GotFrag.com - Seeming to come out of nowhere on the last night of the arena tournament qualification round, with little experience playing together and a composition that many would consider to be lackluster, Team Chris Thormann were certainly not expected to perform as well as they did. Against all odds, they pulled through and secured a spot at the Blizzard US Regional Arena tournament, set to take place this August. Let's take a closer look at what led to this surprising success.

The Players

Uck

Uck is one of the most renowned personalities to emerge during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Gaining many fans because of the skilled play and positive attitude on display in the several PvP movies he has released, Uck is widely considered to be one of the most talented players currently playing World of Warcraft competitively. Unfortunately, most sponsors have overlooked him due to the high travel costs associated with living in Australia and competing in European and American tournaments. This time around, however, Blizzard will be covering his travel costs. That means that the upcoming Regionals could be Uck's one and only chance to prove he has what it takes to be a major competitor on the tournament scene.

Seeruf

Seeruf started playing during Season 3, doing 2v2s with Chris as part of a Druid/Hunter combo in the Stormstrike Battlegroup. He quickly became a formidable asset by playing thousands of games and building up an amazing amount of synergy with his new teammate. His situational awareness and deep knowledge of Hunter class game mechanics make him a formidable foe in the arena--especially when combined with Chris.

Chris

As a druid who played during Season Three of BC, Chris has--surprisingly--only played Arena matches with a Warlock or Hunter. While some people might think that he lacks versatility and experience in the variety of comps that Druids can succeed in, others could argue that this helps him achieve mastery through focus. Fans argue that limiting yourself to only two DPS classes can translate into a player who not only knows the exact limitations of his/her classes, but who can also easily communicate to support classes exactly how best to assist.

These are two classes that haven't diverged significantly from their original identities over the years. Warlocks still remain reliant on spammable CC combined with strong DOTs. One of the core fundamentals of a Hunter is still CD-based CC in combination with very bursty damage and aimed shot. When you add this characteristic of specialization into the forged synergy alongside Seeruf and the positive reinforcement of Uck, Chris's potential is sky high.

The Composition

Hunter/Restoration Druid/Warlock is a composition seldom seen in today's arena. With all three classes having major crowd control on unique DRs, the HLD composition is one with high sustained damage, good burst potential, and excellent control capabilities. With only one semi-reliable magic dispel, however, the comp does suffer when the opposing team also has a lot of control capabilities.

The Verdict

With no LAN experience to their name, and only a fraction of the time spent playing together compared to the seven other qualifying teams, the odds are not in TCT's favor come Regionals. But that's what makes this team so exciting. With their last-minute qualification, TCT have proven that they can pull off an unexpected win; we will all be watching to see if they can do it again.