Celestial Tournament LiveBlogging: EW vs eF

16:30GMT: Okay, take two. Power went out. We've been having some storms in the area and, you know, downed wires or blown transformer or something. Woke up this morning and it was back on although I managed to lose what I thought was a particularly stirring point about avoiding PMs and IRC because I didn't want to be spoiled. Something about the community and how easy is to both be a part of and apart from it at times but damned if I can remember how it went now. The lesson: As always, kiddies, save your work frequently.

Anyhow, since I took the day off to go to the doctor's to why this lingering sickness I have just won't seem to go away (Long story short: They have no clue. Drink more fluids, get plenty of rest, etc, etc.) I have a bit of time here so let's try this again.

As I just said, I've been trying to avoid knowing the outcome of the championship in advance. It's a bit odd, especially since I didn't care at all about it in earlier rounds but I genuinely want to find out the result as the last seconds tick down on game three. Maybe if it was a two game series I'd feel differently but this one looks, at first blush, to be an awesome series. [EW] and [eF] are two Euro guilds who've been jockeying for position at the top of the ladder for months now. Both have had impressive runs not only in the elimination rounds but in the Swiss, as well. [EW] beat more top 16 teams than anyone and, of course, went undefeated while [eF] only took one loss thanks to ClockWay and was a real giantkiller, handing several good teams their only loss. And you're telling me it took three games to decide which one was best? And very likely the visiting team won each of the first two games? This is battle of the titans time.

So, if my throat allowed me to eat anything that wasn't thicker than the consistency of water, I'd have a big bowl of popcorn for this one.


Championship Match - Game One
#1 Esoteric Warriors (Aw, I got it right again. It might be time to give up this running "joke") vs #6 Team Everfrost
Burning Isle

EW
W/A - Dev hammer with Death's Charge, To The Limit
W/A - with Agonizing Chop, Shield's Up
Me/E - Expel Hexes
Me/A - Shadow Shroud with Web of Disruption, Shatter Enchantment, Shame
E/Mo - B-Surge
Mo/E - Healer's Boon
Mo/E - Shield of Deflection
E/Mo - Shatterstone runner with Tenai's Prison, Convert Hexes, Extinguish

eF
W/A - YAA
D/W - Guess what? That's right, Melandru's
N/E - Reaper's with Rotting and melee hate
Me/Mo - Migraine with hexes
E/Mo - Water Trident
R/Mo - BHA
Mo/E - Divert! Ha, he finally used it! Also, Grasping Earth, nice.
Mo/A - LoD

Interesting build from [EW]. Not really what they'd been using to this point. I mean, yeah, frontliners with midline balanced but the Mesmers aren't exactly typical and the build's been loaded with denial and disruption. On the other hand, eF has been running variations on the same thing the whole tournament. I mean, it's easy to see why but, you know, do that sort of thing and you're asking to be hated out which is what seems to be happening here.

16:40GMT: Heading in now. I'm going to have to put up a screenshot of this when I get the time, but what [EW]'s done with the party screen here is just sheer brilliance. Nice touch on their part.

16:42GMT: It's burning so the action's by the flagstand. [EW]'s E/Mo is camped on the flagstand island with the flag in hand where she's in range of everyone up top and can cap in an instant if need be.

16:43GMT: [EW] just pulled back off the flagstand. They're under heavy degen but no one's getting too far into the danger zone yet. And it's an [eF] member who drops first.

16:44GMT: The retreat was probably to by some regen time for their Monks but it's proving to be a bit costly. [eF] has pushed up and they're trying to stall the runner in the lava. It's working and they've got 30 seconds to cap.

16:45GMT: Not going to make it. Boost for [eF].

16:45GMT: Massive Rotting bomb goes off and both teams are hit by the fallback. This is how tight the fighting is - literally every bar was green for a few seconds.

16:46GMT: [eF] just dropped a Warrior and a Mesmer. They're pushing into base with over a minute to auto-rez, putting those dead players out of sig range. They have all their Monks but this could get messy.

16:57GMT: [eF] Ranger is chasing one of [EW]'s Monks in a circle around the outside of the guild Lord area. Some really weird positional play there especially as the scrum is mostly by the gate - it's the HB with Party and all but got a bit out of range if anything bad should happen.

16:48GMT: The rez has hit and the teams are back to just slugging away at each other in a tightly packed mass.

16:50GMT: [Ew]'s Mesmer #4 - the Shadow Shroud one - has, like a lot of Mesmers, caught a case of "the other team really wants me deads". That's the second time they've just jumped on her and beat her to death the second she got into a vulnerable position.

16:51GMT: Make that third.

16:51GMT: Turtling around the Lord here. [eF] is taking losses but it's permaboosts for them. The degen is just ripping [EW] apart at this point. They are dropping like stones and it's only a matter of time until the healing falters.

