Hearthpwn

Recap and Results for Day 1 & 2 of the Hearthstone World Championship

Blizzard has published two articles recapping the past two days of action at the Hearthstone World Championship. In addition to those, we've got the results from the first days of the group stage. Day 3, January 20, we'll see four more people eliminated with the final eight going on to the single elimination bracket on Sunday.

If you are interested in watching videos from the first two days, we've got those right below.

Day 1 World Championship VOD

Day 2 World Championship VOD

Schedule and Warning

Warning: Spoilers below with results from the event.

Group Stage Results

After two days of play, this is what the group stage looks like.

Group A	Match W-L	Total W-L
DocPwn	2 - 0	6 - 2
Orange	1 - 1	4 - 3
Tom60229	1 - 1	3 - 4
Hoej	0 - 2	2 - 6

Group B	Match W-L	Total W-L
SamuelTsao	2 - 0	6 - 4
Muzzy	1 - 1	5 - 4
JasonZhou	1 - 1	4 - 5
Kolento	0 - 2	4 - 6

Group C	Match W-L	Total W-L
Sintolol	2 - 0	6 - 3
Purple	1 - 1	5 - 3
ShtanUdachi	1 - 1	4 - 4
Ant	0 - 2	1 - 6

Group D	Match W-L	Total W-L
Surrender	2 - 0	6 - 4
OmegaZero	1 - 1	5 - 4
Fr0zen	1 - 1	5 - 4
Neirea	0 - 2	2 - 6

Day 1 Recap

Quote from Tom Matthiesen

The city of Amsterdam is always buzzing. Citizens travel to their jobs, students to their schools, and tourists to the many picturesque places in the Netherlands’ capital. This morning, however, there was something extra: palpable tension. A storm was brewing, and not the one raging outside on this windy day.

Hearthstone Esports’ crown event of the competitive year, the Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT) World Championship, opened in spectacular fashion. All year long, the world’s most seasoned Hearthstone players have fought for a shot at the coveted title of World Champion and the lion’s share of the $1,000,000 prize pool.

Early in the morning, a crowd unfazed by the weather queued up in front of the Beurs van Berlage. Hearthstone fans from all over the world didn’t mind the wind and rain. Once inside, they were greeted with the announcement of the second Hearthstone Global Games (HGG), which was received with enthusiasm.

The crowd’s patience was rewarded further when the Hearthstone World Championships started, as Group A opened with a close match between Spring Champion Frederik “Hoej” Nielsen and Julien “DocPwn” Bachand, who qualified through the Winter Championships. In a tense deciding fifth game, DocPwn trampled Hoej’s Highlander Priest, flooding the board with minions buffed by Prince Keleseth.

The second match of Group A between Jon “Orange” Westberg and Chen “tom60229” Wei Lin was equally thrilling, featuring a Highlander Priest game between the two that oscillated back and forth. In the end, it was tom60229 who came out on top, winning the match 3-1.

The mostly European crowd seemed uneasy—both European players in group A were already in the lower bracket. As Orange and Hoej took the stage, unease gave way to excitement for this epic clash. Hoej fought valiantly, but the match was a one-sided 3-0, and Alliance’s Orange took a convincing, hard-fought victory.

The winner’s match was a tighter race. The first two games went in DocPwn’s favour—his Jade Druid and Highlander Priest both stabilized before tom60229’s Tempo Rogue could finish him off. Looking desperately for a win to lift his spirits again, the Flash Wolves’ star swapped to his Jade Druid. When all hope seemed lost, the Lich King handed DocPwn a golden ticket to the playoffs: Army of the Dead refilled his board, preventing tom60229 from setting up lethal.

Reflecting on the game, a proud but down-to-earth DocPwn noted, “I don’t think there was any other card that would’ve saved me there. Army of the Dead was the best one by far.”

Group B opened with one of Americas’ finest, Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam, against China’s Jason “JasonZhou” Zhou. In the most nail-biting moment of the day, Muzzy found his way to victory after being brought to just 6 Health. JasonZhou did what he could in subsequent games, but ultimately fell 1-3.

Muzzy’s friend and former teammate, Keaton “Chakki” Gill—who came from the USA to support Muzzy—wasn’t surprised about the result. “He’s just the best,” Chakki said with confidence.

The second match in Group B between Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh and Samuel “SamuelTsao” Tsao was a very different experience. Whereas between Muzzy and JasonZhou the first game was tense and the later matches played out as expected, Kolento and SamuelTsao built up to an exceptional finale. In the fifth and final game, Kolento only had Jade Druid left. Staring him in the face was SamuelTsao’s Highlander Priest. Kolento built up as much armour as possible to survive the burst damage from Highlander Priest, perhaps startling SamuelTsao, who took too long to finish a turn. In the end, however, he recovered and brought his Ukranian opponent down all the way from 44 health.

In the elimination match, Kolento and JasonZhou—among the greatest players of their respective nations—danced around each other. A Tempo Rogue mirror decided who would be sent packing. Kolento opened aggressively, but a large Edwin VanCleef swung it back to JasonZhou. Kolento grasped for counter pressure, but found nothing—and JasonZhou delivered the final blow.

