The first Seasonal Championship tournament of the year took place last weekend with 16 players battling it out for their spot in the World Championship. You can re-live the action with our spoiler-free post below.
Top 4 Decklists
These decks carried their respective pilots to the final four and earned them a spot at the World Championship.
VoDs
You can find the VoDs of the three days of competition below, with timestamps provided by PlayHearthstone.
Day 1:
Day 2 :
- 0:00:00 - Day 2 Countdown
- 0:17:52 - Day 2 Introduction
- 0:32:49 - Initial Match C #1
- 1:54:06 - Initial Match C #2
- 2:49:46 - Winners Match C
- 4:30:02 - Elimination Match C
- 5:45:36 - Decicder Match C
- 7:07:36 - Initial Match D #1
- 8:14:56 - Initial Match D #2
- 9:07:35 - Winners Match D
- 10:15:32 - Elimination Match D
- 11:15:38 - Decicder Match D
Day 3:
- 0:00:00 - Day 3 Countdown
- 0:16:20 - Day 3 Introduction
- 0:31:03 - Winners Match B
- 1:51:30 - Elimination Match B
- 3:05:57 - Decider Match B
- 4:29:06 - Quarterfinal #1
- 5:13:33 - Quarterfinal #2
- 6:35:55 - Quarterfinal #3
- 7:48:21 - Quarterfinal #4
- 8:56:20 - Semifinal #1
- 9:49:50 - Semifinal #2
- 10:52:27 - Final
Results
You can find out how the Top 8 single-elimination bracket played out within the spoiler below. You can find the results in full on the official website.
Recap
The lineups of the Summer Championship were quite similar, as Priest, Rogue, Warrior, and Mage all got 12-14 picks from the 16 contestants. The archetype variation within these classes was not a large one either, especially with Rogue which were Thieves all along. This meant that mirror matches were unavoidable in many series. Hunter, Shaman, and Warlock were not allowed to enter the Throne of the Tides at all as they were left out of the tournament altogether.
The reigning World Champion posesi was unable to grab a spot in Grandmasters Playoffs so he had to do it the hard way, fighting out of his Summer Championship group with two narrow 3-2 victories before dismantling Youth 3-0 to keep the dream of back-to-back world titles alive.
DeadDraw was close to becoming a Grandmaster so many times but never made it, but now that there are other ways to get into the World Championship, he embraced the chance. His spot did not come easy, and his Quarterfinal was a true nail-biter but he finally got where many think he belongs - to the biggest stage of the Hearthstone esports scene.
The wonderkid Gaby was also looking for a back-to-back World Championship appearance, but was stopped at the final hurdle by levik after a hard-fought 3-2 quarterfinal and a clash of the two Priest strategies of the tournament.
The last quarterfinal was a clash of two players still making a name for themselves, although Habugabu did win a Battlegrounds co-op tournament with Rdu in 2020. A 3-1 victory meant that Habugabu will have a shot at an even bigger crown later this year while iNS4NE will have to wait for another chance to qualify.
While the tournament was all about getting to the top 4, the Summer Champion was nevertheless crowned - congratulations to Habugabu!
You probably clicked the first spoiler already but here they are once more - the players heading to World Championship.
Hearthstone esports year continues with another edition of the Battlegrounds tournament series Lobby Legends later this month! Don't forget to tune in!
Comments
Gaby continues to be his own worst enemy. His emotions always end up having the best of him, and he made a crucial mistake in the final moments of his last match that transformed his near-guaranteed victory into defeat. His display of rage and anger at that moment was quite worrisome.
I hope his parents are aware of his situation, and have arranged some professional coaching to help him manage his emotions.