The first Grandmasters season of 2021 continued with Week 2 last weekend as 48 players battled in the post-nerf 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 - TIZS vs che0nsu: VoD
- Group B Decider - glory vs Hi3: VoD
- Group C Decider - GivePLZ vs Bankyugi: VoD
- Group D Decider - blitzchung vs lambyseries: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Group A Decider - Frenetic vs Felkeine: VoD
- Group B Decider - Viper vs xBlyzes: VoD
- Group C Decider - Bozzzton vs Bunnyhoppor: VoD
- Group D Decider - Rdu vs Leta: 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 - Posesi vs Hi3: VoD
- Quarterfinal 2 - Alan870806 vs blitzchung: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - Surrender vs TIZS: VoD
- Quarterfinal 4 - Alutemu vs GivePLZ: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Quarterfinal 1 - Thijs vs Viper: VoD
- Quarterfinal 2 - Casie vs Rdu: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - Warma vs Felkeine: VoD
- Quarterfinal 4 - Jarla vs Bozzzton: VoD
———- Americas ———-
Day 3 - Semifinals and Finals
Results
The results in full, including the preceding off-stream games, can be found here.
Discussion
Blizzard's nerf bat seems to have done its thing at least for the tournament environment, as the must-bring trio of Mage, Paladin, and Rogue scattered from the top of the popularity chart. Europe lost faith in Paladin altogether with only 3 picks, whereas the new Mage was deemed weakest of the three in Americas with 6 picks. Demon Hunter seems to have become the new top dog with Illidan getting in the top 2 in pick rate for all regions. Europe still didn't bring Warrior or Shaman, but the classes were featured in the other two regions (although both Shaman players were left last in their respective groups).
This was the week of the newcomers as all three winners were promoted for this season (although Warma got re-promoted so this isn't his first season). In addition to GivePLZ and Warma, TIZS also continued where he left off last week and reached semifinals again, as did last week's winners Thijs and NoHandsGamer. While their points tallies haven't yet guaranteed them a spot in the Playoffs (there are still five weeks to come, after all), they can still feel pretty satisfied about their performances. On the other end of the GM groups DawN, AyRoK, Zhym are yet to make an appearance on stream this season as they're all stuck with 0 points. The format swaps to Specialist next week - will it also change the fortune of these players?
The winners of Week 2.
Grandmasters will continue next week with the first round of Specialist. Don't forget to tune in!
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