In the Group B winner’s match, Muzzy was left with his Dragon Highlander Priest and SamuelTsao had his Zoolock. A long day of playing Hearthstone caused Muzzy to use his removal cards suboptimally, and SamuelTsao seized the opportunity. One stroke of burst damage gave him an insurmountable lead, and a spot in the playoffs.

After a long day of close calls, the crowd left—but longing for more action in the days to come. “We came all the way from Ukraine to support Kolento, since he’s from our home town,” one of the attendees explains. His wife chimed in, saying: “I started playing Hearthstone and learned a lot from Kolento. Then I made [my husband] play it too!” Proudly, she points towards a sealed t-shirt. “I won this in a tournament here at the venue in a side event! I’m way better than my husband,” she adds teasingly. Though sad that their idol had been eliminated, they look forward to the rest of the event. “Everybody loses, that can happen. He’s still our hero!”

Be sure to tune in again tomorrow, and let us know what you thought of the first day of competition in the comments!

Day 2 Recap

Quote from Tom Matthiesen

After an explosive start to the Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT) World Championship, groups A and B had a day of rest on Friday. In a far less stormy Amsterdam, it was now up to groups C and D not only to enthrall the crowd, but also to fight for a spot in the playoffs.

The bar was set high immediately, as Anthony “Ant” Trevino and Alexey “ShtanUdachi” Barsukov opened the day. Though the first game went in ShtanUdachi’s favour, Ant’s teammate on Spacestation Gaming, Devin “DrJikininki” Garthright, had faith in his friend: “Don’t worry, he’ll definitely make it through,” he said. “You’ve got to give your opponents some kind of hope, right?” The crowd roared as Ant played Prince Keleseth three times in one turn, but ShtanUdachi navigated the match expertly, and ultimately was crowned the victor.

Group C’s second match featured Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root and Thomas “Sintolol” Zimmer. Cleverly using a copy of Sintolol’s Inner Fire, Purple denied his opponent’s Dragon Combo Priest an opportunity to burst him down with a buffed Twilight Drake. Though initially distraught, Sintolol formulated a new plan—and a few turns later a 44/44 Kabal Talonpriest trampled Purple’s strategy.

Not letting the initial defeat keep him down, Purple rose to the occasion against Ant in the elimination match. The Canadian wrought havoc on Ant’s aggressive line-up, removing the early pressure efficiently whilst slowly turning defense into offense. A burst of passion erupted from the crowd as fans who had traveled from France to see Purple play celebrated the flawless victory.

But Group C’s most jaw-dropping turn occurred during the match between ShtanUdachi and Sintolol. Facing ShtanUdachi’s ever-growing Jade Druid deck, Sintolol was desperately looking for his Priest’s combo pieces. Using his Twilight Acolyte and Potion of Madness, he took over the Druid’s Fandral Staghelm, allowing him to activate both effects from a Nourish obtained earlier.

When asked if he had thought of the play when he obtained the Nourish many turns prior, Sintolol responded in the negative: “I just picked Nourish earlier because I needed draw,” he said. “When I saw the opportunity to take Fandral too, I knew I had to.”

Over in group D, the calm Chinese veteran Zheng “OmegaZero” Lin took on a nervous looking Jung-Soo “Surrender” Kim, whose nerves were shared with a breathless audience in a nail-biting game between OmegaZero’s Aggro Druid and Surrender’s Cube Warlock. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Surrender shook off his nerves at the end of the series, as he locked down the first win in his group.

Following the clash of Eastern players, two Westerners—Yevgeniy “Neirea” Shumilin and Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang—sat down for their test of strength. Both players took near maximum time per turn to decide their lines of play, slowly revealing that Fr0zen’s decks and strategies outmatched Neirea’s. Neirea’s Tempo Rogue deck rained down massive damage, but Fr0zen turned the game in his favor in just two turns.

By the time the elimination match against OmegaZero came around, Neirea had regained his fighting spirit, and a tug-of-war ensued in the opening Highlander Priest mirror match. OmegaZero went through his entire deck, but to no avail. Brushing away the initial game loss, he went on to eliminate Neirea from the tournament.

The most exciting series of group D was Fr0zen vs. Surrender, and it had the audience on the edges of their seats. Fr0zen lead with his Jade Druid against Surrender’s Highlander Priest. Recognizing the Druid would gain too much armor if the game dragged on, Surrender went all-in. A Forbidden Shaping summoned Deathwing on Surrender’s side, eventually clearing the path to victory.

With a huge weight off his shoulders, Surrender thought long about the opponents he could face in the playoffs: “I think my line-up works best against ShtanUdachi, so I would love to face him,” he reasoned. “I’m scared of Sintolol though, since he runs the Big Spell Mage—which against Fr0zen was problematic for me.”

As the second day wrapped up, an energetic crowd left longing for more action. A group of four Dutch enthusiasts described their experience: “It adds a new level of gameplay experience when you face your opponent directly,” one of them said. “Everyone is just so friendly here, and meeting people from all over the world with the same passion is indescribable. We all cheer together.”

With two of the four days already in the books, the road to crowning a new Hearthstone World Champion continues Saturday. Be sure to tune in as all four groups identify their second playoff competitor, followed by the quarterfinals!