Celestial Tournament LiveBlogging: wR vs iPod

15:30GMT: I'm lagging badly here. I think my internet connection is about to go tits up.

15:35GMT: Hmm, maybe not. Seems to have cleared up. Anyhow, it's about a half hour until the final four get underway. My plan is to finish up watching the first round - we're down to the cinderella [iPod] matches now while everything plays itself out.

Before I begin, though, it's time for some pontification. One thing that's become clear with the map choices, or lack thereof, in the tournament is just how poor the system of letting teams decide where they want to fight is. Beyond the advantage is gives to the team that picks first it seems to dumb the game down, if you ask me. I hope for the Automated Tournies that they have some way in place of setting one (or possibly a few) maps for everyone during the tournament. Let everyone know in advance, say, that all the matches will be played on Frozen Isle or Nomad's Isle and let people try to optimize for that map. It puts everyone on a more equal footing and could lead to some interesting developments.

Given the developer's history with doing sensible things like that, I figure it'll be implemented sometim around the holidays. In 2009.

Anyhow, on to the match.

Match Four - Game One
#4 Winners Remorse vs #13 Listen To
Isle of Jade

wR
N/E
N/Me
N/Mo
N/Rt
N/Rt
N/Rt
N/Rt
N/Rt
R/W

iPod
W/A - D-Slash
W/A - Eviscerate Axe
A/D - Erred out
Me/E - ?
Me/Mo - Surge/Burn
Mo/E - Healer's Boon
Mo/E - ?
E/Mo - ?

Um, let's see. It's Jade, it's lame SBRI stuff from [wR] and [iPod] had someone drop from the start from what looks to be a slight variation on the jumpspike. Yeah, I'm not even going to bother here.

15:45GMT: Bit of milling around in the bases. The teams are no doubt talking to each other and or the observers trying to figure out if they can restart or not. I'm still not sure why a restart wasn't allowed here. Or, you know, any time else...

15:50GMT: The fighting's started now. It's not pretty. [wR] precipitated it about 3 minutes in by charging into [iPod]'s base while they were still hanging around the Lord arguing about what to do, no doubt. Kind of a dick move but hard to blame them, really.

15:52GMT: Well, I was going to give up on this match because, you know, things aren't looking very good for [iPod] but, somehow, they manage to pull this one out as this was a 2-0 win for them. I'm going to guess it was some kind of gank but I think I'll keep watching.

16:01GMT: [iPod]'s #2 Warrior just frensig about half a dozen times when he was at a quarter health. I kept waiting for the inevitable Icy Veins to pop him. I'm really hoping he was trying to suicide there.

16:04GMT: By making heavy use of the teleporter, [iPod] just got their whole team into [wR]'s base and worked off quite a few NPCs. They just narrowly missed out on preventing a boost, too as [wR] scrambled back to respond. It was a costly move but I'm starting to see how they can win here.

16:06GMT: [wR] has gone the teleporter path too. They get in [iPod]'s base just in time for an auto-rez.

16:08GMT: This match seems determined to prove you actually can split on Jade. Half of [iPod]'s team is trying to push out a flag. The other half is back in base trying to fight off the growing horde of spirits and minions. They actually make it to cap, losing only the Mesmer in the process, while the base team manages to hold their own.

16:10GMT: NPC count - [iPod]'s lost most of theirs except a few Archers and the Lord area ones. Meanwhile, they took a chunk out of the center of [wR] horde but the outer Footmen and Archers are left along with the Lord stuff.

[wR] is playing it safe here and hanging back by the flagstand. Jade being, you know, a broken map, that means [iPod] can't slip through the teleoprters. They're going to hang on for a boost here. And, actually, they're probably just going to camp until VoD.

16:13GMT: Ah, yes, the waiting game. It's about 3 minutes to shorter bars and bigger yellow numbers here.

16:14GMT: [iPod]'s forcing the issue, they've moved up and looks like they're trying to draw [wR] away from their built-up spirits. [wR] is chasing them and they're about to be inside their opponent's base as VoD hits.

16:15GMT: Nope, with about fifteen seconds left, [wR] does a 180 and steams out of the base.

16:17GMT: As you might expect, [iPod] gets wiped out at the flagstand. A few of their players are ready to throw in the towel and resign. They make a desperate push to the teleporter but it's not going to happen. Only a single Warrior makes it through.

And, okay, [iPod] just resigned out. Huh.

Yeah, only game one and game two are up. My notes say it was a 2-1 match so something's up here.

16:18GMT: First of the semi-final matches is up. It's [iQ]/[eF] and word is it's 1-0 Everfrost so far.

16:20GMT: I'm going to see if I can't find some more information on the missing third match. There's not much point in continuing if I can't see what decided things, now is there? Anyhow, while I'm gone be sure to check out the April Fool's joke in LA (And probably any big town). Now, see, that's the kind of transformation I was hoping for from my potions...

17:35GMT: Oh yeah, I'm not feeling very well now. This is not a good thing. Anyhow, despite my arduous four or five minutes of looking I haven't been able to find out anything more about [wR]/[iPod] than that it went to three games. That third game just isn't on obs mode. So, um, can we just say stuff happened and [iPod] won?

No?

I didn't think so but it was worth a try.

Match Four - Game Two
#4 Winners Remorse vs #13 Listen To
Burning Isle

wR
W/Mo
W/A - Backbreaker
Me/E - Power Block
E/Mo - Lightning Hammer with Elemental Attunement, Draw
E/D - Lightning Hammer with Elemental Attunement
R/Mo - Typical Ranger, not sure f the elite
Mo/E - Shield of Deflection
Mo/E - Healer's Boon

iPod
E/R - SF with Energizing Wind
E/N - SF
E/N - SF with Aegis
E/Mo - SF wth Aegis
E/Mo - SF with Aegis
Mo/E - Healer's Boon
Mo/E - LoD?
Mo/E - ZB Runner

Oh you have got to be freaking kidding me...

