Well, season 4 has begun, and I, unlike most, am not running any conformist comps. As a paladin, the most popular comps in 2v2 are: Paladin/Lock, Paladin/Warrior. What am i running? Paladin/Rogue. Popular comps in 3v3 for paladins: paladin/war/sham and paladin/war/druid. I'm running: Paladin/Rogue/Rogue. 5v5: undecided, but it looks like something fun like druid/pally/war/rogue/lock or pally/druid/rogue/rogue/lock.

Paladin/Rogue: the most balanced composition in WoW

I've been running with my rogue teammate Kazel as paladin/rogue for about 2 seasons now and I've played with Hoodrych in paladin/warrior on and off for 2 seasons. After weighing both combos and measuring the viability of paladins in arena, there are a few key differences with these combos.

Paladin/Warr has a significantly better chance against druid/war and druid/rogue while being completely slaughtered by most double dps teams with exception to maybe rogue/rogue.

Paladin/rogue has a significantly better chance than paladin/warr against almost every comp because of the rogue's versatility with exception to druid/rogue  and druid/war because druid/rogue and druid/war can outlast paladin/rogue indefinitely unless something goes critically wrong and because a warrior can apply more pressure on a druid than a rogue can because of Mortal Strike.

My paladin/rogue team hasn't played too many 2v2 matches so far in this S4 season, but we're now 1858 rating. We have a very good chance against every double dps team and we even have a decent shot against druid/war if we play nearly perfectly. Of course, like every combo, we have strong countercomps that can stomp us: shaman/war, druid/rogue and druid/lock

After playing so many games as pally/rogue, I have come to the realization that paladin'rogue is the most balanced composition in WoW, with literally no games coming down to me or my rogue "cheesing" matchups with dirty tricks.

Some dirty tricks I'm obviously referring to are the incessent need of priest/rogue teams that play against us to hump the pillar from start to finish. Fortunately for me, my team has learned to counter this strategy nearly perfectly: I sit in the middle of the map (if it's nagrand arena, for example) and I just wait for my rogue to come out from behind a pillar for heals. The rest of the match he just sits behind a pillar while I twiddle my thumbs, managing my mana and drinking.

It really is amazing how pillars can make so many games so lame. Playing against druid/rogue or druid/warr for example, leads to losses only because of the pillars and feral charge. If the druid is balance, we can stay on him fairly decently, but pillars can kill our shots at winning. If pillars didn't exist, we would win every match against druid/rogue, druid/warr and priest/rogue.
UPDATE: because people don't understand the pertinence of the above comment, i will clarify: "We would win every match because we outplay a significant majority of the teams we play against that harness these pillar humping tactics." Sorry if I didn't make that more clear, hopefully this helps.

Nonetheless, I feel very comfortable with this composition. While double dps teams like Spriest/rogue always trained my warrior in pally/war, it spells out tough news for those same teams if they train my rogue. (Yay broken cheat death and CloS)

Paladin/rogue is so pure. I can't really think of any cheap tactics we use to win games. (Unless you want to consider heal-exploiting a cheap tactic, which a lot of people still do, despite 4 seconds of waiting before the first mana tick goes through)
Although pally/rogue isn't the best comp in the game, I feel like when I play this combo and I beat another team, we're winning because we're actually outplaying another team, not because we're outcomping them.

Rogue/Rogue, Rogue/Lock, Shadowpriest/lock, Mage/rogue, priest/rogue and a few others are all combos we can beat cleanly if played correctly. Ok, so we do sorta countercomp some of those (lol rogue/rogue), but it is a feeling that makes me appreciate what I do in arena because unlike druid/war, we don't countercomp 85% of comps.

We don't exploit pillars nearly as much as druid teams or priest teams and we don't rely on a gimmicky combo like druid/warr that can literally countercomp everything with the exception of a few double dps teams.


Which brings me to my next point: who can run some of these gimmicky comps in good faith? For example, one of the combos my pally/rogue team can almost never beat is druid/lock. We will lose every match to mana, even if we kill the felhunter (which we always do, but they always fel dom a voidwalker).
How can these players play these combos? They're despicable, boring, outlasting comps that infuriate everyone. The matches aren't fun, they're incredibly lame.
I ran paladin/lock a while back. I know how boring and irritating it is for not just the other team, but your own team. 25 minute matches to outlast a team isn't my idea of a fun arena match, and I wish they'd just dump 2v2 so that I wouldn't have the bracket to play in when I had nothing else to do.

