The fnatic WoW team had a rough weekend at the MLG Columbus stop in Ohio. Starting with delayed flights, lost luggage, and then a poor performance; the weekend did not go as planned. We would like to thank MSI Notebooks, BestPoker, Steel Series, CM Storm and Ugame for sending our players to...
The fnatic WoW team had a rough weekend at the MLG Columbus stop in Ohio. Starting with delayed flights, lost luggage, and then a poor performance; the weekend did not go as planned.
We would like to thank MSI Notebooks, BestPoker, Steel Series, CM Storm and Ugame for sending our players to Columbus this weekend. Sadly the team was not able to perform to the best of their ability due to many unforeseen complications.
I caught up with the team after the event to see what happened, what went wrong, what’s next and more. You can read the entire interview with the team on Page 2.
This weekend started off on a sour note, Hafu losing her luggage and problematic flights; what exactly happened this weekend?
Hafu: Our flight got delayed because of weather to New York... then it got delayed by two additional hours due to a problem with the engine once we were in New York. When we got there, my luggage was lost, and we wasted a lot of time trying to figure out if they could find it at the airport. We called MLG staff members and asked if they could switch our match to a later time due to all the problems, but they said the schedule was set in stone. Therefore we barely got enough time to set up, and had a really really messy first match. My luggage didn't show up until Saturday night around midnight, and we had already been knocked out at that point.
Glick:Well our flight was on Friday. In the past the tournament had been played on Saturday and Sunday exclusively but this season started off with matches on Friday. Our connection to the NYC airport got delayed because of weather on both our ends and then our flight to Columbus from NYC got delayed
for a few hours because of a mechanical problem on top of the congestion at NYC. We got to Columbus around 430PM and Hafu's luggage had been lost by the airline even though we both had carry on. The plane was small so we were required to stow it planeside. There's literally 2 feet from where we left our luggage to the plane and somehow mine made it to Columbus and hers didn't.
Yog:We started off on a bad note, and she ended up playing on another keyboard which is a pretty big deal in competitive gaming. Things just progressively deteriorated over the course of the weekend. We were inadequately prepared and Hafu basically quit the game, coming back a week before MLG for some last minute practice.
Do you think if so many things didn’t go wrong, you would have placed better?
Hafu: Definitely, I think the whole mentality would have changed a lot. Everything that could have gone wrong on Friday, did, and although we should have done a lot better on Saturday, the precedent of Friday evening really took over the tournament.
Glick:I definitely think so. In WoW, unlike CS, there are so many things you have to set up once you are physically at the tournament. Macros, keybindings, all your settings have to be exactly like you have at home and this takes a long time to get right. You also have to equip and spec your characters and most people have 5 or 6 to set up to allow different class and race combinations. Every other team arrived Thursday and had all day Friday to prepare basically.
Yog:The multiple issues that arose probably contributed to the fact that we did not place well, however our lack of practice was inexcusable. We should never go into an event expecting to lose.
What went wrong in game, many would think you would have the upper hand due to multiclassing?
Hafu:You would think so, but I feel that if we had just stuck to our main comp we would have done a lot better.
Glick:Well on top of having no warm up time, we made some comp mistakes due to this being our first Wrath of the Lich King LAN tournament. For example in our series against Pandemic and Gravitas, we ran bad comps for the first 2 games and went 0-2. When we switched to our primary lineup we were able to go 2-1 but it was too late to recover the series and both ended in a 2-3 loss.
Yog:The fact that I can multiclass oftentimes depends on my teammate’s ability to play multiple classes as well. As we were most comfortable with the comp we had ran during the TR phase (RLS), running a different comp versus some of the top teams in a world when we haven’t practiced with it at all wouldn’t have been wise.
What do you need to do to improve your game play at this point?
Hafu:Practicing against certain match-ups. We need to figure out what to run against which comps, and go with it at tournaments. Our strongest set-up was Rogue Lock Shaman, but we chose to change it up too much.
