Patch 8.1.5 Hotfixes - June 10, 2019

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Patch 8.1.5 Hotfixes - June 10, 2019
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
Items
  • Resolved an issue that could cause Void Stone's absorption shield to be cleared prematurely.

Postcard from MDI Spring Finals: Championship Sunday
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
“Best served chilled?” Kenn Øster “Zaelia” Rasmussen read aloud from a juicebox backstage.

“Well, I’m chilled,” he continued, heading back to sit with his team, “but I don’t know about the juice.”

The final day of the MDI Spring Finals kicked off with a lower-bracket semifinal match between MDI East’s Team D and MDI West’s Abrakeydabra. The two teams jumped into King’s Rest for the first match of the final day of the MDI Spring Finals, and everyone in the player lounge gathered around the screens, stretching out on beanbags and couches. The players watched closely as the dungeon unfolded, giving commentary and cheering as if it were a football game.

On the final boss, with less than 3% on boss HP separating the two teams, everyone began screaming, and Chinese team Team D finally took it 4 seconds faster than Abrakeydabra to rapturous applause. The Method teams stood up and gathered their peripherals, filing out of the lounge to prepare for the upcoming matches.

Joseph "Spider" Cooper turned to his Fullscreened teammates in the now-silent room.

“That was sick,” he said.

Of Course
Despite taking out the first dungeon of the day, it wasn’t to be for the Chinese team. After Abrakeydabra’s 2-1 win, Anastasios “Elserat” Rafaildiis threw his arms open as he approached Team D’s Bin “Abb” Xu. “My boy!” Elserat said, wrapping Abb up in a big friendly hug.

“I’m not feeling very good about the loss,” Abb said afterwards through a translator, “we can do better.”

Although he was feeling terrible about their performance, Abb said that he really enjoyed the tournament overall and loved being in Australia—except for the food. He said they’ve been practicing in the hotel most of the time and hadn’t had the chance to go out and try

Sydney’s renowned offerings. “We’re going to go out now and find something Australia is famous for,” he said.

Abb said it was an honor to have represented MDI East at the Spring Finals, and when asked if he and his team would be trying again next season to get a spot at BlizzCon, he broke into a large grin and said in perfect English, “Of course!”

Equal Parts Giga and Unluck
Abrakeydabra’s run ended in the lower-bracket finals, falling to Method NA 2-0, setting up the familiar story of Method NA vs Method EU in a grand final match. Method NA took the first dungeon, Siege of Boralus, in a massive upset after the European team stumbled between the last two bosses.

As Zaelia ran back from a bathroom break after that first dungeon loss, Abrakeydabra’s Thanh Lam “Swag” Nguyen called out “Good luck!”

“I don’t need it!” Zaelia replied as he trotted away, not looking back.

As it turns out, he did need it. Method EU made uncharacteristic mistake after uncharacteristic mistake in King’s Rest. Teams watched on expectantly, talking quickly and quietly as Method NA went 2-0 up in the best of five. Some in the studio even began predicting a reverse sweep by the Europeans.

It was difficult not to—all teams here greatly respect both Method teams at best and fear them at worst, but many teams practice for what it will take to beat Method NA, the weaker of the two by record. It seems more achievable to them. Yet here the North American team was seemingly pulling off the impossible; breaking a curse that had hounded them all year.

As the match moved into the third dungeon, Shrine of the Storm, everyone audibly gasped as Method EU wiped early—none louder than Method team manager Shanna “Darrie” Sarr. It was only yesterday that she had seen her North American team crushed by her European team. “The agony and the ecstasy,” she had muttered while simultaneously consoling and congratulating her players.

But in this moment, tears began rolling down her cheeks as she watched her underdogs finally prove what they were capable of against their good friends and greatest adversaries. When the final boss fell, she put her head down and sobbed as Method NA jumped from their seats, screaming with joy.

It’s hard to break free from the mold that those around you put you in—if enough people believe you are beatable, it’s difficult to think any differently of yourself. But Method NA believed they could do it, no-one more so than captain John "Jdotb" Daniel.

“It had to happen eventually, that we beat them,” he said breathlessly, elatedly, in his post-game interview, ”so I’m glad it was now.”


Relive the MDI Spring Finals in our previous coverage (East Meets West and The Doctor Is In), check out the bracket at Raider.IO, and stay up to date with all things World of Warcraft on Twitter.

AWC Summer Season: A Viewer’s Guide
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
The Summer Season of the 2019 Arena World Championship (AWC) is here! Though a grueling Spring Season just recently ended, it’s time for the world’s best PvP-ers in World of Warcraft to battle it out in the Arena Cup, a challenging series of tournaments leading into the AWC Summer Finals.

Enter the Arena
The 2019 AWC consists of two seasons of online cups which reward points. Teams with the most points at the end of each season qualify for the cross-region Seasonal Finals. Each Seasonal Final offers qualification spots to the Global Finals taking place at BlizzCon in November. Cloud9 already punched their tickets to BlizzCon at the Spring Finals, and the teams who place first and second at the Summer Finals will meet them there.


Schedule
The Arena Cup has open registration, which means teams of any skill level can sign up and compete for $10,000 every week and possibly qualify for the Summer Finals in September!

The Summer Season will be from June 12 through August 4, with a two-week break from June 24 through July 9, and the Summer Finals will be held on September 21.

Click here to sign up for the next Arena Cup!

While in the past we only broadcast competitors who made Top 8, this year, through our partnership with GCDTV, we will be broadcasting open bracket games on Wednesdays at Twitch.tv/GCDTV.

All Top 8 series will be broadcast on Twitch.tv/Warcraft on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays during the Summer Season. Each Top 8 broadcast day will begin at 10 a.m. PT/7 p.m. CET, live on Twitch.


Check out our schedule page for a full list of broadcast days and times. The broadcast will be available in English.


Adrian “Healingstat” Archer-Lock: Twitter | Twitch

Adrian Archer Lock is mostly known for the multiple Semi Final runs in the Arena World Championship Global Finals in 2014 and 2015. A lesser known fact is that Adrian represented his country (the United Kingdom) as a grand master chess player. You can catch him live at Twitch.tv/Healingstat playing high rated arenas, priest gameplay in WoW Classic, and mythic keystone dungeons.

Sid “Supatease” Compston: Twitter | Twitch

Sid has been bringing the hype to WoW tournaments as a play-by-play caster since 2014 and has been an avid Arena player for years achieving multiple rank one titles. Outside of WoW, Sid has transformed his life by losing 90 pounds and committing himself to a healthier life. You can catch Sid on stream flexing his musical prowess with flute solos and freestyle rap commentary of his gameplay.

Elliot “Venruki” Venczel: Twitter | Twitch

Other than becoming an Arena World Champion at the 2012 Global Finals in Shanghai, Venruki is also known for providing expert analysis and commentary for the AWC tournaments, but his most cherished accolade was becoming the “Level 30 WoW Classic, Horde Side Duel Tournament Champion” in a recent community tournament. You can catch Venruki at Twitch.tv/Venruki with high-end PvP gameplay in both World of Warcraft and WoW Classic.

Mohamed “Ziqo” Beshir: Twitter | Twitch

If you don’t already know who the Swedish Mage, Mohamed "Ziqo" Beshir is, he is a multi-rank one mage who has been playing the game since he was a kid. Equipped with deep knowledge of World of Warcraft paired with his iconic laugh, has made him the perfect expert analyst for the AWC broadcasts.

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