Kolento's elimination on day one is one of tournament's upsets so far
Revitalized by a GvG injection of cards, Uther was a popular choice of the players during the first day of the Kinguin Invitational. The tournament now prepares to enter day two with household names like Amaz, Savjz, Gaara and StrifeCro.
How much will GvG change the tournament meta? Way before the expansion arrived, this was one of the most asked questions. Will it be parade of brand new archetypes or simply a case of strengthened and updated old ones?
The first series of the day between Kolento and Powder showed that paladin is one of the classes that will be played completely differently. Known for being decent in the control role only, the post-GvG paladin now has a new face centered around [card]Quartermaster[/card] and [card]Muster for Battle[/card].
The opening mirror match-up between the DH: Winter champion and IHU's Swede swayed back and forth and ultimately went to Powder's favor as he landed a [card]Consecration[/card] on Kolento's tokens. In another battle of the holy, Kolento equalized the series on his control priest but his triumph was short-lived. Running a pretty much standard druid deck, reinforced with a couple of [card]Piloted Sky Golem[/card]s, Powder took two in a row and ousted the Ukrainian powerhouse out of the tournament.
In game two, warrior master Kitkatz had a taste his own medicine as he was brought down to a 0-3 sweep by compatriot Hosty playing a warrior deck. It wasn't even that different from the pre-GvG builds - a singleton [card]Shieldmaiden[/card] and one [card]Troggzor the Earthinator[/card] was all that Hosty had added to the deck form the new expansion but then again, he didn't need anything more. Kitkatz came at the Archon player with zoo, full face [card]Jeeves[/card] hunter and a revamped control paladin but it was all in vain.
In series number three, world champion Firebat proved one doesn't even need GvG cards to make hunter good. Running the same old [card]Undertaker[/card] deck - with a pinch of [card]Ragnaros the Firelord[/card] at the end - and crushed everything Hyped threw at him. Another sweeping 3-0 series and the first playday was night its end.
Paladin was king in the last series between TidesofTime and Twixsen. After the American dropped game on to Twixsen's secrets mage, he switched to his own MfB/Quartermaster paladin and ran over the mage, priest and warrior of the Sweden. Unlike the previous two games, however, this was a close one: games two and three came down to the wire and it was only Twixsen's debatable decisions that cost him the game.
This afternoon, Kinguin Invitational continues with eight more Bo5s:
13:00 CET - Neirea vs DTwo
14:00 CET - Amaz vs Arfdota
15:00 CET - Gara vs Savjz
16:00 CET - StrifeCro vs Frezzar
19:00 CET - Powder vs Hosty
20:00 CET - Firebat vs TidesofTime
21:00 CET - Quarter Final #3
22:00 CET - Quarter Final #4
