With over 300 total invited players, Masters Tour Las Vegas is one of the largest Hearthstone tournaments ever at this level of skill. Masters Tour Las Vegas Day 1 was filled with dozens of games happening simultaneously all day long. Only those with four or more match wins will advance to Day 2 of the tournament.
First to Four Wins
Two Grandmasters, both Casper “Hunterace” Notto and David “Justsaiyan” Shan, would battle it out on stream to see who would be one of the first players to 4-0. Both players also brought Cyclone Mage, proving its strength or maybe utilizing their experience advantage in the early going. It was a tight back and forth battle that would be forced to a Game 3. Saiyan would eventually take the win to reach 4-0, with Hunterace moving to 3-1.
Of the other Grandmasters, Chris “Fenomeno” Tsakopoulos, Kenta “glory” Sato and Radu “Rdu” Dima would all hit that early 4-0 mark. Feno would beat fellow Grandmaster Jang “Dawn” Hyun Jae in Round 2.
Glory would take a series win off of Grandmaster Brian “bloodyface” Eason in Round 4 to put him to 3-1. He also took a win off prominent Hearthstone player Simon “Crane333” Raunholst in Round 3.
One of the non-Grandmasters but still a highly respected player to go 4-0 was French player Remi “Tars” Roesch. On his way to that point, he beat Hunterace’s Nordavind team mate Jahn-Erik “Zorkthar” Gangstøe in Round 2. Then in Round 4, he actually swept one of Europe’s best Grandmasters Linh “Seiko” Nguyen.
Another French player to hit 4-0 was Damien “Yogg” L’Hostis. He beat Grandmaster Elias “Bozzzton” Sibelius in Round 4 to hit that mark. Top flight Chinese player Zhao “Caimiao” Haixiao also hit the early 4-0 record.
Fan favorite Grandmaster David “Dog” Caero also reached 4-0 after beating “wtybill” in Round 4. A man who was on the casters table last week for Grandmasters, “Gallon” was also 4-0 after he beat Hong Kong’s best player Lo Tsz Kin “kin0531” in Round 4.
Grandmasters with Varying Performance
The field of talent is not so weak that Grandmasters players won’t have a tough time against them. There are a number of players that play at a skill level right around that Grandmasters tier that entered in this tournament.
Jaromír “Jarla” Vyskočil struggled out of the gates, losing his first three Swiss sets. Starting 0-3 is hard to come back from but he lost to some good players. In the first round he lost to “GamerRvg“, who has made a name for himself with several top finishes in Masters Qualifiers. Then in Round 3, he lost to Nayara “NaySyl” Sylvestre, Brazilian player and caster. She brought Bomb Warrior which must have lined up well with what Jarla brought.
Cho “Flurry” Hyun Soo had a similar start and actually dropped out of the tournament after Round 3. Fellow Grandmaster Ng “Blitzchung” Wai Chung gave him the loss to make him drop in Round 3. Which means he also struggled to get started, going 1-2 himself. Also with a Swiss score of 1-2, Tyler “Tyler” Hoang Nguyen actually dropped once he hit two losses. He lost in Round 3 to another Grandmaster in Dawn.
In a strange fashion, a large number of players actually bowed out of the tournament at 0-1. One of those players was Grandmaster Liu “Shaxy” Wei-Chieh. It’s inconclusive as to why, but maybe players felt that the mountain to climb back was insurmountable after the bad start. It also makes it extremely difficult to advance to Top 8 on tiebreakers because yours are significantly worse.
Other Notable Names Advancing to Day 2
A player to watch out for is Jason “PapaJason” Meller. He hit 5-0 early with an unusual lineup. That of course being his Token Druid which is not the big three Mage, Warrior or Rogue. He qualified for Seoul Masters Tour with his Token Druid and decided to stick with it going to Vegas.
Barred from the first two seasons of Grandmasters, Luo “Roger” Shengyuan is trying his hardest to make his bid for Season 3. He advances to Day 2 and will try to make the Top 8 in Vegas. Shih-Ming “Kuonet” Kuo is another player of Taiwan that advances to Day 2. He has been a big name in Masters Qualifiers and expect him to make a move towards Top 8.
Never count out Seiko. He did receive a loss early but is still one of the best players. He advances to Day 2 as a major competitor to win the tournament. Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert is a name that hasn’t been in the spotlight for some time but is yet another player who advances to Day 2 and could win it all.
Mihai “languagehacker” Dragalin is a 2019 World Championship competitor who advances to Day 2. Kacper “A83650” Kwieciński is another of those who were at the World Championship who makes it to Day 2.
Mage specialist Jacob “Apxvoid” Coen fights his way to Day 2 with Mage of course. The meta was in a perfect spot for Mage this time around and he has fully capitalized on the opportunity so far. Also, don’t count out Jace “DrJikininki” Garthright. He has spent a lot of time at the casting table lately but easily advanced to Day 2 in Vegas.
There is still a ton of Hearthstone left to play. Some players who barely edged their way into Day 2 still even have an outside shot at making the Top 8.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website and the PlayHearthstone twitch channel.
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