16:52GMT: Crack! [EW] just broke. Two left alive - and no Monks - with a minute left to auto-rez. Game over.

16:53GMT: Wow. Just a shade under 12 minutes in. That, ladies and gentlemen, was an old fashioned Burning Isle beat-down.

16:55GMT: I'm still a bit stunned by how easy that was for [eF]. That wasn't even close. [EW] seemed to be expecting the Migraine/Reaper's thing, planned for it, and still got wtfpwned.

17:00GMT: After thinking about it some more and taking another look at the early part of the match, I think the difference there was the Healer's Boon Monk. He's using an amped Heal Party and that replaces the more typical LoD that a lot of teams run - I like [EW]'s backline and I've seen other people using it but there are trade-offs made. But LoD is 5 energy to Party's 15. It's a bigger heal and really helped to fight off the degen at first but when that Monk started to run out of gas that's when trouble starts to happen. The degen takes hold and people start getting spiked out.

17:10GMT: Game Two. Let's see how [EW] saves their season for one more game, at least.

Championship Match - Game Two
#1 Esoteric Warriors (Copy n Paste ftw!) vs #6 Team Everfrost
Isle of Jade

EW
D/A - Could it be a Melandru's?
D/A - Two of them? No way. This is blowing my mind.
R/Mo - BA
Me/Rt - Expel with Arcane Conundrum
N/E - Reaper's with melee hate
Mo/E - Healer's Boon with Dwayna's Kiss
Mo/E - Divert Hexes
E/Rt - Shatterstone with Rust, MB&S, Tenai's Prison

eF
W/Mo - Eviscerate Axe with Purge Signet, Shields Up
D/A - Gee, I wonder...
Me/Mo - Mantra of Persistence Migraine stuff
N/E - Repear's Mark with melee hate
E/Mo - Water Trident with Aegis
R/Mo - BHA
Mo/E - Divert
Mo/A - LoD

Looks like what we've got here is a case of dueling hex pressure. [eF] is dancing with the one what brung them (And, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. It's a little boring for me to transcribe all the time but they're actually tweaking a lot of the minor details expertly. And there's no denying it's a strong build. Changing builds is more exciting to watch but, you know, there a lot of ways to win at Guild Wars. using what you know works and you're comfortable with is one of them.) while [EW] goes mirror mode. At a glance, and since I know they stretch this series out, I'm guessing it's the Expel on the Mesmer instead of the more typical Migraine that wins this one for them. You've got a BHA Ranger versus a BA one and that's going to cause a bit more disruption. And you have a Shatterstone Water Ele to pump out damage versus a more snare happy Trident one. But that Expel means they can fight off a few more hex stacks. While the [eF] Warrior goes slash Mo for Purge Signet that's not as frequent and [EW] has, instead opted with slash Sin on their frontliners which lets them pack more disruption in the form of things like Disrupting Dagger.

The match looks to be fairly even but [eF] should have a slightly harder time getting hexes to stick. That might be just enough of a disadvantage. And if this game goes to VoD, [EW] gets really scary.

17:11GMT: I take what I said about the Expel, I guess. Lots of purple arrows on [EW]'s side, not so many on [eF]'s. And the degen is hurting [EW] more at the moment.

17:12GMT: [EW]'s spreading around their hexes better now and [eF] is having trouble keeping up. But the Warriors are still in trouble. They're the ones who've taken a death and have characters hovering around the spike out range. And they haven't managed to push anyone on [eF] to the brink just yet.

17:14GMT: Fight's around the flagstand. [eF] just boosted with the [EW} runner a few feet from the stand.

17:15GMT: Seesaw battling as the teams are trading flags. I'm keeping an eye on the hexers, in case it isn't obvious.

17:16GMT: There we go. [EW]'s party bar is almost clear of hexes while they're just lousy with 'em in [eF] land. Looks like the battle's turned somewhat as [EW]'s figured out how to stymie [eF] and, on the other hand, [eF] is having trouble keeping up with their hexes.

17:16GMT: [EW] is pushing on [eF] now, they're starting to crack.

17:17GMT: A few deaths and the push stalls at [eF]'s front gate.

17:19GMT: Still see-sawing back and forth as the teams trade flags.

17:20GMT: They (eF) have got a Ranger running flags here. That's old school, of course, and brings me back to the days of the old R/Me Crip Shots with Distortion and all. But not exactly the best move against a hex team. That Ranger has a lot of interrupts and those are really important to disrupt the other team's ability to mess you up. But, you know, I'm sure they know what they're doing.

17:21GMT: The battle of the hexes is definitely in [EW]'s favor now. The degen is really flying left and right, though. The health chart is peaks and valleys.

17:23GMT: Pushing back into [eF]'s base. We're about 14 minutes in and it looks like permaboost territory here. Everfrost hasn't managed to shove the battle much past the flagstand yet so once [EW] gets entrenched, I don't think they'll have much luck getting them out of their base.

