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MLG DC starts tonight for WoW
If you're not keeping up with the PvP tournament scene, this is a friendly reminder that MLG DC starts tonight at 8:00 p.m. EST. You can watch the MLG stream at MLGPro.com when it starts. I'll be in attendance at the event personally, so if you have any questions you want answered by the teams and players, leave a comment and I'll do my best. The WoW tournament will only run for a couple hours tonight, then continue all day Sunday. Notable teams competing are Nerdstomper Blue, the winners of MLG Raleigh, and their sister team Nerdstomper Black. Also in attendance are Arenapwnage, Evil Geniuses, Complexity Red and Black, Skill Capped, and Penguin Smash. Unfortunately, as World of Ming reports, the tournament will not be played with the new 4.0.1 patch. Apparently, there was a conflict with MLG's viewing client and the new patch.
Nerdstomper Blue win MLG Raleigh
The latest WoW champions in the 2010 MLG Pro Circuit are the members of Nerdstomper Blue, who claimed their victory Sunday evening in Raleigh. It was a close win for Nerdstomper Blue, after its opponents, Evil Geniuses, won the first set of the finals three to one. Evil Geniuses entered the finals from the lower bracket, though, and needed two winning sets to claim the championship. Things seemed doubtful for Nerdstomper Blue after it lost the first two games of the second set, but it made an impressive comeback, winning three games in a row and taking the championship. In addition to the $9,000 prize for first place, Nerdstomper Blue will now be seeded favorably at the MLG Finals in Dallas later this year. If you missed the livestream, you can still watch the rebroadcast from Sunday's games at MLG's site. For those of you who are curious, Nerdstomper Blue used a shadowplay comp (priest-warlock-shaman) for their first set against Evil Geniuses, then switched to RLS (rogue-warlock-shaman) for the second. Evil Geniuses used RLS for both sets. Congratulations to Realz, Glickz and Kollektiv of Nerdstomper Blue!
MLG 2009 opens in Ohio
All the action explodes in Ohio as the first leg of Major League Gaming's PC Circuit for 2009 kicks off at the Columbus Convention Center. The tournament is a by-invitation-only format that includes eight of the world's top World of Warcraft Arena teams such as SK Gaming, Pandemic, Fnatic, and the lone non-US contingent from Europe, some guys from a small-time guild called Ensidia.Once again played on HP, the 3v3 tournament will be round robin format with the top four teams advancing to a double elimination Championship bracket. Players will have access to Deadly Gladiator and Tier 7.5 gear over three days of competitive gaming, with over $15,000 worth of prizes at stake. All games will be streamed live over at GotFrag TV as well as MMO Champion, with commentary by experienced shoutcasters Vansili, Vhell, and igoaf. Participants will accumulate Pro Circuit ranking points and get a chance to advance to the 2009 MLG Championship at the end of the year. It promises to be another exciting tournament, although it looks like MLG will still be using the Ring of Valor so there'll probably be a few laughs, as well. MLG Columbus will run from June 5 through 7.
Orz wins MLG Orlando tourney
The MLG Orlando tourney has come to an end, with Orz coming out on top. As I mentioned this morning, Orz has come back from a pretty severe choke last month that concluded with MoB Gaming dropping their sponsorship. They were put up against some of the best teams the MLG has to offer, and met the challenges every step of the way. The final round against the Frag Dominant Duelists was a matchup nobody ever expected Orz to win, with Orz running Warrior/Lock/Druid in the final round up against FDD's RMP. Orz walks away with $12,000 and three HP Blackbirds. Frag Dominant makes off with a mere $6,000.Last month's winners, Evil Geniuses, placed third in this year's tournament, not doing quite as well as the last time around. That's almost to be expected, and they even said as much in an interview GotFrag held with them prior to the tournament. Being last year's winners, they had a great big target painted on their backs and a lot of teams probably spent a fair amount of time doing little more than scouting out EG and their moves. It's actually rather impressive they still walked out in third despite that, and it's a testament to their skill and ability to adapt. Evil Geniuses walks away with $3,000.The next tournament will be next month in Dallas, Texas. Orz is looking for a new sponsor, but even if they don't find one I'm sure we'll see them there. That $12k has to go to some use, right?
