Mainz start coming through.
Defensive smoke pump from Daze.
Is he going to be able to survive?
One more second on the side.
Oh my God!
Daze manages to, practically, survive that one.
And he holds on by a thread, and now Gator's back.
They need to get back in this game.
The road silence out onto Rycule.
They need to find some counter-aggression here.
So far, Ekko's done an excellent job putting
aggression here to Gators back.
Kalvish is getting low on health.
The Soryans into a cyclone on Cubsie.
The crowd control is just never ending here.
As Ekko has really found their footing in this matchup,
we need to see Gators back strike back here
with this next setup.
Exactly fine time.
This combustion comes up in 23 seconds,
much sooner than Kalvish.
That is a big opening.
Whereas Rycule's going to move to find his opportunity here.
Days still no medallion comes you pre ironbarks days anticipating this attack, but they didn't throw anything yet
They do get a cyclone on JT, but we don't see any offense
No kidney shot just yet double in cap board. They're chasing down Raikou. They get the ring of frost the kidney shot
What they're crossing three players JT trinkets and respects the exchange on the Kingsman, but he gets corroded on his trinket
Excellent punish from dazed in this position. They're keeping their momentum for now on Raikou
They really need to close more damage. They don't have it at this moment in time and now combustion Kingsbane available for echo
They are very threatening in this position if they're able to connect you have a JT has no trinket here
Oh, they're looking good, but at the same time days getting absolutely flabbered here in this exchange with Cubs you once again
Stalls out the private nobody has to respect it trades out the trinket JT
Don't get it swapped through with no huge swapping and they going for no way
On the other side an egg will draw first love in game number one
What a comeback there by Ekko. JT was almost taken down, but Waz and Ryku, they focus up, they get the counter kill, and managed to take days down for a game one victory and excellent performance.
You know Gators thought they tasted blood in the water, but Ekko still won't get back to get that kill themselves. Now this was already a really intense back and forth from these two teams.
two teams. And you know,
Echo said, Oh, he was not
known for playing that aggressive.
Yeah, I couldn't be us.
I mean, Ziko, that was a very aggressive push from them.
Absolutely. I mean, Echo,
they hit the golden ticket early on in that game.
The worst thing that can happen to you in the road
made mirror is the druid having no trinket
and the rogue having no trinket at the same time.
That's essentially what you're working towards.
And they just panicked on the side of Gators.
They both used at the exact same time.
Usually the healer will call the cooldowns
and be like okay you use first I will use second but they got a big overlap here
and that's what leads to this situation here now the only reason why days is
even able to survive this is because Cubs did a really masterful play he
restuffed and dodged JT's trap control so we couldn't get CC'd at the same time
as they were going for that assault on the road buying a little bit of time to
get hots up and then but still even though able to do that it's still very
very hard to come back from a situation like that and then here at the end it
It was crazy the amount of pressure.
Going for the kill, they managed to get the cross kill
and JT of course, also able to survive there.
Could have easily been a 2v2, such a close series
and Gator's back battling it from behind
basically the whole way through.
I mean, so close and yet that moment,
that decisive moment really sealed it
and Echo was able to take that first one.
I mean, what was Echo's approach do you think,
Ben, as they were looking here to counter
and kind of come in fast
and right off the bat for Gators back.
Well, I think in the last series,
we saw Gators back able to get their opponents on the back foot.
That was not the case.
Echo is not messing around.
I don't know if they were just watching.
Obviously, they're watching the previous games,
but I don't know if they learned from the previous games,
but they are obviously not afraid of this matchup.
They're very experienced.
And I think they met aggression with aggression.
And I would say, I feel like their team actually
was getting better setups throughout the majority
of this game.
So for Gators back, they need to shake off that loss,
go back to the aggressive playstyle,
I get that confidence back and see if they can pull off a way to tie this up.
Now, if your opposition though is meeting you with that aggressive play style,
and if they are finding a way to kind of beat you to the punch on it,
I mean, Supo, what do you think is the answer here for Gator's back?
They're going to go faster.
They're going to hook point, they're going to a small mable.
Gotta go fast.
You want to go fast?
We're going to go faster.
They lock and hook point rapidly here.
Now, Echo, I can't imagine if they're going to be changing anything here.
I really want to note JT in this game,
because we've been talking up Cubsie a lot throughout multiple segments
as the best wrestler drew it right now in the competition.
JT is a recently new pickup on the side of Echo,
and he just played phenomenally in that game one.
He was just playing with confidence, matching Cubsy,
even despite Cubsy's insane legendary track record, right?
Like, he's getting in his face, he's getting crowd control.
He's not showing him the same type of respect
that we saw from Next in the last series,
where he's kind of backing off and kind of letting Cubsy do
what he wanted to do.
And really, I think it was critical for their roster.
It seems like it's been a huge asset.
Now we're seeing the draft picks come in.
Wait, what is that on our screen?
Well, we hear this reaction.
I mean, Ben, what do you see?
This is something we kind of knew about.
Chan alluded in the last series that there
might be some surprises coming in here for Gatorsback.
And this is a very explosive composition.
So for Gatorsback, they're obviously
very experienced in the Rogue Maid's Druid matchup.
They know these classes well.
They're going to be bringing in a subtlety rogue
and a wind walker monk.
Now, not something you normally see,
But this is a composition that is incredibly explosive.
So you have the subtlety rogue to lock down a target
and the wind walk among to kind of knock them out of the park
with that massive damage they're able to bring
during those serenity windows.
So I think this is an interesting counter pick,
but I mean, it's one of those things where if it works,
it's going to look genius.
And if it doesn't, it's kind of awkward.
OK, all right, Ziko, how are you feeling about the chances
of this working out for them?
I feel like it's probably one of the scariest things
you could face, honestly, Subrogue, very good, like Ben said, to isolate a target and also
to take it out with a big burst, but more so the Windwalker playing into this is going
to be definitely a test for all of them because it's very explosive. You can go after the
Druid, you can go after the Mage, you can go after the Rogue as well. Anybody who doesn't
have a Trinket is an easy target for these guys to take down. Of course, there is going
There's going to be longevity issues on the subrogue wind walker side because the subrogue is going to
most of the time struggle keeping up in terms of overall damage.