Do some of these gimmicky, cheesy comps really need to use additional garbage like rocket boots?

I can't count how many druids wear rocket boots in arena or even shadow priests who use it to get away or to catch their target. Do these players feel like they've accomplished something when they evade death at 3% hp because of an item that shouldn't be useable in arena? (And won't be in the next xpac, you watch and see)

For example, I played a shadowpriest/rogue team the other day. After almost completely butchering the game right out of the gate (I ran over to their side with perception, thinking it was a druid/rogue team we had just played minutes earlier and ended up getting cheap shotted and dropping to 2K health instantly)
I managed to get away with the shadowpriest rocket-booting to catch up to me as I ran all the way to the other side of the map. Fortunately, we actually managed to win the match even after having to divine shield 5 seconds in because of a massive error on my part. However, what would have happened if we lost? Would the team have been smiling, saying "wow, we're pretty good! Even though I had to use a cheap item which shouldn't exist in arena, we ended up killing him when he should have gotten away if it wasn't for said item!"

Really, I can't believe how some of these teams, primarily druid/warr, can even use items like this despite their already massive comp advantages.

Experiencing the cheese for myself: paladin/rogue/rogue

I ran paladin/war/rogue all of season 3, and it was a very potent comp because of its burst capability on teams. But, unlike druid teams, we didn't have the juice to play outlasting games like a druid/rogue/war team can do.

So, I tried out the ultimate cheese: paladin/rogue/rogue. We've only played like 13 matches so far but we've already hit 1700 rating and I've already learned why this comp is so stupidly overpowered.

We played a number of PMR teams that my pally/war/rogue team played against, and it was probably 250% easier as pally/rogue/rogue than it was as pally/war/rogue.

Against all of these PMR teams, the game progressed as detailed:
Rogue A saps their mage ->  Rogue B cheapshots priest, Rogue A Garrotes priest -> Mage begins casting frostbolt on Rogue A -> Rogue A vanishes -> Mage begins casting another frostbolt on Rogue A -> Rogue A Cloaks -> Mage begins casting another frostbolt on Rogue A -> Zilea HoJs the mage -> Priest dies with both rogues at 85% HP.

If the mage decided to attempt to polymorph, the game ended with the same results because I'm not stupid enough to forget to sacrifice a rogue and I'm not stupid enough to let polymorph last more than 1 second. (Yay focus frames).

I'm going to keep trying pally/rogue/rogue until it gets to the point where my class becomes such a liability that we throw our arms in the air and give up. But, with all of the lock teams still roaming around, that may not happen. Training locks is just too fun and easy with pally/rogue/rogue.

What's going to happen to my team when cheatdeath is nerfed in 2.4.3?

Fortunately for me, because of the nature of my class, I usually have my rogue wear 350 resilience (or maybe more) unless we know it is a drain comp.

But some comps like druid/rogue/rogue, which are complete fluke comps given their heavy use of PvE gear, are going to have to have a significant DPS drop in their combo, lest they want to have ~50-55% damage mitigation through cheat death, which will mean almost certain death to any comp that has a warrior.

Even my 3v3 team, which I'm just experimenting with right now (pally/rogue/rogue), probably won't be affected too much, because when I play with people in arena, I want them to wear as much resilience as possible because I'm too easily interruptable as a paladin.

Thank god some relief is coming to all of the warlock compositions that were getting derailed by heavy PvE, melee-oreinted cleave teams. (We can also thank the 2.4.3 patch changes for locks)

Holy and Retribution paladin changes to expect

With every class getting their changes fairly recently, there are only two classes that have gotten almost no information released yet: paladin and hunter.

After looking at some of the changes that have been made so far to shadow priests, they definitely appear to be listening to a majority of the WoW community and are aware of all concerns for most speccs and classes. Are they wary to the concerns of the paladin class? Bar none, paladins have become the worst healer in the entire game. With the exception to 5v5, (a bracket where druids have slowly become decently representative when they previously were nonexistent) paladins are literally excluded from any competitive, high-end arena play because of their serious flaws. For example, is anyone aware that of the qualification rounds that are being held, no holy paladin even made top 10 of the final results and obviously none made it to top 4 to proceed to the regionals. It's only going to get worse in qualification round 2, be ready for it.

