GotFrag.com - The Blizzard Regionals over the past weekend had its share of upsets and surprises. In this article, GotFrag will take a look at the highlights of the event.

As teams battled their way into the top 8 spots over the course of the past 6 weeks, things were finally set in stone and laid out this past weekend.

Qualified Teams

1st: SK-Gaming - Pookz, Realz, Enforcer
2nd: well then - Zilea, Veex, Valrath
3rd: Team EG - Kollektiv, Zyz, Azael
4th: Team eMg - Twixz, Payce, Neiro
5th-6th: Team Pandemic - Beastlol, Kintt, Shinanigens
5th-6th: A wild rogue monkey appears - Roguemonkey, Jats, Syia
7th-8th: CompLexity Gaming - Venruki, Sodah, Happyminti
7th-8th: Holyplay - Euneek, Rgo, Tenderloin



Team compLexity came into this tournament with boat loads of confidence. After thousands of games for online practice, these fellas were in it to win it. With the release of WotLK sodah let go of his druid roots and rerolled priest, forming one of the most dominate RMP teams in America. Personally I think this team had one of the strongest chances to place top 2 and attend Blizzcon. However, many people agree they had the most difficult seeding of any team in the tournament.

Starting off playing Zilea's "RMP killer" line up of Paladin, Deathknight, Warrior, things were off to a rough start as they quickly went down 0-3. One of the main things that can affect the outcome of a team winning or losing a tournament is momentum, and I think that compLexity lost whatever momentum they came in with at this point. Shortly following the cleave onslaught, Team compLexity found themselves in quite a pickle as the next team they played was Team eMg (Pally/BMhunter/Deathknight).

I'm sure that the WoW community will back me when I say that this particular lineup is quite frankly the hardest RMP counter currently in the game. A hard enough counter that even seasoned veterans like compLexity couldn't overcome as they were quickly "moped up" and removed from the tournament. Surprisingly enough they managed to take a win from eMg after going down 0-2. Though this is an impressive enough victory in itself, the following map(Ring of Valor) spelled doomed for our heroes as we all know you might as well just leave the game should that map show up.

Word around the campfire says happyminti has given up and will discontinue playing WoW to pursue real life and will be replaced by last years 2nd place finisher Yog. I don't feel this is a step in the right or wrong direction and I'm very anxious to see how this turns out for CoL.


Enter Team EG. After a rocky kick off to their tournament season at MLG Columbus, EG came to this tournament with something to prove. After constant criticism from the WoW community about their showing, Team EG redeemed their spot as a top US team by finishing third in this tournament. Some would claim 3rd is not quite whats expected from a US contender, however from start to finish their team played astronomically better than they did just a month prior.

Led by Azaezael a renowned warlock known most for his Death and Decay warlock videos, these guys continue to surprise me and received my #1 pick for a first place finish. They proved they can clean up their act in a short amount of time and show just why they're feared amongst the community. Team Shaman Kollektiv is without question the best shaman in the world, yes even the Koreans can attest to his greatness. He has continued to prove that if played well, even a gimped class can remain competitive. Azael kept his teams chin up and said often in many interviews that "If we play well enough, we can beat anybody". Coming from personal experience this is exactly the case with a lineup like RLS as I believe its the closest composition statistically to RMP in the sense that it can really beat anything if played to full potential.

Unfortunately after a close series with SK-Gaming, Team EG was launched to the lower bracket to play Well for the third place spot. On paper Zilea's composition should have a strong advantage against RLS and even Zilea was surprised by how close that match was. To quote "Team EG is without a doubt the best RLS we've ever played".


The teams overall outlook on its recent plunder has been in direct relation to zyz's LAN performance. Personally in 2008 zyz was without question the best rogue I had ever seen play on LAN and was even voted 2008's "MVP" award by the WoW community. Best of wishes to this team and I hope they can soon live up to their online reputation.