Warcraft III Round One Video

Day one of the America Regional Finals was an interesting one. We arrived at the House of Blues and camped out in the back in the media room about two and a half hours before the start of the events. We met quite a few of the teams competing today and even chatted with some; we have lots of pictures of the day here.

The teams all arrived early as well and took this as a chance to get their morning breakfast in before what would be a long day ahead of them.

Warcraft III

First up was a Warcraft III match between mTw-Lonewalk and mTw-PaTo. The teamates have practiced against each other quite a bit, as was evident by the fact that they used very similar strategies. But in the end, PaTo tried something different and it cost him; mTw-LW took the match 2 games to 1.

The rest of the Upper Bracket for the Warcraft III tournament saw mTw-KiWi defeat ToT.C5ipo7i 2 games to 1, with mTw.nilk shutting out PGS.PS.Shriek 2 games to 0, and TeK-9.Yane winning 2 games to 1 over WE.Just.SonKiE.

Round one of the Lower Bracket saw WE.JuSt.SonKiE knock PGS.PS.ShrieK out of the tournament 2 games to 0, and mTW-PaTo redeemed himself by defeating ToT.C5ipo7i 2 games to 0.

Round two of the Upper Bracket was next up on the stage monitors. mTw.nilk edged out TeK-9.Yane 2 games to 1, and mTw-KiWi ousted mTw-Lonewalk 2 games to 1.

The Lower Bracket's second round saw mTw-PaTo take out TeK-9.Yane 2 games to 0, while in the Upper Bracket finals mTw.nilk moved on to the championship bracket with a 2 to 1 win over mTw-KiWi.

World of Warcraft

On the World of Warcraft Arena Tournament side of things, round one of the Upper Bracket kicked off with a match between Team Pandemic and Hells Ham Basket. Pandemic handily defeated Hells Ham Basket, 3 games to 0 to move on to the next round. In other games in the first round, TFO(We Lose cuz Daorok Sux) defeated a priest-less Eminence team 3 games to 0 to move on to a second round matchup with Pandemic. Flow Gaming brought their A game and beat Conquered 3 games to 0, and PvE Clickers pulled off the upset of the day - defeating one of the favorites of the tournament thus far - The Fighting Mongooses - 3 games to 1, to move on and face Flow Gaming.

Lower Bracket round one: The Fightning Mongooses recovered from their loss to PvE Clickers by shutting out Conquered 3 games to 0 - knocking Conquered out of the tournament and moving TFM on to the next round. In the other match, Eminence blanked Hells Ham Basket 3 games to 0, knocking them out of the tournament as well.

World of Warcraft debuted on the stage after two matches from the Warcraft III Upper Bracket - during round two of the Upper Bracket - with the competitors being Flow Gaming(The HUKHUKS) and PvE Clickers. Flow Gaming dominted pretty much the entire time, and won easily 3 games to 0. This knocked PvE Clickers down to the losers bracket, and put Flow Gaming into the Upper Bracket finals. In the other match of the Upper Bracket round two, Pandemic eeked out a victory over TFO 3 games to 2.

Lower Bracket round two pitted TFO against The Fighting Mongooses, and these geese don't fly - TFO won 3 games to 1 to knock TFM out of the Arena Tournament in a shocker. PvE Clickers and Eminence played in the other round two match, in what was possibly the best stage match of the night; PvE Clickers moved out to a quick 2 games to 0 lead, but Eminence was able to come back and win two games in a row to tie it 2-2. However, PvE Clickers pulled themselves together and got a win when it counted, and advanced to the next round 3 games to 2.

The Lower Bracket finals was also an excellent stage match, with the crowd getting into each game quite a bit; PvE Clickers - who had a number of on-lookers cheering rowdily for them - were facing off against TFO for a chance to move on to the Championship Finals, and of course - BlizzCon. TFO ultimately won the match 3 games to 1, to clinch their BlizzCon trip and will come back tomorrow to play for the cash prizes from the event.

And of course, the big matchup of the day; the Upper Bracket finals was a "clash of the titans" style match with two of the favorites of the tournament coming in facing off - Flow Gaming and Team Pandemic. The major issue was, much like Eminence, Pandemic was priest-less due to the recent round of disqualifications. Pandemic gave it their best, but Flow Gaming's stronger group makeup gave them the edge; Flow Gaming advanced to the championship finals and also clinched their trip to BlizzCon 3 games to 1.

At the end of the night, the mood in the air was a bit unnerving. On one hand, the energy of a few of the more vocal on-lookers really made it a fun night, but there was also the very visible languish on the faces of many of the teams. Those that lost - especially those that lost with weakened group compositions due to the disqualifications - gave off an air of unsettling discontent with the tournament. It's very understandable; it's one thing to give it your all, with your team intact and to lose - but it's another entirely to be placed in front of thousands, maybe even millions of people with a team you know you wouldn't field on a single day of the week. Losing like that stings; everyone knows it, especially when it spells utter defeat and your chances of continuing on.

That said, those teams that came to the Regional Finals - even with the lack of key classes - definitely proved their dedication to competitive play and the fact that they strive to show people World of Warcraft can be a great team game to watch online. By the same token, Blizzard is aware of the problems surrounding competitive PvP play in WoW and are working on better systems to help support it. So with that in mind, hopefully we can all breath a sigh of relief and look forward to what should be a better Tournament II.

We'll have more coverage tomorrow on the Championship Finals for Warcraft III and the Arena Tournament, so be sure to check back all day long!