TW:W2 – CodexCaster's Contribution

TW:W2: Felkon ascends to the throne of the Everchosen by winning the 5th iteration of the event.

On the path to the title he defeated the reigning Everchosen champion Tlaxtlan Soothsayer. He was joined in the final by HjalleNalle a new player invited to the tournament who took it by storm, getting to the final without dropping a single game. It’s fantastic to see new players coming to the tournament and doing well. It’s also good for the game to see new Everchosen champions.

In the first battle of the competitive final HjalleNalle played Greenskins into Felkon’s Norsca, he brought a mass of Orc Arrer boyz and used them to great success as he spread them wide and picked apart the slower Norscan advance after eliminating their skirmish units.

In the second map, Hjallenalle took Lizardmen into the Wood Elves of Felkon. Hjallenalle had done his homework on Felkon and how he likes to play Wood Elves with use of Wild Riders and Forest Dragons, and picked a strong counter to that style of play focusing on aerial units. Unfortunately, Felkon completely flipped the script and brought a vast army of mostly tier 1 archers. These archers wiped out most of Hjallenalle’s vanguard deployed air force almost immediately. Having removed that value from the map, Felkon could focus fire down the remaining expensive units. Despite some excellent engages from Hjallenalle to try and bring it back there was just too much volume of fire to deal with.

Felkon took the lead 2-1 by convincingly winning the third map. He played Lizardmen versus Hjallenalle’s Beastmen. Felkon brought a Slann mage priest of light with Temple Guard and some long range artillery to focus down the beastmen single model units. Use of Birona’s Timewarp buffed up the front line Lizardmen units to be almost unkillable. The Beastmen giants did manage to pick the stegadon and do some damage but the massive units of infantry remaining managed to clean up the fight with Felkon’s army only losing 188 models.

The final map was Felkon’s Dark Elves versus Hjallenalle’s Chaos. Felkon brought his favourite unit The Chill of Sontar and used his elite infantry to screen while his repeater crossbow cavalry were able to pick apart Hjallenalle’s army. Whenever Malekith was getting focused he would send him into combat supported by that core of infantry that was never far away.

Creative Assembly hosts these invitational tournaments after major content drops, and this Fall Invitational comes weeks after the Hunter and the Beast DLC pack.

The regular on screen talent of Turin, Italian Spartacus and Loremaster of Sotek were joined by newcomer PartyElite, who hit the ground running maintaining the high quality commentary and analysis that Total War fans have come to expect from Everchosen streams. The broadcast was as entertaining and insightful as ever.

Total War: Warhammer 2 provides a unique esports experience with fast paced yet incredibly tactical battles, varied races and a plethora of talented casters and players. It’s great to see Creative Assembly putting on these events and investing time into the competitive side of their product.

Tlaxtlan Soothsayer wins Everchosen Invitational IV

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In a thrilling best-of series that went all the way to its 5th game, Tlaxtlan Soothsayer becomes the first ever two-time Everchosen champion by defeating ECL Season One winner Felkon. In his previous path to the title Soothsayer only lost one map, and never the first map in a series, this win was far more difficult for him to secure, showing the impressive growth of the scene.

The final map was a thrilling use of terrain as Karl Franz and the Empire managed to form up in a small copse of trees before the wolf based Norscan horde could intercept. There they held, using the small formation to make the most value of buffs to repel charge after charge. As the spears and halberd walls began to break, Franz and his Royal Altdorf Gryphites managed to catch Throgg off guard and kill him. Had Soothsayer not utilised the map like this, it was likely the high-mass mobile wolves and cavalry would have isolated and destroyed the value targets and could well have claimed the series.

The two-day tournament was a huge step up in competition from previous iterations. Newcomer KingoftheDead defeated veteran Romulan Dawg to claim 4th place and even made history by beating Soothsayer on the first map. This new blood shows the health of the scene and hopefully encourages other players to keep trying new things improve to maybe get themselves a place in future tournaments. For the first time 4th place had a prize, furthermore the prize for first place was double what Soothsayer took home last time he was crowned the Everchosen champion.

The first day suffered some technical difficulties but they were covered expertly. Newcomer to the couch Loremaster of Sotek filled time heroically with insight into both the lore and the game, and Turin with ItalianSpartacus created segments out of nowhere. This is a great test of a live broadcast when a desk has to fill an unknown amount of time, they succeeded.

Loremaster and JanetonOccasion also showed themselves as another casting team for the future, they have rapport and a good balance of insight and mechanical knowledge. Not that Turin and Spartacus showed any fatigue but having another casting team is a great sign of a healthier scene and to allow a rotation. I could write for pages about my adoration for Turin and Spartacus as I am constantly learning and kept entertained, suffice it to say they were on top form yet again.

The tournament was a showcase of the new DLC; The Prophet and the Warlock. We saw most of the new units in all their glory and some great strategies to go along with them. The fascinating mind games of trying to guess what a player will bring and then countering that guess still boggles my mind. The Skaven have certainly gone up in terms of strength with the new weapons on offer, especially the Jezzail teams.

I really hope Creative Assembly continue to invest in the potential of the esports side of their product. The game could well claim the void that Starcraft has left, a high intensity, high level of micro-management game. The tactical depth is seemingly unending as the interplay between races and the meta continue to evolve, and new DLC will carry on adding new units or leaders that shift the balance of power further.

TW:W2: Felkon wins Eternal Challenger Series: Season 1

After a fantastic live-streamed event, Felkon managed to defeat Pippington 3-1 in the best-of-5 final to become the first Eternal Challenger Series champion. The event was even attended by the current Everchosen champion Aerocrastic who was defeated by Felkon on his way to the final.

