by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm
It is European Championship season! While the group stage in France for the soccer competition just began, the Hearthstone Spring European Championships are down to the Top 8 over in California. Among those eight elite cardslingers are two compLexity pros that have their eyes on the prize – the ticket to BlizzCon.
First it will be Shaman king Mateusz “Loyan” Roszkowski taking on British youngster GeorgeC in the first round of the Single Elimination tournament. In a fierce Best-of-Seven competition Loyan will have to prove that the lineup he picked stands above the one of his competitor. Staying true to himself, the popular streamer obviously put his faith in Thrall with a Midrange variation of Shaman. The same Midrange vibe is coming from his Hunter deck as well, while the other three deck choices of the Polish player are more true to European Championship traditions in bringing control decks. N’Zoth Paladin and N’Zoth Warrior, as well as the always popular RenoLock is the compilation of decks Loyan is pinning his hopes on for the competition.
One lucky break was already caught by the compLexity squad, as they were seeded on opposite sides of the bracket – so the dream of the coL Grand Finals to determine the European Championship is still alive!
For that Simon “Crane” Raunholst has to win a rematch with Russian player Iner first. The two met already in the EU prelims a few weeks ago, when a spot at the European Championships was on the line. Back then Crane managed to win the game by shutting out the Zoo Warlock of Iner.
A lot of talk was around Crane and his deck choices already, as GosuGamers pointed out all the tech choices the Danish player is going to try out this tournament. From standard deviations of the normal decks in Crazed Alchemist and the return of double Doomguard in Zoo all the way to AoE options like Lightning Storm in Aggro Shaman and Dreadscale in Midrange Hunter. Also this tournament will mark the return of Patron Warrior for Crane, a deck he had dismissed for the EU Prelims. With the recent meta changes it might be the return of Patron dominance brought by one of the Patron kings of the scene. Next to Hunter, Warlock, Shaman and Warrior, Crane once more puts his faith in Freeze Mage to get the job done – a deck with which he had massive success recently.
The stage is set for a stacked tournament as some of the biggest stars are set to collide for the EU title. Last years EU Champion and DreamHack Bucharest 2014 Champion ThijsNL is in the mix, as well as ESL Katowice 2016 Champion AKAWonder. Rounding out the tournament are up-and-comers like Italian player Turma and German player Casie, making this one of the most competitive EU Championships to date.
The action will be brought to you by another member of the compLexity Gaming family, as birthday boy Simon “Sottle” Welch is in studios and will commentate the tournament once more with Frodan, Azumo, Brian Kibler and Frank Lepore. Tune in to twitch.tv/playhearthstone to follow the tournament, as coL.Hearthstone is looking for a big weekend in California!
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