WM's Build: This is a pressure build with heavy Energy denial. It relies on the Energy denial from the Mesmers to overwhelm its enemies while laying on sustained damage from the Warriors. For anti-Warrior defense, WM utilizes an Air/Water hybrid, two Mesmers (positions 2 and 6) utilizing Spirit of Failure, and one Price of Failure (on Mesmer 7).

Rift's Build: Rift's build relies less on Energy denial and uses more Warrior pressure. Their Mesmers are equipped to help shut down Monks with Diversion and some Energy denial while they use Draw Conditions to keep the Warriors Condition-free. For Warrior defense they rely on an Air Elementalist with Ward against Melee and Blinding Flash.

This match started with WM going with a 4/4 split (four to the flag, and four to Rift's base) while Rift answered with their own 4/4 split. At about 1:00 WM pulled the Warrior from their attacking team and sent him to the flag stand, creating a five vs. four battle in their favor. After a few seconds of fighting WM lost Monk # 8, but Rifts lost Monk #4 as well as Mesmer #3, who was carrying the flag. WM returned Rift's flag, and planted their own at roughly 1:45.

As Rift tried to push out another flag, their flag carrier (#7) drew the focus of WM while both teams set up for a battle that occurred between Rift's base and the flag stand. The pressure/shutdown from WM's Mesmers was too much, and at 2:58 Rift #7 went down and their flag was returned. WM kept the pressure on and at 3:48 they got their first morale boost.

Rift tried to push another flag around the 6:00 mark. Initially Rift #7 had the flag, but he took pressure and switched the flag off to Rift #1. Rift #1 circled onto the ice near the middle of the map, and looked as if he had a clear path to the flag. WM saw this, and their Warriors and Elementalist converged on him, killing him at 6:10. Again their flag was returned and Rifts, fighting a six vs. eight battle, was forced to retreat.

At 8:30 Rift initiated a split, sending their players in positions #1, 2, 3 and 4 to WM's base. They were able to do a sizeable amount of damage, killing two archers quickly. Between 10:00 and 14:00 Rift used their two Warriors to take down NPCs while the rest of their team defended against WM's assault. During the split, WM lost one bodyguard (Rift lost Warrior #1 in the process) and all but three archers. Rift still had both bodyguards and 4 archers.

Both teams went back and forth with capping the flag, but Rift never committed to any eight vs. eight fights. Instead they stayed split and mobile. WM was able to contain Rift's splits, and at 20:00 they had all of Rift pinned into their base.

It was at this point that WM's Mesmers really started to shine. Their three Energy Surges combined for a considerable amount of AOE (area-of-effect) damage. This, combined with their shutdown, turned out to be more pressure than Rift could withstand. At 22:40 the Energy Surges hit one right after the other, and in a single volley, most of Rift was below 50% health.

At 23:00 WM was able to get a bodyguard down, and Rift started to go down one at a time. By 25:20 both Monks were down, followed by the Guild Lord, who fell near the 26-minute mark.