BlizzCon

WoW Arena Esports: Splyce and Method NA Stand Unopposed

WoW Arena Esports: Splyce and Method NA Stand Unopposed

After months of practice and fierce competition, the World of Warcraft Arena World Championships got off to an explosive start at BlizzCon. With their tournament dreams and lives on the line, the best eight teams in the world brought their A-game to the biggest stage. Day 1 saw plenty of Holy Paladins and dramatic finishes as matches through the semifinals were contested.

Day 1 kicked off with the Group A Elimination matchup between Tempo Storm and Longzhu Gaming. If you’ve been keeping up with the action since Opening Week, you’ll remember that Longzhu Gaming’s captain and healer, Coding—one of the most famous Korean players of all time—was unable to travel to BlizzCon to compete, forcing his teammates to shift their roles around and play without him. But Tempo Storm was out for blood. In a decisive 3-0 series, Tempo Storm made quick work of their opponents and took one step closer to becoming world champions themselves.

After disappointing Opening Week results, Panda Gaming and Method EU both sought redemption in the Group B Elimination match. The two teams traded wins in the day’s only 5-round game, with Panda favoring a Feral Druid, Resto Druid, and Enhance Shaman composition against Method EU’s shadowplay comp (Warlock, Shadow Priest, and Resto Shaman). Both teams competed well, but ultimately Nolifer (Method EU’s Mage) made the big plays when they counted, helping to keep Panda Gaming’s healer crowd-controlled while also putting out some insane damage—like in match four, when he got his opener off without interruption and immediately deleted Panda Gaming’s Enhancement Shaman, Dou, with a huge Glacial Spike. Method EU ultimately took the series 3-2.

Tempo Storm returned to the stage feeling unstoppable as they faced the other Pandas at BlizzCon—Panda Global. This series was about pride, as both teams locked in mirrored Rogue, Mage, and Holy Paladin comps for every clash of the 3-game series. Tempo Storm won, but not without some dramatics. In the final match, the teams scored cross kills on both Paladins, followed by another cross kill, leading to an amazing 1v1 between perhaps the biggest rival classes in World of Warcraft: a Mage, Panda Gaming’s Wealthyman, versus a Rogue, Tempo Storm’s Pikaboo. Pikaboo took the duel, and an ecstatic Tempo Storm took the series 3-0.

“Tempo Storm is back!” the team declared in their post-game interview. And from the looks of it, they were right. With two 3-0 sweeps already under their belt at BlizzCon, the title wasn’t looking too far off. Jahmilli, the team’s hot-headed Mage, put it this way: “We were the better players. Given the same opportunities, we’re going to capitalize better.” They were headed for the semifinals, but before the Tempo Storm hype train could roll into the next station, there was a big rematch to take care of.

Supatease’s Game of the Day: Game 3 between Tempo Storm and Panda Global was caster and analyst Supatease’s favorite game of BlizzCon Day 1. After two insane cross kills, Tempo Storm’s Rogue, Pikaboo, won a crowd-pleasing 1v1 against Panda Global’s Mage, Wealthyman.

Sister teams Method NA and Method EU took the stage to settle what they started at Opening Week. Method EU, having lost 3-0 during the last bout with their North American counterparts, put in a ton of practice in the past week to prepare for their second chance. For the entire series, Method NA brought an LSD comp—Demonology Warlock, Enhancement Shaman, and Resto Druid—to battle with Method EU’s shadowplay comp (also with a Resto Druid healer). In this slow series, we saw dampening rise as high as 40%, which really hampered the Resto Druids’ ability to keep their teammates alive. Both teams played impressively, but Method NA squeaked by with a clean 3-0 victory, bringing them yet another step closer to their dreams of BlizzCon victory. And with this possibly being the last BlizzCon run for Cdew, Method’s leader and healer, and one of the most popular figures in WoW PvP, the pressure is on to ensure those dreams become reality.

Tempo Storm swaggered onto the stage yet again to win their way to the Grand Finals; however, the calculated killers of Splyce had different ideas. In match one, Splyce mixed up the meta with a Mistweaver Monk, Unholy Death Knight, and Assassination Rogue comp. Tempo Storm answered with their shadowplay comp, and Chanimals gave a master class on how much burst damage Demonology Warlocks are capable of, blowing up Splyce’s Rogue, Fabss, in a matter of seconds. Splyce was down, but far from out. To push Tempo Storm to the limit, Splyce brought out their insane beastcleave comp from Opening Week. The pressure ultimately proved to be too much for Tempo Storm, and Splyce took the series 3-1 to book their tickets to the Grand Finals.

Cdew and Method NA closed out the show against Northern Gaming Blue in an intense but short series. Method NA made quick work of NG Blue, crushing Whaazz’s hopes to prove himself as the best Rogue at BlizzCon, and securing their position in the Grand Finals against the only team to best them in the tournament.

The ultimate showdown between the two best teams in the world will take place tomorrow at BlizzCon! Will Cdew lead Method NA to victory against their tournament rivals and go out a world champion? Or will Splyce offer a repeat performance and claim the title for themselves? And can anyone stop beastcleave?! Find out tomorrow, November 5 at 10 a.m. PDT as the Grand Finals unfold live on the World of Warcraft & Heroes of the Storm Tournament Stage in Hall B, as well as online at twitch.tv/team/blizzcon.

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