The first Bloodlust(BG9) 5v5 Invitiational Tournament kicks off this friday, Feb. 15th. Teams that have been invited has all been notified and I will need contact from a representative of their team to verify rosters and captains on the team. You can contact me through email, Gameriot, and BG9 IRC or Vent.

Rules and Info on the event can be found here and www.battlegroup9.com/tournament/

Update: teh supeh gosus will replace Avant Garde in the tournament. More details on teh supeh gosus from Sen'jin below.

UPDATE(2/18/08)
Rules: http://www.battlegroup9.com/bg9tourneyruleset.doc
Brackets: http//www.battlegroup9.com/bg9tourney.xls

Teams must take screenshots of each round of games in order to provide match evidence

Team Breakdowns

Rogue/Druid Euro Teams
(Rogue, Druid, Mage, Warlock, Priest)
- fNatic.WoW
- SK-Gaming USA

2346
(Warrior, Paladin, Ele Shaman, Warlock, Priest)
- Capslock Crew
- Shuttlecocks

Drain Team(Hunter/Lock)
(Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Warlock, Priest)
- Slackers

MoB Gaming TFO
(Warrior, Resto Shaman, Hunter, Mage, Paladin)
- fresh out the boat

2345
(Warrior, Shaman, Paladin, Priest, Mage)
- wat now mothafuka

Paladin/Druid
(Warrior, Paladin, Druid, Mage, Warlock)
- teh supeh gosus

First Round Matches:

Capslock Crew vs fnatic.WoW
fresh out the boat vs teh supeh gosus
Slackers vs SK-Gaming
wat now mothafuka vs Shuttlecocks

Match Schedule:

Round 1 – 2/15/08-2/18/08 (This means the round begins on 12:00am, 2/15/08 and ends at 11:59pm, 2/18/08)

Round 2 WB and Round 1 LB 2/19/08-2/21/08

Round 3 WB and Round 2 LB 2/22/08-2/25/08

Semi-Finals – 2/26/08-2/29/08

Finals - 3/1/08

SK-Gaming USA Tichondrius (Euro Druid/Rogue)
Neilyo and company have the highest rated "Euro Comp" team on the BG9 Bloodlust 5v5 laddder. This team has a core of players that have been playing together for quite sometime and used their 3v3 meta-gaming matrix to expand into a full 5s team. SK-Gaming has hosted a sample of their team in action and can be found here. (Note: Teams on bloodlust actually call this comp "Euro Comp" when they see it.)

fnatic.WoW Tichondrius (Euro Druid/Rogue)
The core of team fnatic has been running their particular lineup in 3s since the beginning of season 1, and have been noted that their strongest 3s lineup contains the core needed to run this team. So it is no surprise that fnatic.Insurrection choose to run this lineup and picked up a priest/rogue.

CAPSLOCK CREW Tichondrius (2346)
CAPSLOCK CREW transferred to BG9 during S2 and has established themselves as the benchmark 5s team to beat in the battlegroup. The 2346 lineup was never considered stronger than the 2345 lineup until CLC showed BG9 how to play it. No other 5s team in the world has logged more games together than CLC but recently they switched out the long-time paladin 'Clicker' for 'Elessarz' formally of cutebabyelephants. Their warrior Inactive released a short video found here.

Shuttlecocks Blackrock (2346)
Shuttlecocks have made a name for themselves this season. Their original team, "Conquered" from season 1 regionals has only retained 3 of the original members and picked up 2 new members when transferred to Blackrock. Their paladin is one of two in the tournament that has the best PvE gear available, which is the only class that PvE gear makes much of a difference for. Their priest 'Dw' is creditted for making the MagicTrack add-on and was interviewed by Jasi which can be found here. Shuttlecocks currently is the #1 rated team in BG9.

fresh out the boat Tichondrius (TFO)
This team is probably the biggest dark-horse in the tournament. Relatively unknown by the team name, the team is actually consisted of some of the best wow all-stars on Tichondrius. Their warrior, 'Beastlol', was the leader of Team Overrated back in season 1 in the Qualifiers and has gotten a lot of recognition since being on BG9, their mage is played by MoB Gaming's 'Ohnoes', Hunter is played by 'Reznap' of TeamPandemic, shaman is 'Kollektiv' who is also considered one the best of his class, and their paladin is 'Dudslol' who played for Check-Six in WSVG and is considered one of the best paladins in the game as well. With this collection of talent, there's nothing less but high expectations for this team.

Slackers Tichondrius (Drain Team)
The only drain team in the tournament, this team had to go through some changes because of their Warlock/Paladin being commited to other teams in the tournament. Their original Paladin, 'Dudslol', has been replaced by 'Sck' of TeamPandemic. 'Gumbot' of SK-Gaming, has been replaced by 'EvilTurkey'. Though they've had to deal with finding and playing with new teammates, their core has been playing together on Tichondrius since launch. Their priest 'Swarm' has released several videos online and has gained recognition as one of the best all-around priests in the battlegroup.

wat now mothafuka Tichondrius (2345)
This team's core used to be called 'Capthejeegseia'. They recently transferred to Tich and have made a splash into the 5v5 scene because of this tournament. They were the #1 team in season 1 on battlegroup rampage and finished top 5 in season 2. This team usually switches off from running 2345 and 2346 but will not run 2346 because of their warlock having prior commitments. Jasi from WoM coined this team the "New Threat" and you can read his article here.

teh supeh gosus Sen'jin (Paladin/Druid)
This team is quite unique, maybe the most unique set-up and squad in the entire world. They're one of the only PVE realm based teams that achieved Merciless Gladiator, over on BG3 Ruin. They transferred to BG9 to play tougher competition and they prove to PVE players alike that you can succeed in arena as long as you put your mind to it. They run a unique composition of Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Mage, Warlock in which has the same principles of an 3DPS team but with a warrior. This team is quite the 'anti-warlock' comp as other teams in the battlegroup like to call them.

Unable to Attend:
AvantGarde Kil'Jaeden (2346)
AvantGarde is the only team that's contains members all originally from BG9. This group has been playing together since season 1 and is one of the most consistant teams in the ladder. Their paladin 'Zilea' is infamous for his blog on gameriot and is one of two extremely well-geraed paladins in the tournament. Their warrior 'Hoodrych' is also considered one of the best warriors(Along with Noktyn and Inactive) in the battlegroup. Their team took a hit early this season when their shaman 'Gclol' left. He has now been replaced by 'Memri', who's done a great job in his place.

Bloodlust Tournament #1 Rules and Info Post here.

Admins:
Trance
Vhell
Ghrwin
Jasi

irc.gamesurge.net #battlegroup9