With the first major WoW LAN Tournament of the 2008 season over, Major League Gaming: San Diego featured some of the best US WoW players and some of the best European players. Of the top teams that competed in San Diego, there were some stars who shined brighter then others.

Tournament MVP of MLG:SD - Azael of Frag Dominant

Let's face it, without Azael, Frag Dominant might of not finished on-top of this tournament. His ability to play Warrior, Rogue and his main class, Warlock at a high-level gave his team much needed versatility in order to intimidate and confuse opponents - teams couldn't really predict what FD would run against them due to his ability to play these 3 classes at a high level. Although he couldn't have done this without the help of his teammates, Spoh & Zyz, he was the most vocal leader on his team and the most enthusiastic player of the Finals.

Best Rogue at MLG:SD - Zyz of Frag Dominant

Most consider Neilyo of SK-Gaming the best rogue in the world; however he wasn't the star rogue of the tournament. Zyz of Frag Dominant, although only plays mostly in the Vindication and Stormstrike Battlegroups away from BG9, made a name for himself on the Phase 1 Tournament Realm when his team placed top 4 and earned a trip to the regional tournament.

What people didn't take notice due to the camera view of Frag Dominant vs GotGame East, Zyz clutched all 3 matches that FD won in order to advance to the Grand Finals.

First Win: While Spoh was out of mana and GotGame was close to securing a kill on one of the FD members, Zyz was able to tab-kick Sodah before killing one of the rogues of GG-E (meaning he quickly targeted Sodah while he was casting a heal and interrupted him for 5 seconds, within that time period one of the GG-E Rogues died)

Second Win: Zyz managed to kite himself out of a death, with a shadowstep towards Sodah and pillar hugging while at sub 40% health, while Spoh was Blinded and Cycloned - GG-East was out of crowd-control cooldowns after he survived their crowd control rotation on Spoh, FD grinded out a win against GG-E.

Third Win: Both Spoh the druid of Frag Dom and Cyberpsycho of GotGame traded deaths, it came down to a 2v2 of Zyz & Azael vs Lycra & Sodah. Zyz was able to get two consecutive saps on Sodah and a full duration sap on Lycra at the start of the 2v2 to allow them to get the opening damage on Sodah. Sodah ended up dying to Zyz afterwards due to Zyz opening on him in caster form (druids take more damage from melee in caster form) with Sodah spent of defensive cooldowns, as well as Lycra being snared and stunned by Azael during the duration of the 2v2 fight. This controlled Lycra from helping Sodah and secured the win for Frag Dominant.

Best Warrior: Hoodrych of GotGame West

Although GotGame West was eliminated in the late in the lower bracket 5th round (they finished 5th-6th in the tournament, however), Hoodrych carried his team to wins over CAPSLOCK CREW & MoB TurtlePower (Hafu's team). GG-W's win over MoB TurtlePower was very gratifying for their team considering a week earlier they lost the Blizzard Playoff for the Phase 1 tournament to MoB 3-1. With a 3-0 Sweep of MoB TurtlePower, Hoodrych stamped his team as the better WLD team in the tournament.

Azael of Frag Dom would be mentioned here, however with Top Warlock and MVP honors; It was decided we needed to spread the wealth.


Best Warlock: Azael of Frag Dominant

Although he played Warlock only a handful of games for Frag Dom, he proved to the community he wasn't 'carried by mods' and was able to live up to his nickname: 'Azael the Unstoppable'. Every team knew that Frag Dom was the top Rogue / Warlock / Druid team at the tournament, RMP teams feared this match-up - this allowed Azael to display his melee skills as a rogue and a warrior. What's a better way to show your dominance then having other teams hoping you don't play your main class?


Best Mage: Celex of Duelists Frag Dominant

People speculated whether the top team of Duelists goin for Glad could make the transition from online to LAN, they didn’t disappoint. Of the 5 Rogue / Mage / Priest teams that attended MLG San Diego, they definitely showed they were the best of them all. Celex is the team leader and strategist, as the vocal leader of DGFG he was given a lot of credit of their successes over MoB TurtlePower and GotGame West. However losing to GotGame East & SK Gaming was partially his fault too, let's not mind that both teams are strong counters to Rogue / Mage / Priest, people agree Celex made some ill advised blinks (an ability that allows you to teleport forward from your current position on a map, to escape stuns) versus SK-Gaming and versus GotGame East he was spec’d deep frost without imp counter-spell, which could of made a difference if they were to execute a fear->blind->empty counterspell rotation versus GG-E. However, he certainly showed he was the best mage at the tournament by far.