The DreamHack HCT Grand Prix Winter 2018 is the first tournament of the transitional season of the Hearthstone Championship Tour into 2019. The event was held in Jönköping, Sweden, and as such, the field was primarily made up of European players.
Hannes “Burr0” Holm from Germany wins his first Tour Stop event. This little known player is just 19 years old and hopes to use this breakthrough performance to make a name for himself in the Hearthstone competitive scene.
All but one of the players in the top 16 were from somewhere throughout Europe. The few big overseas names like Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam and Francisco “PNC” Leimontas couldn’t pull off a strong showing. Though, Tyler “Tyler” Hoang Nguyen was able to represent Vietnam in the top 16, the recent transfer from the Netherlands.
The top 16 contained four Czech Republic players, three players from Great Britain, two Swedish players, two German players, and two Polish players. The solo representatives were Tyler, Yoann “Hypno” Pfersich for Switzerland, and “Yukazo” of Denmark.
The English and Swedes faced off against each other at the top of the bracket. England’s George “BoarControl” Webb took on Elias “Bozzzton” Sibelius and Kieran “Toastmonster” Kane went against Sweden’s Jon “Westberg” Orange.
Bozzzton took out Boar 3-1 while Toastmonster took out Orange by the same score. Bozzzton and Toastmonster then battled it out with Bozzzton prevailing 3-1 to make top four.
2019 World Champs qualfier Kacper “A83650” Kwieciński was actually eliminated by a Challenger tier Czech player by the name of “Arakoj”. Arakoj would then lose to another Challenger tier Czech player Jakub “Pardub” Pardubsky by getting swept 3-0.
Near the bottom of the bracket, Oldřich “Faeli” Mahdal would edge his way to the top four. He had to win his top 16 and top 8 matches by 3-2 sets.
The fan favorite Tyler would win his top 16 match and have to face Burr0 in the top 8. The match was hard fought resulting in Burr0 advancing after a 3-2 set.
The DreamHack HCT Grand Prix Winter 2018 is one of the more prestigious events, being attached to the DreamHack name, and none of what are considered the most dominant players made it to the top four. Players with a lot of years ahead of them were featured in this top four, with Burr0 at 19 and Bozzzton at 20.
First up, Bozzzton took on Pardub on the top side of top four. Pardub flexed his strength and showed that he is a player to look out for. Pardub plowed through Evenlock with his Even Paladin in game one. Again using the Paladin in this Last Hero Standing format, he knocked off Shudderwock Shaman.
He did end up losing one game with the Paladin to Deathrattle Hunter. Though, Pardub then cleaned up the set with his Clone Priest 3-1.
On the other end of the top four, Faeli battled agianst Burr0. Game one was a long grueling match between Burr0’s Deathrattle Hunter and the Token Druid. Faeli ended up brutally losing to not playing around a Bloatbat with Rush plus a Play Dead combo turn when he had a full Soul of the Forest board.
The set then started to spiral out of control and Burr0 took over. He won the second game with the Deathrattle Hunter over the mirror match. He finally lost to the Evenlock, but then Burr0’s Quest Rogue closed out the set 3-1.
The final set’s players were locked in. Pardub was the favorite going into the final, but it was certainly close. The two young guns would have both been first time DreamHack winners.
In game one, Burr0’s Deathrattle Hunter could not get online quickly enough against the Malygos Druid. Pardub sent a lot of spells to the face of Burr0 after Alexstraza for lethal. After Padub won this game though, it would be all Burr0 from here.
Burr0’s Quest Rogue simply could not be beat. In game two, he had a good matchup against the slow Malygos Druid. Valeera the Hollow came down on a clutch turn, and on the following turn Burr0 was able to send over 30 charge damage to the face of Pardub for the win.
Game three would see the Quest Rogue mirror match. Both players would be able to get their Quests online within the same turn. The turning point however was a top deck Sonya Shadowdancer combined with Southsea Deckhand for Burr0 to steamroll the game, taking the set lead.
The fourth and final game would see Quest Rogue take on Clone Priest. Once again the Sonya Shadowdancer would come up huge in this game paired with the healing from Vicious Scalehide. Pardub would run out of threats and concede the match to Burr0, making Burr0 the DreamHack champion.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via the DreamhackHS Twitch channel.
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