17:24GMT: Spying on the BHA Ranger now, who's been money for [eF]. Always love watching a good Ranger player. But while Dazed is strong in skirmishes, it's just getting eaten up here too quickly to matter. BHA has become, basically, a really tricksy interrupt. Knowing they were on Jade, I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to go with Burning, like [EW].

17:27GMT: Almost 18 minutes in. [EW] is pulling out and [eF] is right after them.

17:28GMT: [eF]'s E/Mo just went back to base. Are they going to chain run a flag here? No, scratch that, they just forgot to bring it up with them.

17:29GMT: Flag doesn't matter at this point. [eF]'s Monks just popped and the remaining party members are desperately running back to base to avoid a wipe. It's not really working.

17:30GMT: It's VoD time. [eF] rezes at base at 20 and it's escort the NPC times.

17:30GMT: The teams slam together at the flagstand. You want to know who I'm watching? The Shatterstone E/Mo. Pew pew!

17:31GMT: As I expected, [eF] is in trouble here. Two Dervs and a Shatterstone are just wrecking them with VoD up. They lost the flagstand battle and have to fall back here.

17:32GMT: Another large auto-rez - looks like Mesmer #3 is DPed out, and they push back to the flagstand and try it again.

17:32GMT: Yeah, it's going about how you'd expect. The [eF] frontline is down already.

17:33GMT: Resign spike and we're out.

17:35GMT: So, to summarize, I think I was right with the calls I made looking over the builds. It was about even with a slight edge to [EW] thanks to the fact they handled the hexes better - and a Healer's Boon Monk can't get their anti-degen spell hung up on HumSig. And once VoD hit that slight advantage became overwhelming. Damage potential went through the roof, [eF] was already slightly DPed out.

17:38GMT: You know, I've been wondering why I keep warping to random observer matches and I think I just figured it out. Apparently the hit detection box on the "select a game for me" option is huge. I click anywhere on the top of the observer box to bring that tab to the front of my screen and I've got 15 seconds to notice I'm about to spin the roulette wheel. The top, by the way, is whee I'm accustomed to clicking. Somewhere under the absolute top so I don't accidentally click the close window button. And I've just got tons of tabs and windows open at the moment. I would have thought you'd need to click on that little box to set things in motion there but go figure. Man, that's been bugging me all weekend. I'm sure you're thrilled knowing the reason now.

17:40GMT: Well, here we are. One last game to go and the tournament's over. Two months. Nearly 300 guilds. Who knows how many hours of gameplay and strategizing. And it all comes down to this.

I'll be honest, the first two games were pretty underwhelming for me. The first was a blowout and the second just the kind of steady one-sidedness that's drawn out but never in doubt. There's lot of good stuff in those matches, to be sure, but it's not as tense as I'd like. Nor, when you get right down to it, as exciting. Pulse pounding for me because I know what's involved here.

But I've realized that there's another reason to prefer more split-type play - the kind I like to watch - than the 8v8 scrums we're seeing here; it's a lot easier to tell there's something going on.

To a person who hasn't watched Guild Wars or played much GvG before then battles like the last two just feature confusing mobs of players swinging and casting away until someone dies. The sort of intricate co-ordination - the cover hexes, the timely choice of heals - that you learn to pick up on just don't register on someone who can't tell a Healer's Booner from a Divine Booner.

On the other hand, if there's a lot of splitting and movement around the map then even someone who hasn't memorized the skill descriptions can notice somethings. If they can count they can tell when one side has numbers. If they can follow dots on a mini-map they can see someone sneaking off. And the smaller skirmish battles are easier to follow simply because there aren't so many characters involved.

Part of the tournament is promotional. It's something to show to people and say, "Look at how awesome this game is. You, too, could be doing this." And, well, to use a hockey metaphor the fact that the top teams are relying on the 8v8 so much is like when NHL teams relied on the trap. It works, and it's the smart thing to do for those teams, but it's not so good for fans trying to watch because it's all about cluttering and clogging up the game to reduce the chance of individual brilliance beating you.

So, yeah, fix Jade pls.

Quick break to get a tasty beverage and we'll close this mother out.


Championship Match - Game Three
#1 Esoteric Warriors vs #6 Team Everfrost
Isle of Jade

EW
D/A - You get one guess.
D/A - Okay, you get another one.
R/Mo - BA
N/E - Reaper's Mark
Me/Rt - Expel
Mo/E - Healer's Boon
Mo/E - Divert
E/Rt -Shatterstone with Rust, MB&S, Tenai's Prison

eF
W/A - YAA
D/A - Yeah, I've got nothing.
N/E - Reaper's with melee hate, rotting
Me/Mo - Migraine with Mantra of Persistence
E/Mo - Shatterstone with Aegis
R/Mo - BHA
Mo/E - Divert
Mo/A - LoD

Fitting that this season and this tournament should end on Jade.

