Hearthstone: Fall 2018 Tespa Collegiate Champs Top 8 Finalized

The largest yearly Hearthstone tournament is nearing its conclusion. After four stages of group play, we have the Fall 2018 Tespa Collegiate Champs top 8 finalized.

Group 1

Group 1 of the last phase of Group stages was comprised of University of Waterloo, Claremont McKenna College, Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Maryland – College Park (Blue). Waterloo won the group by sweeping Georgia Tech and beating Claremont McKenna 3-1.

The second team to advance from the group was decided by a match between Claremont McKenna and Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech ended up getting 3-0’d by Claremont McKenna.

Claremont McKenna beat Odd Paladin in game one with the new Taunt Druid using Da Undatakah. In game two, their Even Shaman took the board and ran away with it against the Odd Paladin. In the final game, they used their “Board Control” Hunter to beat the Taunt Druid of Georgia Tech. The last game was won thanks to getting three Mojomaster Zihis.

Group 2

Group 2 had University of Maryland – College Park (White), Ohio University, Reed College and Duke University. University of Maryland has a lot of really good Hearthstone talent given they had two teams represent them in the top 16.

Unfortunately, Duke was a no-show and were disqualified from the group. That meant that for the three remaining teams. only two games would be played.

The Maryland team didn’t make it out of Group 1, but in Group 2 Maryland White was able to win. They beat Reed 3-2 and Ohio 3-1. They brought with them a Taunt Druid, Deathrattle Hunter with the new Oondasta and good old Shudderwock Shaman.

Ohio and Reed would square off to see who would advance from the group. Ohio took it in a very close 3-2 set.The winning decks were Mecha’thun Priest, Deathrattle Hunter with Da Undatakah, and Cubelock.

Group 3

Group 3 contained University of Utah, Queen’s University, Texas Tech University and Rochester Institute of Technology. Utah won the group, beating Queen’s 3-1 and Texas Tech 3-2.

Rochester Tech went 0-2 but barely lost both sets, sending them to a final game. Then Queen’s University and Texas Tech were set to square off to advance from the group. Queen’s University ended up sweeping the set 3-0 over Texas Tech.

Queen’s University won the first game with Big Spell Mage over Odd Paladin. They won the second game with Shudderwock Shaman over Taunt Druid. Then they won the final game with Malygos Druid over the Odd Rogue.

Group 4

Group 4 was comprised of UCLA, UNC Charlotte, James Madison University and Washington University in St. Louis. UCLA made quick work in winning the group by beating James Madison 3-1 and UNC 3-1.

Washington University was another one of those groups that had it really rough losing both of their sets 3-2. The decider match would be between UNC and JMU. Both teams brought a Kingsbane Rogue, the new powerhouse to rise in the early Rastakhan meta.

Kingsbane Rogue is a deck that can just eat control decks alive. With two Saps, two Vanishes and infinite weapon damage to the face, any deck that can’t get really aggressive before the Rogue heals up will have an extremely difficult time winning.

Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via the PlayHearthstone twitch channel.

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