So if the game does go long, that should be in Echo's favor.
But if they can keep it explosive, they can keep it chaotic on the side of the gators.
This could absolutely work.
I don't mind that they take an early game like this to try to experience and try to,
the reason why they picked this is because they wanted to kind of flip the map on its head.
That's something that crossed my mind too. If you're going to take the risk, it seems like now
would be a good time. You have a best of seven ahead of you. So if you think maybe this can get
us a win here and it can shake things up, this might be a good time to do it. But Super, do you
think that's really a good strategy to lean into? I think against Echo, surprise is your main advantage.
So throwing this composition that, I mean, we haven't seen Windwalker and Settled T-Row
or probably ever maybe one game out of the thousands
or tens of thousands of games that have been played
in a tournament, you're in the grand finals
to win the entire thing and you boldly lock this in.
This is a bold move for the Gators.
It is, but you know what?
Go big, go bold or go home.
There is no other time to prove yourself
than this time right here right now.
If you want to be the AWC grand champion,
this is going to be our second game.
Gators back versus Echo.
Now Gators back have taken a chance here.
They're putting themselves out there.
With this composition they're gonna bring
to see if they can throw Echo off their game.
Can they be faster than Echo to the punch
in this next map?
It's uncertain.
Echo already beat them at their own game
with that speed and that aggression,
but Echo has a chance here to be caught off guard
by Gator's back surprise move.
This is gonna be a big one.
Every single one is in our grand finals,
but then as we come in here,
can everybody raise their voices?
Get some noise!
Yeah, big, big opening right now. Game number two, Gators back versus Echo.
Lreiku getting sapped here, so Dave's going to have an easy time to walk over there
and start up the setup, but looks like Calvish is just going to be sneaking around instead.
Waz do not want to open. Havas almost finds him there for a second, and if Waz gets found,
this could be a very, very scary situation. Both rogues, whoever opens first,
is of course going to be the one who gets stunned by the other rogues,
So they kind of want to wait that out, but Calvish does get pound.
He's in a polymorph and they could set it up.
There's the blind, thumbstaff and immediate aggressive way onto Calvish.
He's going to have to trink it.
He's going to use the Cocoa Shadow, but this time no overlap.
Oh, big damage here onto Waz and JT.
Dazed and Calvish are looking to strike back.
Waz get balled, he needs to be very careful.
Almost into that touch of death rate.
Will trade up the Cocoa Shadows to survive, but a great counter push there.
However, Echo getting the trinket from Calvish puts him in a really vulnerable position.
They got triggered from Waz too, and this Windwalker damage is absolutely wild right now.
Dazed, Jerry flexing from that rogue onto the Windwalker just seamlessly right now.
Up he gets a Cyclone on JT.
They're anticipating damage. They paralyze Rhoads, so he can't prepaint the stun.
JT gets Iron Bark up instead, responding to that, but now he's caught in a swap.
Will he go down? Dazed is getting pressured at the same moment, and peeled away by Waz.
Beautiful defense from Waz. He shuts down Cyclone for the top, so he shuts down the damage from the Windwalker.
However, Dazed is still keeping the gas pedal down at the moment.
I am now kite away, but he has touch of karma.
He's gonna trade that redirect damage to his target instead.
He's mostly in the middle of the map.
Press to pull it back, get next to cup team.
Bit vulnerable, no touch on road, no karma on wind walker.
Those are the openings.
James Bane is available.
Combustion is available.
Gator's back could be in trouble.
Yeah, and they're setting up another setup here.
Ultralisk, big damage.
What?
He might just go down right now.
If they should have 1% HP, then they miss it over there
with the touch of death.
No, Daze gets close line back.
No karma on days, he's getting swapped to both teams playing so aggressively, but it looks like they will recover here
This is an explosive matchup ladies and gentlemen, and we haven't seen anyone really spend all of their cooldowns just yet
But we're getting there Calvish has the shadow blades rotating back off cooldown serenity almost available here for days
But when Calvish and dazed connect on walls with no trinket
I mean he can just explode evaporate in this match Calvish grabs the shadow site
He's actually trying to find Waz. Waz is hiding.
He's hiding here.
He's down to save.
Calvish goes in and he gets a zap.
K-smoke ball to play.
Gets the smoke ball.
Riku with excellent defense.
Will Waz survive?
Beautiful defense.
The defensive plays there by Ekko.
I can't believe that he survived right there.
Those are the cheeky plays that you love to see
from Calvish catching Waz in a zap
and almost setting up for the win.
But now Calvish is in a ring of frost.
He can't heal at the moment
and Dazed is retreating behind the pillar.
Calvish is trying to retreat as well
teammates here. Will they be able to stay alive? They blind Waz. They sap him again.
They're trying to set up with no faint. They need control on JT. Can they send him?
They don't commit the stun. They get bounced away by the ring of peace.
Dazed, he's in a kidney shot. Cubsie seems to have him stable even despite the combustion.
Calvish intercepts.
They be shot found on Waz. When JT is there, like Cubsie is denying him,
in-caps more cyclone, and they force his trinket. They really need to get trinket from JT right here.
Doesn't look like they have the damage. Waz did use, at least the Cloak of Shadows here to deny some damage.
Calvish, getting isolated, trying to get back to his team.
Cheap shots on JT, but he anticipates it.
He's in bare form.
He's going to be able to be durable.
Calvish now into a blind.
Calvish still in trouble at 50% health,
but Calvish is sitting through this.
No, he just, oh, he can think cap down his trinket.
Calvish in trouble.
He's into a cyclone, and JT is on fire.
Oh, my goodness, Ekko giving Calvish a little bit
of his own taste there, getting crowd control
on the trinket by JT.
What an insane push there.
And I mean, Wazz versus Kalvish, the weight was worth it.
The weight was worth it.
These guys are just playing mind games the entire time,
looking to get this perfect setup,
looking to one up each other from the moment the gates open.
What a phenomenal game, but in the end,
it is Echo who find that crowd control
onto the Cubs and string it.
