ESL's “It is War Cup #2 Europe” Shows Little Build Variance, Players Eager for a Balance Patch. Saturdays’s
European ESL 1v1 tournament saw 65 entrants battle in a series of Bo3’s, culminating in a Trojan (SM) vs Booom3 (Eldar) finals. Trojan closed it out 2-1. The final game ending in a power core race where Trojan’s Dreadnought and melta-upgraded Land Speeders out damaged Booom3’s Dark Reapers and Striking Scorpions by a large margin. (Trojan's road to victory was record on his
Twitch channel.)
Throughout the tournament, barely any build variance was seen. Mobility and early generator damage was the focus of participants’ strategies. The tempo gained from rushing early objectives was clear: matches often did not pass the 15 minute mark.
Space Marines displayed a strong favor for the Assault Marines, a unit offering great mobility, crowd control, and structure damage. These were supplemented with Scouts, doctrine-upgraded listening posts, and early elites. In the mid-game, players would either top off with more AMs; relying on the Deathwatch killteam for anti-vehicle, or go for the Land Speeders.
Eldar players employed Striking Scorpions and Dire Avenger aggression, coupling their infantry with improved Webways to contain their opponents, fight selectively, and destroy shield generators and resource nodes before the enemy could respond. This strategy was especially a problem for the Ork players, who found their melee squads endlessly kited and ranged units tied up by the Scorpions and teleporting Bonesingers. WAAAGHs would gain ground, only to lose it as the buff expired.
"As Orks we have a pretty bad early game, our early infantry lacks 'kill potential' without a Waaagh!... Eldar have a pretty (too good imo) early game, they can cover the whole map at the very begin of a game, without exposing themself to any danger...[sic]
" said contestant and 2-time semi-finalist
Manawtf, who was eliminated by an Eldar player in the round of 64. His Ork peers didn't fare much better.
"If you want to win, just play everything beside the Orks… An Eldar which practices this build is impossible to win against as the Orks, at the moment." (Manawtf also
recorded his matches.)
His sentiment is echoed by other competitive players who don’t expect the meta-game to shift without adjustments from Relic.
VindicareX, former champion and current quarterfinalist, reflected on the issue:
"The meta makes me salty for sure - to me, I see the major problems of the game quite clearly and it's frustrating not only to play vs. it, but also to know that DoW3 is being marred by it in terms of fomenting healthy gameplay."According to Relic’s recent
community update, however, players will need to wait until the end of the month before any balance changes are presented.
It is cause for concern that the meta-game has settled so quickly, the game having been released more than a week prior. Nonetheless, when players did manage to slip past the jaws of an early aggression strategy, a few
brilliant moments, that
showed off Dawn of War’s potential, came to light. Hopefully, with a few prudent balance changes, such moments will come to define the game and not be the exception.