17:40GMT: Rezzing into the match and...it's a big bunch of SF Eles.

I'm...just. Wow.

[wR] is really not set up to fight against this kind of team, by the way.

17:42GMT: 2 minutes in, [iPod]s got [wR] fighting past their lava pit.

17:44GMT: They're earning kills and boosting now. The NPCs are falling like, well, matchsticks.

17:45GMT: [wR]s split off a Warrior and an Ele, they've made it past the Sentinel and into [iPod]'s base. Listen To has their Monk runner back, though, so I don't think they'll have much trouble.

17:46GMT: Certainly not before the carnage in [wR]'s base is finished. They're taking a lot of deaths and the morale gap is widening. [iPod]'s on to the Bodyguard now.

17:49GMT: [wR] has their Ranger in [iPod]'s base now. He's working on degening the Bodyguard from a safe spot while the Warrior and Ele pull Knights. Something's going to give here as that lone Monk can't cover everything but as long he turtles in the Lord area, things should be fine.

17:51GMT: The Winner's Lord is dead before the 10 minute mark. GG, I guess. Kinda makes me wish I could see game 3 but oh well.

17:55GMT:Well, that is weird. I went back to check on the game again and rezzed into Weeping Stone. I thought it might be the same match and I just screwed up the maps as [iPod]'s going SFway again but, nope, looks like it's actually game 3. Huh, whadda you know?

Match Four - Game Three
#4 Winners Remorse vs #13 Listen To
Isle of Weeping Stone

wR
W/E - Dev Hammer with Grasping
W/E - Eviscerate Axe with Grasping
E/Rt - Water with Icy Shackles, Recovery
A/Me - Sahdow Prison Webber
A/W - Shadow Prison BoA
Rt/A - Weapon of Remedy Rit with Renewing Memories
Mo/E - RC
Mo/E - Healer's Boon

iPod
E/R - SF with Energizing Wind
E/N - SF
E/N - SF with Aegis
E/Mo - SF wth Aegis
E/Mo - SF with Aegis
Mo/E - Healer's Boon
Mo/E - LoD?
Mo/E - ZB Runner

Recall split vs SF spam. Go!

17:58GMT: Well, looks like [wR] is set up to split - they lost last time around so they would have picked this map (I can't imagine [iPod] wanted to run a caster spike-ish build here). They've got their split through the back gate about 3 minutes in and they're working on the NPCs.

17:59GMT: Archer just took down the Thief. That could prove costly. They should have taken that one down early because of the way the LoS works there.

18:01GMT: Their Thief back at base, the split pushes in and takes out most of [iPod]'s outer NPCs.

18:04GMT: They pull back when [iPod] threatens to collapse and have to run all the way back to base to get the Thief. [iPod]'s runner is back trying to defend now.

18:05GMT: Oh, and the rest of [iPod] is right behind the split, too. They don't manage to take anyone down but do kill off that Thief again.

18:06GMT: [iPod] chases after [wR] and, soon enough, they're stacking up at the gate waiting for the Thief to do its job. Once inside, they make short work of the NPCs.

18:10GMT: The invasion's been repulsed and the split's back on the job. [iPod]'s falling back to base though and they manage to catch the split trying to retreat.

18:12GMT: The fight's swinging back and forth across the map. The NPC picture is about even while [wR] has a slight edge in morale thanks to a boost. They've been taken more death's recently though so it's not much of an advantage.

18:15GMT: About three minutes to go to VoD here. The main teams are fighting in [wR]'s base while the split is being held off by a lone Monk back in [iPod]'s again.

18:16GMT: The main team loses a Monk and pulls back along the side path, causing [wR]'s split to bug out. [iPod] circles around with a flag but [wR] boosts again and they pull back.

18:18GMT: [wR] mill around outside of [iPod]'s base while they cluster around the Lord waiting for VoD to hit.

18:19GMT: The [iPod] side actually has a slight NPC advantage - as in one or two Archers to none. But they lose it quickly. They'll sticking around their Lord and not budging an inch - they're not going to give [wR]'s split a chance to gank.

18:21GMT: It's going down to the wire here. [wR] has a Bodyguard and morale - they've boosted up to max rby now while [iPod] is right exactly on the 3/4s marker. But that SF spam is going to be nasty with VoD up.

18:23GMT: The Lords are walking. [wR] has their Hammer war up spying on [iPod]. They're escorting the Lord, moving in one big mass slightly ahead of him. The spirits are down. The teams are marching to the flagstand. 5 SF animations go up in perfect harmony. Again. And again. Nothing's dropped yet. [iPod] keeps up the pressure and, finally, someone pops. Sin #5 on [wR] goes down. He's soon followed. We're 27 minutes in and the morale's pulled even - the teams are trading flags to prevent a boost. Wow, this is tense. [wR]'s Lord is being steadily worked down but they can't keep anyone on [iPod]'s - they can't even score a kill yet.

18:26GMT: Bam, [iPod] takes out the bottom three players on [wR]'s party list - that's the Rit and two Monks or all of their healers. 30 seconds later, the Lord is a smoking ember and the game's over.

18:27GMT: Ah, looking over the obs mode menu, I can see what happened. Game Three is mislabled. There are actually two "Game 2"s up - one on Burning, the other on Weeping.

18:30GMT: That is exactly the kind of match I like to watch, by the way. Lots of stuff going on, plenty of swings, really tense finish. Anyhow, break time to get some food and then it's back to finish off [EW]/[iPod] and yesterday's games.