The second Grandmasters season of 2021 continued with Week 7 last weekend and for some it was the final week in the elite competitions as relegations took place before the Playoffs next week. 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 this week.
AlanC86's Decks
glory's Decks
Felkeine's Decks
Gaby's Decks
DimitriKazov's Decks
killinallday'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 - grr vs lambyseries: VoD
- Group B Decider - Shaxy vs TIZS: VoD
- Group C Decider - che0nsu vs Alutemu: VoD
- Group D Decider - Surrender vs DawN: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Group A Decider - Viper vs Frenetic: VoD
- Group B Decider - Seiko vs Jarla: VoD
- Group C Decider - Casie vs Floki: VoD
- Group D Decider - Rdu vs Warma: 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 - AlanC86 vs Shaxy: VoD
- Quarterfinal 2 - posesi vs Surrender: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - glory vs lambyseries: VoD
- Quarterfinal 4 - Bankyugi vs Alutemu: VoD
———- Europe ———-
- Quarterfinal 1 - Thijs vs Seiko: VoD
- Quarterfinal 2 - Felkeine vs Warma: VoD
- Quarterfinal 3 - J4YOU vs Casie: VoD
- Quarterfinal 4 - Gaby vs Frenetic: VoD
———- Americas ———-
Day 3 - Semifinals and Finals
Results
The results in full, including the preceding off-stream games, can be found here.
Discussion
Warlocks returned to the top 3 picks (alongside the usual suspects Rogue and Demon Hunter) in everywhere but APAC where it still landed at the 4th spot. Paladin and Warrior seem to have found a spot in the competitive meta whereas Shaman and Priest are in steep decline (barring APAC where 5 Shamans were still brought). The opinions on Mage differed as the amount of picks ranged from Europe's 8 to APAC's 2. Again, Americas was the only region where all 10 classes saw play.
Congratulations are in order for the winners of the week (especially for Gaby who also broke the previous total points record in style), but the main focus again be in the relegations and a couple of other things.
The winners of Week 7.
Monsanto's lineup for the week raised some eyebrows before any matches had even been played as it consisted of unconventional and seemingly untested decks. His 0-2 record for the week in a group with two relegation candidates did not ease the concerns for competitive integrity as while he had a Playoffs spot guaranteed, the results still had a large impact in the relegation battle. Monsanto tweeted that he tried to be favored against DreadEye's lineup but ended up losing 3-0. In the end, neither of the players who faced him ended up benefiting much from their "extra" points.
We also got more names on the retiring players list as one of the all-time greats Surrender announced leaving GM after this season. As many other retiring players, he cited a loss of passion as one of the main reasons of quitting. The Twitter discussions that followed even got a response from Blizzard who implied to be working on improvements to the current esports system.
Now to the relegation talk. Even before Friday's stream two APAC players, trahison and the retiring blitzchung, were confirmed to get relegated as they both fell to 0-2 defeats in their group. However, a quick return might be in the cards for trahison as he still leads APAC's promotion list. Friday's matches confirmed that DawN's struggles in GM would also come to an end, and a fellow Korean che0nsu would take the fourth relegation spot with an extremely narrow tiebreaker margin to Bankyugi, who just about saved himself by winning his initial group this week. The retiring Taiwanese TIZS also ended at 9 points with the best tiebreaker out of the trio, while the also-retiring Surrender reached the Playoffs, opening up a whopping 6 promotion spots in APAC (should the format stay the same next year).
In Europe Bozzzton shared the fate of getting relegated off-stream, while Floki's loss in Friday left him at the same situation than trahison as he leads the notoriously tough Europe promotion list. Thijs' initial group victory gave him a lifeline to stay in the competition but his loss on Saturday meant that another big name would be leaving Grandmasters after this season. Thijs later tweeted that he would've likely retired had he managed to survive in the competition. Another player facing his fate on Saturday was Warma, who has already been re-promoted once in his career but seems unlikely to repeat the feat this time around.
In Americas CaelesLuna's bright start to his GM career faded off all too quickly as his combined record from the last 5 weeks is just 1 point, earning him the questionable honour of off-stream relegation. Another newly promoted player followed on Friday as Eggowaffle was left with the same points total (7) in the bottom 4. The final two relegations had to wait until Sunday's semifinals where the retiring Eddie's loss meant that he also got relegated while killinallday's victory saved him at the expense of his quarterfinal opponent Rami94, robbing us Rami's celebration survival stream.
