Two month time has flow by since the opening day of WC3L Season XIV, and we lucky spectators who pay nothing to watch, have enjoyed hundreds of dazzling games thanks to the players who have not only taken the game to the next level, but also competition for the top two spots which are rewarded direct qualification to the finals.

Failing to obtain direct qualification to the finals would not be a total failure as you still have a second chance to play the playoffs if your team places between 3 and 6 place. However, due to such keen competition this season and with the skill gap between top 6 is closer than ever, no one would be willing to play an extra “make or break” match when the regular season concludes.

Therefore we are going to examine the vital matches in the eleventh match day involving Fnatic, mTw, Meet Your Makers, SK Gaming and World Elite and see which two will be the winners of the regular season.

Meet Your Makers vs. wNv Teamwork 16:00 CET, Thursday, October 9, 2008

Meet Your Makers

Current position: 4th(34 Points, 7-0-3)

Latest run:
0-4 vs. Fnatic
2-3 vs. mTw
5-0 vs. Raptor
5-0 vs. nWo
3-2 vs. WE

1on1
Secret Valley
Twisted Meadows
Terenas Stand
Ancient Isles
2on2
Lost Temple

Two matches ago who would have thought MYM, with 4 points separating them from second placed mTw and WE, would be struggling for a top two? Following two straight defeats to two of their major competitors, mTw and fnatic with 2-3 and 0-4 respectively, they are now trailing behind WE with two points in spite of having a postponed game in hand. For that reason, they have to collect 3 more points from wNv than WE have collected from ALTERNATE, or 2 more points should Grubby win his postponed game against MinHyuk.

The pre-decided maps have been listed above and the map pool is slightly favouring the Dreamteam with Ancient Isles, Terenas Stand and Twisted Meadows. These maps, which they have not got to play on in the past two matches are particularly good for their Undead pair Lucifer and Susiria as well as Night Elf pair Moon and SocceR. However, it may not seem to be such an enjoyable match for the wNv players when they meet the likes of Lucifer and Moon, and play on the maps they have just won a couple of times throughout the whole season.

Though wNv successfully wiped 1 point off mTw last match and left the latter in a much harder situation, it would be highly unlikely that they will do it again when they meet those disgruntled star players who are yearning for victory.

World Elite vs. Team ALTERNATE 16:30 CET, Wednesday, October 15, 2008

World Elite

Current position: 2nd(36 Points, 8-0-2)

Latest run:
3-2 vs. SK Gaming
5-0 vs. nGize
2-3 vs. mTw
4-1 vs. wNv Teamwork
3-2 vs. Fnatic

1on1
Terenas Stand
Secret Valley
Gnoll Wood
Lost Temple
2on2
Avalanche

The Chinese elite are in a pole position as WC3L enters the last match day. With 1 point on top of mTw they will directly qualify for the finals without having to look at their competitors’ results, should they score 4 points against the Germans.

But is the German team such a walkover? In spite of losing two-thirds of their matches so far this season, ALTERNATE have scored two points against mTw, and they merely lost 2-3 to the Chinese side in their last encounter, which also happened on the last match day last season.

The map pool provides WE plenty of space to weigh different seeding. Terenas Stand and Lost Temple seem to an easy call given they have the terrifying Human duo infi and Sky, while they will have to think through how to seed Like and suhO on Secret Valley and Gnoll Wood. Their Undead phenomenon TeD in the meantime, will also be an option for Secret Valley, as he is nearly the only “Orc effect” immune Undead player on professional level and having no naked weakness against any races.

Nevertheless scheduled for October 15, they will have plenty of time observing how many points fnatic, mTw and MYM will have in the end and then decide what kind of approach they should have to the match.

SK Gaming vs. nGize 17:00 CET, Monday, October 20, 2008

SK Gaming

Current position: 5th(34 Points, 8-0-2)

Latest run:
2-3 vs. World Elite
4-1 vs. Team ALTERNATE
5-0 vs. Keeper of Destruction
5-0 vs. NoWAYouT
3-2 vs. Gravitas Gaming

1on1
Turtle Rock
Lost Temple
Echo Isles
Melting Valley
2on2
Avalanche

SK Gaming are currently sitting at fifth place with the same points as MYM. The team is enduring a fairly disappointing season and is on the verge of suffering an even greater loss if they fall flat qualifying for the finals. However they have only lost two matches this season, they could only settle for 3-2 wins when they met teams from the bottom half. Without a cheeky 4-1 victory over their arch rivals MYM, they would be unable to have a chance to pursue for a top two place.

