We're here with Team Pandemic at the WoW Regional Qualifier. Team Pandemic, previously the favored team in this tournament with a #1 ranking on the arena server, was affected by the wave of disqualifications that hurt several of the teams. Many people had counted them out. They have instead come back to compete for one of the three top places in today's finals matches, and have already earned a berth in the World Finals.

Jared, thanks for joining us today. It's been a rough road for you guys - there are people out there who had almost counted you out of this tournament, and now you've come back and already secured a top finish. How are you feeling about your team's performance so far? And how were you able to prepare so well despite the limitations your team now faces?

Good. This has turned out to be a lot more exciting then we thought. There's been a lot of upsets so far. We upset TFO in the second round, and it was just an unbelievable game. It came down to 3-2 and we managed to win. To prepare for this though, we have been playing the setup we're required to play since we lost both of our priests. Since they're taking copies of the team from an earlier point on the qualifier server, we won't be able to use Nitrana's Shaman. We were hoping to pull that off. That actually would be a decent group setup. Our group setup is probably one of the worst you can run right now. The guys are just playing absolutely amazing. They've been hitting everything perfectly, they've been talking about tactics between each match. They're proving they're the best players out there.

We have noticed that several members of your team have changed up their talent specs to what are generally considered highly unusual specs, maybe even less competitive, but certainly "different" specs in preparation for this tournament. This caught a lot of people by surprise. Do you think this has been a major factor in your success, that surprise element? Or did these new specs happen to gel with the unusual class composition a bit better?

What's funny is that because we only have the paladin as the healer, we basically have to kill the other team very very fast. Our mage specced fire for those big pyros and he hasn't actually crit a pyro yet - I'm hoping he does on stage.. hopefully! Our hunter is beast and just uninterruptible damage is what we're going for. We were worried that if they got our Paladin CS'd and our hunter sheeped that we just wouldn't have any damage output but it's just unbelievable how they've been playing.

Our rogue has just been sticking to mages, making sure they don't get any sheeps off. Everyone's doing their job and that's why we're winning.

So you guys are in winners finals now, top 3, that means you're advancing. Do you think you'll be able to use this same talent specs or do you think people will be prepared for it by the time it comes to the global finals?

What our team is good about is switching things up. There are many teams that have their one mindset, their one strategy and they don't deviate from it. We actually capitalize on it, during both the qualifier server and the regular season. We always have something up our sleeves, but I don't know if we'll be running the same specs or not. It is a month or two away, so we've got some time to sit down and think how we have to beat the Koreans and Europeans and I know the Europeans play as aggressive as we have today. So we'll see!

I know that you're one of the people that was hit by the disqualifications - what has been your role now, a support role on the team, what have you been responsible for in the process since then?

I have recently been named the divisional manager for World of Warcraft for Team Pandemic. I'm taking more of a leadership role. I did coach at WSVG China and I talked to the media a lot out there too so the players didn't have to deal with that as much. I really did enjoy it - I approached our team manager and said "hey, I want to do a lot more with the team." He said "Well, we have a new website to redesign, we've got this and that to do." So I've been trying to fill in as a manager role as much as I can.

Do you plan on going back to playing the game at a competitive level, do you plan on rejoining the team at some point as a regular or rotational player or do you plan on staying in a manager role exclusively?

As it looks like right now, it looks like a manager role. 3v3 is what we're concentrating on now, obviously not at this tournament, but in general just because so many events are happening that are 3v3. What I play, the specs and classes I play, they don't really fit in with the other people on the team, so this is my opportunity and this is what I want to do for the team to help them out.

Thanks a lot, Jared. We'll be watching to see how your team fares the rest of the weekend.

Pandemic faces off against TFO in the lower bracket finals today. The winner of this game will take on Flow Gaming in the Grand Finals, needing to win two straight sets for the victory.