Looking at the Hearthstone Grandmasters 2019 Week 4 standings, the halfway point of Season One is now in the rear-view. It will require some magnificent runs from sub 50 percent win rate players to make the playoffs from this point. Players also play their first opponent for the second time this week so we get to see their season records versus one another develop.
Yashima “Alutemu” Nozomi takes control of Division A and has started to pull away. He is now 7-1, two games ahead of second, after beating both of his opponents with Cyclone Mage this week. His only loss this season comes from second place Cho “Flurry” Hyun Soo in week two. The two will meet again next week in which Flurry will have to win against both of his opponents or risk falling out of the top three.
Dylan “FroStee” O’Mallon has turned his season around after starting 1-3. He has won four consecutive games, including a set against former World Champ Chen “tom60229” Wei Lin to take his third place position in the group. Tom is tied with three players in the group at 4-4, right outside a top three position for playoffs.
Over in Division B the race is much tighter. The current stand alone leader in the pack is Liu “Shaxy” Wei-Chieh at 7-1. Jang “Dawn” Hyun Jae and Kenta “glory” Sato trail right behind him at 6-2. Glory beat Dawn this week with Tempo Rogue over Token Druid to knock Dawn out of the first place tie with Shaxy.
Shaxy took wins off of the two in the bottom of the group, Tsao “SamuelTsao” Tsu Lin and Pathra “Pathra” Cadness. This week he brought Tempo Rogue with the interesting inclusion of Witchwood Pipers. Being out of playoff contention, both of these players will look to salvage their season with a very strong second half. After four weeks and an 0-8 record, Pathra is still seeking paydirt with that first set win
There’s only one player left undefeated at 8-0, and that is Chris “Fenomeno” Tsakopoulos in Europe’s Division A. The first two weeks he brought Mage, and the last two weeks he brought Tempo Rogue. He also improves his season record versus Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer to 2-0.
Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh and Torben “Viper” Wahl sit in second and third with 5-3 records. Viper beat Kolento this week with his Pogo Rogue 2-0 over Kolento’s Bomb Warrior. Bunnyhoppor sits in fourth behind these two at 4-4, and the rest of the group at 3-5 or 2-6.
One of those at 2-6 is the struggling Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov. Interestingly enough, both of his wins have come off the 3-5 George “BoarControl” Webb. He just seems to have Boar’s number. The two have faced off in two very different match ups from Bomb Warrior versus Midrange Hunter in week one, as opposed to Token Druid versus Tempo Rogue this week.
Over in Division B, Linh “Seiko” Nguyen has a demanding three game lead at 7-1. There are actually five players with the second best record at 4-4. However, Jon “Orange” Westberg and Casper “Hunterace” Notto are second and third respectively thanks to good tiebreakers.
These tiebreakers are almost irrelevant as the last two playoff spots could go to anyone in the group. Even Seiko could lose his spot if he fails to win at least a handful more sets. Last place Pavel “Pavel” Beltukov is just two games out of second place at 2-6. Seiko has proved his dominance over Pavel though, going 2-0 in the season series between the two.
The spread of games in the Americas is very tight. In Division A, 6-2 leads the division. Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang, Eddie “Eddie” Lui and surprisingly Cong “StrifeCro” Shu are all currently in the top three.
Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam sits alone in fourth place at 4-4, and everyone else is right behind him. Any three players in Division A could still make the playoffs as no one has a strong lead.
Fr0zen did win both of his games this weekend in an attempt to try to create some space from the group with Token Druid. The most surprising part is that he used a Mech package without Whispering Woods, a card many consider to be core in Token Druid.
In Division B, Jerome “Monsanto” Faucher still sits alone at the top. There is some jockeying of the second and third place positions, as everyone draws closer to one another.
David “Dog” Caero and Lucas “Rase” Guerra currently occupy the second and third slots at 5-3, but Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root sits right behind them at 4-4.
Next week starts the home stretch of the first season of Grandmasters. We will start to see some players mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. We will also see season series come to a close as players go at it for a second time, forming some history.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website and the PlayHearthstone twitch channel.
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