#10 Treacherous Empire [Te] vs. #19 Esoteric Warriors [EW] - Game 2 of 3
Match Infos
  • Category: Guild Wars Factions Championship · Quarterfinals
  • Guild hall: Nomad's Isle.
  • Defends: Te defends.
Videos
Capes
1 7
Acid Ftww
1 7
Electron Theory
5 3
Dorm Actually Pved
8 5
Elendars Pruple
3 5
Shad Lovely
3 5
Nick Oeuf
3 5
Dephria Cadbury
6 3
Mee Tie
1 6
Im A Paladin
7 6
Sheep Will Kill You
5 6
Kriegar Shutdown
5 3
The Ballard Of Bob
6 3
Kar Strike
2 5
Trex Wind
3 5
Awowa Prime
3 5
Stepn Vapor Rub
Note: some skill descriptions may have changed since this match was played. Highlight the skills with a red border to see these changes.
Match report

If Game 1 told the story of last minute failures and could-have-been's for Te, Game 2 was the absolute polar opposite when it came down to crunch-time decisions. Sure, there was a preceding half-hour that set the stage for the VoD heroics, but it was the last minute decisions and calls that decided the victor in this game.

Te and EW came in with incredibly disparate strategies. For EW, they looked to hold onto their lead and play their conservative RenO-inspired spike build, hoping to re-create past successes at VoD thanks to their Ritualist and Smite support. Across the isle, Te were taking their tournament lives in their hands by running their still fairly un-proven Ladder build from this past season, which features an Illusion Mesmer and Assassin gank threat, along with a solidly defensive flag stand team.

Right from the start, Te got to work on splitting up their European counterparts, while surviving through the rather infrequent Death's Charge spikes. Elendar's Ritualist played havoc with Sheep's ability to adequately snipe Archers on the perimeter of EW's base, forcing a mobile and adaptive response from the rest of Te, who adjusted their positioning to that of a pincer formation, trapping EW and negating their ability to run flags with any efficacy. Kills from either side were almost unseen, as the nature of the positioning and morale disparity meant the level of action was halted to a complete stalemate yet again. EW was content to position their Ritualist up above the rest of the team, and mostly out of harm's way, while Te were able to basically dictate the flow of the map thanks to their increased Health and Energy pools (Nomad's Isle eats your energy!), and the constant threat of ganking EW should they pull out of their base for a flag push.

With VoD closing in, Te made their move and made their adjustments. Rearranging their pincer structure to include Trex's Crippling Shot Ranger alongside the Assassin, and sending Bob's Mesmer back down to the main team, Sheep successfully pulled both of EW's Bodyguards away from their path to the flag stand. Caught unprepared, EW could only look on as Trex soloed one guard and Sheep soloed the other. In the rush that followed, Awowa and Bob met back up with the gank team, and moved as one to EW's Guild Lord. Forced to completely fall back and support, Te came together as well for the first time in the match, and simply delayed until the Lords moved to the center at 35 minutes. They'd learned from the previous game, and watched vigilantly for the Lords to find their "marks," closing the match out in fine fashion, and forcing a third and final game.

~Joshua Lovejoy (GuildWars.com)