The first Grandmasters season of 2021 kicked off with Week 1 last weekend as 48 players started their journey with the common goal 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 the opening week of Conquest.

Winners' Decklists

Alutemu's Decks

0 1060010600 444 0
0 73607360 913 0
0 61606160 708 0
0 51205120 387 0

glory's Decks

0 1060010600 515 0
0 73607360 1166 0
0 61606160 423 0
0 51205120 292 0

Thijs's Decks

0 85608560 1981 0
0 84008400 4269 0
0 61606160 919 0
0 52005200 1098 0

Viper's Decks

0 29202920 2664 0
0 61606160 624 0
0 52605260 717 0
0 28802880 635 0

DreadEye's Decks

1 40804080 1458 0
0 52205220 401 0
0 28802880 1782 0
0 61206120 350 0

NoHandsGamer's Decks

0 48204820 1072 0
0 86808680 504 0


VoDs

Here are the links to individual match VoDs in spoilers below.

Day 1 - Initial Group Decider Matches

Day 1 Match VoDs

———- Asia-Pacific ———-

  • Group A Decider - Shaxy vs Bankyugi: VoD
  • Group B Decider - lambyseries vs Tyler: VoD
  • Group C Decider - TIZS vs Blitzchung: VoD
  • Group D Decider - GivePLZ vs che0nsu: VoD

———- Europe ———-

  • Group A Decider - Warma vs Rdu: VoD
  • Group B Decider - Leta vs xBlyzes: VoD
  • Group C Decider - Swidz vs Casie: VoD
  • Group D Decider - Jarla vs Bozzzton: VoD

———- Americas ———-

  • Group A Decider - Eddie vs Briarthorn: VoD
  • Group B Decider - NoHandsGamer vs Fr0zen: VoD
  • Group C Decider - Monsanto vs Tincho: VoD
  • Group D Decider - languagehacker vs killinallday: VoD

Day 2 - Quarterfinals

The spoiler below uses results from Day 1 games in naming matchups, so watch those first if you want no spoilers!

Day 2 Match VoDs

———- Asia-Pacific ———-

  • Quarterfinal 1 - Alutemu vs lambyseries: VoD
  • Quarterfinal 2 - Surrender vs GivePLZ: VoD
  • Quarterfinal 3 - glory vs Shaxy: VoD
  • Quarterfinal 4 - tom60229 vs TIZS: VoD

———- Europe ———-

  • Quarterfinal 1 - Seiko vs Leta: VoD
  • Quarterfinal 2 - Thijs vs Jarla: VoD
  • Quarterfinal 3 - Bunnyhoppor vs Warma: VoD
  • Quarterfinal 4 - Viper vs Casie: VoD

———- Americas ———-

  • Quarterfinal 1 - lunaloveee vs Eddie: VoD
  • Quarterfinal 2 - DreadEye vs languagehacker: VoD
  • Quarterfinal 3 - muzzy vs NoHandsGamer: VoD
  • Quarterfinal 4 - Fled vs Monsanto: VoD

Day 3 - Semifinals and Finals

Day 3 Match VoDs
  • Asia-Pacific Semifinal 1: VoD
  • Asia-Pacific Semifinal 2: VoD
  • Asia-Pacific Finals: VoD
  • Europe Semifinal 1: VoD
  • Europe Semifinal 2: VoD
  • Europe Finals: VoD
  • Americas Semifinal 1: VoD
  • Americas Semifinal 2: VoD
  • Americas Finals: VoD


Results

The results in full, including the preceding off-stream games, can be found here.

Asia-Pacific Top 8 Results

Europe Top 8 Results

Americas Top 8 Results


Discussion

The Grandmasters meta for this week was rather expected as Lunacy Mage, Secret Paladin, and Rogue in all forms were absolutely everywhere. At the other end of the spectrum were Warrior and Shaman with zero picks, the latter of which might find the situation quite familiar from preceding GM seasons. Over to you and your upcoming nerfs, Blizzard...

Result-based Discussion

The weekend's matches contained some expectedly disgusting Deck of Lunacy highrolls and some less expected misplays and missed lethals.

The great results of the Japanese continued in APAC as practice partners glory and Alutemu reached the final with their identical lineups. Both players remained unbeaten before going head-to-head, with Alutemu coming up on top with a dominant 3-0 sweep. Europe's final had another unbeaten pair clash as Thijs and Viper battled for the important Grandmasters points. Viper's more aggressive lineup eventually fell just a bit short as Thijs was able to clutch a narrow 3-2 victory with his Control Warlock, a deck that was barely brought this week outside Europe. Americas saw the newcomer DreadEye reach the final unbeaten, but his Paladin ended up getting reverse swept by NoHandsGamer for a dramatic 3-2 win.

The winners of Week 1.

How did the newcomers fare in their first Grandmasters week? Each region had one promoted player in semifinals or better (GivePLZ, Leta, and DreadEye) as well as one player getting eliminated first in their group, leaving them with 0 points and no stream time (Hi3, Frenetic, and Impact). Fled and lambyseries, the first of whom brought the weekend's only lineup without Mage or Paladin, reached quarterfinals whereas Tincho got eliminated in the decider match of the initial group.


Grandmasters will continue next week with another round of Conquest. Don't forget to tune in!