Twelve teams walked into the Warsaw Expo XXI convention center yesterday with dreams of glory at the Wargaming.net League Grand Finals, the annual tournament to discover the best World of Tanks teams. Four have gone home.
Battle Report: Main Stage Action From The World Of Tanks Grand Finals, Day 1
The fighting was fierce but surprisingly lopsided. Among the six Main Stage games, screened live in front of a packed crowd, only one ever managed to reach the seventh round of play. Most teams asserted dominance from the beginning and refused to let go, with their opponents scraping together only a pyrrhic, face-saving victory. The games were so one-sided that fans had to endure an hour long wait between Main Stage matches. The original schedule was designed for longer play matches; nobody expected the sheer amount of rounds that were over within 90 seconds!
Ultimately, the cards fell largely how they were meant to. Reigning champions Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) from RU/CIS utterly annihilated both of their opponents - the two Chinese representatives EL Gaming and RG Razer - the latter of whom was eliminated from competition after being overwhelmed utterly and completely during their two matches. Watching Na'Vi, it is easy to understand why they're the favorites: clinical doesn't even begin to describe their complete dominance of the low ranked teams. We hope the semifinals will provide them with better, more seasoned challengers.
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In what was a disappointing showing, both North American teams - Rulette and Elevate - were eliminated from competition. It was a blow to American pride; this could have been our year. Elevate's matches were in quick succession at the end of the day - and during their joust with Virtus Pro (EU representative) - it was a bloodbath. The North American's only victory came during round four when they simply outlasted the aggressive EU team during a match in Ruinberg. Virtus won handily, 5-1. They fared worse against Russian representative WP.SC6 (Santa Claus and Six Deers) on the second stage, falling 5-0 in a rout.
The other American team, Rulette, were also wiped off the floor by their competitors, losing 5-0 to Schoolbus. They showed some spunk against Yato Gaming - though they were outlasted during the first round of the match, it was a dogfight - and even taking the third round while on Defense after it came down to a one on one duel for victory. Yato took the next by capture, but Rulette exacted revenge with another victory. Ultimately, the Americans fell on the seventh map, and with it, the hopes and dreams of a nation.
Someday, North America will be a heavy contender in the non-FPS eSports world. But it is not today.
The rest of the results are:
Main Stage:
Kazna Kru vs Arete: 5-1
EL Gaming vs RG Razer: 5-0
Schoolbus vs Yato Gaming: 5-2
Natus Vincere vs RG Razer: 5-0
Hellraisers vs Kazna Kru: 5-0
Elevate vs Virtus Pro: 5-1
Second Stage:
Natus Vincere vs EL Gaming: 5-0
Arete vs Hellraisers: 4-5
Virtus Pro vs WP.SC6: 3-5
Schoolbus vs Rulette: 5-0
WP.SC6 vs Elevate: 5-0
Rulette vs Yato: 2-5
Eight teams remain, but only one will be left standing by the time the sun sets tonight. Who will it be? Tune into the official Wargaming Twitch stream all day long to find out.
Watch live video from WGLNA on www.twitch.tv
