The second Grandmasters season of 2021 continued with Week 3 last weekend as 48 players ventured in the post-nerf meta in the hope of gathering enough points to reach the Playoffs. You can re-live the action with our spoiler-free post below.
Finalists' Decklists
These were the players that reached the final in each region and the decks they brought for this week. As a bonus, we've included the decklists of the finalists from China's Season 1 Grandmasters Playoffs which also took place this weekend.
okasinnsuke's Decks
TIZS's Decks
Rdu's Decks
Seiko's Decks
DreadEye's Decks
lunaloveee's Decks
Stone's Decks
Xiaobai's Decks
VoDs
Here are the links to individual match VoDs in spoilers below.
Day 1 - Initial Group Decider Matches
———- Asia-Pacific ———-
- Group A Decider - glory vs che0nsu: VoD
- Group B Decider - posesi vs lambyseries: VoD
- Group C Decider - blitzchung vs Shaxy: VoD
- Group D Decider - Bankyugi vs GivePLZ: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Group A Decider - Leta vs xBlyzes: VoD
- Group B Decider - Thijs vs Floki: VoD
- Group C Decider - Casie vs Viper: VoD
- Group D Decider - Warma vs Gaby: VoD
———- Americas ———-
Day 2 - Quarterfinals
The spoiler below uses results from Day 1 games in naming matchups, so watch those first if you want no spoilers!
———- Asia-Pacific ———-
- Quarterfinal 1 - Surrender vs posesi: VoD
- Quarterfinal 2 - TIZS vs GivePLZ: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - Alutemu vs glory: VoD
- Quarterfinal 4 - okasinnsuke vs blitzchung: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Quarterfinal 1 - Bunnyhoppor vs Thijs: VoD
- Quarterfinal 2 - Rdu vs Viper: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - Seiko vs xBlyzes: VoD
- Quarterfinal 4 - Jarla vs Gaby: VoD
———- Americas ———-
Day 3 - Semifinals and Finals
Results
The results in full, including the preceding off-stream games, can be found here.
Quarterfinals
- ShuiMoo vs Stone 1-3
- XiaoT vs 儒雅随和丨橙诺 2-3
- Xiaobai vs Tianming 3-1
- Leaoh vs OmegaZero 1-3
Semifinals
- Stone vs OmegaZero 3-1
- Xiaobai vs 儒雅随和丨橙诺 3-2
Final
- Stone vs Xiaobai 1-3
Discussion
Warlock, Demon Hunter, and Rogue formed the unsurprising top three classes in all three regions with varying order of popularity. Shaman was the next in line with a rather clear margin to everything else in both APAC and Americas, whereas Europe still trusted Mage a bit more than Shamans. Paladin saw zero picks and che0nsu was the only one to bring Warrior this week.
The Chinese eight-player GM Playoffs obeyed the exact same patterns: same top three classes followed by Shaman with no one bringing Paladin or Warrior. Universally unplayable.
In APAC the top 4 of the week once again included three Japanese players, but it was the Taiwanese TIZS who took the Week 3 crown ahead of the newcomer okasinnsuke by reverse-sweeping the Japanese's Shaman. In Europe Gaby reached yet another top 4 before losing to Seiko who, in turn, went on to beat Rdu in the final, getting the important maximum 5 points from this week's tournament. In Americas DreadEye preyed upon the 16 Handlocks brought this week and the strategy carried him all the way to victory after a hard-fought final against lunaloveee.
In China's Grandmaster Playoffs, the top 8 Gold Points earners from March to June battled it out for a spot at World Championships later this year. In the end Xiaobai, the winner of Masters Tour Ironforge, emerged victorious and will be joining posesi, Frenetic, and Nalguidan in the elite competition's grand finals.
The winners of Week 3.
Lastly, let's take another glimpse at the points standings of this season.
| APAC | Points | Europe | Points | Americas | Points |
| posesi* | 13 | Gaby | 11 | Nalguidan* | 11 |
| Alutemu | 9 | Frenetic* | 11 | Monsanto | 9 |
| GivePLZ | 8 | Rdu | 8 | DreadEye | 9 |
| Surrender | 8 | 4 players | 7 | muzzy** | 8 |
| TIZS | 7 | Jarla | 6 | 3 players | 6 |
| … | … | … | … | … | … |
| trahison | 4 | 3 players | 3 | killinallday | 3 |
| 4 players | 3 | Bozzzton | 2 | Fr0zen | 3 |
| che0nsu | 2 | Leta | 2 | Rami94 | 2 |
| AlanC86 | 1 | Felkeine | 1 | Eddie** | 1 |
*The winners of Season 1 start with extra 5 points this season. **Retiring at the end of the season.
You can find the full standings on the official tournament site (not yet updated with Week 3 results at the time of writing).
Grandmasters will continue next week with another round of Last Hero Standing. Don't forget to tune in!
Comments
Broot me dood!
Is Paladin easy to play around or counter? Coz it's really interesting that the class is number 1 on HSReplay, but sees no play in GMs
Paladin's playstyle is very linear and predictable. There isn't much room for different strategies other than buffing stuff. Removals are limited, secrets are annoying but GMs know how to play around them (unlike people in ladder which struggle against those) and healing is also limited, at the moment. The class isn't bad for ladder but for tournaments it is just too easy to predict what it is going to do.
Gaby is still the actual nuts. Frenetic is doing pretty well this season, and with the 5 bonus points is still equal to Gaby. Actually bonkers.