Turin and ItalianSpartacus streamed the near seven hour event with the professionalism and quality I have come to expect from these two streamers. Their commentary is constantly interesting, insightful, funny and engaging with very little noticeable “dead time” barely even any silence across seven hours of streaming. It is just such a fantastic advert for TW:W2 esports to have these two casters doing events.

The matches themselves were also entertaining. Many were 2-1 in their result and showcased a variety of different races. Not only that but the variety within the different army compositions was also there. The commentators were often surprised at the innovation in composition and tactics on display, very much not just a “this counters this approach”. I don’t recall seeing the Dwarves which is always a shame and shall have to be marked in the book of grudges I’m afraid.

Turin will coincide the ECS with the major patches and content updates from CA, so be prepared for another announcement after the upcoming DLC.

Stay tuned to ItalianSpartacus also who has announced another TW:W2 event, the Warpstone Cup.

TW:W2: Aerocrastic wins the Everchosen Halloween Invitational

Huge congratulations to Aerocrastic who dethroned Tlaxtlan Soothsayer by taking the best of five series 3-2. It was the Tomb Kings that lead him to victory over Soothsayers Chaos army. The final match in the best of five was so perilously close with the series in the balance so many times. It was a fantastic demonstration of the best things about Total War: Warhammer 2 as an esport.

I really need to get some kind of calendar of events together, because I was completely surprised by this event and watched it after the fact. It very much followed a similar format to the other events with all the same functional simplicity. I love esports and I love some the of fantastic production values on offer. The Everchosen Invitiational is pleasing in its simplicity. It’s a few guys on a sofa and then the commentators. The tournament featured eight players taking to the field to compete for the title of Everchosen.

Once again I really enjoyed the commentary of ItalianSpartacus and Turin. The combination of lore context and the encyclopedic in-game knowledge of Turin makes for a really professional commentary. They are both fantastically eloquent and there is very little wasted time or words in the battles.

It’s fascinating watching the level of micro-play necessary for high level strategic multiplayer. The priorities of battle change so much as abilities are expended and units get worn down, that it’s just amazing that these players can react and make active decisions at all times, instead of just being bowled over. To my eye there were very few mistakes where a unit was just left to be mangled. I also like the fact that it appears there is no option of surrendering and that the battles are left to go till the end. One thing that always prevented me getting into Starcraft as an esport was the fact a lot of games were watching players build, engage in one fight and have one surrender. I will admit a position of complete ignorance about that esport however.

The highlight for me of the tournament was the showcase of the new faction, the Vampire Coast. We got to see a good selection of the lords and the roster and they seemed like a great addition to the game. The new vampire pirates seem to hold up well in a good few match-ups as well as having enough adaptability and a high enough skill ceiling that excellent players can elevate the faction to be a better match up into other factions. Personally I can’t wait to unleash some of the Necrofex Colossus units onto my enemies from behind a line of Depth Guard. Other balance changes with this mod were interesting also, turning the meme-lord of Archaeon Neverchosen to an actual viable lord choice. The representation of the races was great as well with only the Wood Elves were not played in this tournament.

TW:W2: Tlaxtlan Soothsayer wins the second Total War: Warhammer 2 Everchosen Invitational.

In a well fought best-of-5 series versus Romulan Dawg, Tlaxtlan Soothsayer was crowned victorious 3-1. Soothsayer had a dominant tournament only losing one game on the path to victory securing the $750 1st place prize.

The Everchosen invitational was the first Total War tournament I’ve watched and I really enjoyed the games, pretty much all the factions were represented across the two days with really unexpected unit choices made. There were really interesting mental battles too, with one player countering an expected composition from the opponent, but the opponent was guessing that and picking something different.

What made it so much easier as a newcomer were the casters. For the majority of the games, it was Italian Spartacus along side Turin. Both new YouTube subscriptions for me.They had to strike a balance between introducing newcomers to the game itself, and discussing the high level competitive play we were watching while making it coherent, something I think they succeeded in.

There was no spectator, as one of the casters was always the one moving the camera around the battlefield, and not once did I feel like they were in the wrong place or missing key action.They obviously have the knowledge to see what is coming and to have the camera in the right place at the right time to discuss it.

One thing I really enjoyed was Italian Spartacus dropping some snippets of lore around the races and units. Whether it was answering if the two factions would be fighting in the lore, or something interesting about the backstory of the lord chosen. It gave the games some depth or importance mentioning a long history behind what we were seeing. Its difficult to explain that, but linking Total War: Warhammer 2 to it’s long past in the tabletop elevates it somehow.

The production was simple but effective, with only a few awkward pauses and sound issues at the beginning of the stream on the first day. On the second day I really appreciated the added score in the top left to remind you of who is playing what and where we are in terms of the series. Personally among all the excellent commentary I was getting a little lost at what the score was and who was what faction.

Game two of the third/fourth place game, Sekara vs Shetland Apache, was my personal favourite as it was Dark Elf vs Wood Elf. Both are incredibly micro-heavy factions and it went down to Malekith versus a pair of forest dragons. It was incredibly tense game to watch where every health point lost earlier in the battle mattered. Shetland Apache managed to defeat Malekith to secure 3rd place.

The final was fun, with Romulan Dawg facing a 3-0 defeat and managing to upset Soothsayer with some excellent Bretonnia play. It was really interesting to hear the commentators describe Bretonnia as one of the weaker factions and yet in the hands of top-tier players they could really bring out the strengths. By handing Soothsayer his first loss it set up the possibility of a 5-game series, but it was quickly snuffed out with some more Bretonnia play by Soothsayer to clinch the title.

Like I said, this was the first Total War tournament I have watched and I will definitely try and find more and improve my own knowledge. It may be something I attempt to cast myself with news of the new spectator mode for multiplayer.