The Season 1 of Grandmasters 2020 concluded with Week 8 of the competition. The weekend was full of emotion as three champions were crowned and three more players were relegated from the competition. You can re-live the action with our spoiler-free post below.
Top 2 Decklists
The players who made it into their regional Finals, alongside with their decklists, can be found within the spoiler below.
glory's Decks
Surrender's Decks
SilverName's Decks
Bunnyhoppor's Decks
bloodyface's Decks
Eddie's Decks
VoDs
Here are the VoDs from the three days of competition. As the main video doesn't include all the matches, links to individual match VoDs have been included in spoilers below each video. If you want to watch Thursday's off-stream matches as well, head over to Hearthstone Esports Youtube channel.
Day 1:
——— Asia-Pacific ———
- Ryvius vs posesi: VoD
- glory vs Match 1 Winner: VoD
- Shaxy vs Match 1 Loser: VoD
- Decider - Match 2 Loser vs Match 3 Winner: VoD
- Relegation - Flurry vs kin0531: VoD
——— Europe ———
- Bunnyhoppor vs Seiko: VoD
- BoarControl vs Match 1 Winner: VoD
- Bozzzton vs Match 1 Loser: VoD
- Decider - Match 2 Loser vs Match 3 Winner: VoD
- Relegation - Hunterace vs Felkeine: VoD
——— Americas ———
Day 2:
——— Asia-Pacific ———
- Surrender vs che0nsu: VoD
- Alutemu vs Match 1 Winner: VoD
- tom60229 vs Match 1 Loser: VoD
- Decider - Match 2 Loser vs Match 3 Winner: VoD
- Relegation - DawN vs 1st Relegation Match Loser: VoD
——— Europe ———
- Swidz vs SilverName: VoD
- Jarla vs Match 1 Winner: VoD
- Rdu vs Match 1 Loser: VoD
- Decider - Match 2 Loser vs Match 3 Winner: VoD
- Relegation - Thijs vs 1st Relegation Match Loser: VoD
——— Americas ———
Day 3:
- Asia-Pacific Relegation Final: VoD
- Asia-Pacific Semifinal #1: VoD
- Asia-Pacific Semifinal #2: VoD
- Asia-Pacific Finals: VoD
- Europe Relegation Final: VoD
- Europe Semifinal #1: VoD
- Europe Semifinal #2: VoD
- Europe Finals: VoD
- Americas Relegation Final: VoD
- Americas Semifinal #1: VoD
- Americas Semifinal #2: VoD
- Americas Finals: VoD
Results
The results in full, including the Division B pre-Playoffs and tiebreaker matches, can be found here.
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Relegation
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Relegation
Group A
Group B
Top 4
Relegation
Discussion
With a spot in World Championship on the line, players didn't get too creative and stuck with the usual suspects. Warrior and Demon Hunter were brought by nearly everyone, whereas Paladin and Shaman did not get any stream-time (although Viper did bring Paladin to Division B pre-Playoffs). Quest Warlock was a popular pick anywhere outside Europe, where only one player decided to bring it. Druid continued to be in APAC players' favor, whereas other regions were more restrained in picking it. Europeans trusted in Rogue the most and also brought the sole Mage and Priest decks of the Playoffs.
In Asia-Pacific, the Japanese domination continued as they were able to secure three places from Sunday's semifinals with Surrender being the only non-Japanese player to complete the quartet. As an arguably fitting finale, two of the most consistent players of the region, glory and Surrender, faced off in a 5-game thriller. glory's eventual victory crowned his incredibly dominant season: He was the #1 point earner in the Swiss portion, and also finished first on Division A with a 6-1 record before going undefeated during this weekend.
In Europe, a rather unexpected champion was crowned. Having sneaked into Playoffs with a mere 2-5 record, SilverName went to lose his very first match of the weekend to Swidz. He didn't get discouraged though, but bounced back with a rampant 12-1 record, losing the sole game to Swidz in a re-match decider of his group. By taking out BoarControl and Bunnyhoppor with clean 3-0 sweeps, SilverName took home the title and a spot in World Championship.
In Americas, the finalist duo was no surprise. Having qualified to the weekend as the top 2 of Division A, both Eddie and bloodyface won their initial Playoffs groups, and progressed through the semifinals to meet each other in the grand final. In the end, it was bloodyface who emerged victorious from the battle of nearly identical lineups, earning himself a spot in what will be his third consecutive World Championship.
The players we'll be seeing in the World Championship later this year.
Sunday wasn't only a Champion-crowning day, as three players had to say goodbye to Grandmasters as they got relegated in their respective regions. After saving himself from direct relegation by dramatically beating Tyler in Week 7, FroStee headed to the weekend hoping to save himself once more. A 3-0 loss to DawN in a tiebreaker match meant that he would get only one chance of surviving, and despite being able to take the crucial series into game 5, he eventually had to bid farewell to Grandmasters. With Staz already relegated, two APAC countries (Australia and the Philippines) lost their sole Grandmasters representatives this Season.
In Europe, hunterace was having trouble getting wins on the table already during the Round Robin phase but still got close to safety, losing to SilverName on tiebreakers with only one point difference. That turned out to have huge consequences as, despite the generous three tries at reaching safety which Division A guaranteed, hunterace ended up losing all of his relegation matches while SilverName went to win it all. Europe wasn't kind to the past champions as Pavel had already been relegated in a way that had some similarities to hunterace's situation: small tiebreaker margin and Zhym being the player to drag himself to safety instead.
In Americas, another Argentinian Grandmaster found their fate to be in the hands of Purple. PNC's loss to him played a big part in his relegation (and Purple's rise to safety), and now Nalguidan had to face the Canadian in his relegation decider as well, having already lost his first two chances at safety. After yet another 5-match relegation finale, it was Purple who had to leave the competition behind, much to the relief of LatAm esports fans who almost lost two of their three competitors.
All is not over for the relegated players, as a chance for redemption is right around the corner…
The esports year continues already next week with Masters Tour Jönköping. Don't forget to tune in!
Comments
shocker... Demon Hunter abound....
We absolutely need more tournament-viable classes.
Narrowed spectrum of average viability is already crippling in ladder, and it's even worse as a spectator of a Tournament (where champions can't afford a hardmode with offmeta or memes).
I think everybody brought Demon Hunter and Warrior, but there was a lot of variation in the third and fourth deck. I've seen Rogue, Warlock, Hunter, Druid and Mage being played. So that makes 7 out of 10 classes tournament-viable. Of course more would be better, but I remember tournaments where only 5 classes got played.
At very least they tried something of the sorts to change it up a little so we actually get to see the lower tier classes. That 10 classes ban 6 was actually interesting to some degree as it showcased just exactly why the poorer classes aren't actually seeing any play in tournaments.
Viper actually brought the craziest list to playoffs, and unsurprisingly couldn't make it. More of less why we don't see much of anything out of the ordinary