He triggers out of the ring of frost
and immediately JT is ready there with the counter stun
and they manage to close it out there,
but it looks like they want to still play it out here
From the side of the Gators, still have some QNAS left to work with, but Wads still has his trinket, JT still has his trinket, I don't think that's going to happen days, I'm sorry, and it looks like Echo probably is going to walk away with this one.
Yeah, I think there's a very good chance of that, but Gators back there was a few close calls in that game, you know, that sap onto Wads, into the smoke bomb, that was a great opportunity, but you have to give it up to Echo.
They just read this game so incredibly well.
They know when they need to play defensive.
They know when they can get the counter-push.
And that's what makes this team so dangerous.
They can easily switch from offense to defense.
And it's just amazing to see.
It's true.
I honestly feel like, although we have the difference
between the approach generally across NA and EU,
ECHO's just built diff in that they just have the intuition
and the experience to be able to accommodate anything
they are met with.
But of course, Gator's back.
There were moments there where they absolutely
It seems like they could have gotten that first blutter,
that first pick.
And I think it was actually Super who was saying,
you know, if Echo's going fast, Gators has to go faster.
And they tried, but didn't quite land it at the beginning.
Yeah, it's going to be rough, man.
You're down two points now.
So you're going to win at a double disadvantage
in a format at that point.
And obviously, Mercedes is sitting on the bench.
If there's windlock or rogue isn't universal,
it can't beat multiple compositions.
And it's not something that they can rely on
for the rest of the series, Eco.
Yeah, I mean, we can take a look
the last moments here in the replays but there were so many close calls. I mean
both teams are just playing so well. Waz getting stun locked, dropping insanely low.
Shadowsnip is back to his healer, drops the evasion. JT finally comes out of
crowd control. You get the kidney shot there. Managers survive then they turn it
back around onto Calvish and that was just an excellent play right there. Getting
that stun onto Cubs. He's trinket after he trinketed the I believe it was
Dragonsbreath, Ring of Frost getting stunned on his trinket immediately
before you can get any big heels out.
So they can essentially kill the road through the trinket there from the heel.
Oh my God, so close.
So close.
If they just manage to get over there, one touch of death, it's already over.
So I mean, it's crazy how well both of these teams played and JT as well.
Really shining on the rest of the group because we have been hyping up Cubsi as
the goal when it comes to rest of the groups and JT coming into the season was a main priest.
He, you know, at previous events also was struggling with multi-class and you had to pick up the Prezi Volker,
the rest of Druid, basically everything except his main, and to be able to perform in front of the crowd
on an alt essentially is beautiful to see.
I mean it's so impressive across the play from all of the team, both teams honestly, just amazing.
And we had this kind of experiment that we got to see with some of these picks with this comp.
I mean, how do you think this worked out ultimately for Gatorsback?
They lost, yes, but were they able to accomplish anything of what they maybe hoped to?
it's just so difficult right because Gators back we saw in the replay there
was so many moments where they're incredibly close to winning so is this
a good composition into rogue mage drew it like do they want to run this back
here on the small map or go into Dalaran sewers or do they just go into the
rogue mage mirrors once again go back to the rogue mage drew it and just play
that as many games as you can try to get more data in the match get better and
better but now they're in kind of an awkward position where they have to
choose between two compositions and I wonder what they're going to do. I think the small map
indicates trying to cleave setup once again, but they're going to do it. I kind of want to see
the rogue mage, but they're opting for this instead. All right, so they're obviously hoping that this
will be a place where they can really make it kind of happen, but I mean it seems like there was a
bit of vulnerability there or just that they weren't able to really land what they were hoping to
set up. So I mean, Supa, do you think this is a good choice for them? Do you think that there's
or something about this scenario that can work out differently?
I think it fits their playstyle as a team.
It's a very explosive comp.
It's an aggressive comp.
It's a flashy comp.
But it's going to fizzle fast.
So you either win fast or you fizzle out fast.
And it's a very high risk decision on their part.
But I think it does play to their strengths.
And in game number one, Dazed got shut down so much
that he's not able to get damage out.
Whereas on the Windwalker here, he got way more pressure out.
So they're choosing to trade that defense and security
for more offense trying to do it.
The North American way, the Zugg Zugg.
They're going to Zugg Zugg,
and I know they're going to give it their best.
I mean, coming in here to our third map,
this is where the pressure really starts to amp up.
You know that you're getting towards that point
where you won't be able to afford to lose,
but they are going to bring it in regardless
and try to see if they can make this happen
and if they can outsmart Echo
with what they have in store with this composition.
Now Gatorsback, everybody here from NA
has been supporting them so much.
So everybody give them your energy, can we hear you?
They need to get a point on the board
and this is where they're going to try to do it, Ziko.
The Gators are wounded, give them your energy, it is time.
Game number three, Gators back versus Echo,
knocking in the Windwalker, self-rope, yet again,
Kalvish versus Waz on the road.
The matchup that we've all been waiting for
for as long as I can remember, let's see who takes it.
And let's not forget the last game,
Kalvish got knocked out of stealth and that was not the best opener for Gator's back, so likely he's going to go get for Waz on top of each other.
Can he find him for the step open space? How is this possible that Waz and Kalvish cannot see each other in this situation?
But Ryku, building up the hot streaks, is going to have access to Flamestrike, so he's going to be able to look for it.
Oh, they got him! They got him! They got him! The blind! A big setup here, potentially, but it looks like Deis has a good job diffusing that situation.
Alright, beautiful deals from Dazed in that position now, Cubs is in tree of life, should be able to reschedule the team quite effectively, but it looks like Ryker's got a ring of frost preventing them from their pushing.
Cubsy, they're making a swap on him, will Bark skin be enough in game number three as he's stunlocking the multiple growth silences? He's in bare form, brain that he will survive.
On slot is Endless, he had to commit Iron Bark as well, generating their attention onto JT as he prepared for it, he greets it, he doesn't even skin the swap, that is going to put his team massively ahead.