MLG Orlando coverage continues with an epic showdown
If you haven't been following GotFrag's coverage of the MLG 3v3 Tourney going down in Orlando this weekend, you really are missing out. Coverage kicks in again this morning at 9am Eastern, 6am Pacific. After the warmups, I believe the opening matchup will be Evil Geniuses (formerly Frag Dominant) up against Orz, formerly sponsored by MoB Gaming.Let me give you a little background on this matchup. Evil Geniuses came into the last tournament as Frag Dominant. While they were never a complete unknown, most of them had never experienced the LAN tournament setting before. They managed to wow us and their competition by proving themselves capable of running multiple compositions between the three of them, and running them very well. In the end, they came out as the victors after a long series against Nihilum.Orz was formerly sponsored by MoB Gaming, and one of their members is the fan favorite Hafu. Last month, they were slammed with a pretty major upset. They didn't do very well at all, and it actually led to their team losing sponsorship. MoB Gaming replaced them for this month's tourney. Now in Orlando, Orz has made a fantastic comeback, beating out both the SK Gaming team and the team MoB replaced them with. I bet MoB isn't feeling so hot right now.First thing this morning, these two will be going head to head (I think). Even if you're not a PvP fan, you have to admit that's a pretty cool showdown, no?
MLG Orlando coverage begins on GotFrag TV
GotFrag's coverage of the MLG 3v3 Arena Tournament in Orlando begins at 9am Eastern, 6am Pacific today. If you didn't tune in at all last month, I definitely recommend doing so this time around. Generally, I'm not a PvP fan, but this was very fun to watch last time. WoW's impact as an eSport isn't really something you can witness in-game (which is a shame) but for me, tournaments like this give it a whole new dynamic. The emphasis is placed more on the players and the choices they make, and a little less on rock-paper-scissors and endless countercomping. It's an all weekend event, so if you're only interested in watching the finals, that'll be tomorrow.Like Amanda Dean and GotFrag themselves detailed the other day, there are a lot of teams to keep an eye on this time around. Frag Dominant took the win last month, and there are plenty of other teams you may recognize. SK-Gaming, MoB, Got Game East/West, Pandemic, Fnatic, plenty more. If you don't keep an eye on the PvP scene on a regular basis you might not recognize those names, but they put on a good show last time.To view the live stream, you will probably be prompted to install a codec if you don't have it yet. All of us WoW players are a little paranoid these days (with good reason), so don't be afraid to run a background check on anything you're asked to download. I'm pretty positive there's nothing to worry about in this case, but better safe than sorry, eh?
Gotfrag releases videos of the MLG 3v3 WoW Tournament
Remember the MLG San Diego 3v3 WoW Arena Tournament we reported on a while back? If you missed the live streaming video of the event, you now have a second chance to watch, as GotFrag has begun posting videos of various matches and interviews with team members at their website. If you have any interest in Arena PvP, these videos are definitely recommended watching. The commentators obviously know what they're talking about, and explain both teams' actions in terms that your average WoW player should be able to understand. A lot of us at WoW Insider watched, and we all agree that we learned something valuable about life, love, and learning to play Arena PvP from it. You may even pick up some tricks to kick off your Season 4 playing from them.
Frag Dominant wins MLG San Diego tourney
MLG's PC Circuit Arena competition has come to an end, after an exciting weekend of coverage by GotFrag. The final round came down to a best of eleven showdown between Frag Dominant and Nihilum, first to six wins. Frag Dominant's Rogue/Warrior/Druid managed to get the best of Nihilum's Priest/Druid/Hunter after a grueling contest that never had a clear winner until the very end. After the first eight matches, they were tied at an even 4-4. The Nihilum team's aggresive nature seemed to get the better of them when Frag Dominant caught onto their playstyle. More than once it appeared to me that their Hunter was left open to FD's double melee burst when the Nihilum Priest and Druid shifted their attention to take out Frag Dominant's healer. Nihilum's healers being focused on downing Frag's own forced them into reactive healing rather than proactive, and the deaths of their Hunter throughout the contests ultimately lead to their downfall. Very well played by Frag Dominant.The tournament was definitely a good watch, and the highlight of my day was my roommate shouting obscenities about drain teams. WoW arena tournaments don't quite have the strangely entertaining glitz and glamour of Starcraft tournaments yet, but it's only a matter of time. I'm fairly confident that I'll tune in for the Circuit's tournament in Orlando on July 11th, and many others after that.Edited to fix the date of the Orlando tourney.
GotFrag arena tournament coverage continues
Today is the second day of GotFrag's live coverage of their 3v3 arena tournament. If you didn't tune in and see the action yesterday, I definitely recommend giving it a look for at least a little while at some point today. I'm not exactly the arena type, but even I watched for an hour or two yesterday afternoon with one of my current roommates. It's just plain interesting to watch some of the top players in the world go head to head, and see some of their reactions in person, not just the written word.Plus, there's another bonus for watching the tournament. As Amanda Dean mentioned yesterday, the first player to post the top four teams and the final score in the comments of GotFrag's post will win an A40 MixAmp and A40 Headset.