Vindication
Everytime I go Ret I always consider Vindication a necessity because of the ret paladin's lack of a healing debuff. (For those that still don't know what vindication is, it is a talent that has a very high chance to proc which reduces all stats of the enemy by 15%)

Unfortunately, there is a high likelihood that vindication is going get axed. It is the only way Blizzard can do anything radical to the existing ret paladin. If Blizzard has any intention of adding mortal strike to the ret paladin, WotLK is the time to do it. They won't give Ret paladins an MS if vindication continues to exist in its current form. It would be far too powerful to reduce someone's health by 2000+ in the next xpac and then apply an MS that also does damage. Won't happen.

Prediction 1: Vindication to get a significant nerf or possibly abolished entirely.

Judgment of Command
As mentioned before, Blizzard has made some fairly good changes so far in the WotLK. (It is important to mention that it appears druids still haven't really gotten the nerf needed. However, it is hard to measure because even though feral charge was moved to 21 points in the feral tree, we don't know the impact of their other new abilities.)

In addition, every paladin in WoW is completely aware of what a joke judgment of command is. Woo! 300 damage on a lvl 70 player that typically has 10-12k hp on a 8 second cooldown. That's some sick damage!
It is very likely that we are going to see a very significant increase in judgment of command's damage. Again, this is partially going to happen because of a nerf to Vindication.

Prediction 2: Judgment of Command receives a drastic increase in damage.

Seal of Blood (and Judgment of Blood) & Seal of Vengeance (and Judgment of Vengeance)

Nothing surprising here, but Seal of Blood and Seal of Vengeance are going to be allowed to both factions. This has been long coming and everyone knows it's going to happen.

Prediction 3: Seal of Blood and Seal of Vengeance given to both Horde and Alliance.

Martyr
While it looks like this may just be an NPC ability, I think Blizzard is probably considering giving this ability to paladins.
Martyr essentially allows the paladin to redirect all incoming damage to himself instead of from his teammates for an unknown amount of seconds. I feel very good about this ability being added to the paladin's arsenal.

Prediction 4: Martyr given to the paladin class, deep in the holy tree.

Holy Shock
Prediction 5: Holy shock buffed from 20 yards to 40 yards.



A new ability
Although I am not sure about this one, I am fairly confident that Blizzard is not oblivious to the declining holy paladin representation in arena. Because of this, a paladin's interruptibility will be looked at. I think we will be getting a new ability that allows us to be immune to interrupts for a few seconds with a short cooldown.

Sample: Reflective Light (X mana cost)
Imbues the paladin with God's will, becoming immune to all interrupts for 5 seconds. 20 second cooldown.

Prediction 6: An ability like Reflective Light implemented and given to paladins, deep in the holy tree.

Say goodbye to spell knockback
I've been feeling for a while now that spellback is stupid, period. After playing my shaman I definitely see the pain of taking 4 seconds to get a spell off against hunters when they dispel my earth shield and attack with lightning speed along with their pet.

Get ready to see talents for every specc that eliminates all spell knockback, even for burst juggernauts like mages. As a consequence, mage damage may get lowered because Blizzard will realize quickly that a mage with 100% resistance to spell knockback will lead to mages doing ridiculous damage in their current form. This goes for all casters. Even healers like resto shamans and priests will walk around with no spell knockback. Abilities like Earth Shield will have a new affect, which we don't know about yet.

Prediction 7: spell knockback disappears because of new talents.

Your 2009 income taxes

I read a very interesting article on CNNmoney.com a few days ago and I feel that for the most part it dispels a lot of myths and rumors going around about Barack Obama's tax plan.
                              
                            McCain         Obama
Income            

Over $2.9M          -$269,364     +$701,885

$603K and up      -$45,361       +$115,974

$227K-$603K       -$7,871         +$12
   
$161K-$227K       -$4,380         +$2,789

$112K-$161K       -$2,614         -$2,204

$66K-$112K          -$1,009        -$1,290

$38K-$66K            -$319           -$1,042

$19K-$38K            -$113           -$892

Under $19K           -$19             -$567

(source: http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/11/news/economy/candidates_taxproposals_tpc/?postversion=2008061113)

Granted, this doesn't really address taxes that businesses will have to deal with like the capital gains tax. Nonetheless, Obama definitely has the lower and middle-class people on his mind and is going to win a lot of votes by blue-collar whites. (A demographic he is currently struggling with)

But let's be serious. Does a guy who is making over $2.9M a year really need a tax cut of $269K? Jesus. I'd rather help the little guy out who is actually spending instead of funneling the cash to some fat cat sitting around in a $10M house.


