Second day of the MDI Global Finals, second victory for our World of Warcraft team! The game against Perplexed was much tighter than the one against Legendary, but Mandatory’s consistency paid off. Mandatory wins the match 2-1 and will therefore face Echo, the five-time world champions, Sunday April 2 at 7 p.m.
Maps and affixes of the match
Map 1 : Temple of Jade Serpent
The meeting starts rather badly for Mandatory. The team plays a more efficient, but much less safe composition by opting for a Warrior rather than a Paladin as a tank and Death Knight rather than Shaman as DPS. They pay the price quickly, since Crims dies against the first boss. The penalty of a few seconds late will persist throughout the dungeon and push Mandatory to play even more aggressively.
Even though Mandatory manages to catch up against the second boss, the team again loses time against the third and penultimate boss of the map. Perplexed therefore seemed to have a fifteen second lead before the final showdown.
But Perplexed’s strategy will play them a bad trick. While they are forced to face the last monsters in two rounds, Mandatory faces them all at once. The teams are then neck and neck and only the time penalty against the first boss seems to differentiate the two teams.
It is ultimately the composition of Perplexed that will precipitate their defeat. By favoring the Shaman over the Death Knight, Perplexed does not have enough to quickly get rid of a powerful add of Sha of Doubt, the last boss of the dungeon. They start by losing Wolfdisco, then Ashine, two of their DPS. In a panic, Perplexed suffers the Thundering affix which immobilizes all players and causes a wipe.
Mandatory wins despite a little scare.
Map 2 : Halls of Valor
Back in the Halls of Valor, Mandatory gets ahead from the start. Not only do they finish the first boss faster, but Perplexed also suffers a first death. The management of the map is excellent on the Mandatory side. The Explosion affix doesn’t seem to bother them so much, as does the barrage of energy balls thrown by Hyrja, the second boss.
Before entering the portal leading to Fenryr, Maystine goes alone into the forest to send the deer into the jaws of a dragon, allowing the team to earn percentages for free. The strategy against Fenryr is the same as the day before: attract the aggro of all the wolves in the region in order to take advantage of a buff allowing you to take down the boss more quickly. Despite Maystine’s death, Mandatory has a good 20 second lead after the third boss.
It is finally against the four kings that things will go wrong. The team fails to simultaneously attract the attention of the monarchs, which forces them to face a group of 3, then 1 last. Perplexed doesn’t have this problem and goes all the way back.
Despite excellent DPS, Mandatory fails to come back against Odyn and Perplexed finally wins the second round.
Map 3 : Shadowmoon Burial Grounds
Everything was therefore played on the third and last map of the meeting. As always, Mandatory takes all the risks and opts for a Glass Cannon composition (very powerful, but very fragile). This composition forces them to give Perplexed a bit of a head start at the start of the game, but normally comes into its own at the end of the dungeon.
Mandatory is however a huge fright. She mistakenly attracts the attention of a monster very powerful who will come to poke Moadmoad in the middle of a fight on the road to the third boss. Already more fragile than normal, Mandatory is forced to deal with this threat to kill the worm, before backtracking to eliminate the inopportune pester. Moadmoad must then distribute his care between him and Skylarked who comes close to death on several occasions.
Fortunately, against Bonemaw, Perplexed suffers a death that puts the teams in a tie. A few seconds later, Perplexed suffers the effects of Thundering again and loses one of his DPS. In addition to the penalty, the loss of damage slows down our opponents enormously. Mandatory only has to play it safe to validate the map and qualify for the Winner final of the MDI Global Finals.