Yeah, and but at the same time they used everything every cool on that was had offensively they use it on to comesy
So both teams kind of wasting their first round of offensive coolers both druids playing really well defensively in those situations to survive
And now it's gonna be JT here
Big damage and they stop him nice gouge there onto was slowing him down and that's one thing we've seen from both teams
They are so quick to stop.
Oh, Jayce, Jayce, you've got to calm out.
Use it on the right, too.
Right.
Good ice block, this, but he's respecting the situation,
realizing they probably don't have enough damage.
You can't throw that carbon object.
You can't swap through.
Big damage on the head.
Do they have any more stunts?
Keep just their chance.
Why'd they take him down?
North America looking for blood.
Oh, great plays there by Cubsie.
Preemptively getting into the bare form,
keeping his team very aggressive,
allowing them to get ahead.
Jayce right now under fire, not many cooldowns.
We'll use the transcendence to get to the pillar.
Calvish as well. He was the most vulnerable target in the last game. He needs to be very careful.
Blinds to blind. What are they going to do here?
Waz is completely locked down. Where is the setup? Here comes the cheap shot.
Do they have the damage to take him down? Waz is a digger! He gets knocked down and he gets taken down!
Gator's back. What's up, boy? Waz on the board.
Double kill in seconds. Calvish and Deist bring the heat. They risk it all with an all-in composition.
They put a point on the board against reigning title champions.
Echo, I cannot believe it right now.
That pressure was insane.
They are not backing down.
They are not surrendering or throwing in the towel.
They just go faster and faster.
The Gators are prowling through the crowd.
You can see them lurking in the water.
And that was exactly what they were
hoping to be able to land.
They stuck with that composition here coming in.
And it seemed like this time it did pay off for them then.
I mean it absolutely did their setups looked a lot better there
And I think this a kind of damage can really catch you off guard the wind walker monk and the subtlety road the lockdown
And first that you have is quite crazy. You can tell both these teams really mixing it up stylistically going after the healers
We saw echo commit the combustion as well as the king's fate on the Cubs II putting a lot of damage there now going after days
So both of these teams are doing such a good job keeping their opponents guessing
And I think that's something that's very important to do
into the restoration group to see this final setup here.
Waz unfortunately gets cheap shot on his Trinket,
a Calvish special, and manages to take it down,
which is overwhelming when Walker won't damage it.
In this kind of matchup, it really is up to Raikou
to save his team.
He needs to be there for the Dragon's Breath,
the Polymorphs to ring a frost if he can.
He gets locked down by Cunzie, becomes really difficult,
but Raikou has to keep Waz alive.
And unfortunately, he wasn't able to there.
This was so crucial for them.
Otherwise, they were looking down at that match point, right?
To be able to get this for Gators back
means that they have been able to really get back
into the running.
Suko, seeing how they played here,
what really stood out to you?
Just constant swaps, constant setups,
using blind to prevent faint.
So using a crowd control on the road
before you go for the stun,
because roads have an ability called faint.
If they activate it before they get stunned,
they take, next to no damage.
So if you crowd control them before with a blind
or a polymer for a gouge,
you can prevent that ability's activation,
and then KO them like we saw Calvish do there to Waz.
So he understands the matchup,
and I think that's why they want Calvish on Rogue.
They want that tactical mind going head to head with Waz,
and they're bringing Dayst's powerhouse damage
on the Windwalker instead.
Yeah, so this is really interesting
because Echo, they have quite a good warlock on their team,
so I don't think this is a composition
that Gators back can blunt.
Oh, you did it. Okay.
I was gonna say, I don't think they can play this
because Echo, I would be willing, oh, okay.
What? That was wrong! I thought they'd bring in the Warlock, play some, you know, some Warlock mage,
but no Echo is going to stick to this composition. They think that they can win this matchup,
and this is something that Echo does quite often. Even if they lose a match, they want to play it out again.
You know, maybe their opponent's got lucky. Maybe there's something that they could, you know, improve in the strategy.
So if Echo can just lock in one composition and win with this, that's an ideal situation for them.
Ziko, does this seem like par for the course with the Echo for you, or are you surprised by their choice here?
Well, I'm surprised by Gator's choice to love the environment to be honest
We're seeing a large map. So on that around of course, there's a giant crocodile in the sewers there
Which is of course giving everyone
Giving them a passive buff for sure
Because that damage was absolutely insane, but on a large map. I think it's gonna be a little bit more tricky
It shows confidence from the Gators
So I like that that they just go with it and for echo. I think it was just a
Perfect setup that came out from the gators like that's it mentioned
Rooks have a spammable ability called blind called faints and it reduces damage taken
So the most effective swap throw rogue is always gonna be you sheep him or your dragons breath him or you swap out of a
Cyclone or a blind and then you try to hundred owe them and they did that when iron bark was down for JT
So they're like iron workers down even if last drink it's we get stunning string get JT
Even if he's not in ground control in this moment. He's not gonna have enough healing
so they just perfectly set that up and
It just shows a level of understanding of the game and confidence, but here we go game number four grand finals
Echo versus Gators back. All right. We're coming into event. Take us in
Let's see what they do. What is right? We're going to do here at the early stages of the match
The double, the double X with Waz is in danger! Can they take him down?
They get the Trinket from Waz in the open, or that is ideal for Gator's back.
You, the full setup right there, it might exactly be a key to this type of situation.
This is the event of 7, they set up on top, but he is in their form.
He pre-anticipates that move and negates a huge amount of damage with that form of usage.
And now they're at the pillar just recovering, trying to keep their moment.
The kidney shot, the smoke bomb.
Are they ready? Cut JT pre-Iron Bar, can they kill him through it?
is now the question. Can they actually do it? They're getting close. Looks like not
enough as was will pop the evasion. Oh, if they get behind him, though, he doesn't
manage to finally top off. They blind him just seconds away from him being
topped off. It's such a close one, but he's no trinket. GT no trinket was no
trinket. Raikou needs to do something to stop this next setup. I actually don't
like that blind. I think they got a little too excited there on the
Gators. That was their next big win condition. But the good news is they
said I have more of those win conditions because guess what?
They have legs sweep, they have everything, they have the Zenith as well.
