HCT Fall Championship Group A and B were played out on Thursday. Group A was to be a big toss up for the two seats at top eight and Group B had everyone looking to take down David “JustSaiyan” Shan. With the first day in the books, only six spots remain for the final eight playoff.
Group A
The day started out great for American player Brian “bloodyface” Eason. He was able to take down the big threat of the Korean player Sim “DacRyvius” Dasol 3-1 in the initial match.
Both players have one strange decklist within their lineups. Bloodyface has a very aggressive lineup plus Malygos Druid. While DacRyvius has a much more control oriented lineup plus an Odd Rogue. In the matchup, they banned out each other’s strange decks. This just meant Bloodyface’s aggro plowed right through.
In the other match, German player Thomas “Sintolol” Zimmer also cleaned up the Chinese player Wang “GoeLionKing” Zhe 3-1. This wasn’t a surprise but some may have been hoping that LionKing would bring something unique to the championship.
The one unique thing that LionKing did was bring Control Priest in his lineup. He was one of only two players to bring a Priest deck to the championship. Sintolol has another lineup with a strange inclusion when looking at his control decks plus Odd Rogue.
Sintolol and Bloodyface met in the first winner’s match. Bloodyface banned Odd Rogue while Sintolol banned Malygos Druid. It was quite a hard fought battle as the match concluded after a full five games. Bloodyface came out on top and is the first to qualify for top eight. Sintolol will get a second chance against the winner of GoeLionKing and DacRyvius.
Group B
The Americans really showed up to play today. JustSaiyan had his first match against Jowen “Akumaker” Chee and handled it 3-1. Saiyan opted for the anti-control lineup this time around and is playing Quest Rogue for seemingly the first time this year. Akumaker went for a strange half-and-half concoction of aggro and anti-control.
Jan “Moyen” Moy was able to win his initial match against Zhao “Caimiao” Haixiao. Caimiao really honed in on aggressive decks but took Malygos Druid over a Token Druid. Moyen has a very tempo oriented lineup plus a Shudderwock Shaman.
JustSaiyan met up with Moyen in the Group B winner’s match. Call it a run of bad luck for Moyen or the Hearthstone gods were on the side of Saiyan. Saiyan swept Moyen in a very quick 3-0 set.
The last game poured a bag of salt into the wounds of Moyen. With his Malygos Druid, Saiyan drew both Wild Growths, both Nourishes and Twig of the World Tree in the first six cards. He then proceeded to draw both Naturalizes off both Ultimate Infestations to burn Moyen’s Shudderwock.
Day 1 in the Books
Both United States players have advanced to the top eight. Europe is the second best region so far, winning two and losing the two winners matches.
Both Asia-Pacific and China will have to step up their game as they are both 0-4 in play so far. Neither region had a representative go to the World Championship at the Summer Championship. They will look to make up ground in the Fall Championship but it’s a long road ahead.
JustSaiyan’s historic win streak continues. In his last 51 games on the Tour, he is 45-6. That goes back to his victory at HCT Montreal. He is setting up a seat for himself at the World Championship if he continues to play this well with the draws he has been getting.
Play continues through October 14 on the PlayHearthstone twitch channel. Don’t miss any of the Fall Championship action as four more players will qualify for the World Championship on Sunday.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via the PlayHearthstone twitch channel.
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