Grandmasters kicked off last weekend with Season 1 of 2020. The field was already cut in half during Wednesday's and Thursday's off-stream Swiss rounds, and the remaining 24 players entered the weekend hoping to secure some much needed points for the second phase of the new Grandmasters system. You can re-live the action with our spoiler-free post below.
Top 2 Decklists
These were the players that made it into the Final in each region, respectively.
bloodyface's Decks
BoarControl's Decks
Empanizado's Decks
Ryvius's Decks
SilverName's Decks
Surrender's Decks
VoDs
Here are the VoDs from the three days of competition Blizzard wanted you to see (i.e. excluding the Swiss portion, see tournament format). Timestamps have been provided (mostly by HSEsports) in a spoiler below the video if you're only interested in certain matches.
Day 1:
For some reason, the Americas matches aren't in the main video, so their separate VoDs have been linked here instead.
———- Asia-Pacific ———-
- Surrender vs Staz: 25:54
- kin0531 vs che0nsu: 1:43:59
- Winners: 2:28:30
- Elimination: 3:15:26
- Decider: 5:00:59
———- Europe ———-
- BoarControl vs Zhym: 6:44:23
- Thijs vs Hunterace: 7:44:21
- Winners: 8:57:53
- Elimination: 9:48:03
- Decider: 10:46:43
———- Americas ———-
Day 2: (Video not available at the time of writing, check spoiler for links to individual videos)
———- Asia-Pacific ———-
———- Europe ———-
———- Americas ———-
Day 3:
Results
The results in full, including the preceding Swiss rounds Blizzard "didn't want you to see", can be found here.
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Discussion
This weekend we crowned a "champion" for each region, but what did they get for their efforts? Increased prize money, yes, but in addition to that, players will get points for their performance during the first three weeks as follows:
- First place: 6 points.
- Second place: 5 points.
- Third and Fourth place: 4 points.
- Fifth through Eighth place: 3 points.
- Ninth through Twelfth place: 2 points.
- Thirteenth through Sixteenth place: 1 point.
At the end of the three weeks, players will be divided into two divisions based on their points tally. The players can still reach the playoffs from both divisions as well as get relegated from both, but Division A has got some massive benefits for both prospects compared to Division B, so the points do matter. You can find the current point standings here.
Can you guess the most popular class? It comes as no surprise that the Top 8 of each region favored Demon Hunters above all else, with only languagehacker deciding to not bring it but target it instead. Warlock, Warrior, and Druid were also popular inclusions as can also be seen from the Top 2 decklists. At the other end of the spectrum, only bloodyface brought Hunter (Face), and Staz was responsible for the only Shaman deck (Totem). Nobody from Top 8 brought Paladin. Poor Uther.
This weekend's matches also were the first of their kind for the seven new Grandmasters so how did they fare?
- 6/7 got out of the Swiss phase (PapaJason was the only one who didn't)
- 4/7 got to Top 4
- 1/7 got to the Final and won (Empanizado)
All in all, most of them started out very solidly and gave themselves good chances to reach that coveted Division A.
Grandmasters will continue next week, and the format will switch to Last Hero Standing. Don't forget to tune in!
Comments
I get the feeling that the original grand masters have become complacent and don't have the fire anymore which is why the new blood did so well.
Frostee isn't even streaming HS anymore, and RDU's channel is primarily a BG stream.
At least there is "confirmed" alt art for Demon Hunter at 1k wins. Still 100x better than Rexar
Hold on, Justsaiyan already has the 1000 win Demon Hunter portrait?! How is it even possible? I assume they are playing on alternate accounts provided by Blizzard.
They are definitely playing on special accounts, that’s also why every player has all golden card decks.
Well played to BoarControl, as a fellow Brit it was nice to see the home side performing well (it's not like there is an abundance of players from the UK!).
Does anyone have Justsaiyan's decklists? I wanna try his Warrior.
I knew I forgot to mention something: by clicking the i-icons in tournament brackets you can access all decklists from this weekend. For example justsaiyan's decks can be accessed from this matchup.
Thank you :D