And then there were eight. The long road to the Hearthstone World Championship has ended, with eight competitors surviving the grueling thinning-out process, facing tougher odds to survive than a character in a teen slasher movie.
Jason "Jasonzhou" Zhou
Jasonzhou's path to the final eight consisted of two close wins in Group A, considered the toughest bracket based on the names involved. Not only did he topple the favorite, Thijs "Thijs" Molendijk, in his first game, he also defeated the Americas Spring champion, Julien "Cydonia" Perrault to be the 2-0 advancee in the bracket.
As a noted Control Warrior player, Jasonzhou certainly hasn't passed up bringing a Warrior deck, this time going with a heavy Dragon Warrior that includes Deathwing and The Curator. Also coming for the tourney is a fairly traditional Shaman build with Harrison Jones as a card-drawing tech choice, a possible indication that he's going to avoid banning Shaman in his games, using Harrison to deal with the troublesome Spirit Claw.
Rounding out Jasonzhou's lineup is a fairly traditional Miracle Rogue, Discolock with the Young Priestess choice, and a Malygos Druid that still retains the nerfed Yogg-Saron.
Zhuo "Hamster" Wang
Facing off against Jasonzhou in the first round of the quarterfinals is China's Hamster, who survived the bottom of the bracket, knocking Hao "Bbgungun" Li out of the tournament in the final set of games last Sunday.
Hamster made some unusual -- and for this analyst, exciting -- choices in the round of 16, playing the only Priest and Paladin decks of this stage of the tournament. Hamster is again bringing those decks, a Priest with two Doomsayers, hopefully drawn early to keep from falling too far behind in the initial turns, and the bursty Anyfin Paladin.
Also coming along is a Ramp/Token Druid, not only eschewing Yogg-Saron that is no longer a must-include, but also not bringing Malygos, which has become a common feature in the standard Druid deck of the moment. While there are lots of spells and the Arcane Giants to go along with it, there are two Ancients of Wars, indicating the desire to build a very strong board as his win condition rather than the unavailable Malygos shenanigans.
C'Thun Warrior and a standard Midrange Shaman deck finish up Hamster's lineup.
William "Amnesiac" Barton
Described fairly as a prodigy as one of the youngest top competitors in Hearthstone, 2016 was really Amnesiac's breakout year and he almost coasted his way through the final 16 with two fairly easy matchups.
Amnesiac's going for the tried-and-true, but choosing to not bring a Warrior deck, going with Midrange Shaman, Malygos Druid, Tempo Mage, Midrange Hunter and Discolock. The Shaman deck included the tech choice of Kobold Geomancer, in order to have another early spell damage minion that can activate Spirit Claws. In Druid, there's Baron Geddon, who can decimate Shaman's totems and stealthed Cat Trick minions.
For Hunter, while Amnesiac is playing the Cloaked Huntress, it's still more of a Midrange build, only going with the two Freezing Traps (Huntress is a 3/4 minion which is fine in itself). Stranglethorn Tiger is included, one of my favorite choices in Midrange Hunter builds, simply because it's a terrific Kill Command activator in this meta and going against very few Doomsayers, is harder to remove on that first turn than the Savannah Highmane, in a lot of situations.
Pavel "Pavel" Beltukov
Not every player that makes a major mistake in a high-pressure game gets the opportunity to redeem themselves, but Pavel does. Eliminated in the European World Championship in 2015 and missing BlizzCon after a play order mistake that resulted in Adrian "Lifecoach" Koy stealing his Dr. Boom with a Sylvanas Windrunner, Pavel's getting that second chance this year.
Like Hamster, Pavel's bringing a heavy C'Thun Warrior deck (as opposed to the lighter, "cycle C'Thun" that was played a few months ago). Gorehowl is in the build and two Brawls as well to deal with faster decks, so Pavel's not likely to be banning Druid or Warrior.
For Rogue, Pavel's going with the Malygos Rogue, a Miracle-type deck that uses Thaurissan-reduced magic spells rather than Leeroy Jenkins for the final burst. Tempo Mage and the Yogg-Saron-and-Malygos themed Druid deck complete Pavel's lineup.
Kim "Cheonsu" Cheonsu
The round of 16 was a tough-time for players of the Asia-Pacific region, with only Cheonsu advancing of the four participants (China is a separate region from Asia-Pacific in Hearthstone).
Cheonsu's five-deck slate consists of Discolock, Midrange Shaman, Dragon Warrior, Malygos Druid (no Yogg-Saron) and Tempo Mage. While the deck order is familiar, Cheonsu's tinkered with some of his choices, with some interesting ideas like playing Demonfire in Discolock, a reach/board card that is almost never seen in tournament play. Gone from the round of 16 is his Secret Hunter, a powerful deck that can sometimes run out of steam after a big Secret turn.
Julien "Cydonia" Perrault
Where other players have either cut Secret Hunter for Discolock or backed off the secrets package somewhat, Cydonia's going all-in with his Hunter, going with the full slate of secrets. Cydonia's Hunter is even going a little more aggressive, swapping out the Deadly Shot for an Argent Horserider, the latter common in more face-oriented builds.
The rest of Cydonia's lineup stays the same as the round of 16, and given that he had the second-best record in last week's games, behind only Amnesiac, it's hard to blame him for not tinkering with success.
Edwin "HotMEOWTH" Cook
HotMEOWTH's deckbuilding in the Americas Summer championship was a real treat, featuring some distinct choices such as Lance Carrier in Zoolock that really spiced up the tournament games. The BlizzCon finals are no different, with HotMEOWTH going way out of the box, eschewing all the common Warrior archetypes and going with a highly unusual Patron Warrior build. This isn't the Patron Warrior deck you remember from 2015 or even the modified post-Warsong Commander nerf list, but one featuring Bloodmage Thalnos, Blood Warriors, Wild Pyromancer and Commanding Shout. Patron Warrior's lack of charge ability due to the loss of Warsong means it won't suddenly hit you for 60 damage out of the blue, but literally nobody is teching in for this particular deck. Hopefully for the viewers, it won't simply be banned all weekend as a result!
HotMEOWTH is also choosing similar tech to Amnesiac, bringing Baron Geddon in his Malygos Druid and Kobold Geomancer with Shaman.
Artem "DrHippi" Kravets
Ukraine's DrHippi had a terrific 2016, not only winning the European Summer championship, but also collecting a cool $15,000 as the runner-up in the European Winter championship, another $5,000 in the Starladder Series, and joining Virtus.Pro's new Hearthstone division.
DrHippi's Dragon Warrior is a more tempo-heavy version, featuring Malkorok, a card that we saw in Tempo Warrior before Dragon Warrior took over its spot in the meta. With a Tempo Mage deck with two Water Elemental and an Argent Horserider in his Midrange Shaman, DrHippi looks to deal directly with minion-based board control.