Celestial Tournament Liveblogging: EW vs Vibe

13:25GMT: Top o' the morning to you. I know you didn't ask but I'm feeling much better today. Whatever wasting disease I've had is apparently in remission. I'm pretty sure my voice is gone but I have no way of testing out that theory except talking to myself. S, you know, if I was on vent I wouldn't be talking. If you've ever had the misfortune of having me on your vent server before, you know you probably wouldn't be able tot tell the difference - I'm a very quiet person, really.

Anyhow, it's April's Fools Day but I'm going to eschew any tomfoolery visited on my legions of fans in favor of doing something foolish myself - namely, wake up bright and damn early to try and finish up covering all these matches. Here's what's left on the docket:

• Match 4 - #4 Winners Remorse vs #13 Listen To
• Match 5 - #5 Ominous Latin Name vs #12 Temporal Flux Reality
• Match 9 - #1 Esoteric Warriors (Why can I never spell that name right the first time around?) vs #8 Battery Powered Best Friend
• Match 11 - #4 Winners Remorse vs #13 Listen To

And the matches to be played today:

• Match 13 - #1 Esoteric Warriors (Did it again. Then I mispelled "Warriors"...twice.) vs #13 Listen To
• Match 14 - #2 Idiot Savants vs #6 Team Everfrost
• Match 15 - Championship (Match 13 Winner vs Match 14 Winner)

Let's pick up where we left off with the [EW]/[Vibe] series.





Match Nine - Game One
#1 Esoteric Warriors vs #8 Battery Powered Best Friend
Burning Isle

EW
D/A - Melandru's
D/A - Melandru's
Me/Rt - Migraine with Weapon of Warding
N/E - Reaper's Mark
R/Mo - BA
Mo/E - Healer's Boon
Mo/E - Shield of Deflection
E/Rt - Shatterstone!!! Pew pew!

Vibe
W/A - Dev Hammer
W/D - D-Slash
Rt/Mo - Offering of Spirit Smite Rit with Splinter Weapon with Draw
Me/Mo -MoR
E/Mo - Water with Icy Shackles
E/Mo - with Convert Hexes, Heal Party
Mo/E - Shield of Deflection
Mo/E - LoD/Infuse

Potentially big Aegis chain from [Vibe] but looks like they've gone with a smattering of other Monkiness on their midliners. It's basically the same build they ran both games against [Meow]. Meanwhile, [EW] runs with something new for the tournament with a fairly typical hex pressure thing.

13:30GMT: Well, maybe I should have gone ahead and watched this last night, anyway. Resign spike 5 minutes in. [EW] basically rolled them from the start. Ah well, time to figure out what people are running here.

13:32GMT: Yeah, near party wipe at about the 3 minute mark leaving only one Monk up. That never seems to work out well for people.

13:35GMT: I might have spoken too soon about not being sick. I just coughed up a literal ball of phlegm about the size of a quarter. I'm sure you were all dying to know that.

13:40GMT: Watching a bit of game flow, it's easy to see why this ended poorly for [Vibe]. Just watching their health bars it's all pink/green bars go down.

13:41GMT: Alright, I'm seriously considering just not bothering to mention that the Dervishes are Melandru's. I mean, in all these matches, it's a given at this point - you see a D you know it's a tree. Oh, except for that one Orders guy so....damn.

13:42GMT: Yep, [EW] goes with a BA Ranger again. Most teams in the tournament have gone the other way with Broad Head - while, from what I see in ladder play, most teams prefer the opposite (Of course, most teams I play are awful, so...). Mostly because they're in split type skrimmishes where BHA is situationally stronger. But for pure damage/pressure you can't beat Burning Arrow. I'm sure the degen tops out on a lot of targets so that -7 from Burning is a bit wasted but, still.

13:43GMT: A Shatterstone runner! You know I love it. You can make your own headshot joke here. But, for me, it's a nice skill because it lets a Water Ele actually deal decent damage. Water skills by and large suck a nut, especially when it comes to damag output. On the other hand, Water skills by and large are also snares and the good kind of hexes so you don't care. And there's probably a very good reason why you don't get to snare targets and take out massive amounts of health, normally, but it sure is fun to play.

13:45GMT: If you'll excuse me, I have to go cough up a lung or whatever mass of pathogens has grown to replace it after devouring my healthy tissue. Game two when I get back.

14:00GMT: That was unpleasant.

Match Nine - Game Two
#1 Esoteric Warriors vs #8 Battery Powered Best Friend
Isle of Weeping Stone

EW
W/A -
D/A - Melandru's
P/Mo - Cruel Spear
Rt/Mo - Weapon of Fury Rit
Me/Mo - Expel
Mo/E - Healer's Boon
Mo/E - Shield of Deflection
Mo/E - ZB Runner

Vibe
W/D - Backbreaker
W/E - Eviscerate Axe with Grasping
E/Rt - Mind Blast with Weapon of Warding
Mo/Me - LoD
Mo/A - RC
A/W - Shadow Prison BoA
A/Me -
Rt/A - Weapon of Remedy Rit


Hey, it's Weeping Stone! [Vibe] picked it so what do you think they're running? That's right, recall split! Give yourself a pat on the head and a cookie, if you should happen to have one (Note: Sausaletus Rex is not liable for any and all cookie related injuries including but not limited to chipping your teeth on a stale one, being poisoned by a rival, cholesterol problems, diabetes, and a "case of the fatties".)

14:01GMT: Ah, Spear of Lightning followed by Harrier's Strike being run by a top guild. I feel my sanity returning. Interestingly enough, the Paragon seems to be running a lot of flags. Something tells me [EW] weren't exactly expecting a split map.

14:03GMT: I should have guessed from the obs mode order that the first game was a quick one. This one looks like it's going to be taking a while, though.

14:08GMT: [Vibe] goes out the front path en masse, [EW] out the back using the gate to join up with the main path and reach the flagstand. I like it. It puts [EW] in good position to collapse on the split.

14:12GMT: [EW]'s set their Paragon back to run flags now. That way they can keep two Monks at the flagstand and one on the split. Another good call, if you ask me.

14:16GMT: This match isn't close although it's probably going to drag out for a while thanks to running around the map. [Vibe]'s taking a pounding. Can't get anything done on the split and they can't stand up to [EW] in a scrum.

14:18GMT: That ZB Monk #8 on [EW] loves the Gale, doesn't she?

14:24GMT: 16 minutes in, looks like [Vibe]'s Monk #5 is DPed out.

14:28GMT: VoD is about to hit here. [Vibe]'s lost their Thief so the split has been hanging out on the back path. Looks like they're going to try and gank here but [EW] has it sniffed out and their counter-split is headed through their base as I'm typing.

14:29GMT: Yeah, the split seems to have realized they were headed for trouble and joined up with the main force. This game's about over.