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GotFrag takes a look at some of the teams competing in the ESL US Continental Final.  Over the weekend of November 22nd, eight World of Warcraft Arena teams will meet in Philadelphia and compete not only for a slot at the Global Finals, but also for the title of best in North America. The total prize pool for the WoW section is $30,000 with the first place finishers taking home a heft purse of $15,000. Over the past few weeks since ESL Montreal, teams have been leveling and (hopefully) practicing quite a bit with the new Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Players will hopefully have gotten more used to their newly revamped skills and abilities, talents, and the way that the game is played in the post 3.0 world. There have been countless numbers of changes to talents and abilities that have buffed some classes to be insanely good, while unfortunately leaving other classes far behind in the Arena setting. No matter what though, if ESL taught us anything, Philadelphia will definitely prove to be an interesting and exciting event. Gravitas Gaming DJ "Celex" Roggenkamp Corey "Emolol" Ratliff Daniel "Ely" VulisGravitas Gaming has had far too many close calls this year and are really looking to make this their final showing as the top team. They have finished second one too many times, evidenced by DJ's frustration at the ESL Montreal event. Gravitas Gaming was also the only American team to make it out of group play at the Montreal Event, so they are obviously ready and prepared for the new patch. The real question, as always, is if they can secure the top spot this time around. They will most likely run RMP again as it's an extremely potent comp with the new talents, and with the possibly upgraded gear, it will only get even more powerful. fnatic Andrew "Rhaegyn" Miller Alexander "Glick" Hloderwski Rumay "Hafu" Wangfnatic used to be riding the easy WLD path to victory in their previous tournaments, but after a poor showing at ESL Montreal and the 3.0 patch it's not such a sure thing anymore. They were unable to make it out of group play at ESL Montreal (even with Ret Paladin ridiculousness) and have hopefully worked out the kinks to make a decent showing in Philadelphia. As Warlocks are extremely subpar compared to what they used to be, look for Glick to be running something different -- perhaps a Ret Paladin again if he polished his skills on the live/ESL servers. Pandemic Blue David "Ohnoes" Atz Brian "Caal" McPharlin Nathan "Kintt" QuinnThe ever resilient Pandemic Blue is back once again to tell North America that they can still compete. Kintt and crew have been playing together for a while, but their last few performances haven't been as impressive as they would have hoped, not being able to reach higher than a 5-8th placing in both ESL Montreal and ESL LA events. All three players can play a variety of classes including mages and ret paladins, both which have huge burst potential in this patch. Hopefully they will have had enough time to practice with a new comp and play style because if something doesn't change, perhaps 2009 won't see this same line-up returning. Got Game East Jordan "Happyminti" Mance Alex "Sodah" Ringe Elliott "Venruki" VenczelGot Game East, while not having the most impressive finishing record, has always been a team to watch for excellent play. All three members can play their respective classes of Rogue/Druid/Mage extremely with quite a touch of finesse, and you can expect nothing less than that coming into this tournament. They have a very strong background in tournament play and the 3.0 patch definitely had a huge benefit to all three classes that the play. Look for huge burst combos from a deadly Shadowdance / Arcane combo from Happyminti and Venruki, since it seems that nothing can really outlast that burst combo. Evil Geniuses Conrad "zyZ" Lope Isaac "Azael" Cummings-Bentley KollektivTeam EG is definitely coming from a bit behind the other competing teams here at Philadelphia, purely because these three have not been playing together for nearly as long as any of the other teams have. Recently, Dan "Spoh" Street was dropped from the team and replaced with Kollektiv, a Shaman. There is no doubt that Kollektiv is definitely a skilled player, however there is something to be said for team chemistry in any eSport. Perhaps they have been practicing enough since dropping Spoh to actually make it work, and have come up with a decent strat/comp for most of the teams they plan to face here in Philadelphia. No matter how this plays out though, EG will definitely bring the skill to the table as both Zyz and Azael are extremely versed in the LAN play, and will have quite a few exciting matches to watch. |
Sunday November 22 2009 | |||||
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