Major Shakeup in the WC3L.

The holy trinity of World Elite, Meet Your Makers and Four Kings in the past year has shattered. The Four Kings are struggling. The usually untouchable Grubby has been solid, but not nearly in the form he was in early 2006 when he utterly overpowered everyone; and falling to Happy pretty much seals the deal that 4K will not win the playday, and the possibility to miss the playoffs.

What went wrong?

Since the retirement of Creolophus, there has been a chink on the 4K armor. They were usually able to win a playday on the basis of Creo, ToD and Grubby winning their matches. Now, not only is Creo gone, but Grubby hasn’t been performing as dominantly and Creo’s leaving the progaming scene leaves a gap in their lineup.

The dependable, but by no means amazing, Zeus[19] is unable to beat the opponents Creo could, and FuRy is not nearly the player that many think he could be. This leaves 4K with only one player with a “for sure” solo match: ToD. LiiLD.C was a great pick up for 4K, but the lineup just isn't performing up to par with the 4K name.

Though, 4K is not nearly the most disappointing team.

This distinction goes to Fnatic.

Fnatic's WC3L Run
SK Gaming	1-4
Meet Your Makers	1-4
mTw.PokerRoom	2-3
Defining Stars	4-1
Mousesports	1-4
Beijing E-sports Team	3-2
wNv Teamwork	2-3

Fnatic got shutdown by a completely retooled SK squad this week, even their usual winner Satiini (coming off of a huge 2-0 win over Lucifer in which Satiini dominated the match), went down 2-0 to Lyn, who is a solid player in his own right; but Elf usually holds some advantage over Orc on most maps.

Fnatic needs to get Satiini some extra help. Even though elfittaja was a new player in the WC3L scene, he was fetching fnatic some much-needed points in matchups others thought he wouldn’t win. Satiini and the 2v2 team of Rob/Xyligan has been all fnatic can hold their hats on. It just hasn’t been a good season. They could have grabbed a player like LiiLD.C, or promote a promising player from the NGL2 – anyone, just to get points. DieSeL might be a good addition but he still needs to catch up. Something isn’t clicking in this team and something needs to be done to help out Satiini. On a team like 4k or SK he could really shine and help a team win WC3L. On fnatic, he is relegated to an all-star player on an average team.

NoA v BET

Short of 4K’s demise, NoAs consistency has been the surprise of WC3L. This season they are more than consistent, with a solid last 2 weeks, they will actually make the playoffs (one of 4 teams with 19 points in 3rd place). This is the same number of points as World Elite, mouz, and even the dominating SK Gaming. They even took down the consensus favorite of WC3L this year MYM a few weeks prior.

 

Seriously, you have to look at a team with a performance like this. When Ohjie beats FoV, the aptly named “Elf Killer,” without dropping a map, something is working inside NoA.

Who Gets In?

With BET not being the dominating team with only 1 point ahead of 4 others, its hard to see BET as this wrecking ball we thought they would be. World Elite is winning even without Sky in the lineup, and TeD has been performing out of his mind. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that WE is winning with nearly all Chinese players online. Can you imagine this team... offline? Almost everyone (myself included) thought WE would suffer after the departure of the Koreans, not because the Chinese players were less skilled, but because of the internet problems that Chinese players face – but that fact has amounted to nothing, and they are right in the hunt.

1. Meet Your Makers

How can you not believe this MYM lineup will wipe the floor with competition. Even with Lucifer struggling a bit, Susiria and Moon are still dependable, FoCus has been very good and even Storm (yes the “inactive” Storm) is in good form. Who is MYM not a favorite against?

2. SK Gaming

Is there any wonder why SK paid all that money for these players? They were worth every Euro spent. ReMinD, Soju, Lyn, XlorD, HoT, Insomnia. This team looks eerily like the World Elite team that won WC3L last season. Granted WE had a combination of Sky and Remind that was nigh unbeatable, ReMinD is still leading the charge on SK. HoT is getting back into shape where he was 3 or 4 months ago, XlorD is getting better every match, Insomnia is always solid, Lyn and Soju are two of the better players in the world, and ReMinD/Soju’s 2v2 team is perhaps the class of the WC3L. Could you imagine how many points SK would have if they had this team at the beginning of the season? It’s crazy to think about.

3. Beijing E-Sports Team

They have an Undead tandem similar to MYM with Sweet and FoV who can beat anyone on any given day, not to mention ChecK who has proven to be one of the best Night Elves in the world. Despite falling this week to a very good NoA team, they have beaten SK, WE, and MYM. Don’t be surprised if BET upsets SK or MYM in the offline finals, they are built for that situation, sizing up these teams at every matchup.

The Race for 4, 5, 6

As for the rest, its way too close to call. I give the advantage to mouz because of the incredibly season they are having with players most consider to be the 2nd tier of great players, but still playing extremely well. I could see NoA and WE filling this, but mTw is on the outside looking in, and if they catch fire, they could make it in. I really feel this team is for real and if they keep improving at the rate they are now, they could find themselves in the top positions in the months to come.

Weekly Wrapup

MVP of the Week: Ohjie

Playing against probably the best Undead v Night Elf player in the world (FoV) Ohjie plays an incredible 2 games vs FoV and comes out with a huge win.

Match of the Week: wNv vs MYM - TH000 v Moon

Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3

Every match with Th000 is entertaining, but this was almost too much. Incredible match, especially the first two games.

Upset of the Week: Mousesports 3-1 over 4K

How the mighty have fallen. Last season people would think mouz would get 2 points maximum against the might 4K, but this season is an entirely different story. I hope 4K gets their rhythm back soon to somehow sneak into the playoffs.