On a side note for those that aren't keeping up with the presidential election: according to realclearpolitics.com (which tracks every poll known to man and compiles the electoral map as a result of those polls), Obama leads McCain 238 to 190 electoral votes, with states that have it too close left open.

39 runs enough for Blizzard?



Note: that tally sheet is a little behind because I did another run while typing this article up

I started my hunt for the elusive deathcharger's reins about 2-3 weeks ago. (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=13335)

I started off very fresh, excited and diligent after hearing a very inspiring story about a paladin on our server getting the mount in 7 runs. And he wasn't even trying to farm the mount! He was farming enchanting mats!

As I was saying...

I was pumping out like 8-9 runs per day. After about 2 and a half days I wanted to slam my head against a table. After those 2 and a half days I took a very long break and didn't do a run for over a week. I'm slowly getting back into it. I've done about 3 runs every day for the last few days, but wow. Baron Rivendare really doesn't wanna get his grubby hands off his mount. As of this writing I've completed 39 runs of BD strat. Hooo boy...

Is it so much to ask for one deathcharger's reins to fall? Just one! COME ON!

This begs the question: why does this mount have a .001% drop rate when other epic mounts have a 5-10% drop rate? (See the Raptor, orange tiger, legendary flying mount, etc)

Just because it's an undead horse that doesn't mean it has to be hell on earth to get.

Hoodrych's team receives an uppercut to the jaw

I'm really amazed that Dynamo Gaming didn't do the fair and just thing and hand over the 4th qualifying spot without any contention. Sure, greed may have had a large part of their decision to proceed with the matchup today (For example, Hafu had class that day and stayed up until 8 am just to get into an online qualifying round in a video game and probably ditched school that day LOL), but let's be real here.

They cheesed the TR when they knew the rules said nothing after 2 AM would count. They may not have known that Blizzard wouldn't follow their own rules, but it was pretty obvious that their 3 hours of farming 3 point teams was a last-ditch effort to reach top 4 when they clearly didn't make top 4 at the 2 AM cutoff. And they knew it.

There isn't anything much more dishonorable than shafting a team from a top 4 spot when you know that they had a higher rating than you according to the rules laid out by Blizzard themselves.

If I was a top Blizzard employee running the show, I'd fire whoever forgot to pull the switch to turn off the TR at 2 am. And then I'd reprimend Dynamo Gaming with a 24 hour ban just for playing until 5 am PST when they knew they didn't qualify.

So, another tournament Blizzard has set up that was completely botched. I really hope Dynamo Gaming acknowledges their pass into the regionals was a complete joke and they didn't really make it legitiamtely.

Know your worldwide terrorists and why YOU shouldn't be deceived by fear-mongering.

Hamas - named by many countries around the world as a terrorist organization, they are also a political party. In 2006 they achieved a majority in the Palestinian parliament, dethroning the Fatah party, which was the majority party of the Palestinian parliament at the time. Their manifesto essentially speaks of wiping Israel off the face of the earth and getting back the land their people lost to Israel.
It is important to recognize that most countries around the world, including Israel, regard the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
Who runs the PLO? Mahmoud Abbas. He replaced Yasser Arafat after he died. Who is also a prominent figure of the Fatah party? Mahmoud Abbas. I don't think there is any conspiracy going on here, it is just important to note Mahmoud Abbas' role in representing the Palestinian people.

Hezbollah - Known by many middle-eastern countries (as well as by Lebanese people themselves) as a legitimate Lebanese resistance movement. Some of their goals consist of ridding Lebanon of any western influence and they have had a very difficult past with Israel themselves because of numerous incidents like the Lebanon-Israel war of 2006. Some serious issues have arisen because of Israel's past occupation of southern Lebanon. One of the reasons Israel was in southern Lebanon was because of Palestinians getting booted from Jordan (known as Black September) and as a result going to Lebanon to engage in their combat against Israelis. Obviously there is more to this conflict than this but most of my knowledge is off the top of my head. Please correct me if I'm wrong at all here.

Taliban - an extremist Sunni islamic fundamentalist group that has had significant governing control in Afghanistan. Part of the reason we've been going to Afghanistan after 9/11 is because there has been a very strong connection between the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden (and, obviously, Al Qaeda). The Taliban has esssentially given free passes to Al Qaeda to run training camps in Afghanistan to bomb targets around the world.
It is important to note that the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden are very close.

Again, please correct me if I'm wrong at all. This is not just an article to teach uninformed people, but it is also a time for me to learn a thing or two as well.

