> ESL Arena Tournament Finals

[Naax]

The WoW Arena finals for the Intel Extreme Masters tournament will be taking place this week, starting Wednesday, March 4th at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany.

Live Stream

Video Interviews:

Xom from SK
Desis from iNNerfire
HappyMinti from compLexity
Xom "Chewing" from SK
Reliza from Mousesports Cake



The WoW tournament will begin with the EU Finals on Wednesday and Thursday. The Global Finals will be on Saturday and Sunday and will feature 3 teams from the US, 7 teams from the EU, and 2 teams from Korea. A full schedule of events (including non-WoW broadcasts) can be found below.

We'll have all the action here on Arena Junkies, so stay tuned. More details can be found on the ESL Tournament Page.

New Rules
Over the past year we have been bringing you the live streams as well as discussion for all the tournaments building up for this one. Some things have changed for this one. First, it will be the first level 80 tournament. We are also extremely excited to see are how some new rules effect tournament play. ESL has banned the use of any RNG skills, such as Impact, Blackout and T.N.T. They have also removed the new arena maps from play. Finally, they have removed the Death Knight spell Raise Ally.

Global Finals Teams:

• US: SK-Gaming
  • Realz
  • Serennia
  • sck
• US: compLexity
  • HappyMinti
  • Sodah
  • venruki
• US: Evil Geniuses
  • Azael
  • zyZ
  • Kollektiv
• KR: H O N
  • CHOIDONGHOON
  • Kang Nae Hyun
  • ohseoungouk
• KR: SK-Gaming
  • hyoga
  • Kwana
  • Vanished
• EU: iNNERFiRE
  • Desis
  • cOOld
  • Phenomenon
• EU: aAa nawaK
  • Anelit
  • Hiss
  • Pheonix
• EU: Nihilum Plasma
  • Paperkat
  • Inflame
  • Forteh
• EU: e6tence
  • Souler
  • Siler
  • FalcoN
• EU: SK-Gaming
  • Xom
  • Orly
  • Another
• EU: Mousesports Cake
  • carekoala
  • Lykke
  • Reliza
• EU: Mousesports
  • Alec
  • philDryzen
  • Sanchez

Schedule (Times are CET/EST)

Tuesday, March 3rd EU Finals

• 10:00/4:00am CS: faculty vs. mTw
• 11:30/5:30am CS: fnatic vs. mTw
• 13:00/7:00am CS: attax vs. mouz
• 14:30/8:30am CS: SK vs. mouz
• 16:00/10:00am CS: MYM - SK
• 19:30/1:30pm Re-Broadcast of the day's live stream
  

Wednesday, March 4th EU Finals

• 10:00/4:00am WoW: mouz vs. Nihi Plasma
  
• 10:30/4:30am WoW: SK EU vs. x6
• 11:30/5:30am WoW: Innerfire vs. Nawak
• 13:00/7:00am WoW: SK vs. mouz Cake
• 14:30/8:30am WoW: mouz Cake vs. x6
• 16:00/10:00am Counter-Strike Matches
• 19:30/1:30pm Re-Broadcast of the day's live stream

Thursday, March 5th EU Finals

• 10:00/4:00am WoW Matches
• 11:30/5:30am WoW Matches
• 13:00/7:00am WoW Grand Final
• 14:30/8:30am Counter-Strike Final
• 16:00/10:00am Counter-Strike Final
• 19:30/1:30pm Re-Broadcast of the day's live stream

Friday, March 6th Global Finals

• 10:00/4:00am Counter-Strike Match 1
• 11:30/5:30am Counter-Strike Match 2
• 12:30/6:30am Guitar Hero Performance
• 13:00/7:00am Counter-Strike Match 3
• 14:30/8:30am Counter-Strike Match 4
• 15:30/9:30am Guitar Hero Performance
• 16:00/10:00am Counter-Strike Matches
• 19:30/1:30pm Re-Broadcast of the day's live stream

Saturday, March 7th Global Finals

• 10:00/4:00am WoW Matches
• 11:30/5:30am WoW Matches
• 12:30/6:30am Guitar Hero Performance
• 13:00/7:00am WoW Matches
• 13:50/7:50am IRT Finale
• 14:30/8:30am WoW Matches
• 15:30/9:30am Guitar Hero Performance
• 16:00/10:00am Counter-Strike Matches
• 19:30/1:30pm Re-Broadcast of the day's live stream

Sunday, March 8th Global Finals

• 10:00:00/4:00am WoW LB Final
• 11:30:00/5:30am WoW Grand Final
• 12:30:00/6:30am Guitar Hero Performance
• 13:00:00/7:00am Counter-Strike Final
• 14:30:00/8:30am Counter-Strike Final
• 19:30/1:30pm Re-Broadcast of the day's live stream

[Jarui]

ESL has banned the use of any RNG skills, such as Impact, Blackout and T.N.T.

Why?

[Neajanee]

Originally Posted by Jarui

Why?

Because they're smart.

[Sïn]

Originally Posted by Jarui

Why?

Blackout and Impact I can understand-but TNT currently also increases explosive shot crit chance by 9%.

I don't like RNG stuff like that any more than the next guy, but specifically with TNT, hunters are going to take a big hit (OMGLOLNERFHUNTARS, I know). If they're going to do that, they need to find some REALLY good talent/skill for each class and remove it just to be fair-or they can just let the tourney play as things are now on live.

IMO, it's pretty stupid to host a tourney and effectively tell classes they aren't allowed to play a certain way just because the organization running it doesn't like it.

[Alphatier]

fuck this, I should be at home (Hannover is my home town)

[Alphatier]

Originally Posted by Elraen

Blackout and Impact I can understand-but TNT currently also increases explosive shot crit chance by 9%.

While I don't like RNG stuff like that any more than the next guy, but specifically with TNT, hunters are going to take a big hit (OMGLOLNERFHUNTARS, I know). If they're going to do that, they need to find some REALLY good talent/skill for each class and remove it just to be fair-or they can just let the tourney play as things are now on live.

IMO, it's pretty stupid to host a tourney and effectively tell classes they aren't allowed to play a certain way just because the organization running it doesn't like it.

DKs aren't allowed to Rez Dead, so the two most imbalanced classes are nerfed a bit.

[Magus]

is that 9:00am uk time or is it 9:00pm uk time it starts?

[Xdarise]

Obviously AM since there is a referennce to the 24hour system later on in the schedule.

[Sïn]

Originally Posted by Alphatier

DKs aren't allowed to Rez Dead, so the two most imbalanced classes are nerfed a bit.

The difference is that:

-raise player ONLY raises the player
-blackout ONLY procs a stun
-impact ONLY procs a stun

TNT stuns but ALSO increases explosive shot crit %.

Again-nerf good talents/abilities for ALL classes, or don't remove any.

Beside-the only class this really impacts is hunters-no serious tourney team will have a shadow priest or mage with impact.

[Ricé]

"RNG abilities" are quite abundant. Imp water shield is "rng" because it has a 60% chance to proc with LHW. Rune strike is "rng" because it procs on a parry or whatever. Clearcasting is RNG.

They probably just meant RNG stuns.