#6 Idiot Savants [iQ] vs. #30 War Machine [WM] - Game 2 of 3
Match Infos
  • Category: Guild Wars Factions Championship · Finals
  • Guild hall: Isle of Jade.
  • Match duration: 37:24
  • Defends: iQ defends.
Videos
Capes
1 4
오장님
1 4
멘토 라이프
2 5
Wm First Queen
2 5
Wm Ab
5 4
Wm Sup Geabegigigig
6 3
Luar Planeswalker
3 5
리 리 뽁
3 5
Wm Berry
1 4
Lara Valor
1 6
Big Mchugelarge
2 5
I Go Real
5 4
Rayne Eternal
1 4
Celestia Valkyria
6 3
Nalesia Alvindi
3 5
Red Bars Go Up
3 5
Sarus Backup Bot
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

"Finesse" is not one of the words I would use to describe the action in Game 2. In all honesty, I felt like iQ outplayed WM in many ways during this particular contest, but they failed to output the kind of map and build coordination that had been so dominant in previous home games, along with a few key errors along the way. War Machine, on the other hand, came packing a modification of KGYU's Season 2 build, including Mantra of Inscriptions and Signet of Humility on the Mesmer/Necromancer (so good!). Their adaptations were slightly odd, though - a Fire Elementalist in place of a Water Elementalist meant much greater damage at the flag stand, but quite a loss on defense and snare ability. In addition, they chose to run two Axe Warriors, one of whom was still proudly carrying on the Shield Bash tradition he'd begun in the previous game. They pressured through degen, but were often more focused on trying to spike, and more peculiar yet was the fact that their primary spike targets were almost always Warriors.

Early on, impressive condition pressure that WM had slapped on iQ led to a complete wipe and withdrawal from the flag stand. From that moment forward, it seemed as though iQ just lost interest in running the flag, giving up morale boosts continually, despite a series of successful spike kills and pressure kills.

War Machine suffered from a lack of cohesion throughout the entire match, forming disjointed line structures and extending their team in both directions. Warriors pressured too far without adequate Monk support and died relatively frequently. Monks kited pressure too far away from the rest of their team, leading to several losses, including a string of four kills that almost turned the tide around the 19 minute mark. But with morale boosts continuing to fuel their attack, it amounted to little more than a hiccup in the grander scheme of the match. The build that WM had selected had a fairly high margin of error, and mostly required each member to just keep attacking - the damage, degen, and interrupts, when given time to fester and take on a life of their own, are just too much for most builds to handle without significant map control.

Like clockwork, each and every time iQ's Elementalist attempted to push forward to assist, and stopped using Heal Party and Extinguish, even briefly, iQ utterly collapsed. Such was the case going into VoD, where iQ found themselves rebounding off a fresh set of deaths, at a considerable morale deficit, and hoping to pull some kind of last-minute magic out with the help of their NPC's.

Sending off a Warrior to gank in attempt to split War Machine even slightly, iQ succeeded only in delaying what was soon clearly an out of hand situation at the flag stand. A complete NPC set, continued degen overload, and VoD-buffed Rodgort's Invocations spelled disaster for iQ as they walked to the middle. It was short and certainly not pretty, and left the Savants with only one option remaining; the trusty all-out gank.

DP'd and weary after a long couple of days' play, they trudged through the Spiked Coral, fully aware that they probably wouldn't make it to the other side. Yet again, they displayed their never-say-die attitude, but it just wasn't meant to be on this day. After ending the brief threat, WM made absolutely certain that they did not repeat their errors from Game 1, staying firmly planted in their NPC's and waiting for the entrance of iQ's Guild Lord.

~Joshua Lovejoy (GuildWars.com)