Why is all of this important?

The Republicans, as they have done in 2004, are resorting to fear tactics to get votes. Everyone needs to realize that a significant majority of the American population will vote for McCain not because they think he has the right economic and domestic answers, but because they fear Obama.

This fear is generated primarily through the use of marking Obama as an Islamic apologist and even as a Muslim himself. (For the record, he's Christian)
Another fear tactic that is being used is the stigma that Obama is black. Believe me, there are a lot of racists in America. I know it's sad, but it is very true. When you have hillbilly's saying Obama has no experience, they're basically saying they're going to vote for McCain because they are worried about having Obama represent our country.

NEWSFLASH: Our popularity around the world has never been worse. We are despised by countries like no other time in history. We are also in a recession that is going to lead to gas prices going from the current $4 a gallon to $8 a gallon if things don't change.

What does McCain want to do? Keep taxes low across the board without changing a thing. Someone in 1988 said they wouldn't raise taxes and ended up eating their words.

NEWSFLASH: Nobody likes paying taxes. Obama says he will keep tax cuts for the middle and lower class that Bush put forth but raise taxes on the rich. However, there is rumor about him increasing the capital gains tax, etc.
Personally, i think it's all political. No politician can admit that they're going to hike taxes because it is a very unpopular position, but it has to be done.

How can you not increase taxes and still keep a war going that is costing us billions of dollars? This is ludicrous.

A recent poll (sorry I don't actually have a source but I saw it on CNN recently) says 59% of Americans approve of talking with our enemies. McCain is also on the wrong side of this issue. Another recent thing I saw in the news was that McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time in 2007. Now, I'm not a partisan hack, I don't think McCain is going to be a 3rd Bush term, but that 95% number is very concerning for McCain.

Nonetheless, if McCain wins this election, it won't be because of his characteristics. Let's face it, he is an incredibly uncharismatic, boring, old person. If he wins, it'll be because he will instill doubts in Obama.
Mark my words.

Deathknight

Degeneration (Rank 3, Level 76) - Instantly attack the target, dealing 60% weapon damage and inflicting a disease dealing ${$m2*7} over 15 sec. This disease will corrupt an existing heal over time spell, removing it and dramatically increasing the damage dealt. While afflicted by this disease, other heal over time effects on the target will have no effect.
(Source: http://wotlk.wikidot.com/spells-talents-professions)

With Blizzard's awareness of the current broken state of the druid class, it isn't a wonder that this ability was implemented.
This is going to singlehandedly destroy druids in 3v3 as we know it. Either that or prepare to see a new FOTM 3v3 team: Druid/Priest/Warrior or Druid/paladin/warrior. I don't think we'll see double healer deathknight teams because it doesn't look like the deathknight class will have a mortal strike.

It isn't the taunt that will push deathknights over the top and those that tell you so don't know anything.

With a lasting duration of 15 seconds and a cooldown that will probably be shorter than that, don't expect to ever see a druid team ever win a match against a team with a deathknight.
In other words: deathknights will be the counter to druids.

I already know what combo I'm going to try in the expansion: paladin/deathknight/rogue. I don't see how any solo-healer druid team could ever win. We would train the druid or the rogue and with Degeneration negating all HoTs, druids will be sitting there crapping their shorts while spamming regrowth.
Get ready to see druids cry "THIS IS SO UNFAIR, IM GETTING INTERRUPTED WHEN IM CASTING REGROWTH, THIS IS UNCOMPLETELY UNFAIR. NERF DEATHKNIGHTS BECAUSE WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO ALL OF OUR HEALING WITH HOTS AHWRUAHFA FOSNDOG SDGASDKF F"

Another deathknight ability everyone should watch out for is Lichbourne.
Lichbourne:

Draw Your unholy energy to become undead for 30 sec. While undead, you are immune to charm, fear and sleep effects, and your horrifying visage causes creatures to be at an additional 25% chance to miss you.

The key question of Lichbourne (which is the unholy tree) is the cooldown. According to all of the leaked information that has been released, there is no indication of what the cooldown will be. If it's short, like maybe a 1 minute cooldown, deathknights will be a force to be reckoned with.

Rise of the paladin

With the very limited information on the new paladin abilities and talents, the only new thing about paladins that has been released so far is the new ability Martyr.

Martyr - "Redirect all harmful spells directed at friendly targets to yourself for $d."
(Source: http://wotlk.wikidot.com/spells-talents-professions)

Much like everything else, the cooldown and duration are going to define the strength of this ability, but this ability is a good step in the right direction.

