The first Grandmasters season of 2021 continued with Week 6 last weekend as 48 players battled for the all-important points to reach the Playoffs as well as avoiding the relegation. 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.
Alan870806's Decks
glory's Decks
Bozzzton's Decks
Rdu's Decks
Nalguidan's Decks
NoHandsGamer's Decks
VoDs
Here are the links to individual match VoDs in spoilers below.
Day 1 - Initial Group Decider Matches
———- Asia-Pacific ———-
- Group A Decider - Shaxy vs posesi: VoD
- Group B Decider - Alutemu vs glory: VoD
- Group C Decider - GivePLZ vs Alan870806: VoD
- Group D Decider - che0nsu vs tom60229: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Group A Decider - Bozzzton vs AyRoK: VoD
- Group B Decider - Frenetic vs Viper: VoD
- Group C Decider - Leta vs Thijs: VoD
- Group D Decider - Casie vs Bunnyhoppor: 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 - lambyseries vs glory: VoD
- Quarterfinal 2 - Hi3 vs che0nsu: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - TIZS vs Posesi: VoD
- Quarterfinal 4 - Bankyugi vs Alan870806: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Quarterfinal 1 - Warma vs Bozzzton: VoD
- Quarterfinal 2 - Felkeine vs Bunnyhoppor: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - Rdu vs Frenetic: VoD
- Quarterfinal 4 - Jarla vs Leta: VoD
———- Americas ———-
Day 3 - Semifinals and Finals
Results
The results in full, including the preceding off-stream games, can be found here.
Discussion
While APAC and Europe kept full trust to Priest, few Americas players started looking for other options. Whereas Mage enjoyed high popularity elsewhere than APAC, it was the vice versa for Druids. There were also interesting differences in what Paladin archetypes were brought: APAC clearly favored N'Zoth, Americas slightly favored Libram, and Europe brought zero Menageries. Frenetic was the only one to bring Hunter this week while Shaman stayed utterly unplayable, as was expected.
Congratulations are in order for this week's winning trio, but as the season is drawing to an end, let's jump right into looking at the points standings without further delay.
The winners of Week 6.
In APAC, Tyler's abysmal season leaves him absolutely zero hope of reaching safety. Yet another former World Champion is in real danger of leaving the elite competition as tom60229 needs at least a top 4 finish next week after an absolutely brutal loss in game 5 of his decider match this week. While lambyseries and Hi3 are also in the danger zone, they both could end up getting repromoted due to Blizzard's weird systems. DawN does not have that luxury and likely needs to avoid a 0-point week while Surrender and che0nsu aren't completely safe yet either (although the latter also has some MT points in his back pocket). The region also has the tightest Playoffs race as 6 players are tied at 12 points, last of whom is at 9th spot, just outside the Playoffs cut.
Europe is about to get bonkers. AyRoK is in a dire need of a big finish, while Bunnyhoppor and Zhym could also use one. Due to xBlyzes' point deduction, four players are sitting pretty at 7 points with three of them gaining 0 points this week. While unlikely to drop in the danger zone, Casie will still have to keep an eye on the point-hungry crew behind him as the 2-point difference does not guarantee his safety. As Frenetic and Leta managed to avoid relegation, Bunnyhoppor and xBlyzes are tied at the 4th promotion spot of Europe should either player end up going down (although the points difference to a lot of players behind them isn't exactly safe).
Due to Zalae's omission, Americas only has three relegation spots and Impact seems destined to fill one of them. Briarthorn would also have to reach his first top 8 of the season to have any hope of survival, while muzzy, who has been slowly drifting down the standings over the last two weeks, will need some extra points to not get shown the door. The first player in danger of getting relegated should the aforementioned trio gain some points is languagehacker, closely followed by Tincho and killinallday.
| APAC | Points | Europe | Points | Americas | Points |
| blitzchung | 15 | Jarla | 18 | NoHandsGamer | 20 |
| glory | 15 | Rdu | 17 | Nalguidan | 16 |
| Alutemu | 13 | Thijs | 14 | Eddie | 15 |
| posesi | 12 | Warma | 13 | Rami94 | 15 |
| GivePLZ | 12 | Bozzzton | 12 | lunaloveee | 15 |
| Alan870806 | 12 | Frenetic | 11 | DreadEye | 12 |
| Shaxy | 12 | Leta | 11 | Monsanto | 11 |
| TIZS | 12 | Viper | 10 | Fled | 11 |
| Bankyugi | 12 | Casie | 9 | Fr0zen | 9 |
| Surrender | 9 | Swidz | 7 | Tincho | 8 |
| che0nsu | 9 | Felkeine | 7 | killinallday | 8 |
| DawN | 8 | Seiko | 7 | languagehacker | 7 |
| Hi3 | 7 | xBlyzes | 7 | muzzy | 6 |
| lambyseries | 7 | Zhym | 6 | Briarthorn | 5 |
| tom60229 | 6 | Bunnyhoppor | 6 | Impact | 4 |
| tyler | 1 | AyRoK | 5 |
Grandmasters will continue next week with Conquest returning for the final week before Playoffs! Don't forget to tune in!
Comments
Lovely to see blitzchung on top!