We are now in the home stretch of the first season of Hearthstone Grandmasters with just four games remaining. There’s really only one player in a comfortable position to make playoffs out of 18 total playoff spots. Let’s see who still has a shot at qualifying for the Grandmaster Championship in the Hearthstone Grandmasters 2019 Week 5 standings.
In Asia-Pacific Division A, Yashima “Alutemu” Nozomi maintains a firm hold on the lead, despite winning only one of his matches this week. The player he lost to this week was Kim “Surrender” Jung-soo, who now moves into second place after winning his last three matches in a row. He has made quite the comeback this season, going from 1-3 to 6-4.
There are currently four players with a 5-5 record in Division A. Though Cho “Flurry” Hyun Soo currently sits in third place thanks to his tiebreaker points. He has struggled hard as of late, losing his last three in a row. This week he brought Shark Rogue with Sea Giants, but beat neither Cyclone Mage nor Control Shaman.
Over in Division B, there is a much larger gap between the top three and the rest of the pack. Liu “Shaxy” Wei-Chieh is in first place with an 8-2 record. Kenta “glory” Sato and Jang “Dawn” Hyun are only one game behind him at 7-3. All three of these top three only won one of their sets this week, allowing some potential for the rest of the players in Division B to catch up.
One of those players is Wu “BloodTrail” Zong-Chang, who has won his last three consecutive matches. He got a slow start at 1-3, but has improved his way to a 5-5 record on the season. This week, he used Bomb Warrior to beat group leader Shaxy’s Shark Rogue.
We mentioned only a single player is sitting comfortably in all of Grandmasters, and that is Chris “Fenomeno” Tsakopoulos in Division A. He currently holds the best record in all of Grandmasters at 9-1. Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh finally broke Feno’s undefeated season this week in a Shark Rogue mirror. However, Feno only needs to win one more match and he will clinch a playoff spot.
Speaking of Kolento’s performance though, his win over Feno has helped push him into the second place spot at 7-3. He was able to complete the season sweep of George “BoarControl” Webb this week. Third place is currently occupied by Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer at 6-4 who holds tiebreakers over Torben “Viper” Wahl who is also 6-4. Bunnyhoppor won both of his matches this week with Midrange Hunter, including completing the season sweep of Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov.
In Division B, Linh “Seiko” Nguyen is at the top at 8-2. He holds a two game lead over second and third Casper “Hunterace” Notto and Radu “Rdu” Dima who are 6-4 a piece. Rdu took crucial sets off of Seiko and Kevin “Casie” Eberlein with his Shark Rogue to propel him into third place.
Hunterace had been going 1-1 every week until this one, where he finally manages to go 2-0 with Bomb Warrior. No one’s spot is really secure in Division B as four players are no more than two games out of that third place spot.
Eddie “Eddie” Lui and Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang are starting to create some separation in Americas Division A. They are in first and second while third place is a few games down at 5-5 in Francisco “PNC” Leimontas.
PNC has actually had a fantastic run, coming back from his 1-3 start. He won both matches this week, including one against Cong “StrifeCro” Shu to steal his third place position on tiebreakers. The pack is still tight though, as a barely over .500 record in Division A could easily take the third place position come playoff time.
Over in Division B, the top three positions are the least secure. There is only a four game spread between first and last place with four games left. Jerome “Monsanto” Faucher was firmly in first place, but he took a risk bringing Pogo Rogue this week and paid the price. For the first time this season, he lost both matches in a single week to fall to 7-3. He has now been caught by David “Dog” Caero who is also 7-3.
Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root has turned his season around. He started off 1-3 and has since improved to 6-4. This week he won both of his sets with a more aggressive Tempo Rogue running double Faerie Dragon, including a win off of first place Monsanto. He has the same record as third place Lucas “Rase” Guerra, but is in fourth due to slightly worse tiebreakers.
It’s crunch time from here on out. Most of the players not in those top three positions will likely have to win out in order to make it into the playoffs.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website and the PlayHearthstone Twitch channel.
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