Here you go for a big hit on the JT. Oh, nice gouge there onto Waz as well.
Negating that swap on the PUBG, then they have a lot of time right now to set up a kill on the side of Gators.
They could do it onto Waz, they could do it onto JT and Ekko knows it.
One good setup here from Gators back, could win the game.
Can they do it? Waz has gone to the 5th Disorder.JT.
Right at the same time, Kalvish under fire.
Ryfus trying to set up for his team.
He gets some aggression here and put Gators back
onto back foot, but Waz is still in danger.
Stunned on JT.
His crowd control is unrelenting from Fuzzy,
but it looks like Waz finally stable now,
swapping here onto Fuzzy.
Trying to find their footing and find some momentum,
but this is a composition that Echo likely
have zero practice against.
Gators back whipping this out seemingly on the fly
as a curve fall to try and get an advantage.
Waz getting cyclone at the moment by JT.
Both teams playing passive, focused on shutting each other down in this moment in time.
Dazed is trying to come forward, but he gets a zap on Waz.
JT prepares, is it going to be enough?
He seconds away from his trinket.
He survives, in Cap World, they are shut down.
That was beautiful by Ryke, so Ryke uses the ice over there on to Dazed,
baits out these Tigers, Loveson that just pulled Nova's in when he has no dispel.
So Dazed not able to connect on that scary situation there whatsoever.
Ryke is playing out of his mind right now, defensively with that Dragon's Breath earlier as well.
and has walked them enough time on Echo
to actually get their cooldowns back,
but guess what?
Blast pops the death mark,
here comes the combustion,
but instantaneous gouch,
instantaneous heals coming out also out,
and they're turning it around,
here comes the smoke bulb,
here comes the gators,
do they have the damage?
Blast gonna be able to walk out potentially,
JT still in ground control,
Caroline, they're swapping to JT,
they could take him down,
March is still coming down,
can they take him down?
Oh no way!
Oh my goodness, the damage is insane,
but JT survives without his turn again.
Oh my god, the green there from JT.
I mean, that was a very good move,
but now Taze is the danger, full-stunt on Kavzi.
Kako looking to strike back.
The Karma lands there for Taze,
the major defensive cool-down for the Windwalker.
A great play there by Taze to keep his team in the match.
Where are they going to go?
Gators back to the few openings here.
They go after Watt, they get his trinket immediately,
and the Evasion, look at this.
Gaze, they're going after JT!
Yeah, look who they do!
The second point!
Taze for Gators back, but potentially Taze needs to live.
There could be a cross kill here.
We'll see if they can do it.
It's looking unlikely and Gators back likely to claim
this game number four tying up this series.
I've had this.
Now this is a grand final to remember.
This is one worthy of BlizzCon.
Woo!
These teams are playing at a caliber
that showcases just how incredible the AWC can be.
I mean, Ziko, can you believe what we're getting to witness?
This is daylight robbery right now from the Gators.
They go in, they force all of the cooldowns
on that previous swap where JT was being greedy
and then they immediately exit.
They got their cooldowns, then they go back in,
managed to find the kid, and then they also survive
dodging that 2v2 situation.
The Gators are back, baby.
They are back for sure,
and they are putting the pressure on Echo here.
Also, let me just say in the commentary during that,
the sentence, here comes the smoke bomb,
here comes the Gators,
was one of the most terrifying combination of things
I can think about imaginable.
But Super, let's recap some of what we got to see.
I mean, this is just crazy plays.
I really think that Dazed had the heads up move right here.
He uses touch of karma and anticipates the incoming attack.
It's a little bit earlier before that point.
But if Dazed didn't make that play earlier on,
he could have been incredibly vulnerable.
So we're going to skip past that, unfortunately.
But this swap on JT, catch him out of bear form.
Even on the large map, they're able to navigate and find
that swap, find that opportunity in the laser point
and I can't believe that we are actually getting to see
Kalvish versus Waz on the ropes.
Typically in the finals, somebody backs out of that.
They don't keep it to somebody's playing the warrior,
but we are seeing the head-to-head on the rope,
and I wonder if Echo are gonna have to evolve here
in order to win this.
I mean, it seems like it, right?
Echo started out so strong,
but now they're kind of in this position
where we've seen Gators back have these wins.
Does that kind of give them this kind of mental advantage
as they keep pushing forward
and is Echo gonna have to just push through
to reestablish themselves then?
this composition that we're seeing from Gators back, there's a reason why they're picking it. It is absolutely terrifying to play into because you have the lockdown of a subtlety rogue, especially from a playmaker like Calvish, and then dazed on that windlocker monk to really follow through with the damage.
So you're stunned up and you are getting one shot. So for waz as well as JT, this is an absolutely horrific matchup to go into. And that's why I thought Ekko would pick a large map and play something else, maybe bring in Mercy on the warlock, bring in Ryku on the mage.
there's not that clear vulnerability of was on the road because if he's not
pre fainting the stunts he's likely going to die. Echo confidently once
again locking in this matchup they feel like this is their best bet and these
games have been close so you can't blend them. So with these wraps that we're just
seeing now come out I mean obviously they're sticking with it but Ziko you
seem shocked you seem surprised would you have gone a different direction. I feel
like a frostmage would be kind of necessary in this matchup I mean it's
It's just so hard for anybody on Echo to anticipate what is going to happen.
Waz is targeting the entire game, all of a sudden there's a swap on your healer, he's
almost going down.
It's so easy, especially in a grand finals, especially in front of a live audience where
there's so much on the line and there's no second chances.
It is so easy to overuse your cooldowns against a terrorizing comp that the Gators are bringing
because the burst is just absolutely insane.
So, if you don't react fast enough, you just get through your trinket like we saw last fall on Valorant.
But at the same time, if you respond too quickly, then they're going to get away with Robbery again.
So, I don't know if I like this matchup, I feel like if I'm on Ekko, I would want to slow things down somehow.
And maybe they'll find a way to do just that. Here the two teams have managed to tie themselves.
We are looking more and more like we might go all the way to the end in this best of seven.
Gators back versus Ekko, we're coming in here.
