Hearthpwn

The 2020 edition of the Hearthstone Grandmasters went into its seventh week this weekend. 48 of the best players in the world began the eight week event with a total of $500,000 and a ticket to the World Championship on the line. The action featured a drastically overhauled format which saw players start with Swiss Rounds previously and are now divided into groups and completing Round Robin stages which end this weekend before the Playoffs next weekend!

This weekend saw the tried and true format of 4 Deck Conquest with 1 Ban. The way it works is that both players bring 4 decks, and both players ban 1 deck of their opponent. They then choose to play a deck of the remaining decks and every time they win with a deck it gets eliminated. Once either players wins with 3 decks, they win the match.

Video Recaps

Since we are posting our article close to the ending of Day 3, not all of the matches have been put onto YouTube yet, so check the official Hearthstone Esports YT Channel for the uploads later here!

• Asia-Pacific Week 7 Feature: Posesi vs che0nsu.
• Europe Week 7 Feature: Silvername vs Felkeine.
• Americas Week 7 Feature: Monsanto vs Empanizado
• All The Recaps: All Regions.

Road to Playoffs

The Grandmasters started with 3 weeks of Swiss, where everyone scored points. Those points lead to players being divided into Groups A and Groups B. In every Region those Groups will fight in a Round Robin style over the next 4 weeks before the Playoffs and Relegation matches will be played. Who gets to go to the Playoffs and Relegations will be decided as shown in the graphic below.

Decklists & Recap

Americas

With the way previous matches worked out, the result of this Americas series would have no influence on the Relegation or Playoff Bracket placement, since Monsanto had lost his series against Eddie earlier in the weekend, meaning there would be no escape for him from the Relegation Bracket play next week. The series started with Monsanto on Quest Warlock and Empanizado on Stealth Rogue. To give some indication of how this early game went for Empanizado: He had to Seal Fate his own face, just to get something going in the early game. That lack of pressure and development hurt him and let Monsanto get into his mid game. By that time Empanizado had board control but Monsanto kept healing out of range of his burst, while Monsanto chipped away at his health, until he could just burst down the last 11 health in 1 go with a free Malygos. In the second game with Empanizado on Demon Hunter and his opponent on Rogue, Monsanto got off to a good start, managed to stave off Empanizado's attempts to get going, and turned an all-in 10/10 Edwin into a game win. Had Empanizado found a way to remove it, Monsanto would have been in some trouble.

Up 2-0, Monsanto went to his final deck, Demon Hunter, with Empanizado switching to Quest Warlock. Monsanto proved in this series that his hard work and concentration were top notch and that he deserved a spot in the playoffs, because in this 3rd game too, Empanizado never really seemed in the game, even though he had some spectacular turns. In the end Monsanto's constant pressure was just too much for Empanizado to outheal and out AoE, giving Monsanto this series with a quick 3-0 and leaving him with 2 wins out of 7 games, and tantalizingly close to making it, but just out of reach.

Even with his win Monsanto is playing in the Relegation Bracket next week together with Nalguidan, while Empanizado will be playing in the Playoffs. We wish good luck to both!

Empanizado's Americas Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

Monsanto's Americas Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

Europe

Europe's Featured match up between Felkeine and SilverName started with the former on Rogue and the latter on Mage. SilverName had a solid start and had pretty much every desirable combo in his hand and used them to make some decisive plays. But it wasn't enough. Felkeine made some incredibly smart plays, perfectly reading situations to make the absolute most of them and didn;t panic when faced with a big board, but worked his way through it methodically and set up lethal for himself (aided by drawing a zero cost Galakrond). For game 2 Felkeine moved to Pain Warrior (which SilverName had curiously not banned) and his opponent moved to Highlander Hunter. After some board fighting, SilverName seemed to get the upperhand, clearing Felkeine's board with his Zixor, Apex Predator, leaving Felkeine with nothing and himself with a big, if damaged board. There's a danger in having a big, damaged board however against a Warrior, and it came to full bear in Felkeine's next turn where he used Risky Skipper and Bloodboil Brute to clear Silvername's board and put him on next turn lethal, which SilverName was not able to counter.