Glick:We have to go back to the drawing board. The other team running RLS as their primary lineup, Evil Geniuses, actually did as poor as us on top of losing to us in a mirror match. A lot of people had picked them to win the tournament. This tournament definitely proved that RLS is not a top tier LAN composition and we'll have to prepare something better for the next event which we are quite capable of doing.
Yog:Obviously our preparation is inadequate, and we were not playing at a level expected of a sponsored team. There were several games we could have easily won, but lost due to some bad calls.
Other than the problems, how was the event overall?
Hafu:The event was okay, I felt that the MLGs last year were better organized. For example, for the first time there was no spectator's section at the event, which made it a bit quieter than it normally is.
Glick:The event was fun aside from having to rush in and out. I actually didn't get to watch the finals in person I watched them on my MSI notebook from the airport as I was waiting for my flight.
Yog:The event itself was fun, losing took away some of the excitement.
What was the most memorable part of the event?
Hafu:Getting my luggage back was pretty much the high of the event for me, haha.
Glick:There were 2 memorable parts. Beating EG a team that a lot of people had picked to win the tournament and doing it in a mirror match was very satisfying. I also got to shoutcast a match and a lot of people thought I did a very good job. When the VOD is posted someone should link it to fnatic.com : )
Yog:It was my first MLG, so the experience as a whole was memorable. To be specific, I would say probably getting to meet the other teams I played against online.
Compared to Blizzard events, how does MLG stack up?
Hafu:I feel that MLGs are better organized, although Blizzard tends to take care of its participants better!
Glick:MLG is the best run event by far. The only thing that they screwed up this time around was that there was no big screen for people to watch the matches on like they've had at the three previous events. We had several friends from Ohio who showed up to watch and just couldn't stay because they weren't allowed in the players area and there was simply no way to see what was going on.
Yog:For an event on a much smaller scale, I would say MLG lives up to it’s reputation of being one of the most fun events to attend.
What will be the next event we will get to see you at?
Hafu:MLG Dallas if I'm not mistaken.
Glick:Hopefully you'll get to see us in Dallas in August
Yog:Probably MLG Dallas in August.
Any shoutouts or words to your fans?
Hafu:I appreciate all the support that I'm getting, it means a lot. :)
Glick:Lickerzz my DOTA coach. I forgot to mention him when I was shoutcasting :(
Yog:Shoutouts to all my fans online.
Hafu: Our flight got delayed because of weather to New York... then it got delayed by two additional hours due to a problem with the engine once we were in New York. When we got there, my luggage was lost, and we wasted a lot of time trying to figure out if they could find it at the airport. We called MLG staff members and asked if they could switch our match to a later time due to all the problems, but they said the schedule was set in stone. Therefore we barely got enough time to set up, and had a really really messy first match. My luggage didn't show up until Saturday night around midnight, and we had already been knocked out at that point.
Glick:Well our flight was on Friday. In the past the tournament had been played on Saturday and Sunday exclusively but this season started off with matches on Friday. Our connection to the NYC airport got delayed because of weather on both our ends and then our flight to Columbus from NYC got delayed
for a few hours because of a mechanical problem on top of the congestion at NYC. We got to Columbus around 430PM and Hafu's luggage had been lost by the airline even though we both had carry on. The plane was small so we were required to stow it planeside. There's literally 2 feet from where we left our luggage to the plane and somehow mine made it to Columbus and hers didn't.
Yog:We started off on a bad note, and she ended up playing on another keyboard which is a pretty big deal in competitive gaming. Things just progressively deteriorated over the course of the weekend. We were inadequately prepared and Hafu basically quit the game, coming back a week before MLG for some last minute practice.
Do you think if so many things didn’t go wrong, you would have placed better?
Hafu: Definitely, I think the whole mentality would have changed a lot. Everything that could have gone wrong on Friday, did, and although we should have done a lot better on Saturday, the precedent of Friday evening really took over the tournament.
