The final four players advancing to the 2018 Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT) Fall Championship were identified over the weekend at the Americas Fall Playoffs: Congratulations to David “justsaiyan” Shan, Brian “bloodyface” Eason, Martin “Tincho” Mazza, and Mihai “lnguagehackr” Dragalin!
When we previewed the Americas Playoffs, justsaiyan was already one of our players to watch. He deftly navigated an aggressive lineup of Secret Hunter, Odd Rogue, Token Druid, and Zoo Warlock to a perfect Swiss record, then won two straight matches to advance—undefeated!—to the Fall Championship.
9-0, see you guys at champs! Let's get 2 Tempostorm players to worlds!
— JustAnchorin (@justsaiyanHS) September 16, 2018
This is a big first for bloodyface, whose competitive Hearthstone career reaches back over a few years. He wanted to “pull a tylerootd” and qualify on this birthday—and was successful in doing so! In his writeup on Reddit, he notes that he recently left his full-time job as a software developer to focus on competing in Hearthstone, so this is an amazing accomplishment for him.
Tincho joins the Fall Championship from Argentina, and it certainly seems like his practice with multiple Championship–appearance mentor Facundo “Nalguidan” Pruzzo paid off. Tincho said ahead of the Fall Playoffs that his strategy was to target Quest Rogue, and the enormous increase in its popularity in the Americas worked to his advantage.
Finally, the Canadian competitor lnguagehackr made it through the gauntlet for the first time this season. His results in the Summer Playoffs were less impressive, but he had a strong showing recently at HCT Austin, and this victory cements him as a worthy opponent in the scene. His lineup of Taunt Druid, Cube Warlock, Quest Rogue, and Shudderwock Shaman certainly looked well-equipped to handle the late game!
Decklists I used to get top 4 Americas Fall Playoffs, lineup performed fairly well, think I might have missed the mark a bit on some tech cards. Overall happy, with room for improvement :) pic.twitter.com/W05IbcnZZs
— Mihai Dragalin (@languagehacker_) September 17, 2018
That concludes the HCT Fall Playoff season! You can go back and check out the European and Asian (including China) qualifiers to the Fall Championship from earlier this month, then head over to buy your tickets and join us live at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles to see these 16 talented players compete to join the top four from the Summer Championship at the HCT World Championship.
Will justsaiyan’s hot streak continue into the Fall Championship? Is Sintolol on track to become a member of the multiple World Championship club? Maybe the birthday blessing that worked for tylerootd and bloodyface will make their Championship dreams come true, too! Let us know who you’re cheering for in the comments—and stay tuned for the Fall Championship next month.