This is an enormous moment for both of them.
Whoever wins this next one can change the pace, Supa.
This is the swing match.
Can they do it?
Gators back are in the arena.
Deist is setting up his portal.
Raku is getting combat.
Kalpash is sneaking through.
Will they find the staff?
They're on top of each other.
They set up on JT, just right off the rip.
They force Waz to open.
They catch him in the couch.
That's a beautiful punch.
They bait Waz out of stealth.
They absolutely are destroyed.
They get his trinket right in the opener.
Dazed baited was, and he fell for it. Hook, run, and sinker.
That was an absolutely beautiful bait to start off the game here from the Gators.
They get West Trinket here, and now they're gonna have big options.
Here comes the smoke bomb, ult to Catfish.
Trinket almost gets stunned on his Trinket.
Cheddar's on top, Cubsie's sitting through the Cyclone.
They do not want to use Cubsie's Trinket in this position.
And Pauli-Martin.
Pauli-Martin as well.
Riker's pushing for more.
He knows-
Oh, Riker's going in!
Can they do it? Big, big CC still following through here.
Oh, no way!
Oh, my God!
How did he pre-earn bar that? He saw that. He saw that 20 seconds in advance.
Yeah, Calvish will end up holding on, but what a close call. I love the aggressive plays, but JT getting swapped to once again. Calvish is soloing him on that row, but JT does not trade the trinket. He does not trade the park skin, and that's why that was such a close call, a scary situation.
Now Calvish once again in trouble.
Pubsie not messing around immediately.
Trinkets, but he gets corroded.
Nice play there by Waz.
And Calvish once again is on the run.
That blinds is on DR by Waz.
They lose their win condition right there with that.
That was a major crowd control blunder on Waz's part.
JT and Waz are retreating.
Dazed is chasing them, keeping Waz in combat,
preventing the restyle, which is vital as the assassination
rogues.
There's paralyzed.
He has no legs.
He's got a double leg.
So if JT hit him here with it, he
trinkets the clone and tree forms immediately
to recover was in that moment of anticipation.
But now, Kingsbane combustion available.
Kalvish no trinkets, Cubs you no trinkets.
Does Daze have a grapple weapon?
Can Daze do something here to help?
Because here comes the crowd control, full polymorph,
and the damage is almost blind.
And they can't get to it in time.
Kalvish shuts him down,
and Kalvish is having an amazing game five.
Oh my God, that instant reaction by Kalvish
to blind Waz defensively there.
He's the only reason why the Gators
are not out of this game right now.
But here comes the setup.
Who is he going to be on?
Beautiful setup coming through.
They get a Cyclone on to Cubsy as well.
But this arm is there.
They're just playing so well defensively right now
on the side of the Gators.
Here comes the keeping shot Cubsy though.
Not in any crap control.
Should have an easy time dealing with this.
Still keeps the Iron Buck in his back pocket
as well for future use.
And Cubs is going to have his trinket in 15 seconds.
So they need to act fast.
There's the cheap shot.
Can they get the ring of frost?
No, it gets interrupted.
And the Gators are on point defensively.
Triple Dragon's breath as well.
just to start it out here for a second, but the Gators have recovered.
Yeah, both these teams green and rentable job denying the setup.
So Waz is getting low on health retreating here just for a moment.
And JT had a beautiful preemptive iron bar on Waz buying time for this trinket.
Now a big aggressive push here onto Calvish, but unfortunately just no damage to follow it up.
Cyclone will now be used on Calvish, and that was a beautiful ring of peace thereby.
Dazed, who now wants to get aggressive by pushing onto Waz.
See if he's able to get on target. Waz has been so patient.
He has all of his cooldowns to absolutely smash someone right now, but he's caught in a kidney shot.
He is exploding. Will he survive another one?
He gets incapped on his trinket into a cheap shot, into a swapping, and he is greeting it.
He is sitting through the Suns. He's greeting it. He barks, skins late. It's enough. JT will survive.
He's now switching his yellow-time effects to Waz. Waz is trying to get aggressive, cloaking, so he can't get cyclone.
Combustion is up. Daze is retreating. He gets caught behind the pillar.
He can't connect enough damage to finish him here at this moment in time.
Banna is starting to get tight on both sides. We're not even three and a half minutes into this game
I can't leave there. It's just so low on man. I think JT might be trying to drink right now
Yeah, the intensity is just something else right now both teams just taking a breather for a second here
They see managers to get a little bit of matter, but they're
Stunning strength at the end of smoke ball
Can they get a CC they do
and the Gators take the swing match.
Gators back are now in the driver's seat.
They are up in the series.
They take the swing match from Echo,
and they are looking unstoppable on this composition.
The roar from the BlizzCon audience
was deafening as they got that kill.
Gators back wrapping for NA here on NA turf.
Gators back have surprised us.
We knew they were the top of NA,
But now they are out to prove that they are the top of the world.
This was a huge one for them.
And you know, we said that if you wanted to take down Echo,
you had to surprise them.
And I think that Gators back kept on just that bad.
Well, let's not forget.
I mean, if Gators back was planning this matchup,
they didn't reveal it in the last series.
They actually held it as kind of like a pocket pick.
You know, when everything was on the line in the semifinals,
they didn't show this at all.
This seems like something they specifically picked for Echo
for the finals and I mean that is very impressive. I mean it's incredible to see
and we'll get a little bit of a revisit on that now. Let me take a look at its eco.
