Team Ice has long been known for PvE accomplishments, establishing themselves early on in World of Warcraft as one of the premier progression guilds worldwide. With the release of The Burning Crusade and the new arena system, they have once again placed their stamp on the game, fronting several prominent teams in all arena formats and consistently ranking among the top guilds in the game for overall high-ranked affiliated teams. Their primary 5v5 team, Flow Gaming (also known as THE HUKHUKHUKHUKHUKS) placed #1 in the Rampage Battlegroup (BG 7) during the first season, and are currently ranked #2 on the Qualification Ladder going into the Blizzard Regional Qualifiers.

Unlike many of the other top teams, Flow Gaming has not lost a single member to the wave of disqualifications that have drastically reshaped the landscape of this tournament in recent weeks. Due to this, and the ability to run their original 5-man setup with no significant roster changes, Flow Gaming is now considered by many one of the favorite teams to win this leg of the tournament.

Today, Kerry LaRose of GotFrag is joined by John Liao, aka "Nuvas", of Flow Gaming, to discuss the upcoming tournament, his team, his thoughts on the competition, and his plans for the future in WoW.

John, thanks for joining us today.
How's it going, Kerry.

The arena qualifiers have wound down, and the teams are essentially set for the Regionals. How do you feel the game has changed since the beginning of the season?

Well, first of all, theres the recent patch to consider that has dramatically changed arenas. The introduction of water* into teams without mages will definitely make an impact, not to mention the shaman clearcast and paladin illumination nerfs. There are other numerous changes in the recent patch that will change the dynamics of arenas, but I won't go into that now as it is quite lengthy. Additionaly, there is also the new Ruins of Lorderan arena to consider. So to sum it up, arena now is significantly different now than it was since the beginning.

*Editor's Note: In the latest 2.1.0 patch to the game, Blizzard added buyable water that can be used in Arenas by anyone. Previously, only teams with mages could make use of summoned water, since mages can summon it inside arenas. Water is an extremely quick way to refresh your character's mana in game.

You mention the change with water. As a team that does not run a Mage, this has the potential to drastically change the flow of your matches, even while you maintain the same group composition as before. Do you see this as offering a significant competitive advantage to teams like yours?

It's definitely a positive change for us, but as to how much an advantage, over other teams, this gives us is difficult to say. Due to not having access to water almost all season long, it's hard to instantly incorporate water into our strategy.

Understood. As you know, a number of teams are having to drastically rethink their strategy for the upcoming tournament, as a result of the numerous disqualifications that were recently announced. How do you feel these events have altered the landscape of the tournament?

The tournament is definitely no longer a competition of the "best-of-the-best". The teams we have attending regionals have already been thinned out due to prior disqualifications, and now we are faced with even more disqualifications. Even if we were to take first in the regionals, I can't claim that we're the best in the US and I'm sure many would agree with my view. My hope for this tournament, though, is that Korea and Europe weren't too damaged by disqualifications like we were.