The first Grandmasters season of 2021 continued with Week 5 last weekend as 48 players battled in the "new" meta to gather some all-important 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 this week.
VoDs
Here are the links to individual match VoDs in spoilers below.
Day 1 - Initial Group Decider Matches
———- Asia-Pacific ———-
- Group A Decider - Shaxy vs Bankyugi: VoD
- Group B Decider - blitzchung vs tom60229: VoD
- Group C Decider - lambyseries vs GivePLZ: VoD
- Group D Decider - che0nsu vs Surrender: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Group A Decider - Rdu vs Viper: VoD
- Group B Decider - Zhym vs Bunnyhoppor: VoD
- Group C Decider - Frenetic vs Seiko: VoD
- Group D Decider - Warma vs Jarla: 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 - glory vs blitzchung: VoD
- Quarterfinal 2 - DawN vs che0nsu: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - Alutemu vs Bankyugi: VoD
- Quarterfinal 4 - Posesi vs lambyseries: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Quarterfinal 1 - xBlyzes vs Zhym (was not played)
- Quarterfinal 2 - Casie vs Jarla: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - AyRoK vs Viper: Part 1/ Part 2
- Quarterfinal 4 - Thijs vs Frenetic: VoD
———- Americas ———-
Day 3 - Semifinals and Finals
Results
The results in full, including the preceding off-stream games, can be found here.
Discussion
Anduin was loved by all and hated by many, as everyone brought Priest this week and quite often banned it before every match. Rogue enjoyed a widespread popularity while Mage, Demon Hunter, and Warrior were also common sights in all regions. It's uncertain whether the general opinion was that the buffs were not enough or was it just a case of too little time to playtest the changes but Shaman was, once again, brought by nobody. APAC players additionally ditched Warlock, but otherwise all classes were represented during this week's action.
APAC saw the relegation-threatened duo posesi and DawN rise to the occasion and share the majority of this week's spoils between them. Posesi's victory all but guarantees his safety, while DawN can also breathe a lot easier, although he's not entirely out of the trouble yet. Europe had a similar story with Frenetic, who leapfrogged out of the relegation zone all the way to 5th with his victory over Jarla in the final. Americas gave little points to the relegation-threatened as the top of the table kept running away. Eddie and lunaloveee met in the grand final (once again) with Eddie coming out on top with a Control Warrior sweep.
The talking point of this week's matches was the one that did not get played. xBlyzes missed his quarterfinal match by 25 minutes, which led to a default win for his opponent and compatriot Zhym. As xBlyzes seemed relatively safe from relegation while Zhym was deep in those struggles, some players raised concerns about foul play, especially since xBlyzes seemed to be online on his tournament super account. The situation prompted an investigation from HSEsports, the result of which is yet to be publicly announced.
The winners of Week 5.
We're slowly approaching the end of the season, so here's another quick look at the top and bottom of the points standings. Tyler seems already destined for relegation as he basically would need to reach the final twice in the coming weeks to have any realistic chance of survival.
| APAC | Points | Europe | Points | Americas | Points |
| blitzchung | 15 | Jarla | 16 | NoHandsGamer | 15 |
| Alutemu | 12 | Thijs | 13 | Eddie | 14 |
| GivePLZ | 11 | Rdu | 12 | lunaloveee | 14 |
| Shaxy | 11 | Warma | 11 | Rami94 | 13 |
| 3 players | 10 | 3 players | 9 | Nalguidan | 12 |
| … | … | … | … | … | … |
| che0nsu | 7 | Swidz & Seiko | 7 | muzzy | 6 |
| lambyseries | 5 | Zhym | 6 | languagehacker | 5 |
| tom60229 | 5 | Bunnyhoppor | 4 | killinallday | 5 |
| Hi3 | 4 | Felkeine | 4 | Briarthorn | 4 |
| tyler | 1 | AyRoK | 4 | Impact | 3 |
You can find the full standings on the official tournament site (not yet updated with Week 5 results at the time of writing).
Grandmasters will continue next week with another week of Last Hero Standing! Don't forget to tune in!
Comments
Very happy to see Frenetic grabbing a bunch of points, since it frees up another spot for promotion, increasing the chance that Floki gets into GM. xBlyzes situation is very sus, since they're not just both French but also buddies and practice partners. Remains to be seen how the investigation will pan out. Also, very sad that Impact will almost certainly get relegated now. His post on twitter was really sad.
That xBlyzes issue is really one of the first I've ever seen in hearthstone. We really shouldn't speculate and let due process work it out, but it really has stained some bit in competitive hearthstone history. Doesn't help that europe tends to be super tight when relegation comes along, and as a result of this act Zymn is placed in a better position for safety.
I don't think there's ever going to be enough evidence to make a call. But certainly blizz should start looking for ways to stop accidents like this from happening. Would it really be too much for them to make a phone call if someone was 10 minutes late, and let it play out outside of live telecast?
Lots of unusual stuff happening in Europe this weekend:
- As mentioned, xBlyzes missing his match.
- Also, Viper encountering some connection problems at a critical juncture during his match against AyRoK, prompting a redo of the final game.
- Jarla making uncharacteristically risky decisions in the final moments of his last 2 games versus Frenetic. In both cases, he ignored an obvious threat and went with very minor board development.
Yeah, that was really rough. Apparently he got screwed over by Windows update, tried to switch to his laptop then discovered its battery was empty... poor guy. Glad that he still managed to get the win.
Poor AyRok too, the situation was just as hard for him and loosing such a close series with so many technical issues must have infuriating.