The regular season of Grandmasters has come to a close. The Hearthstone Grandmasters Season 2 playoff competitors are now locked in. Here’s who we have competing for a few spots at the global final.
Asia-Pacific Division A
Kim “che0nsu” Cheon Su had clinched a playoff spot already going into the final week, and at 11-3 he clinched the first seed. Kim “Surrender” Jung-soo split his last weeks games to keep him at the needed 8-6 to make playoffs. By tiebreaker he gets the second seed.
Tyler “Tyler” Hoang Nguyen came up huge in the last week, winning both of his sets against Wu “BloodTrail” Zong-Chang and more importantly Cho “Flurry” Hyun Soo to go 8-6. He played a full three game set against Flurry, with the deciding game being his off-meta Tempo Rogue beating Highlander Hunter. He makes playoffs as the third seed in Division A.
Liu “Shaxy” Wei-Chieh grabs the fourth and final seed, also at 8-6. He lost his first set of the weekend, and won a much needed set against Tsao “SamuelTsao” Tsu Lin 2:0. He barely output enough damage with Malygos Druid to beat Control Warrior, then had plenty of damage to win with OTK Paladin over Control Warrior.
Asia-Pacific Division B
Chen “tom60229” Wei Lin splits his sets in the last week to go 9-5 and gets the first seed on tiebreaker. Kenta “glory” Sato also split his sets to join him at 9-5. but gets the second seed.
Jang “Dawn” Hyun got his one needed win against Dylan “FroStee” O’Mallon to finish 8-6 and secure the third seed. The set went a full three games and he won the unfavorable match up of Quest Shaman against Combo Priest. DawN came up huge with Mind Control Tech taking the largest minion away from FroStee.
The fourth and final seed goes to Yashima “Alutemu” Nozomi at 7-7. He beats out FroStee and Euneil “Staz” Javiñas due to tiebreakers. Staz has to be hugely disappointed, as he only needed to win one of his matches to advance to the playoffs, but lost out.
Europe Division A
Casper “Hunterace” Notto loses out in the final week but holds on to the first seed at 9-5. Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh finishes second because of his loss to Radu “Rdu” Dima and worse tiebreakers than Hunterace.
Finishing third is Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov because he was able to win against Hunterace in a clean 2:0 set to reach 7-7. He was able to beat Hunterace at his own game in the Combo Priest mirror, then was able to beat Priest again with his Quest Shaman.
In the fourth playoff spot is Thijs “Thijs” Molendijk at 7-7. He only beat Joffrey “Swidz” Cunat in the final week but got the help he needed in other matches to not have to worry about tiebreakers. Swidz needed to beat Thijs and he would have the playoff spot but Thijs won in a 2:0 sweep. Thijs won the Combo Priest Mirror. Swidz switched to Druid to play that mirror instead of trying to get a potentially easy win with Priest in game two.
Europe Division B
Jaromír “Jarla” Vyskočil finishes the season off strong winning both of his sets to go 10-4 and grab the first seed. Both of his sets were against other players heading into playoffs so he has some good confidence as he looks to reach the Global Final.
Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer already had a playoff spot clinched and lost out in the final two weeks but still maintains the second seed at 8-6. Kevin “Casie” Eberlein is the third seed at 8-6 as well with worse tiebreakers.
Filling the fourth and final seed is Pavel “Pavel” Beltukov at 7-7. He lost out but maintained tiebreakers over George “BoarControl” Webb at 7-7. BoarControl managed to beat Bunnyhoppor, but couldn’t get past Linh “Seiko” Nguyen who saves himself from relegation.
Americas Division A
Eddie “Eddie” Lui splits his series and safely takes the first seed in Division A at 10-4. Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root stepped up big time in the last week to win both sets and finish 9-5 in second place.
Purple beat Facundo “Nalguidan” Pruzzo 2:1 as part of punching his ticket into the playoffs. Nalguidan was only playing for playoff seeding so that could have been a contributing factor. It came down to a Quest Druid against OTK Paladin match up. Nalguidan decided to go for a 50/50 lethal out and missed it, allowing Purple to outlast him.
Nalguidan has the third seed on tiebreakers over Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam. Muzzy put on a big showing in the final week to win his last two sets and finish 8-6, claiming that fourth playoff spot. The deciding series was between him and Edward “Gallon” Goodwin. Muzzy swept him 2:0, taking the Combo Priest mirror and beating Quest Druid with an aggressive Highlander Hunter.
Americas Division B
Not much could have changed in this division going into the final week. Only William “Amnesiac” Barton had an outside shot of making playoffs, but that required him to win both of his sets. He lost both and finished 6-8. Taking that fourth playoffs spot is Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang at 8-6.
Just the one win over Brian “bloodyface” Eason was enough to hold off any competition. David “justsaiyan” Shan finishes first, Jerome “Monsanto” Faucher second and Bloodyface in third. All of them were 9-5 but tiebreakers decided their placement. Monsanto had a big showing in the final week, beating both Amnesiac and justsaiyan heading into playoffs.
With this, the playoff contenders have been decided. All of the fourth seeds have the roughest path to the final, as they have to play against each other to move forward in the playoff brackets.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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