The remaining three seats for the Global Finals at BlizzCon have been filled. The Hearthstone Grandmasters Season 2 Global Finalists are Chen “tom60229” Wei Lin , Kevin “Casie” Eberlein, and Brian “bloodyface” Eason. Here’s how each of these players battled their way there over the weekend.
Former World Champ tom60229 Back in Form
Tom60229 went 2-1 in the group playoff stage then beat Tyler “Tyler” Hoang Nguyen 3:1 in the semifinal to make it to the finals. Kim “che0nsu” Cheon Su was tom’s opponent in the final, who also went 2-1 in the group playoff stage then barely beat Jang “Dawn” Hyun in the semifinal 3:2.
In the Asia-Pacific final set between tom and che0nsu, both players protected their Shamans. Shaman has taken over Priest as the best deck to play in any setting. With the Shamans protected, both players went ahead and banned their opponent’s Priests.
So tom’s lineup was Zoolock, OTK Paladin, and Aggro Evolve Shaman. Che0nsu had Quest Shaman, OTK Paladin, and Highlander Hunter. The set went the distance, a full five games with tom prevailing 3:2. Game one went to che0nsu’s Highlander Hunter over OTK Paladin, but tom came back in game two with the Shaman mirror and game three with Zoolock over OTK Paladin.
Che0nsu was able to create enough pressure with Shaman against OTK Paladin to force game five. It all came down to the Paladin mirror. The game went to fatigue as expected, but che0nsu had to be the first to use Time Out. Tom then out-healed the combo damage che0nsu could have output, then won the game with his own combo.
Casie Dominates Defending World Champ
The set between Casie and Casper “Hunterace” Notto was not so close. Casie and Hunterace both went 2-1 in the group playoff stage. In the semifinals, Casie beat Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov 2:1, while Hunterace beat Jaromír “Jarla” Vyskočil by the same scoreline.
When Casie and Hunterace clashed in the Europe final, both players opted to protect their Priests. Unlike the Asia-Pacific players, they valued Priest more likely because they were going to take a different approach with their bans. Casie ended up banning Hunterace’s OTK Paladin, while Hunterace banned Quest Druid.
Hunterace’s approach did not work out in his favor. He queued Quest Druid in game one and got smashed by Combo Priest. In game two he played Druid again and smashed by Casie’s Quest Shaman.
The last deck Casie needed to win with was N’zoth Control Warrior. Hunterace tried one last time with the Quest Durid. The game went quite long, but Casie ran Hunterace out of all of his resources. Casie made it a dominating 3:0 performance to make it to the Global Final.
Bloodyface Wins Bloody Battle
The match between Bloodyface and Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root is another one that went the distance. Bloodyface was the only player to make it to the finals after going 2-0 in the group stage. Purple was another player who went 2-1. In the semifinals of the Americas region, Purple beat Eddie “Eddie” Lui 3:1 and Bloodyface took down Facundo “Nalguidan” Pruzzo 3:1.
Going into the final, both players protected their Priests rather than Shaman like in the European region. However, they also feared Shaman, with both Shamans being banned. The rest of Purple’s lineup was Zoolock and Quest Druid, while Bloodyface filled out his with Highlander Hunter and Quest Druid.
Purple got out to an early lead by winning the first game Priest mirror. His Zoolock also managed to beat Priest in game two without having to use Plague of Flames to deal with a buffed minion. Though down 2:0, Bloodyface dug deep and completed the reverse sweep. Purple couldn’t get it done with Quest Druid, first losing to Highlander Hunter, then losing the very important Quest Druid mirror.
After winning the Quest Druid mirror, Bloodyface set himself up for success with his best match up of Combo Priest into the weak early game of Druid. An early High Priest Amet came down, and Purple lacked an answer to this powerful minion.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website and the PlayHearthstone twitch channel.
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