Hi all you Warcraft fans out there! I thought long and hard about how to start out this article series. I wanted it to be equal parts welcoming and snarky, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening today. Instead I’ll try to be relatively concise, which might prove to be an even bigger challenge.

Have you ever watched a WC3L-match and thought ”Meh, I wish I could’ve just read the summary.” Well, now you can! I hope to play both the commentator, analyst and devil’s advocate, summarizing WC3L-games as they are played out. I’ll hopefully get to variate between titan clashes, David vs Goliath wars and the Little Leagues as to bring the whole scope of the WC3L experience to you. If nothing else it might be something to waste time on as you’re searching for a game.

Todays game is between SK and aTTaX, the last-minute champions vs the wtfhax-qualifier. SK demolished WE in their first match. One should perhaps not read too much into it since WE didn't play their strongest lineup, and their matchups weren't the best. aTTaX played mTw, winning 3-2. That, however, should be read into since the matchups were quite favorable for mTw.

Lyn [2-0] yAwS

You know, the few games I've seen from yAws before wc3l suggested some of clanmates in KoMa would have little trouble beating him, but after seeing him in the WC3L-qualies and after his victory over Rainbow I no longer doubt his skill. Unfortunately, this is a recent step-up in ability, and it will most likely fall short to Lyn's overwhelming experience.

 

In small ways this is tested on the first map, LT. Finding that Lyn has the spawn closest to his expansion yAws settles for just creeping it out and trying for a caster/breaker tower rush instead. Meanwhile Lyn shifts between harassing and creeping, getting some awesome BM-equipment (2 pairs of gloves and 3 claws of attack). LT is a large map, which favors orcs because of the BM's ability to traverse large distances quickly and harass anywhere, quickly healing with clarities and salves (or the middle fountain in this case) if driven off.

 

Consequently, when yAws' push finaly comes it is too far delayed. With help from the first raider out of the box and a super-boosted BM Lyn takes down yAws' AM. Still, apart from that he gives as much as he takes, killing grunts and raiders for a few casters and leftover footmen. Soon after that, however, comes the deciding moment: yAws units form a conga-line with the MK at the helm. Lyn gratefully accepts this offering and quickly slays it and decisively hacks down the rest of the human army.

 

 Game 2 goes down on TR, where Lyn techs with one burrow and goes for the FS. The game goes badly for yAws as Lyn manages to creep one camp with his ffs while stealing creeps from yAws with his grunts, preventing lvl 2 (!) before tier 2. Continuing in that fashion he steals the Troll Warlord with CL a few minutes later. At this point hope is completely gone for yAws. Lyn's knowledge of creep patterns and yAws' inexperience in dealing with the FS has given the SK:er victory.

ReiGn [2-0] XlorD

It has been said more than once that strategy is dead as far as wc3 is concerned. Basically, the player with the best micro wins. The first game of Reign vs Xlord disproves this. After scouting Xlord's fiend build Reign goes for DK first, ghouls already on the way. He stalks Xlord as he tries to creep, effectively denying him any experience.

And just as Xlord seems to be back in the saddle, along comes a DL and kicks one of his fiends. It's downhill from there. At the end of the game Reign has twice the food of Xlord and 2 expansions. Xlord is completely outwitted.

 

Not outmicroed however, but that is all that let's him stay in this brutal slaughter of a game.

Game 2 shows more of the same when Reign switches over to orc. Even though Xlord can keep up more than well in micro Reign's strategical sense and timing knowledge proves too much of a weight to carry. The game ends as he takes down Xlord's DK at the start of tier 2.

This looks better than it is for Xlord...

ReMinD [2-1] dArk

Remind is simply one class higher than dArk. As much becomes obvious in the first game of this series. To the untrained eye it would seem like dArk is keeping up all the way until the end, but the game-ending decision is of so low caliber that the gap becomes obvious.

Instead of porting in directly to defend against the attack on his burrows dArk tries for a kill on Remind's main tree, something obviously doomed to fail. GG, dArk has nothing to fetch here.... 

 

Or so I thought.

 

Game 2 shows a huge change of pace in dArk's micro. Yes, the map is SV, but if you manage to stop a tower push with hunts, recover enough to put down an expo and still be able to fight and win against THE Reminds main army you have to be doing something right.

 

The third game isn't overly exciting. dArk and Remind run circles around eachother until Remind discovers dArk's expo at which point he is forced into a fight. The dispiriting part is that he doesn't really win it. A few strange mistakes towards the end of the battle settles the game, as dArk needlessly loses his blademaster. Perhaps the staredown of one of the greatest elves was too much for him. Maybe the weight of the moment became too much. Regardless, it was well fought by this German orc.