With Felkeine up 2-0 in a must-win situation for both players, SilverName had to dig deep to get out of the hole. His first game in a potential reverse sweep was on Demon Hunter versus Felkeine's Spell Druid. Felkeine managed to get a meaningful board first and his Exotic Mountseller even lived a turn, but this game still went the way most DH vs Druid match ups go, with a convincing DH win. Only 1 game behind now, SilverName turned to his Hunter deck again to battle Felkeine's Spell Druid. Things went perfectly for SilverName at first, he built a board and he put damage into Felkeine and things looked like they might go his way. But Felkeine struck back, made his own board and even had lethal on board the next turn, but missed it! Fortunately for Felkeine his error went unpunished as even a late Deathwing couldn't save SilverName.

This gave the win to Felkeine, 3-1, which kept him alive for the playoffs and put SilverName's chances to escape the Relegation Bracket in next week's Playoffs on a very thin thread. Felkeine wasn't out of the woods yet though, and he needed to win his final series against Seiko on Saturday to keep his dream alive. This did not go as planned for him however and he lost! Which meant that both players from this write up ended up with 2 wins out of 7 games, with Felkeine certain he would be in the Relegation Bracket and SilverName's hope riding on the very last series in the EU Round Robin stage between Swidz and Hunterace. With a win, Hunterace would secure his place in the playoffs, and with a loss, he would be in the Relegation Bracket with Felkeine, and sending SilverName to the Playoffs, based on a stronger win/loss record. Hunterace fought bravely, but didn't make it, meaning that, unlikely as it was, the loser of our write up ended up making the Playoffs anyway. Congratz to SilverName!

Felkeine's Europe Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

SilverName's Europe Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

Asia-Pacific

Our Asia Pacific Featured Match between Posesi and che0nsu got off to an unusual start. Posesi brought out his Spell Druid deck vs che0nsu's Demon Hunter, which is a very one sides match up in favour of Demon Hunter...and won. Che0nsu just never drew into his power cards, had a slow start and got behind in a painful way, giving his opponent a win on what was likely his weakest deck. For game 2 both players went with Warlock, for a Quest Warlock mirror match. Potentially making up for game 1, che0nsu had an amazing start, with double Plot Twist on Turn 4 (!) completing his quest early, leaving him free to tap his way to zero cost cards the rest of the game. That came into good use, as Posesi made strong plays of his own and had a big board threatening lethal, when che0nsu went Malyogs, into three zero cost spells to finish his opponent from 22 health.

The next game was yet again a mirror match, this time on Demon Hunter. As usual this was a tight race at the end, with competing lethal states. Che0nsu had the upperhand however due to a clutch blowtorch saboteur making Posesi's mid game impossible. His win lead him to a 2-1 lead in the series and on the brink of a victory that both players desperately needed. The next game was che0nsu on his Spell Druid deck against Posesi on his Demon Hunter. Unfortunately for che0nsu that was not the Druid upset that his opponent got in their first game. It never got really close, which meant both players were down to a 1 game decider to see who would grab that crucial win. In this decider game it was che0nsu still on his Spell Druid vs Posesi on his Quest Warlock. It was always going to be an uphill battle for che0nsu in this match up, and he is probably still miffed about his bad draws in the initial game of this series where he lost the game that would have otherwise set up a Spell Druid mirror match, but he also made the curious decision to mulligan away a Mount seller, when he had Fungal Fortunes in hand. This decision likely gave Posesi the breathing room he needed in the mid game, where che0nsu was desperately digging for his Mountsellers because he needed them. In the end it was too little, too late when he did finally find them, as by that time Posesi had the mana and the cards to deal with his boards, forcing che0nsu to just concede after his second Mountseller died.

This gave Posesi a 3-2 win in the series and a leg up in the standings, as he now held the head to head advantage over che0nsu as well as a victory more. That did not last long however, because on Saturday che0nsu came through in the clutch, winning his final series, while Posesi lost his, meaning both players ended up on 3 wins out of 7 games. Fortunate for both players Flurry lost his Sunday series, meaning he couldn't overtake them anymore, meaning that both players from this write up ended up safely making it to the Playoff Bracket! We wish the best to them next week in the Playoffs!

Posesi's Asia-Pacific Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

che0nsu's Asia-Pacific Grandmasters Season 3 Decks: