Season 2 of Hearthstone Grandmasters has kicked off and we are through the first of seven weeks. With the 14 game seasons, it is critical to win right from the get-go. The playoffs are a little more forgiving this season, with an additional two spots per region, but it’s still no easy task. Check out how the players are fairing thus far in the Hearthstone Grandmasters Season 2 Week 1 Standings.
Asia-Pacific Region
Kim “che0nsu” Cheon Su was the first player to 2-0 in Asia-Pacific this week in Division A. One of his first wins was off of Liu “Shaxy” Wei-Chieh, who finished first in his division last season. Shaxy started last season 5-0, so a loss this early wasn’t what he was looking for.
Shaxy did win a match to go 1-1. He managed to beat Kim “Surrender” Jung-soo, who starts the season 0-2. Surrender is the first Asia-Pacific player qualified for the Global Finals. He started last season 1-3, so maybe he’s used to slow starts. He’ll have to look to turn things around very quickly if he wants to make playoffs again.
Tsao “SamuelTsao” Tsu Lin also hit 2-0 in Division A. He started last season 1-5, and is already off to a great start, beating both Surrender and Tyler “Tyler” Hoang Nguyen.
Chen “tom60229” Wei Lin and Kenta “glory” Sato are 2-0 over in Disivion B. Former world champ tom has struggled a lot since winning that championship, but could be starting to get back to that level after beating Jang “Dawn” Hyun Jae and Euneil “Staz” Javiñas in Week 1. Glory finished in fourth place last season, which would get him into the playoffs this season, so he’ll look to make it this time around.
Europe Region
Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov, who was 5-9 last season, comes out of the gates hot in Season 2 as the first player to a 2-0 start in Division A. This includes a win off of Jon “Orange” Westberg, who made it to playoffs in Season 1. There was only one-week last season in which SilverName won both of his matches, a mark he could easily improve on after tying it in the first week. He appears to perform better in the multi-class environment.
Reigning world champ Casper “Hunterace” Notto continues where he left off from last season, starting 2-0 in Division A. Over in Division B, another former world champ in Pavel “Pavel” Beltukov started at 2-0. This included a win over Global Finalist Chris “Fenomeno” Tsakopoulos, who starts off Season 2 at 0-2.
Linh “Seiko” Nguyen also comes out hot at 2-0. He finished 10-4 alongside Hunterace last season, but now they are in different divisions. One of his wins in Week 1 was against Fenomeno. So although Feno starts the season at 0-2, those losses were against great players that could be in playoffs at the end of the season.
Americas Region
Similar to Surrender in the Asia-Pacific region, American Global Finalist Francisco “PNC” Leimontas starts off the season 0-2 in Division B. He also started last season 1-3, and could take some time before he finds his groove. He did play Week 1 from Korea, as he is still there from Masters Tour Seoul. He could have struggled with preparation as he had very few Uldum card inclusions among his decks.
Eddie “Eddie” Lui is 2-0 early in Division A. He couldn’t claim the Global Finalist spot in Playoffs last season, so he looks determined to try again this season. Also at 2-0 in Division A is Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam, who looks to improve his 6-8 performance from last season. Muzzy is the only player to have made it to the World Championship in the last two years consecutively, so it would be weird to not see him at the Global Final with his consistency.
The new addition to Grandmasters, Edward “Gallon” Goodwin, is off to a slow start at 0-2. He has to take the place of David “Dog” Caero who finished first place last season, which proves to be a difficult task. David “justsaiyan” Shan jumps out to a 2-0 start in Divison, beating PNC Global Finalist PNC.
There’s still 6 weeks left of Hearthstone to play, and only one player lasted undefeated through five weeks last season. So, it is unlikely all of these names will stay at the top of their respective divisions, as a few of the 0-2 players will definitely uproot them.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website and the PlayHearthstone Twitch channel.
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