So I recently got back from Germany after playing in the Extreme Masters tournament in Leipzig. We came in third but should have been second with a chance at first. However due to some "lucky" disconnects for our opponents in the LB finals 5th game, we had to replay and we lost the follow up.

Overall we had a decent record of 6-3, unless you count our 3v2 then it's 7-3. I was impressed with SK EU's ability to kill our druid despite using every CD to peel in our second game vs them but other than that the teams were pretty in line with the skill level we saw at the MLG events.

Our first real match was against mTw running Lock Druid Enh Shaman. We knew we had a really good chance to win this match as long as we didn't do anything stupid or get some ridiculous RNG.

Our first game was actually not that good as Hafu went oom but we won. After that we just glued to the shaman for the rest of the games and didn't really have any problems. I don't think they were a bad team but their comp just wasn't very good as shown by their 1-4 record in the round robin.

After this I believe we played the team aAa Agita from the EU TR and CGS events. According to our compatriots over at Pandemic, this team wasn't really one to look out for and that the other Warrior Priest Druid team x6/improved clicks was much stronger.

The first game against them they played WPD against us and the game was incredibly easy. I felt that we had an advantage against this comp with our warrior as Endless Rage spec with less of a chance as Enrage. However when we played there was zero pressure from the other team and we could have done anything to win.

After that game, Agita swapped in a counter comp of Warrior Mage Priest. I've always felt that any team with a warrior and a mage is very strong against WLD because of their ability to cc our warrior and pressure my pet very effectively. Often times you can't glue to a warlocks pet because this leaves him free to cast. However with the warrior ccd much of the match it almost doesn't matter and you can punish the healers mana with warrior crits. Once the voidwalker comes out, one shatter on it is very dangerous as it has zero resilience and takes 6k+ in burst. You can also train the lock and not have to worry about abolish poison on wound or getting kited. I think if Agita had more practice they could have won but in the end they tunnel visioned me and I was able to stay alive with the help of druid pve gear until our warrior killed their priest. The next two games were much closer than our first one.

Next up was mousesports' Rogue Mage Druid. We were told that this was their only comp and WLD completely dominates RMD. With no offensive dispel they can't remove abolish or any hots and it's extremely difficult to score a kill on the warlock. Our warrior might be CCd a lot but the warlock for WLD can spam fear and not have to worry about a defensive dispel or a berserker rage.

mousesport's tried something very interesting in running an ap pyro mage in full T5 gear. I actually saw him running around inside Shattrath and blast wave right before joining so we knew what was coming. However, in our first match we got seperated from Hafu and she was taken down by the mage and rogue. We were ahead much of the game until the mage came out of Ice Block and blinked away from Azael and I as we tried to kill the other team's druid. Hafu said she was fine and then suddenly she wasn't and we weren't in a position to help.

After that we played very defensively. The mage respecced to frost in the 3rd and 4th match which just didn't have the burst which was their only real shot at winning. We actually killed him once before an ice block because he was still in full t5. Not a bad team but there wasn't really anything they could've done to beat us unless we screwed up really bad as WLD.

Our fifth and final match of round robin play was against SK running PMR. The first game we ran Rogue Lock Druid and lost to me getting spam DPSd down. Azael ate an early sap despite cheap shotting the priest but after that he was clear to sit on the priest. They were just able to put out a lot of damage with no real CCs on the druid during my 100 to 0 hp portion of the match.

The next game they opened on Hafu in cat form. This can lead to a very early kill if the warlock and warrior don't peel. Azael and I proceeded to use every single CD to get Hafu away. She actually did get away but still died to the mage. I felt like Azael and I both did everything we could have
but we still lost. Sucks but it happens. The third match Hafu just died in the first 10 seconds after Azael got CCd and I got CSd which was really embarrassing.

Because we got 3-0d by SK, we were 2nd in our pool. If we had won a single match against them we would've been first. We had to play Pandemic's Rogue Priest Druid to get into the top 4 double elimination. I feel like RPD has a slight edge on WLD. This ended up being our most intense series of the tournament. I don't really remember each match specifically except that in the one where I died, I was never able to get a single fear off because of interrupts/stuns/whatever and the rogue just sat on me the entire game and I took a lot of damage. In the other matches, both Azael and I got very close to dying but were able to peel and kite and reflect or whatever to survive under 1k hp at times. Even though we can kite a mutilate rogue effectively, it's extremely scary once he's on you because of his poison application and high DPS. With a 3-1 we moved on to the top 4!

Our first match was against Nihilum. There isn't really much to say about this match. I felt like I played much better than Inflame and we only lost one match because of Hafu going oom before the other druid. However in the other two games we lost, we were ahead until our warrior got low and then LoSd or ran away. The one where Azael ran behind a pillar was probably his fault but the one where he ran away was just bad communication and unfortunate. WLD can be pretty RNG but we didn't really deserve to win this one even though, in my opinion, we played superiorly except for ~5 seconds each game.

Next up was x6. x6 decided to run cleave instead of WPD against Nihilum in all 5 of their games despite starting 0-2. We basically knew they would do the same to us and we weren't really worried after watching that series. I was expecting a 3-0 and a 3-0 we got. Tab dot everything, wear some druid pve gear and zerg whichever player is getting low. This match up is pretty dumbed down, especially when the other team is running alternate classes. Right click the warlock and pray.

In the LB Finals we had to play Nihilum again. Azael was eager for another chance to play them as he blamed himself for our loss previous. We started out losing our first game and then coming back to 2-1. Inflame played much better than our other series but we weren't getting RNGd or doing anything really stupid. In the 4th game we were way out ahead until Azael got double mace stunned and died with 6k hp. He had disarm and healthstone but was unable to use either.

In the fifth game we started out ahead again. However, Nihilum was able to recover and put us on the defensive. We all came extremely close to dying but with some pillar hugging we were picked back up. Nihilum's druid had a large mana advantage but it quickly evaporated as we got the warrior behind a pillar. We had him at 4k hp with full dots no burst heal available for the other team and Azael at full rage and he disconnects. This leads to drama for the next hour until we're forced to replay the match where we lose to some stupid RNG.

Overall I thought we played very well. A lot of little things could have given us a better shot at first, even ignoring the nihilum drama. If we had won a single game against SK our first opponent would have been x6 in the top 4. If x6 had beaten Nihilum we would have played x6 first. Nihilum actually had the exact same thing happen to them against x6 that happened against us. A disconnect in the 5th game of the series where they were in a very losing position that forced a replay. They clearly were not cheating but to have it save them twice was really stupid.

Playing with Azael was a good experience. We didn't really run any alternate comps which many people said would be our advantage at the tournament, but there wasn't really any need except possibly against SK. He plays warrior very well and better than almost every player running it as their main. With that said, I'm looking forward to the online ESL qualifier and playing with Rhaegyn again. I'll almost certainly be frapsing on my blackbird when the online matches start playing for a video of some sort.