Players Prepare For Blizzard Regionals This Weekend

The 2009 Blizzard Regionals happening this weekend in Cologne, Germany, will feature the top eight teams from both Europe and America competing for free rides to the amazing event BlizzCon.

The European Regional will begin Thursday and it consists of six (sigh) teams running the powerhouse composition Rogue, Mage, Priest (RMP). The other two teams, WoaH and x6tence, will be running the popular online setup Cleave with WoaH using Warrior, Warlock, Druid and x6tence using Hunter, Death Knight, Druid.

Ocelote, the Warrior for WoaH, said in an interview with World Of Ming, "Besides x6, we're the unique team that doesn't use RMP at the moment, so it will be really hard to compete this tournament."

This however does not worry him. "Our confidence is high anyways, we know we will outplay everyone, and we will stomp every team with our pointless comp," said Ocelote.

We'll have to wait until this weekend to see if Ocelote and his team can fulfill their promise in Cologne. They'll be trying take one of the two spots from the six RMP's in order to advance to BlizzCon this August. Hopefully Ocelote and company can pull out a win because I don't want to see too many boring Rogue, Mage, Priests mirror matches at BlizzCon.

Hopefully you will not see any raging as seen below at this tournament. Thanks again Swarm for this priceless clip.


On the American side of things we have quite the event. The tournament features a plethora of different compositions with only two RMPs, SK Gaming and Complexity. SK, winners of MLG Columbus, and Complexity, fourth at MLG Columbus, have their work cut out for them against the amount of Cleave teams this weekend.

Pandemic is out to prove they are still a powerhouse even without a fourth member in Ohnoes and will be running the powerful Shadowcleave (Death Knight, Warlock, Druid). Pandemic-Kintt, also known as the Wing King, serves as the captain for Pandemic and can be seen below with wings in hand.


Pandemic player Jared Coulston, who is now a WoW e-sports commentator, said that he "hopes the team preforms in Cologne because a lot of people have counted them out already."

Team EG is going to have another chance to redeem themselves after a terrible, jaw-dropping performance in MLG Columbus.

Speaking with Isaac 'Azael' Cummings-Bently of Team EG before he left for the grueling 24-hours of travel time, he seemed pretty confident.

"We know the mistakes we made in Columbus and we've tried our best to fix them. I don't want a repeat of that event and I don't think anyone on my team does either." No one else wants to see a repeat of that tournament either Isaac. Don't fail us.

You also have some tournament newbies in teams like TSG, Holyplay, and Monkey Attack Squad. For more information on these teams check out the audio podcast below.

Make sure to check back next week for tournament results and hopefully not anything explaining why Team EG did so poorly, again.

BROADCAST LINES

This weekend in Cologne, Germany, Blizzard Entertainment hosts its annual qualifiers tournament. The top eight teams from America and Europe will battle it out in World of Warcraft. Up for grabs is four free rides to BlizzCon, one of the biggest gaming conventions of the year. The top two teams from Europe and America will each received airfare and lodging for the event in late August. Make sure to check back next week for results and interviews.

Gravitas reforms after performance at MLG

Gravitas Gaming, a team known for doing well in the 2008 tournament scene, preformed poorly at MLG Columbus early this month. DJ 'celex' Roggenkamp, the captain of the team, has a plan to improve the squad for the next tournament and already taken the first and second steps.

Letting long time friends and teammates Corey 'Emolol' Ratliff and Daniel 'Ely' Vulis go was something Roggenkamp knew had to be done. In their place he believes the much celebrated Priest player Austin 'Toez' Reid and Rogue player Michael 'Evilthief' Edwards will bring a much more explosive play style, making them a tournament level team.

"Toez [Reid] is one of the best Priests I've ever seen play the game," stated Roggenkamp in an interview with GotFrag. "We've been practicing together for about two weeks now and already I believe we'll do well at the next tournament."

Earlier this week Reid sat down for a quick interview.

"I've been looking for a team to play at tournaments for awhile but I refused a lot of offers," said Reid. "Gravitas is a great sponsor and I've followed DJ for quite some time. It should be a great year."

Shortly after speaking with Reid, WorldOfMing reported Gravitas defeating MLG Columbus winners SK-Gaming online along with fourth place team Complexity Gaming. While online play is different from the LAN experience, this is an impressive start for the team.

Tournament scene fanatics have their doubts however because team synergy is not something you pick up over night. Reid is a great player (several claim him to be the best in America) though and if they practice enough - we're talking sleepless and energy drink fueled nights - then perhaps they can win a tournament, or at least do better than their poor performance in Columbus.

