Grandmasters 2020 continued with Week 3 last weekend. As this was the last week before the Round Robin matches begin, the players fought hard to earn their place in Division A with some spots remaining contested until the very last day of competition. 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. The players did all bring 10 decks, but the only decks with codes available were the ones that were used in matches, and for some weird reason certain classes got banned every time.
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). Links to individual match videos have been provided in a spoiler below the video if you're only interested in certain matches.
Day 1:
——— Asia-Pacific ———
——— Europe ———
——— Americas ———
Day 2:
——— Asia-Pacific ———
——— Europe ———
——— Americas ———
Day 3:
Results
The results in full, including the preceding Swiss rounds, can be found here.
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Discussion
We've now reached the end of the three week period where players were collecting points to determine whether they got to Division A or Division B. The division splits for each region can be found inside the spoiler below.
Asia-Pacific
- Division A: Alutemu, che0nsu, Flurry, glory, kin0531, posesi, Ryvius, and Surrender.
- Division B: blitzchung, DawN, FroStee, SamuelTsao, Shaxy, Staz, Tom60229, and Tyler.
Europe
- Division A: BoarControl, Bunnyhoppor, Felkeine, Hunterace, Jarla, Seiko, SilverName, and Swidz.
- Division B: Bozzzton, Casie, Kolento, Pavel, Rdu, Thijs, Viper, and Zhym.
Americas
- Division A: bloodyface, Eddie, Empanizado, Gallon, justsaiyan, languagehacker, Monsanto, and Nalguidan.
- Division B: ETC, Firebat, Fr0zen, muzzy, PapaJason, PNC, Purple, and Zalae.
For full point standings, visit the official site. So, what do these Divisions mean? Here's what happens at the end of the upcoming Round Robin matches:
- Top 6 from Division A automatically make it into Playoffs.
- Top 4 from Division B compete in a play-in round to determine two additional players to join the top 6 from Division A in Playoffs.
- The 7th- and 8th-placed players in Division B at the are automatically relegated from Season 1 of Grandmasters 2020.
- Final relegation will be determined via a 3-match Play-In involving the 7th- and 8th-placed from Division A, and 5th- and 6th-placed from Division B.
In short, Division A spot gives you excellent chances of reaching the Playoffs and a significantly smaller chance of getting relegated. While Division B also has a decent chance for a Playoffs spot, you're also in a much bigger risk of facing relegation.
Since the players brought all 10 classes this week, there was a chance to see a variety of matchups, but thanks to the evident differences in the power level of some classes, it was a near universal ban strategy to leave up Druid, Paladin, and Shaman. The fourth unbanned class varied quite a bit, with the most common ones being Hunter and Mage. Demon Hunters and Warriors were given no chance of showing up during the top 8 phase.
During these first three weeks of competition, only half of the players each week got a chance to show their skills on stream, which means that we still haven't seen the likes of Kolento and Firebat this season, both facing the cut with 3-4 Swiss record every week. As an unwanted achievement, Rdu was the only player to always end up in the bottom 4 of the Swiss, getting only the minimum of 3 points (which still meant $3750 as prize money). At the other end of the spectrum, three players performed slightly better than the rest: glory, Surrender, and Swidz. While glory was the most consistent of the three, always making it to top 8, the other two reached the final twice with Swidz winning both times.
As a curiosity, the players who won the whole thing on Week 1 (Ryvius, BoarControl, and Empanizado) never made it out of the Swiss again. The points from their victorious week were enough to get them to the respective Division As though, with Empanizado just about making it. Luckily for them, the format of the Round Robin matches is the same than on Week 1: Best of 5 Conquest with 1 ban.
Grandmasters will continue next week with Round Robin matches. Don't forget to tune in!
Comments
I watched a few of the matches and I was surprised to see Highlander Paladin being played. I was not aware it was a thing.
Tournament lists are often quite different from the usual ladder experience, even more so when everyone's asked to bring 10 decks.
At least I know now why i see so many paladin murloc decks. Seriously I hate murlocs so much, whoever started giving it attention and posted the decks for it: thanks for ruining the current state of the game even more.
Curious on the stream schedule for GM on the new format
Yea, I didn't realize that this format would allow for off-meta classes to see play so I got very excited at first watching the games, but I soon understood that even the "worst" top classes that fought for the last ban spot, such as Mage and Hunter, are just clearly better than the rest. The only exception seems to be Druid, which is still barely competitive but just not as consistent as before.
Some very contentious points in that last spoiler there. It's quite clear certain players struggled with the Paladin and Shaman matchups. I think I've seen enough murloc Paladin mirrors for the rest of the year :)