Anyway, [eF] is running with what works for them again. I'll note they've switched out Trident for Shatterstone. Looks like someone else has become a worshiper at the temple of the headshot. And given how they handled the opposition last round, I wouldn't expect [EW] to run anything different.

Since [eF] lost last game that means they're the ones who decided to run with Jade again. That's slightly curious. Another team might have tried to switch things up, tried to outyomi [EW] a bit. And if I were on [EW] I'd be worried about that happening and give serious thought to running something a little different. But, you know, there's a reason why I don't play in games like this one.

18:00GMT: Snee! The Ranger on [EW] is named "Are U Guys Iq". Cute. That meme is just not going to die, is it? But at least people are having fun with it. Including [iQ]. They've been cute with their names for a long time, too, and this tournament's been no different. My favorite was "Smurf Bars Go Smurf".

18:02GMT: Games on. Monk #8 on [eF] pulls a nice move with Return on an Archer to race out to the flagstand. Cool trick there.

18:03GMT: Uh, yeah, the battle. Just imagine the last one and you've got a pretty clear idea of how it's going. Teams are at the flagstand, [EW] is having trouble with [eF]'s hexes and degen early. But it's very close so far.

18:04GMT: [EW]'s been pushed back to their base. Lots of mad pressure and, yeah, there goes Rotting, but no one's dropped yet.

18:05GMT: Still penned up on the bridge, [eF] is boosting here.

18:06GMT: Not sure what [eF] is doing differently but they've got [EW] figured out somehow. They are just not threatened at all. It's still a tigh fight and there's only been one death so far but [EW] is having to scramble to keep their players up while [eF]'s bars are not dropping below half.

18:07GMT: I think they're hammering on the [EW] Mesmer more. She's not using Expel so much so it's probably being HumSigged.

18:09GMT: The fight is moving inexorably deeper into [EW]'s base. It's slow but this is almost the opposite of what happened last match with [EW] setting up shop in thir opponent's base.

18:10GMT: [EW] just broke. They're down several players including both Mes and Nec. It's over a minute to auto-rez.

18:11GMT: Both Monks down but auto-rez is seconds away. [eF] is trying for the Bodyguard but I don't think they'll make it.

18:11GMT: They didn't before the rez but they kept at it and killed the weakened NPC off.

18:12GMT: Turtle time. [eF] would very much like to close this out before VoD, I'd imagine.

18:13GMT: [EW] is making a strong push but the morale gap is yawning and they're down a lot of NPCs.

18:14GMT: They've stalled and still cant' manage to do much against [eF].

18:15GMT: Fighting's still going on around [EW]'s main gate. But [EW]'s about to collapse here, they can't keep this push up for long unless they can get a kill.

18:16GMT: Not going to happen. It's back to turtling around the Lord.

18:17GMT: Ah, I'm seeing the change now. It's subtle but there's some more disruption in the [eF] build. They had a Wammo for a Purge Sig before but now they've got a WaSin with Disrupting Dagger, for example. Everfost has been great all tournament at making little changes like that.

18:18GMT: About 17 minutes in. [EW] is in real trouble here. And unless things change, VoD is going to be a slaughter.

18:20GMT: 30 seconds until VoD so it's get in position time. NPC count: [EW] - 2 Archers. [eF] everything. Morale count: [EW] slightly over half on the chart. [eF] - max. Yeah, this is going to go well.

18:22GMT: Not much action as the teams are just standing there and, apparently taunting each other. [EW]'s massed up just outside of NPC aggro. And [eF] is content to sit and wait for the Lord to walk, I guess.

18:23GMT: Nope, [eF] pushes up and takes the fight to [EW]. They start rolling. Players are going down left and right. Only one Monk is left up with over a minute to auto-rez. Everyone else is resigning but he's running back to base to protect the Lord.

18:24GMT: Snared, that Monk is brought down. And the game is over.

Congratulations to the champions, Team Everfrost.

18:30GMT: Well, the finals were a bit anti-climactic for me. Don't know about the rest of you. Hard to live up to the hype and excitement of getting there, anyway.

Hats off to the champions, they earned it. And really impressive performance, too. As I mentioned - repeatedly - [eF] didn't change their build, they ran the same thing over and over and they ran it down people's throats. Like in the last match, rather than making wholesale changes, they altered a few skills, switched up their tactics, and it worked. A lot of teams, I think, panic when things aren't working for them. It's easy to go, "Well, this isn't working" and just throw the plan away and get another one. It's not as easy to identify what is working and correct what isn't. That takes more time and patience. And a lot more understanding of how the game works. But it's exactly what Team Everfrost were doing the whole tournament. Very nicely done.