This ability will be critical in allowing the paladin class to solo heal arena teams. Being capable of redirecting shatter combos is going to cripple PMR, especially if the duration on Martyr is like 5 seconds because it could lead to 2 shatters being redirected.

If the cooldown of this ability is anything like blessing of sacrifice, it will quickly be categorized as another ineffective, long-cooldown tool of the paladin class.
One huge problem with the paladin class is that everything of use is on such a long cooldown.

-Blessing of Freedom: 25 seconds.
-Blessing of Sacrifice: 30 seconds.
-Blessing of Protection: 3 minutes.
-Divine Shield: 5 minutes.

Hm..

-Cyclone: no cooldown.

I'd really like to see Martyr be a 15 second cooldown and absorb maybe just 1 attack, like a grounding totem.

In addition, I'd like to see Blessing of Sacrifice get its cooldown cut from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. Maybe even 10. Blessing of Freedom could also go back to its original form of a 20 second cooldown. And, finally, Holy Shock needs to be a 40 yard range instead of its current 20 yard range.

$100 challenge update

On my May 7th article (http://www.gameriot.com/blogs/World-of-Zilea/The-value-of-integrity-the-100-challenge/)
I gave a very nice offer of $100 to every player who would switch from their main composition on the TR to running:
-A combo that didn't use a druid
-A combo that wasn't PMR
-No double healer teams.
-Only applicable to those that were top 20 on the TR

I made this offer to players during the first qualification round and was reasonably serious about it, but I got absolutely zero players come forward to accept my deal. I'm sure Glickz or the numerous other players running FOTM combos that didn't make top 4 wished they had accepted my offer. Oh well, woulda been some easy pesos for players to make.

This offer will extend to the second qualification round but I won't offer it until the second qualification round is a few weeks in just so I can tell who runs what combos so that nobody tries to trick me.

Well, the first qualification round has ended. It has been a long 6 weeks for many teams (probably too long) and we have a lot of surprising teams that have progressed.

Blizzard's official tournament rules state the following:
The First Qualification Round of the Tournament shall last for approximately six weeks, and will commence on March 31, 2008 at approximately 10:00 AM Pacific Time (5:00 PM GMT) (subject to 'Server Maintenance' to be performed by Sponsor), and end on May 20, 2008 at 2:00 AM Pacific Time ( 9:00 AM GMT)

The assumed winners listed below are not an official list because there is some contentious debate ongoing regarding when the exact time cutoff is for the qualification round, so I will keep you posted and give updates later today (It's like 3 am here, AIE!)

According to Hoodrych and a few other sources, the winners are:
#1 - Dude I got it on Fraps (aka In the Shadowplay); Mazud, Offcell, Kollektiv
#2 - duelists going for glad; celex, ely, emolol
#3 - Frag Dominant; Spohlol, Azazael, Zyz
#4 - gc and his DAD; Hoodrych, Didylol, Greener

Congratulations to all the winners, hope to see you all do well in the regionals (or whatever is the next round)

The compositions

#1 - Shadowpriest/UAlock/Restosham
#2 - PMR
#3 - Druid/Rogue/Lock
#4 - Druid/war/lock



I must admit, Frag Dominant making it was a shock to me. They had held a position hopping between rank #10 and #20 for all 4 weeks. So it is very interesting that they managed to pull into the top 4 the night before the first qualification round ended.

As for Pandemic, they were not so lucky. They finished at #17 for the first qualification round. Maybe next time.

The 11th hour was not a good one for Hafu. Her team, Dynamo Gaming, held a steady top 3 position for the entire 6 week duration of the tournament, but ended up choking massively at the very end, dropping from about 2175 to 2097 in the last few minutes before the rating cutoff.

As for GC, nobody knows what happened. He supposedly bailed on Serennia and I have no idea how his shadowpriest/ualock/restoshaman combo did.

Unfortunately for some other teams, having the determination to play 24/7 is not enough to get you into the regionals. (See http://www.wowarmory.com/team-info.xml?r=Arena+Tournament+1&ts=3&t=B+M+F+C&select=B+M+F+C&fl=1)
B F M C had a whopping 966 games in the 4 week tournament round.
Two words: sad and pathetic. (Ok three)

For all of those diehard WoW gamers that were battling for the top 4 spots and were only a few points off from making it: ha ha. Enjoy paying another $20 fee and sitting through another 6 week tournament period.