Glick:I definitely think so. In WoW, unlike CS, there are so many things you have to set up once you are physically at the tournament. Macros, keybindings, all your settings have to be exactly like you have at home and this takes a long time to get right. You also have to equip and spec your characters and most people have 5 or 6 to set up to allow different class and race combinations. Every other team arrived Thursday and had all day Friday to prepare basically.
Yog:The multiple issues that arose probably contributed to the fact that we did not place well, however our lack of practice was inexcusable. We should never go into an event expecting to lose.
What went wrong in game, many would think you would have the upper hand due to multiclassing?
Hafu:You would think so, but I feel that if we had just stuck to our main comp we would have done a lot better.
Glick:Well on top of having no warm up time, we made some comp mistakes due to this being our first Wrath of the Lich King LAN tournament. For example in our series against Pandemic and Gravitas, we ran bad comps for the first 2 games and went 0-2. When we switched to our primary lineup we were able to go 2-1 but it was too late to recover the series and both ended in a 2-3 loss.
Yog:The fact that I can multiclass oftentimes depends on my teammate’s ability to play multiple classes as well. As we were most comfortable with the comp we had ran during the TR phase (RLS), running a different comp versus some of the top teams in a world when we haven’t practiced with it at all wouldn’t have been wise.
What do you need to do to improve your game play at this point?
Hafu:Practicing against certain match-ups. We need to figure out what to run against which comps, and go with it at tournaments. Our strongest set-up was Rogue Lock Shaman, but we chose to change it up too much.
Glick:We have to go back to the drawing board. The other team running RLS as their primary lineup, Evil Geniuses, actually did as poor as us on top of losing to us in a mirror match. A lot of people had picked them to win the tournament. This tournament definitely proved that RLS is not a top tier LAN composition and we'll have to prepare something better for the next event which we are quite capable of doing.
Yog:Obviously our preparation is inadequate, and we were not playing at a level expected of a sponsored team. There were several games we could have easily won, but lost due to some bad calls.
Other than the problems, how was the event overall?
Hafu:The event was okay, I felt that the MLGs last year were better organized. For example, for the first time there was no spectator's section at the event, which made it a bit quieter than it normally is.
Glick:The event was fun aside from having to rush in and out. I actually didn't get to watch the finals in person I watched them on my MSI notebook from the airport as I was waiting for my flight.
Yog:The event itself was fun, losing took away some of the excitement.
What was the most memorable part of the event?
Hafu:Getting my luggage back was pretty much the high of the event for me, haha.
Glick:There were 2 memorable parts. Beating EG a team that a lot of people had picked to win the tournament and doing it in a mirror match was very satisfying. I also got to shoutcast a match and a lot of people thought I did a very good job. When the VOD is posted someone should link it to fnatic.com : )
Yog:It was my first MLG, so the experience as a whole was memorable. To be specific, I would say probably getting to meet the other teams I played against online.
Compared to Blizzard events, how does MLG stack up?
Hafu:I feel that MLGs are better organized, although Blizzard tends to take care of its participants better!
Glick:MLG is the best run event by far. The only thing that they screwed up this time around was that there was no big screen for people to watch the matches on like they've had at the three previous events. We had several friends from Ohio who showed up to watch and just couldn't stay because they weren't allowed in the players area and there was simply no way to see what was going on.
Yog:For an event on a much smaller scale, I would say MLG lives up to it’s reputation of being one of the most fun events to attend.
What will be the next event we will get to see you at?
Hafu:MLG Dallas if I'm not mistaken.
Glick:Hopefully you'll get to see us in Dallas in August
Yog:Probably MLG Dallas in August.
Any shoutouts or words to your fans?
Hafu:I appreciate all the support that I'm getting, it means a lot. :)
Glick:Lickerzz my DOTA coach. I forgot to mention him when I was shoutcasting :(
Yog:Shoutouts to all my fans online.
0 comments
560 Views
There have been no comments so far. Have your say below!