Knockouts and Clever Plays Mark HCT World Championship Day 3

When the Beurs van Berlage opened early Saturday morning, enthusiastic visitors rushed to get front-row seats. Amongst them were two friends of Jon “Orange” Westberg, who kicked off the day against Chen “tom60229” Wei Lin. “Jon’s easily winning this. He’ll make it to the semifinals today,” one of Orange’s friends said. Despite the support Orange received, tom60229 eliminated him and moved on to the quarterfinals. Jason “JasonZhou” Zhou and Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam raced toward the finish line next. A tense match between Control Warlock and Dragon Highlander Priest had JasonZhou’s Dirty Rat pulling Prophet Velen out of Muzzy’s hand. Though Muzzy pushed a lot of damage, JasonZhou stabilized a few turns later—and would make it to the playoffs without dropping a game. The audience—wide awake from the competition’s speed—had no time to regain their breath. Group C’s final match featured Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root and Alexei “ShtanUdachi” Barsukov, and they didn’t let fans wait long for a result. ShtanUdachi’s lineup crushed Purple’s, making him the second European in the quarterfinals. When asked if he felt any pressure being one of the two European representatives in the playoffs, ShtanUdachi said: “Europe had six people at the HCT World Championship, so it’s still strong. To me, the pressure is the same as ever—I just want to make the people who root for me proud.” Rounding out the group stage were Zheng “OmegaZero” Lin and Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang. In an iconic game, OmegaZero picked Eye for an Eye against Fr0zen’s Big Spell Mage, preventing a low-health Fr0zen from damaging OmegaZero. The clash went the distance, but Fr0zen came out on top. The quarterfinals took off immediately, as Canadian Julien “DocPwn” Bachand took on JasonZhou. Showing no signs of slowing down since, JasonZhou navigated his line-up past DocPwn’s. The audience applauded an exhausted but thrilled JasonZhou—the very first Hearthstone player to make it to two HCT World Championship semifinals. The battle of Taiwan followed, with tom60229 facing off against Samuel “SamuelTsao” Tsao. A mirror between both players’ Tempo Rogue decks determined the outcome of the series, and after a long fight for the board tom60229 dealt the fatal blow. Pondering on the match, tom60229 later stated: “Of course I’m sad that I had to battle another Taiwanese player. On the other hand, it guaranteed one of us would be in the semifinals! No matter what the outcome would be, I just hoped for that person to make it far in the tournament.” Though all matches had their unique twists, the third quarterfinal was the most memorable match of the day. In game five between Fr0zen and Thomas “Sintolol” Zimmer—Fr0zen’s Big Spell Mage against Sintolol’s Dragon Combo Priest—Sintolol created large minion after large minion, only to find them getting annihilated by Fr0zen’s removal. When there appeared to be absolutely no way out, Sintolol obtained a copy of Fr0zen’s Frost Lich Jaina, completely changing the strategy. The crowd roared when Fr0zen found his way to victory. Exhilarated, Fr0zen sighed all of his stress away: “We both had no idea what we’re doing. This match up wasn’t practiced much, let alone this crazy situation!” The final ticket to the semifinals was up for grabs for ShtanUdachi and Jung-Soo “Surrender” Kim. Perhaps fatigued from his earlier match, ShtanUdachi struggled with his Jade Druid. Knowing the ins and outs of Highlander Priest, Surrender burst his opponent down—and vowed to make his supporters even prouder on the final day. With the top four players locked in for the semifinals, all that remains is the crowning of a new World Champion on Sunday. If the past days are any indication, it will be epic, so make sure you catch all the action!