Following a 2-3 defeat to WE last round they have to collect themselves right away as they have little margin for error against their last opponent nGize. The unfortunate German team were smashed by the other four title contenders with either 4-1 or 5-0 this season, and they have lost both DemusliM and ShrieK who called time on gaming career recently.

SK players have rarely played on the pre-decided maps for this playday except for Lost Temple which appeared more than three times this season. Similar to WE vs. ALTERNATE, the map pool leaves a lot of room for different match-ups if both team managers attempt to outwit each other.

We again expect to see SK winning with maximum points. Not because of how good they are, but collecting anything other than 5 points against nGize will dash their hope of direct qualification and hopefully this will boost their adrenaline.

Fnatic vs. mTw (Match of the week) 15:00 CET, Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Fnatic

Current position: 1st(37 Points, 7-0-3)

Latest run:

4-0 vs. Meet Your Makers
5-0 vs. wNv Teamwork
5-0 vs. Team ALTERNATE
5-0 vs. Keeper of Destruction
2-3 vs. World Elite

mTw

Current position: 3rd(35 Points, 9-0-1)

Latest run:

4-1 vs. wNv Teamwork
3-2 vs. Meet Your Makers
3-2 vs. World Elite
1-4 vs. Gravitas Gaming
3-2 vs. Team ALTERNATE

1on1
Ancient Isles
Twisted Meadows
Melting Valley
Gnoll Wood
2on2
Gnoll Wood

Fnatic on top of the league? No, we are not talking about CS here. While their CS team has lately fallen to the ground in various tournaments, their WC3 team has risen from mediocrity to one of the best teams in the scene. Though they have lost the most among the top 5, they managed to win their matches against lower-ranked teams by great margin, and yesterday’s 4-0 shocker against MYM puts them on top.

Reborn mTw, rather known as the former BET quartet, continue their consistent run in WC3L this season. They have won all of their vital matches against other top 5 teams, and they were considered having the direct qualification in hand together with MYM earlier this season. However their hopes were later on hammered by a 1-4 defeat to Gravitas Gaming and dropped some important points to ALTERNATE and wNv. That said, all is not lost.

From Fnatic’s point of view, they have Shy and Space available for Ancient Isles and Twisted Meadows and Orc pair MinHyuk and FoCuS for Melting Valley and Gnoll Wood. This is the most common seeding for them this season. But having successfully lured MYM’s manager in last match day, Noname will definitely try to outwit his opponent again.

Now let’s see what kind of approach mTw will have to this match. Ancient Isles and Twisted Meadows seem to be ideal for WinNers and FoV, as well as Melting Valley and Gnoll Wood for Check and WhO. If this is the case for Fnatic, then seeding Space on Ancient Isles, FoCuS on Twisted Meadows, Shy on Melting Valley and MinHyuk on Gnoll Wood to catch respective opponents will hand them a better shot to win.

But mTw is not stupid. They could also presume that Fnatic make those seeding in order to get match-ups favouring them. Therefore they can opt to put FoV on Ancient Isles, WinNers on Twisted Meadows, WhO on Melting Valley and Check on Gnoll Wood.

What if Fnatic knows mTw are going to seed based on the assumption above and just make the most common seeding? Shy vs. FoV on Ancient Isles, Space vs. WinNers on Twisted Meadows, MinHyuk vs. WhO on Melting Valley and FoCuS vs. Check on Gnoll Wood doesn’t seem to be a bad one for them either.

3-2 either way will probably turn out to be a lose-lose situation for both sides as they will both drop out of top two if either two of WE, MYM and SK win their matches by 5-0. Again, the postponed game between Grubby and MinHyuk is rather crucial for the whole situation. All in all, we as spectators are the real winner who always can expect high quality games come on stage.

Who will break into top two in the end? What are the match-ups in the playoffs for the finals? Have your say below.

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Photos by ESL