The Plantronics Battle of the Best with Ensidia vs. Method was the highlight of the Games Convention Online 2009 at Leipzig. Two of the most succesful World of Warcraft PvE-Guilds showed us a fantastic race in Ulduar and we will give you a short summary of the most important moments here.
You can also find the DPS-stats on the following pages.
All our expectations on the Plantronics Battle of the Best were excelled. More than 22000 stream slots were taken at a snap and we had to find some backup capacity to let more fans on the stream. Unfortunately not everyone was able to get a stream slot so you will have the chance to check out the Video on Demand of Ensidia vs. Method here.
First of all here are the line-ups of Ensidia and Method:
As you can see Method brought in a massive melee-zerg while Ensidia had a very balanced set-up with all classes present.
Fully seated stands for the Battle of the Best
Siege of Ulduar: The summary for this wing could be described in one headline: XT-002 got junked in 60 seconds. Method won with just a few seconds advance against Ensidia. Already here was clear that we would see a tough fight in this Battle of the Best.
Antechamber of Ulduar: Like the guilds in the first Battle of the Best the day before, Ensidia and Method used invisibility potions to skip the trash before Kologarn. Ensidia made it without pulling trash-mobs but one Method-player didn't make it and pulled some adds which led to a early wipe in this wing. While Ensidia already encountered Auriaya, Method had to re-organize themselves and it was obvious there wasn't enough time for a comeback in this wing. So the Antechamber of Ulduar was a clear victory for Ensidia taking them 2:1 ahead of Method.
After winning the first wing, Sco from Method looks very confident of victory
Keepers of Ulduar From the beginning of this wing on, both guilds fought in a very close race to win this wing. While Ensidia started with Hodir and then went over to Thorim, Method took the opposite tactic and started this wing with Thorim. The time-difference became closer and closer but Method managed to get ahead of Ensidia for around a minute, with a spectacular fast fight against Freya. While Ensidia was still taking on Frey, Method already startet the "Firefighter-Encounter" against Mimiron and everything looked like they would this wing easy. But due to some attention deficits mainly of the range-dds, Method wiped to Mimiron in the fourth phase.
Kungen and Sco concentrating on the fight
Of course Ensidia took this present gratefully and finished Mimiron easily to also win this wing and take a 5:1 lead over Method.
Descend into Madness Since the last wing of this Ulduar timerun would give the faster guild five points, the outcome of the Battle of the Best was still unsure and the Descend into Madness had to decide who was going to win. Since Method had a very melee focused line-up they managed to kill the trash faster but of course, it took them longer to finish the fight against General Vezax. A fact which turned out to be the deciding factor for this battle.
Off-Stage english commentary for international viewers by Baasi
Ensidia managed to get around one minute ahead of Method after the Vezax fight, mainly because Method made a fatal mistake by allowing the General to heal itself up to 15%, when they already had him down to 5%.
Nonetheless, Method tried everything possible to catch up with Ensidia and managed to get back to a 11 second deficit with a unbelievable first phase of Yogg-Saron. Both guilds then only needed one brain-phase to finsih the second phase of the Yogg-Saron fight and at this point it was clear that Method wouldn't be able to come back and take the victory.
Ensidia also won the last wing and took a 10:1 victory over Method, a score which absolutely doesn't reflect the very tight race between these two great World of Warcraft guilds. With a few personal mistakes less, Method would have had a good chance to beat Ensidia.
From left to right: Baasi, Aenima, Sco, Stefani, Kungen, Boba, Corgan, Sophie
Allvatar and Plantronics would like to thank both guilds for this spectacular Battle of the Best and also a big "Thank You" to all attending viewers at Leipzig and all the people watching the live-stream at home.
Fully seated stands for the Battle of the Best
