After taking home the gold, Echo player Whaazz shared his thoughts on the rivalry with EU team Chibaku Tensei and the benefits of working with Liquid from the NA circuit.
The World of Warcraft Arena World Championship (AWC) Dragonflight Season 4 (WoW AWC Season 4) circuit crowned its champions for Europe (EU). Echo players won WoW AWC Season 4 Grand Finals EU! Read on for the tournament results plus Oscar "Whaazz" Wulff's thoughts on teams Chibaku Tensei and Liquid!
Echo players win WoW AWC Season 4 Grand Finals
Similar to how Liquid duked it out between May 18 and 19 over in the North American (NA) region, Echo players fought for the gold in the WoW AWC Season 4 Grand Finals EU tournament. On championship Sunday, Echo first went up against Streamerzonegg in the quarterfinal and swept them 3-0. This led to a match against Chibaku Tensei. Chibaku Tensei, in particular, swept Echo last week in the WoW AWC Cup 4 EU semifinal before besting the team 4-1 for the crown.
However, Echo players didn't let Chibaku Tensei's past victory deter them in WoW AWC Season 4 Grand Finals EU. Instead, Echo bested their rivals 3-2 in the semifinal this time around. This pushed Chibaku Tensei into the elimination bracket where they went 3-1 against Streamerzonegg. This meant another match between Echo and Chibaku Tensei in the final!
WoW AWC Season 4 Grand Finals EU results
Both teams fought for the first point in a mirror match during Game 1, with Echo taking the lead. This was followed up by Chibaku Tensei clapping back with an onslaught of attacks in Game 2. Next, one of Game 3's highlights was Shaun Andreas "Raiku" Meaney popping off with his Mage to take down Echo's foes. Echo then continued with another win in Game 4.
Although Chibaku Tensei fought valiantly and took down Echo in Dalaran Sewers in Game 5, Echo shined again in Game 6 and earned a total score of 4-2. This made them the WoW AWC Season 4 Grand Finals EU champions!
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Whaazz talks Chibaku Tensei rivalry and working with Liquid
"Honestly, they're such a hard team — especially right now," Whaazz said in the post-match interview, referring to Chibaku Tensei. "And you kind of want to avoid usually playing mirrors, but we kind of knew that we were a bit screwed and we kind of had to come up with something that wasn't a mirror because the mirror can go any way."
Whaazz then noted how those games were very close. He also shared that Echo worked with Liquid's Chuck "Cdew" Dewland in preparation for WoW AWC Season 4 Grand Finals EU.
"We were working with Cdew's team in the middle of the night at 3 a.m. and we [felt] so bad. We're like, 'We're gonna lose to Chibaku Tensei again,'" he said before sharing some thoughts on Retribution Paladin. "And then I'm like, 'Guys, try to play Ret one game. It used to be good on servers. Just try. I haven't played any Red. Let's just try it.' And we're like, 'Whoa, it's insane. Let's try it again.' And then we kept winning them and we're like, 'Oh, maybe we're onto something.' And then we did like eight more games and we found a comp we can at least play, so it was very rough."
Whaazz continued, sharing how Gabriel "Lontar" Cano Sáenz later suggested the Rogue, Mage, and Priest (RMP) composition. Although Echo didn't expect to play RMP, it worked out well against Chibaku Tensei.
He then talked more about working with Liquid players over in the North American (NA) circuit. In addition to Cdew, Whaazz worked with Ryan "Trill" Costello on strategy. He also mentioned Liquid's Richard "Mes" Simpson and Michael "Samiyam" Hlubek.
"I've been close friends with all of them because of all the LANs we went through together," Whaazz said. "We always discuss stuff and help each other. We worked in a lot the last two days."
That's all for now. Stick around on esports.gg for more news and updates!