SoJu [2-1] DeMusliM

To win in wc3 you need 2 of 3 things, game element-wise: income, hero levels or tech units. If you can hold 2 of these over the last one you will most likely win. The first game between Soju and DeMuslim is a good example of that.

 

DeMuslim goes for a fast expansion and uses his AM as bait to lure away the DH so that the towers can finish. But Soju is used to this kind of behaviour. He techs straight to bears and creeps up his DH and panda, and right before DeMuslim can begin his caster production he hits his (less defended) main base.

 

Even though he is beaten back he now has both heroes close to 5 and a large tech army. It still gets rather exiting towards the end as Soju loses his panda, but the usual game-ender, Meta, kicks in.

 

For game 2 Soju prepares to Moon DeMuslim (not literally) with some sweet Warden usage. However, Soju isn't the only one who has been studying. DeMuslim pulls of a perfectly timed tower rush to even out the expansion Soju has set up, and employs an army of Shredders (Immune to all of Warden's spells. Clever boy!) to fight off his harass attempts.

Both players live on the edge, using all kinds of goblin units, but in the end Soju loses his Warden and the game ends. 1-1!

 

Last game is a disappointment. Basically, DeMuslim starts making macro mistakes and even loses his AM too easy. He surrenders in what I believe to be frustration as Soju runs circles around him.

 

Shredded elves... Can't use SS on those, can you?

ReMinD, SoJu [2-1] yAwS , dArk

We're of to a rousing start in the 2s; a favorite discipline of mine. Not only because of how the strenghts of different races can combine into a solid ball of imbalance, but because of the element of randomness that is far larger here than in a solo game.

 
Not even SK-sponsored dryads stand long against mortar fire...

Part of this is apparent in the first match that starts out with SK playing tag with yAws' AM, a game which ends with its demise at the hands of the BM of Remind. Creeping ensues. SK steamrolls into his base, but reinforced by yAws' Mortar batallion they are diriven off. A bunch of dryads go down + another fairy (aka the BM). After another stint of creeping SK musters their forces for the final assault.

However, in what was perhaps a critical mistake, SK backpedals into the choke-point ahead of dArk's base where they are bombarded by mortar fire from behind the cover of knights, kodos and grunts. The game ends with a victory team aTTaX. Game two is a clear display of how the ability to adapt is the key to victory.

Game 2 goes down on TM, and shows an interesting strategy that really should've been better prepared. aTTaX tries to tower rush, but being to undecisive in what to focus down the rush grinds to a halt. Instead yAws tries to build one of those rifle/caster armies of ancient times while dArk does the orc articlei (grunts/raiders/walkers). All of this, however, gets melted down to slag by an angry panda with pendant of mana and a sobi mask. aTTaX can do nothin but cry and hope for a new patch before the next games starts.

Faced with the exact same strategy as the first game, SK prepares to counter. Granted, that might not have been possible had they not won the skirmish at Soju's base. dArk loses his BM and most of his army too, and prepared from the previous game Remind makes sure to cancel the war mill of dArk to prevent kodo construction while Soju quickly techs to bears as to not be as vulnerable to mortar fire. This tactic works perfectly and SK vanquishes aTTaX, like dry grass in a firestorm.

Conclusion: It is hard to judge to any useful extent as to what degree lag was a factor in this clan war, but I'm going to assume that is was relatively small. And with that issue out of the way I'm prepared to make an overall analysis. Many, if not all of the players representing aTTaX in this clan war have improved immensely in a short time when it comes to pure multitasking. Both DeMuslim and dArk came close to winning their matches, but for both of them something happened at the end. I call lack of experience.

DeMuslim had worked out an impressive strategy for his game on TS and his loss on EI was purely conincidental. In his last game however, he seemed stumped, unable to see a path to victory. dArk seemed like a completely different player in game 2 and 3 as compared to game 1, but at the end of game 3, during the final battle, he suffered from paralysié géneral, not doing his best to defeat Remind.

Grubby often spoke in interviews about being able to visualize what a win on a certain map against a certain player would be like, what would be neccesary and how it would come to pass. With that image in mind all one has to do is reach for it, make it real. The players of aTTaX lacks the experience on their new-found skill level necessary to make such a visualization against players such as Remind and Soju. Xlord fought back hard against Reign in the first match, but it was clear he was unsure of what to do to regain the initiative. Same goes for yAws' second game against Lyn.

The players of aTTaX simply lack experience. The longer they play in WC3L, the better they will become, and eventually they might even be one of the top competitors rather than the underdog they appear as today. 

myMYM.com WC3L Coverage