The current state of pvp arena game heavily favors caster based comps. A good indicator is tonights MLG Raleigh event. With only 3 teams having a rogue even in their roster. However consider that COL.Red and Team EG both have 4 person rosters. Currently EG has been running without Pookz who was caught up in school responsibilities, this spurred a chance of a lifetime...
Azael had asked COL.Red to loan Reckful (called who he wanted by name!) to them, as they hadn't qualified for the tournament. In perhaps a shrewd or tactical decision, they refused. Azael immediately turned his attention to Woundman of Fnatic Gaming. Not to say that Woundman was #2 by any means of course. The team literally had little more than perhaps 10 games of practice together, and chances are they had never played the Rogue-Lock-Shaman (rls from here on) comp as far as I know.
What happened was nothing short of amazing and a feat of skill and synergy. They took the tournament, ousting even the best of teams, there was no cheesy luck involved, and it really put a stamp on Azael as someone who you could consider to be the best Warlock playing today. It would be later in MLG Columbus that Fnatic would beat EG, who didn't play the rogue hero Reckful, they had instead opted for young warlock Snutz to represent Fnatic.
As a side note, I really dislike Snutz. This is a kid that isn't even 18, looks like a chinese duck, and despite being Asian doesn't speak his native language, but he's quick to emulate the Koreans slang word of "CHIKA" which more or less means to "Focus" someone. He was shouting it at the top of his lungs at a prepubescent tone, and chose to sit across from Azael, after winning he made sure to call the veteran warlock hero out. A ballsy and ignorant move in anyones book. However I digress.
You have EG playing perhaps Woundman (he recently signed with EG) and not Pookz, and you have the an almost guaranteed situation of Reckful not playing for his COL.Red team.
The only team guaranteed to run a rogue is Loaded.Black who plays RMP exclusively. This leaves perhaps just 1-3 teams in the future this year at Blizzcon to represent a rogue based team. Out of 16 realistic teams, only 3 will have a Rogue, and that's not even guaranteed at this point.
The Big Shift And Reckful-Kun.
Reckful had for a long time had ran a very successful website www.reckful.com However as of a few weeks time now it's shown up as an expired domain. The site was very simplistic and housed a list of players in the powerhouse pvp guild , the guild is comprised of nearly every American WOW pro. On the site you could pick between roughly 16 different people, and watch their live stream of arena matches.
The website has had an amazing amount of traffic each and everyday. It's basis for attraction is that you could watch your favorite professionals play their games live, with audio and all. The biggest part was it was all free, and unlike MLG live streams you didn't have to pay for a nice clear video stream.
However as I mentioned in a few paragraphs above, Reckful hasn't been their go to third person or "captain" so to speak anymore. He had for all intents from anyones view, been replaced by Snutz the warlock. Many feel that this has put a bad taste in his mouth. As such many feel that's the reason for the shutdown on his site, some have even speculated that he's been on the lookout for another team. For such a thing to happen to him you wouldn't expect him to be such an amazing rogue.
BUT
This didn't mean by any measure that Reckful was defeated even at his Columbus appearance. Facing off against Loaded.Black and their formidable RMP comp, after a loss it was deemed that it was time to put together the only other RMP comp that's seen as an equal to Loaded.Black's lineup. Reckful sat down at the PC, logged in and away they went.
In what could only really be called a flash of skill and brilliance, Reckful showed everyone watching at home and at the event, why he's the much heralded rogue that he is. In a showdown of rogues Reckful went into the match as Shadowdance/Backstab, with Satz the rogue for Loaded.Black playing Mutilate.
COL.RED took the win that round, and none was louder than Reckful-Kun, proving that he was not dead.
They'd later lose the series, but it wasn't a blowout, the matches were very close. Reckful might have felt down, however the rogue community was very much cheering at his brilliant performance.
You can watch this amazing match here.
MLG RALEIGH
This just in, Rogue Class Hero: Happyminti is attending.
Not 3 minutes ago it was discussed that a Russian team had 2 members who couldn't get their VISA's worked out in time were going to forfeit, however Happyminti the veteran rogue hero is at the event as a spectator, upon hearing what happened to the team, he valiantly offered himself at their services. They picked up a third person of little known history named Mask, who was in the Starcraft II tournament.
To anyone not initiated to the rogue community, you wouldn't know that Happyminti more than a year ago announced he was taking a break from the LAN scene. His video series had been and still is highly regarded as some of the best to watch, a smooth operator with the rogue his closest similarity is to a Woundman, both play intensely technical with little flare. For him to show up is a great boon to the rogue community, to have a good field of rogues to represent the event. It also says volumes about the community at large, where if you need someone because some bad event occurred more than likely someone will be there to hold a hand out for you.
You can watch the arena tournament live as we speak today and tomorrow at the link below.
http://events.mlgpro.com/takeovers/procircuit/titles/wow?site_id=mlgpro
With this being the last Blizzcon tournament of the expansion you can expect every team to be very hungry to snag a win before the winter of leveling and gearing to 85 happens when Cataclysm pops.
I'm looking forward to see these matches as they always provide some amazing cliffhangers and clutch moments that even the person who's never gamed can appreciate.
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