Yeah I mean this was a crazy greedy play from from JT a little bit later on going
for that drink so I really love what they did here. They cycloned JT with the
NSWIFT, they cycloned, in-cap roar him and then swap to him. Get his drink it that
way and then JT was going for a drink there. They stunned Waz then they get
another stun on his drink it with the smoke bomb and then they managed to
close the gap there with I think it was a paralyze in the end there that allowed
them both to just connect for that touch of death. We had to try to do a defensive
smoke bomb right at the end but it just was too little too late and that's the
problem if you try to get away with greed and try to stall it out like that
the Gators they're so good comes he was forged in dampening like he's not gonna
allow that to happen and they immediately managed to catch him right at the end
there to finish off the match and now we are in a very very sus position here if
you're equal because if you lose one more that's it and you have a lot of
confidence to choose from how would you like the next game to be served I mean
they're gonna have to figure it out and they have to adapt here you know we saw
them kind of stick with what they were going hey we're strong in this let's
just keep at it maybe we can win this match up but right now there's not
really a maybe we can win it you have to feel confident that what you have is
going to counter I mean super what do you think they're going to do will they
adjust or will they really just try to see it through it feels like the
assassination rogue it's more volatile eventually it runs out of vanishes it
runs out of the ability to appeal the attacker so if they can survive that
initial to vanish window they're a lot more stable and they start just running
away with the game so I actually think the assassination rogue is the
vulnerability the main vulnerability that they could pivot around and they're
not backing down. Gators back there on match point. They just need to win one more map with K came as close as he could to winning
BlizzCon all of those years ago and his team is just one map away once again.
If they lose it here, you know it would be heartbreaking, but it doesn't look like that is likely.
Echo have to find some way to adapt because Gators back have just figured out how they want to approach this.
They've brought that surprise element and they have found out how to make it work.
I can't believe it.
Now we see that.
I mean, Echo, is this going to do it for them?
I just am so surprised that they're not
tagging in Mercy here.
I will say, psychologically, this is a very difficult position
to be in.
You're up 2-0 in the series, right?
You're looking good.
Things are going well.
And then all of a sudden, you lose one game.
You lose two.
You lose three.
And now you're on match point to be eliminated.
And Echo are the defending champions right now.
So they have a lot to prove here in this matchup.
I don't know if you can see
what they do, but I'm just not
sure about this composition.
Obviously, Rogue made Druid is
great, but I feel like at this
point, Gators back, they're
proving why they're picking this
Windwalker subtlety Rogue
composition. It seems very
effective into the Druid Rogue.
They are, and you know, honestly,
as you pointed out, as everybody
pointed out, to keep this under
their hats this whole time was
such a move. They planned for
point for them as we look ahead to this final perhaps map,
but Echo have a chance to bring it back.
They have to win this one.
They have to stay in it.
They have to prove why they are some of the most
decorated players in AWC history.
But Gators back, they sense that blood in the water
and they are out for the kill.
Can they get this fourth point?
They're certainly going to try.
Then I mean, this is going to be the high point
of the AWC this year.
Yeah, put your hands together for these two teams,
putting on an absolute show for us here.
At BlizzCon, match point between Gator's back and Ekko.
Ekko needs to win this one if they are going to stay alive.
Gator's back.
Looking to become a champion.
Oh, is he going to get faked again?
It looks like he will.
He gets gouged up.
They force his hand.
They don't get this one.
Beautiful peels.
They do get the kidney shot now.
Cheap shots.
Are they going to follow it up?
It's a nice blow to the winner.
Cyclone on JT and Watt stays alive.
Now pressure on JT.
Kabzeb is going to recover.
Echo's Empire is on the line.
They are the reigning champions seven years ago
in the running and they are one loss away
from losing their title.
The Gators are looking to chomp their way to a victory here
and become your new champions.
Can they do it?
They've got them the first cooldown off the checklist,
which is of course a bucket from Watt.
But here comes another counter attack.
Kalvish has to respect the smoke bomb.
can trade on his trinket, there's a gouch on the wasp.
They do it right now.
Nice paralyze on the right, the way he runs.
And that is going to allow Ryker to peel the situation
with a dragon breath, JT, holding onto his trinket.
Very unfortunate that that paralyze broke.
Otherwise, that could have been JT's trinket.
But still, the pressure is insane here from the getters.
Talvish in a little bit of danger here.
It looks like a rake stun goes out on the cubs.
The Calvish is getting low, but a counter-stun here
on the wasp, great peels by days.
But unfortunately, it puts wasp on the stun,
Finishing return, beautiful ring of peace as well.
They're doing excellent job just buying time for his team,
keeping them alive and allowing them to get
another setup in the future.
Raikou switch to Pandaren.
So you can have an instant crowd control for the setups.
That is a very heads up play on Raikou's pardon.
It could be vital to their team's success.
Waz is committing for the win and Deis sees it immediately
responding with his touch of karma.
Now Calvish engages, get the shot.
It's match point.
JT gets stunned on his trinket.
They're swapping to JT.
And are they going the distance?
So, not just yet, JT stays alive in Kepler's cyclone attempt by him now, on to Cubsi.
They're trying to find a target.
Kidney shot not available.
Combustion not up.
That cyclone gets nothing done.
JT gets combo.
Of course, he tries to chain it, but his team just doesn't have damage.
Yeah, they can't reach Calvish.
He's too slippery on the rope.
He's just staying away perfectly when his healer is in battle zone.
But here comes the guard signers on the Cubsi, and the Kidney shot onto Calvish with no damage
to follow it up.
Now, Ekko has to run, because guess what?
The Gators are coming to chump up Waz here.
What is he gonna do?
He tries to pre-faith, defensive blind, coming out onto Daze
right before the kidney, and a defensive shift.
Excellent defense here from Ekko to survive that setup.
And guess what?
JT's up something.
Here it is!
Here comes the damage onto JT.
Nice in-cap roar out of the stunts, and they continue to chain.
JT sweating bullets right now, but he manages to recover again.
Very tense situation, but JT handles it well.
Set up now on Calvish comes in a cyclone. They're not panicking Calvish has a close
Oh!
And he's under the drain and he's so low! Greedy plays there by Calvish and the cost is an overlap with the iron bar
So a little bit of no to the defense there of Gator's back. Echo strikes back in a big way
Oh, they get punished Calvish was so greedy
He does still have the smoke bomb but no trinket opening for him at this moment in time doubling Cabrera Cubsi
Setting up the team. Kittney chopper follow up, but JT gets iron bar. He's gonna be fine
and he's in bear form anticipating the swap.
Tree form up for JT, now he will recover.
He will re-stabilize.
J's has like three available,
but they have most than 90 yards just yet.
Cubs, his mana is looking rough.
If Echo can just hold on, they're looking solid here.
