Both teams have been fighting eachother in the top of the Bloodlust 5vs5 ladder for a few weeks now, and before the match Neilyo thought it was going to be a tough match as they have been pretty much trading wins in the ladder, with a slight advantage for SK.

SK however prooved to be too strong for the highest rated 2345 team in BG9, as they won three consecutive matches.

SK's mage Mattyo talks us trough the three games.

Game 1, Nagrand Arena
The first match was on Nagrand arena. I felt that we had something of a psychological edge over NWM as we had found something of an optimal strategy to use against 2345, that we have used against NWM in the past that they couldn’t seem to counter. The first game was the only game which Neil got a clean opener, with a sap on mage (Capstone) and an opener on Ely (Priest). Mike moved in for a couple burns, giving our team a mana advantage over them early. We swapped to the mage after we had done some damage to the priest, and began putting pressure on him, forcing a block. Gumbot took early focus from ele sham/warrior, but they coordinated a well-timed swap to Mike (Gumbot called it, which allowed Pronne to get some HoTs going on Mike). Pronne was able to keep Mike up, and with a CS on Dejj we were able to drop the mage.



Game 2, Nagrand Arena
The next bout was on Nagrand, but Neil got pulled out of stealth, and couldn’t get a sap off. We still focused on the priest, getting early burns off on Ely. Neil got CCed a bit, and we swapped onto mage. I could feel pressure and blew an early block, and then I kited warrior and shaman back to our end of the arena, where Pronne and I were able to CC both of them out of range of dispellers. Neil/Gumbot had already done some good work on the mage, and we took the kill with CC/CS on paladin and priest.



Game 3, Ruins of Lordaeron
The final match was on Ruins, and we stuck to the same strat. Neil opened on Ely, we began burning both life and mana. They put quite a bit of pressure on me early, which forced me again to kite back, this time to our starting arena, and we had a close call with me nearing 25% taking burst from shaman with the warrior on me. This time the priest and warrior followed, and we were able to CC the warrior in the backfield. However, by this time the game was already over, as Gumbot and Neil had laid some huge hurt on the mage. Gumbot finished this game with over 70K damage.



Final Comments
Euro Druid/Rogue has some amazing CC, and it is devastatingly effective when the opposing team is spread out, especially with druid’s CC on warrior/paladin, mage’s on priest/warrior, and warlock CoT/fear on shaman against 2345. My favorite aspect of the comp is that there is always one DPS freecasting, even if one comes under focus. If Gumbot is focused, I can free-shatter. If I am focused Gumbot can chain cast shadowbolts. If they split, we have a massive amount of CC to free up one of the casters.

Video, POV SK|Neilyo
A video from the two last games, POV of SK|Neilyo (Rogue) can be downloaded here (prefered) or streamed below.



Bloodlust Invitational 5vs5 Brackets