Redbull presents the Starcraft II Xel’Naga tournament. The Xel’Naga isa unique tournament in that it pairs pro Starcraft II players, accustom to playing one v one, with an amateur chosen via online drawing in a team format. There is also an audience participation element that can swing a game in favor of one team or the other. The home audience watching online and the live audience at PAX are given a chance to vote every few minutes on whether or not to help or hinder one of the competing teams. The Xel’Naga is a tournament unlike any other, skill and daring will only get you so far, the affection of a fickle audience is a necessary component of victory.
Day Two: Our hosts once again go through a round of introductions and offer an explanation of what the Xel’Naga is. The theme of day two is Jungle. A theme that, as with the other two themes, packs its own audience decided “bonus” elements. The baneling mine field spawns a group of hidden banelings that launch an attack on the first player to come into contact with them while “Critter Catastrophe” is a more overt neutral element that unleashes a herd Karaks to attack any thing they see. Balancing “Gold Mine” the big time buff that hands a bunch of money to the selected team is “Rampant Workers” which gives a players workers 10 time the health and damage, the perfect last line of defence. Destructible boulders can be randomly placed around the map via “Random Destructible Rocks” hindering movement and possibly creating temporary choke points. Want a particular unit to grown in size and strength? Look around, maybe some mutagen has been dropped on the map.
Match One: Team Incontrol headed by pro player iNcontroL vs. Team Select headed by SeleCT. Team Incontrol took game one while Team Select won game two, once again forcing a game three. After an entirely too long game two game three was very short. The crushing hand of the audience close around Team Select awarding the game and match win to Team Incontrol.
Match Two: Team Bomber captained by pro player Bomber takes on Team Bling with pro player BlinG. Game one saw some Rampant Workers and Mutation Pickups put to good use. In the end Team Bling took the win. Game two was a quick and furious affair in which team Bomber made good use of some Mutation Pickups to seal the win. Game three came to a comedic conclusion with a bunch of Banelings coming into play Team Bling victorious.