Yeah, let's see if they can do it.
Double Dragon's breath coming out offensively,
and a nice Panda Rage are coming out as well.
They're swapping to Calvish again,
but Calvish is going to be able to survive.
That guy's home.
Uh-oh!
Here comes the set up.
Let's get in!
Two wilds, he's going to trigger it up immediately.
He gets on the trinket!
Thunder trinket, has the global shadows pops it as well.
Waz is not messing around here.
He used these entire swaps there.
Another swap coming out onto JT.
JT's going to use the bar skin and look how quick the Gators
are to switch back as soon as the cooldown gets used.
Now, I am so scared because JT could get stunned and die
and so could Waz.
Oh my god, they stopped Ring of Frost
and they stopped Cyclone there on Cubs.
That was a beautiful shutdown by their team right now.
Can they find their target, Garote, engagement?
Cyclone and Cubs, you know, trinket
and they might get punished for that overlap earlier on
another Cyclone from JT.
We see Dazed using Karma preemptively,
but Kalvish is floundering.
He's struggling right now.
It's so much damage for Khamzei to do it.
He's finally able to re-stabilize and find his momentum.
Now, they don't have smoke bomb, but they do have blades.
They have multiple stuns.
Waz is the vulnerability, but they have blind,
as Kalvish can be able to find Waz.
Here, Raikou is blasting.
And he rags around.
He's trying to piece him into a sap around the corner.
Raikou plinks in.
Raikou plinks in.
He gets the dragon breath.
Is it going to be enough?
It's so much damage that they can't act!
I can't believe it, once Shadow Steps out and survives.
What a sick setup coming in from the Gators.
The Ring of Peace does not put you in combat.
Bounces him, he tells him where he is after he takes the eye.
Bounces him into his range to get that sap.
Beautiful, beautiful setup.
The Gators can taste the victory, but here comes...
Oh, look at the blood!
Can they do it?
Gavrish so low on HP, gets the Globe of Shadows off,
comes into his side, but still...
Oh, no!
Where does Mike just go down as well?
Go up in the hit list of JT still in crowd control.
No way!
Oh, my god!
The champions have done it!
North America, now the Acecon champions.
What an incredible performance by Gators back,
finding that game-winning setup in those final moments.
I mean these guys came to play in absolutely beautiful performance North America are your
a WC BlizzCon 2026
champions
Gators back absolutely proved here at least for now that NA are the champions of all of the world across regions across
compositions even bringing in this swap and
And absolutely taking down Echo with it for this final series.
I mean, what an unforgettable way to end the AWC, seriously, Super.
We have a new Empire as the Gators reign supreme for North America.
What a crazy series.
We're expecting Roat Mage all the way through.
They hide this composition.
They show nobody until the grand finals and Echo do not have enough time to adapt.
They are obviously celebrating here and congratulating the winners as well.
Really respected team here on the side of Echo.
Highest teams for them.
It's been seven years in the making.
We finally got it.
North America versus Europe.
It has been settled.
Absolutely phenomenal seeing what they were able to do here and a really stepping up and
making sure that even if it was seven years in the making it was worth every one of those
years to wait for.
Now the team coming in here to claim their prize as the trophies go up.
Everyone, you have your Glint God, 2026 AWC champions.
Give it up, we need to hear this house come down for Gators back.
They proved that despite the competition, despite the legends echo standing before
them, that Gators back could rise and make them fall.
This was a phenomenal series and a huge congratulations
to the team.
I cannot believe what we got to see today.
We are gonna head over to the stage with IA
because no doubt everyone wants to celebrate
with Gatorsback.
All right, congratulations to Gatorsback.
I can barely hear myself in this audience this is incredible the amount of support you had.
AWC has not seen the BlizzCon stage for seven years.
What does this moment mean to you?
It's just amazing.
I don't even have any other words.
I can't.
I'm at a loss.
You got to talk to Calvin.
I'm at a loss. You got to talk to Calvin that's fine. That's fine
Looking back to when you guys first formed this roster, did you imagine that you would be standing here someday? I think I
Think I did. I think I did imagine it
Amazing, I love the confidence
All right days
You've got your entire family over here all the way from Wisconsin. What does it mean to have their support?
I mean, they're the best, they're the best family in the world for sure.
It's easy, it's easy. They're the best for sure.
Is there anything you'd like to say to all your other supporters out in the audience today?
DZV Army!
CHEERING
Do you want me to skip you again?
Okay.
All right.
Any final thoughts, anything that you'd like to say from your performance for today?
Thanks to all the fans, thanks to everyone back home watching.
Hi, mom
Hi, mom. All right one more time for Gators back
And I do have a special guest that will be joining us Talbadar as you might know him or Rodney Paray
He's gonna be joining us for some words
Hello BlizzCon
On behalf of the World of Warcraft development team, I would like to give a
congratulations to Gators back for their victory here tonight.
We have a packed house here. We had over a hundred thousand players watching
online from around the world and thank you for watching and for your
viewership. The Roars from the crowd tonight were bitter old and the chance
were really exciting when players were gonna glow and getting stunned behind
the pillar. It was amazing to be here for this event. Thank you.
Wow, Arena has a special place in my heart.
It's been 20 years and I have many, many friends.
Some of my best friends are from this game and I'm sure it's the case for many of you
as well.
I've been playing PvP all these years with all of you and I'm so proud to be a part
of this community and with you guys.
So let's hear it one more time for Gators back!
Thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you to all of the WoW eSports fans that supported
us through MDI and AWC. I hope you had a tremendous bliss con. We will see everyone next season.
BlizzCon was brought to you by MSI.
Take the next step in upgrading your visual experience with MSI's QD OLED monitors.
Built to last, brilliance ahead.
Gigabyte, upgrade your life.
Secret Lab, pro-grade ergonomics for the highest level of play.
Let's go.
BlizzCon is brought to you by MSI.
Take the next step in upgrading your visual experience with MSI's QD OLED monitors.
Built to last, brilliance ahead.
Gigabyte, upgrade your life.
Secret Lab, pro-great ergonomics for the highest level of play.
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