Many, including myself, will be taking a wait-and-see approach. World of Warcraft is a game of change so perhaps Gravitas needed some to get back into the swing of things.

BROADCAST LINES
Seasoned team Gravitas Gaming has dropped Corey 'Emolol' Ratliff and Daniel 'Ely' Vulis from the squad. In their place, Austin 'Toez' Reid and Michael 'Evilthief' Edwards hope to rebuild the team. World of Warcraft expert Jared Coulston says the team is now "better than ever."

Captain DJ 'celex' Roggenkamp believes the team to be much stronger now. Gravitas Gaming has already begun practicing online in preperation for the next tournament this August.

SK and eMg take Columbus for America, Europeans win third

The Major League Gaming 2009 PC Circuit kicked off this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio, with upsets and surprises all around and SK-Gaming taking the $9,000 prize.

With a first place finish, SK-Gaming surprised everyone and proved to the rest of the world that America is not behind in the Player-vs-Player (PvP) scene beating out Europeans best Rogue, Mage, Priest Ensidia in mirror matches.

This was icing on top for Ryan 'Realz' Masterson, the captain of SK-Gaming, proving to doubters everywhere that he has what it takes to win another tournament.

eMazing Gaming (eMg) came out on Friday to serve the Europeans a 0-3 loss and were unstoppable until meeting SK in the finals Sunday afternoon after being knocked down to the losers bracket earlier in the day. SK would be the only team to defeat eMg all tournament.

The much hyped Evil Geniuses (EG), who several picked to win the tournament, took last place. Serennia, infamous ex-professional WoW player, was quick to blame zyZ, the Rogue of EG, on his poor play all weekend long.

Last but not least Fnatic, the unofficial champions of 2008, preformed poorly as many expected and Gravitas Gaming were labeled "washed up" by popular blog WorldOfMing.com after the tournament.

We'll have to see what happens for eMg, the Cinderella story of Columbus, as they head to Germany joined by SK in three weeks for the United States Regional tournament with a different roster.

MLG Columbus Results
1st Place: SK Gaming - $9,000 US
2nd Place: eMazing Gaming - $4,500 US
3rd Place: Ensidia - $2,250 US

Air France Flight 447 crashes, 228 dead

Air France Flight 447 carrying 228 people to Paris, France, from Rio de Janerio, Brazil, was reported missing on Monday morning, June 1. It would later be reported that all passengers aboard the Airbus A330 had died.

"This is a catastrophe the likes of which Air France has never seen before," French President Nicolas Sarkozy told CNN reporters at Charles de Gaulle International Airport.

Air France officials told USA Today that an "automatic message" was sent from the plane that indicated an electrical problem as it flew through an area of thunderstorms and turbulence, that "it is uncertain what role -- if any -- that may have had with the flight's disappearance."

Faulty speed-sensors on the side of the plane are now being blamed but Air France Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told reporters that he is "not convinced that the sensors are the cause of the accident." He did however state that the sensors had not been replaced in quite some time.

On board the plane were several nationalities including two Americans, Michael Harris, 60, and his wife, Anne, 54. Michael was a company geologist in Rio de Janerio for Devon Energy based out of Oklahoma.

Mary Miley, sister of Anne, told CNN.com that the couple had been living in the city since July 2008. They were going to Paris for a training seminar for Michael and for a vacation.

Terrorism has not been ruled out as a possible cause of the crash.

World of Warcraft 2009 Season Begins in Ohio this Weekend (Blog Beat Post)

This weekend in Columbus, Ohio, the first event of the Major League Gaming 2009 PC circuit will begin with $15,000 in cash prizes up for grabs.

In the World of Warcraft tournament, seven teams invited from across the United States and one European team will attend the event and a winner will be decided via a round robin tournament with the top four teams advancing to bracket play on Sunday.

GotFrag.com, a popular e-sports hub, has picked the European team Ensidia to take it with their impressive Rogue, Mage, Priest play, citing the team as "one of the best in the world."

American World of Warcraft podcast ArenaCast however claimed Team EG, a team with a ton of history in World of Warcraft e-sports, to win it with their Rogue, Warlock, Shaman to win the tournament due to "the teams power player in the Shaman, Kollektiv."

A live stream of the event can be found at GotFrag.com and MLGPro.com with every match being played at the tournament streamed for viewer consumption. Keith 'Igoaf' Trahan and Jared 'vhell' Coulston will be your hosts for this stream beginning at 6:00 p.m. EST on Friday night.

Make sure to check in next with results from the first tournament of the 2009 WoW season here at Fragged.