For the top 8 players of each region this weekend was a happier one as they'll find themselves in the Playoffs next weekend. You can find the full point standings below or on the official tournament site. Both Casie and NoHandsGamer will be missing the Playoffs by tiebreakers, which is an especially rough outcome for the latter due to the 5-way tie in Americas with only NoHandsGamer being left out.
| APAC | Points | Europe | Points | Americas | Points |
| posesi* | 22 | Gaby | 24 | Monsanto | 19 |
| Alutemu | 19 | Frenetic* | 20 | Nalguidan* | 18 |
| GivePLZ | 18 | Seiko | 16 | DreadEye | 17 |
| AlanC86 | 16 | xBlyzes | 14 | Fled | 14 |
| Surrender** | 15 | Bunnyhoppor | 14 | languagehacker | 13 |
| glory | 12 | Jarla | 14 | muzzy** | 13 |
| grr | 12 | Felkeine | 12 | DimitriKazov | 13 |
| Shaxy | 12 | Rdu | 11 | McBanterFace | 13 |
| okasinnsuke | 11 | Casie | 11 | NoHandsGamer | 13 |
| lambyseries | 10 | Viper | 10 | killinallday | 11 |
| TIZS** | 9 | Leta | 9 | Fr0zen | 10 |
| Bankyugi | 9 | J4YOU | 9 | lunaloveee | 9 |
| che0nsu | 9 | Thijs | 9 | Rami94 | 9 |
| trahison | 8 | Floki | 8 | Eddie** | 8 |
| blitzchung** | 6 | Warma | 8 | Eggowaffle | 7 |
| DawN | 6 | Bozzzton | 5 | CaelesLuna | 7 |
*The winners of Season 1 start with extra 5 points this season. **Retiring at the end of the season.
Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 Season 2 comes to an end with Playoffs next week. Don't forget to tune in!
Comments
Sad to see so many great players leave again. Not only old legends like Surrender and Thijs, but also promising newcomers like Rami and Floki. The whole system really needs an overhaul ASAP before Hearthstone esports is dead completely.
I'm not sure "loss of passion" is fixable though. The problem is that getting lots of practice is essential to playing Hearthstone well: even the best players perform worse when they don't play enough games. Few people are going to stay motivated to put in that many hours year after year.
I think the loss of passion for a large part actually is fixable, albeit not completely like you say. It used to be that if you wanted to be the best, you would always have to try to get better because you know many others were vying for those same HCT points. In GM however, you only have to try for fourteen weeks per year, against other people who only have to try for fourteen weeks per year. That's why you often see new GMs perform so well, like Gaby and Frenetic, because they still have the grinding mindset which creates passion for competitive people. If you're already at the top, and only have to focus for a short amount of time each year to stay there, that fire goes out and your passion goes away.
I think its more because the older players there have been doing this for a long time and wanted to move on to other stuff, because let's face it, pro players tend to grind this game for 8 hours or more per day and after years of doing so its kinda impossible for the game not to feel stale. I dont think losing your passion has anything to do with the grinding mindset, or the fact that GMs only lasts 14 weeks.
Newer players approach a hearthstone that feels fresh and exciting. Some players like Viper has been doing this for 6 years. If the older players feel they need to get away from the game, its entirely fair and expected.
There's no overhauling that can solve this puzzle. The Hearthstone esport scene/formatting has actually been overhauled for several times in the last few years, and if that didn't change anything, I doubt another overhaul will make any difference in sparking passion in those who gave up on the game.
HS Esports should have franchised TEAMS, period. Either two or three-player.
For two-player, both bring two decks, and they ban one deck among the enemy's entire lineup. For three-player, all three players bring two decks, and then each teams bans one deck from each enemy player.
They tried that years ago with the trinity series (now sadly discontinued), global games, and hearthstone collegiate (which is on hold for obvious reasons).
Its not that they were unsuccessful, but clearly the number of views did not reflect what they were trying to achieve, and let's be honest here, hearthstone is a largely single player game. There is no team effort, and since the commentary is provided by casters (though not in trinity, which was what made it special), in what way do we have to show that the teams are actually functioning?
The sad reality is that hearthstone is not as big as csgo or LoL, and the tournaments tends to drag for hours on end. So its only ever to going to be interesting to a tiny minority of esport viewers.
Best thing they can do to boost esport relevance is to bring back smaller less formal cups like seatstory, where players do commentary and have fun. That was the reason why pavel is perhaps the most memorable of all the world champions.
Why should the esports be teams when ladder is single player only?
It's to increase stability of the scene, since it becomes much easier to apply franchising and generate more revenue via team sponsorships, slot buyouts and such.