GotFrag.com - MLG Anaheim is right around the corner, and the heat between the European and American communities is boiling up already. And what better place to fight out this transatlantic battle could there be than the hallowed halls of the Anaheim Convention center � the venue where so many significant tournaments for WoW as an e-sport have taken place. As long as WoW is played competitively at tournaments, the community was always craving for an answer to the question...

�North America or Europe. Who is the more dominant WoW continent?�

After every tournament, excuses are made from both sides as to why their respective team didn�t perform as well. �They didn�t train properly before the event�, or �Their comp was just too overpowered� and "This is not the strongest team my continent has to offer" can be read all over the communities websites. While I�m sure that the blame game will never change, the situation in Anaheim is an exception to the usual confrontation.

Most fans will say that the heaviest focus for Anaheim lies on SK.EU, the only attending European team, and the American's of Check Six, winners of MLG Dallas and runner-up at MLG Columbus. What makes this tournament better than usual to provide a solid, albeit temporary, answer to that classic question?

After this event, the ability to argue in favor of the losing team will be extremely difficult, and here is why...

The Preparation

Looking at the aceresports twitter account where SK.EU posts regularly we can see that not only do they train often and quite successfully on live servers (armory link here), they also train with the real tournament settings on a TR with the same gear (Season 5) that they will be using in Anaheim. Another, the Death Knight of the team, said in his entry post on SK-Gaming:

�I think this team has a lot of potential, and we are gonna be practicing a lot in the upcoming weeks to place good at MLG�

On the other hand we have Check Six who are playing quite a bit on live servers and just left their second team with over 200 games played, that amount was probably to disguise their strategy. Moreover the ESL Tournament Realm came up this week and it�s safe to assume that they practiced there for quite a bit as well. Check Six is well known in the community for excellent preparation with thought out strategies especially when it comes to playing very strong comps within the meta game.

The Quality of the Teams

Most European community experts agree that the freshly created SK.EU team around Another, Inflame, and Enigmz consists of the best players of their respective classes in Europe. While Enigmz will be at his first offline tournament, Another and Inflame are LAN veterans that have been around and have been known players since WoW was considered an eSport in Europe. There is little doubt in peoples mind that this team is the best offline tournament team Europe has to offer at the moment.

North America comes along with six great teams and even if Check Six turns out to not be the biggest contender for SK.EU, there are still five other American teams for them to overcome. Check Six is still the favorite for Americans as they come with momentum from winning MLG Dallas and of course because they picked up Toez; a player that should be a huge addition to the roster as he�s considered to be one of the best healing class players in North America.

The Class Compositions

The argument of one comp being simply too overpowered is weak considering that every team is allowed to play whatever they want at an offline tournament, but Anaheim will be different. If you talk to players across all teams, there are two comps in most peoples mind which have a considerable edge over the most common class combination such as RMP and RLS, namely Enhancement Shaman/Hunter/Paladin (also known as Beast Cleave) and Shadow Cleave (Death Knight, Affliction Warlock, Druid).

Surprise! It just so happens that these comps are exactly the ones Check Six and SK.EU play at the moment. Which comp is better face-to-face in a best of five between those two teams remains to be seen, but most people argue that Beast Cleave has a slight edge. Nothing too serious to overcome if you want to win a WoW tournament.

Mind Games

It is rare that two teams attending the same tournament display the high level of confidence necessary to publicly announce that they have the best shot at winning the whole event. Asking for a short statement regarding MLG Anaheim, Check Six� player Mike "Twixz" Shane responded:

�We have been defending America from Europe since Ohio with Ensidia and Dallas with existince. Once again Europe will have to settle for taking home second as the Firebirds will be ours.�

With this statement he�s obviously referring to the Spanish team of x6tence which they beat in the finals at MLG Dallas to take home the top prize of $9,000 as well as the precious Firebird. To spice it up a little, Twixz unofficially announced that they will be adding Uckington � a well known American warlock � to their roster just to counter the line up of SK.EU , Death Knight/Warlock/Druid.

The second most successful WoW player by prize money, and Warlock of SK.EU - Inflame went ahead and said the following in his entry statement:

�I don't really think the competition at MLG tournaments is that great since it's mostly American teams, but this is WoW anything can happen.�

Unalterable words which show that even the players see it as a battle of the continents.

Keep in mind that while America and Europe are already battling it out on various community sites, a third continent � Asia � sneaks into the competition with Korean ESL Global Finals winner Button Bashers. A team centered around Mage legend Orangemarmalade, and who after a rough tournament Dallas exchanged their Rogue. This squad should pose a serious threat to everyone at the tournament.

Will their flight under the radar give them the edge for MLG Anaheim? Or will their western foes steal the show? Tune in this Friday and find out.

GotFrag eSports

World of Warcraft: The Great Transatlantic Rivalry

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