Week 3 of this year's Grandmasters' second season is behind us, and the split to two Divisions has taken place. Additionally, the first Chinese representative for the World Championship was determined this weekend. You can re-live the action with our spoiler-free post below.
Top 4 Decklists
These were the players that made it into the final day in each region, respectively. You can find the secondary and tertiary deck card changes within each deck's guide.
VoDs
Here are the VoDs from the three days of competition. Links to individual match VoDs 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:
Day 1:
- Group A Initial: Syf vs Leaoh
- Group A Initial: Liooon vs WEStone
- Group B Initial: Sword vs Zhoulang
- Group B Initial: Trunks vs TNCAnswer
- Group A Elimination: VoD
- Group B Elimination: VoD
Day 2:
Results
The results in full, including the preceding off-stream Swiss rounds, can be found here.
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Day 1:
- Group A Initial: Syf vs Leaoh 3-0
- Group A Initial: Liooon vs WEStone 2-3
- Group B Initial: Sword vs Zhoulang 3-0
- Group B Initial: Trunks vs TNCAnswer 3-1
- Group A Elimination: Leaoh vs Liooon 2-3
- Group B Elimination: Zhoulang vs TNCAnswer 3-0
Day 2:
- Group A Winners: Syf vs WEStone 0-3
- Group B Winners: Sword vs Trunks 3-1
- Group A Decider: Liooon vs Syf 1-3
- Group B Decider: Zhoulang vs Trunks 2-3
- Semifinal #1: Sword vs Syf 2-3
- Semifinal #2: WEStone vs Zhoulang 3-2
- Final: Syf vs WEStone 3-1
Discussion
We've now reached the end of the three week Swiss period and the Divisions have been determined.
Asia-Pacific
- Division A: Bankyugi, blitzchung, che0nsu, DawN, glory, Surrender, tom60229, Tyler.
- Division B: Alan870806, Alutemu, Flurry, kin0531, posesi, Ryvius, Shaxy, TIZS.
Europe
- Division A: Bunnyhoppor, Casie, Jarla, Rdu, Seiko, Thijs, Viper, xBlyzes.
- Division B: AyRoK, BoarControl, Bozzzton, Felkeine, SilverName, Swidz, Warma, Zhym.
Americas
- Division A: bloodyface, Eddie, justsaiyan, killinallday, languagehacker, Monsanto, muzzy, NoHandsGamer.
- Division B: Briarthorn, Empanizado, ETC, Firebat, Fr0zen, Nalguidan, Rami94, Zalae.
The specialist format set very different deckbuilding restrictions than the formats of the two previous weeks, and it was no surprise that the variety of classes brought continued to decline. Overall, only six different classes were played this week with Americas' players only bringing four. Mage, Priest, and Druid ended up being the most popular picks, with Rogue not far behind. Shaman and Paladin were joined by Demon Hunter and Hunter as the quartet skipped this week's matches altogether.
The strength of Warriors from previous weeks was seen in the secondary/tertiary deck techs for most players, as the swaps for one of these decks almost unanimously consisted of variable amounts of Acidic Swamp Ooze, Kobold Stickyfinger, and Harrison Jones. This strategy seemed to pay off as none of the five Warrior players made it to top 8. While only two players brought Warlock, both were able to advance to the weekend's matches.
In APAC, DawN managed to do the almost impossible and rose from the clutches of Division B into Division A by winning the week with his Rogue. Having spent last season in the relegation battle in Division B, his relief and joy after this result was very clear. Despite losing the final, blitzchung also managed to gather enough points to rise to Division A, making posesi the only player with 10 points to end up in Division B. He will be accompanied by his fellow Japanese Alutemu, who was very convincing during Season 1 but hasn't evidently settled to the new expansion yet as he finished last of all 16 players.
In Europe, Season 1 champion SilverName's swift exit in Group A meant that the stakes for Group B were very clear: the top 2 would all but certain be the players who would get the remaining Division A spots. It was the German duo Casie and Viper who rose to the occasion, with Viper going all the way and winning the week with some excellent Zoolock plays in the final. This result meant that Division A will have all four Germans aboard, while Division B will be filled with the French (5 players) with xBlyzes being the only one to reach Division A (and convincingly so).
In Americas, there were plenty of narrow and late qualifications for Division A. With a total of four players sitting at 9 points and only three Division A spots available, it was Fr0zen who was left with the short end of the stick as his best finish was the worst out of the quartet. There was no stopping Eddie this week either, despite NoHandsGamer coming very close at beating the infamous Turtle Mage, but the rope was merciless and denied the lethal. Eddie showed his mastery over the deck in the final where he was unable to get the combo going but out-tempoed killinallday's Tempo Mage to secure the victory. This continued domination made Eddie the top point earner across all regions with an astonishing 21 points (out of maximum of 24).
In China, two players were ahead of the rest of the field. Having both won their initial matches, Syf and WEStone already faced each other in Group A Winners' match, where WEStone was able to take a resounding 3-0 victory. Unfortunately for Syf, this meant that he had to defeat his girlfriend and the reigning World Champion Liooon (who also had an identical lineup to his, and had also been beaten by WEStone earlier) to advance from the group. Both Syf and WEStone had to dig deep in semifinals as the matches dragged to game five, but as Syf was able to beat his teammate Sword and WEStone was victorious against Zhoulang, a rematch between the two was imminent. In the final Syf was able to transform his humbling defeat into a 3-1 triumph, as he became the first Chinese player to book a place in this year's World Championship.
The completed lineup of Grandmasters Season 1 champions.
Grandmasters will continue next week with the first week of Round Robin. Don't forget to tune in!
Comments
The NA finals match 3 was brutal.
This meta is way more conducive to Specialists format. It may be something that evolves into what last attempt was where everyone brought the same decks every week, but this was way more entertaining to watch imo than the first time around.
It's crazy to see how far Eddie was carried by deck selection this season. While Turtle Mage isn't a deck you particularly want to take to ladder, it is so strong in more limited tournament settings.
I'm not sure why other GMs didn't follow his lead.
Well it has a lot to do with confidence... Unlike Eddie other GMs are not as experienced with the deck...
A GM can probably become experienced with it...or at least they should be able to.
Well somehow top people successfully countered priests
Bottom 4 in all regions had all the warriors though from what i heard because everyone brought a deck with tons of weapon removal as tertiary...