Supports and old school melee assassins fill the draft screen while two NA power houses flip the script.?
Qualifier #5 fated Resurgence, Tempo Storm, Cloud9 and COGnitive against each other to determine the top 4 teams. Supports would be represented heavily, with Rehgar, Tyrande and Tassadar being either banned or pick in every match. Both Rehgar and Kael’Thas suffered little from their recent nerfs in Wednesday’s balance update; their power level is still consistent.
Li-Ming was picked in both round 2 games and would come out on the winning side. However, Illidan, Cho'gall and Zeratul were the break out heroes that would end up determining the outcome of the Qualifier.
In the end Tempo Storm finally found their way to the top. It felt like somewhat of an upset, after seeing COGnitive defeat Cloud9 in such a dominant fashion.
Semi-final 1: Tempo Storm defeats Resurgence
- Tempo Storm drafts an Illidan composition against Resurgence's Tyrande, Diablo, and Jaina burst damage strategy
- Lack of reliable crowd control allowed Illidan to shine mid to late game.
- Tyrande and Malfurion were easy prey for Goku's Illidan supported by Tassadar and Rehgar.
- Lunara nearly doubled the hero damage of any other hero.
Semi-final 2: COGnitive defeats Cloud9
- Using the mobility of Rehgar and Falstad and the stealth of Zeratul, COGnitive stays one step ahead of Cloud9 in getting to and controlling objectives. This puts them ahead on the structure race.
- Glaurung's Zeratul scored kills late game on Tyrande and Jaina setting up key pushes finishing off Cloud9's keeps.
- Cloud9 yielded early time on temples too often to COGnitive providing uncontested tower shots on structures.
Tempo Storm defeats COGnitive 2 - 1
The finals pitted an impressive and clicking on all cylinders COGnitve against a Tempo Storm looking to prove itself worthy. Tempo Storm has beaten COGnitive in the past, but that was with an old roster:
- COGnitive gets out to early XP lead at level 7 and never looks back.
- Cattlepiller and Iakona worked the Stiches/Tryande combo well to isolate key Tempo Storm heroes.
Game 2: Tomb of the Spider Queen
- COGnitive got off to another strong start and would be up 6 structures to 4 at level 15.
- Tempo Storm gets 2 key takedowns and unleashes both boss and weavers at level 19 but is not able to capitalize and get any keeps.
- An error in communication by COGnitive at the 28:56 mark, with Srey down, costs them from getting both boss and weavers to possibly finish the game.
- Kaeyoh's maws and Goku's sunders were used very effectively in the mid game to turn the tide in Tempo Storm's favor and continued to impact team fights in the late game as Tempo Storm pushed for the win.
- Late game decision making and strong resilience displayed by Tempo Storm force the deciding game 3.
- COGnitive selects Cho'Gall in the face of three already selected heroes with giant killer in Zeratul, Valla, and Falstad.
- COGnitive dominates early through mid grabbing the first five punishers and showing great lane rotations to compensate for having 1 less hero to lane clear.
- Mule talent used by Zixz to effectively provide redundancy from some of the early strcture damage by the punishers of COGnitive.
- Double giant killer (lvl 13), blood for blood (lvl 16), and nexus frenzy (lvl 20) along with great use of void prison by Goku, begin to prove to be too much of a counter the Cattlepillar- CauthonLuck Cho'Gall and Glaurung's Muradin.
- Great healing by Zixz during a key team fight at level 20 to keep the team alive and prevent COGnitive from possibly seizing the moment to take the game.
- Zixz MVP of game 3.
- Solid late game decision making, talent choices, and support play power Tempo Storm to be able to pick up the last two punishers and take game 3.
The ability of Tempo Storm to weather the game 1 defeat, and early dominance by COGnitive in games 2 and 3, showed the community one of the first signs of real growth we have seen from their new roster. If they keep this up, Tempo Storm could come back to their top tier form.
Be on the lookout for the ETS NA 2 Qualifier #6 taking place on 19 February, 2016 21:00 CET to find out if Tempo Storm continues to build on the momentum of their big win.
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