This weekend, Pandemic Blue will head to their second Electronic Sports League event at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the E4All Expo. At the ESL Global Challenge LA, Nathan “Kintt” Quinn and company will battle some of the world's best teams for a piece of the $15,000 prize. Last time, in Leipzig, Pandemic Blues finished their debut with a sixth place mark, something they'll certainly look to improve on in a battle on their home soil.

“We're feeling good,” said Kintt, “We are better prepared this go round, and it's not as far from home, so the trip will be less stressful. Anything less then top three would be a disappointment for me. I think that we're certainly capable of winning if we execute our game plan.”

In order to reach that goal, Pandemic will need to shore up a few mistakes they made in Germany after gaining a bit more familiarity with their main composition – the Rogue, Priest, Druid (RPD) combo - on the tournament realm considering they only had the chance to play on live before the last event.

“Most druids don't have the same sort of regen on live that they do on ESL. If druids wore PvP gear like they do on live vs our team, we would likely be able to win a lot more. Since our rogue is the only DPS, we were worried about his damage output when you took away four piece tier 6, but with the PvE gear available on TR it isn't so bad really,” explained Kintt, “Mages are significantly worse on the TR then they are on live without haste, with about 1k less armor as well. Warlocks lose next to nothing going from live to the TR, and a lot of them get access to void star which they don't have on live. Overall, I still like the comp a lot, as we are never totally out of a fight, there's always some chance to win no matter how uphill the battle.”

At Leipzig, the team fought hard in every match with the outcome hinging on a few key plays and perhaps a bit of unlucky RNG. Pandemic's Druid, Brian “Caal” McPharlin, took a fair bit of flak for missing a few small miscues in some key matches. Kintt, though, was quick to defend his teammate and his play, stating, “It's easy to blame the Druid when things don't go as well as you'd want... most teams do. Truth is, we could have all played better in Germany and we've been working on what we did wrong there. I don't think anyone can ever be 100%, as theres always small nuances you pick up on every time you play, but we're certainly coming along. RPD depends a lot on going with the flow and just doing what feels right, and our instincts in that regard have gotten a lot better.”

As a whole the team feels much more confident in their individual play and as a team, but it's going to take a bit more than that to topple some of the top Warlock/Warrior/Druid lineups that have dominated the tournament season or perhaps a few of the cleave comps looking to counter Pandemic's base RPD.

“We always have pretty tight matches with WLDs,” said Kintt, “We still have the most success with Mutilate/Dream State vs WLD and go about 50-50 with most WLD teams. Obviously some WLDs are on another level, but we only got to play Fnatic once and we weren't the proper specs there so its tough to say. We aren't scared to try something new if we feel it'll give us the best shot at taking down a WLD team though.”

That strategy has proven successful for a few teams, like the Spanish wizards x6tence, winners of Blizzard's European Regional over their rival WLD-wielding Nihilum Plasma foes. In fact, in Los Angeles this weekend, x6tence will be Pandemic's toughest competition as they've landed in a group featuring the Spaniards, US top team and MLG champions Evil Geniuses, and the Danish mix PMS.H2o, leaving the WLD fiends like Nihilum in the second pairing.

“The team I'm most anxious about playing against is x6tence. Not only did they embarass us in Germany, but you never know what you're going to get when you play them,” lamented Quinn, “At least with Nihilum (probably everyone's favorite to win) and the rest of the teams you know what they can throw at you. Rumor has it x6 has been working up another new comp, and they're in our group too, so definitely going to be interesting facing them again.”

Despite the tough competition, with a win over x6tence or EG required to advance in their group, Quinn states that anything less than top three is a complete disappointment, and fully expects to challenge for the championship.

“We have a plan for every team,” he said, “And we're certainly capable of winning if we execute our game plan.”