[deck linked style=float:right;margin-left:15px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-right30px;]571[/deck]Heading into the match, Amaz was already the only Hearthstone player to ever defend the NESL King of the Hill title - now he adds another week to his impressive reign.
The NESL King of the Hill event seems cursed for the title holders, making it harder on them to actually retain their crown for more than a week. A plethora of great players like Trump, Reynad or TidesOfTime have tried to make it happen - all of them went down after just one week on the throne. Only the superstar from Hong Kong, Amaz, seems to be immune to the spell the event has, as he once more defended his title in his second reign as King of NESL.
His opponents this time came from the esteemed team Don't Kick My Robot with Atlanta receiving an invite, as well as the NESL Preseason Cup #21 champion Firebat from the newly formed London Conspiracy. Before Amaz even had to come to the virtual table to impress everyone with his emotions on cam and his plays on the server, Atlanta and Firebat had one of the more epic clashes the play-in's have ever seen. After Atlanta came out of the gate swinging, not only with his aggressive way of playing the Shaman deck, but also with refreshingly swift turns, Firebat found himself in a lot of trouble right away. Trailing 0-2, losing the lopsided Shaman vs. Hunter match up and then not being able to work a Malygos Miracle with his Rogue deck.
The last resort was his Warrior - and what a tough opponent that turned out to be. Garrosh, guided by Firebat, took out the Shaman in a match going down to the wire and then faced an interesting and funky Druid deck. "Milling" is something we don't usually see anywhere, but Atlanta gave it a shot. Initially it seemed like he had some success, forcing Firebat to overdraw and discard a big threat like Ragnaros straight away. The longer the match dragged on though, the more it became apparent that Atlanta would lose a fatigue war against the heavy armor of the Warrior class. In the end a unique combination of Grommash, Cruel Taskmaster and two damage of fatigue ended Atlanta's Druid and pushed the game into the fifth match. That contest ultimately came down to a coin flip, with a concealed Malygos on the board getting removed by a Brawl. That action lost all the burn of the deck and the Armor once again became to thick for Atlanta to be able to get the victory.
So it was Firebat's turn to challenge the King Amaz for the crown. For Amaz it was the opportunity to cement his place in the history books of the NESL King of the Hill event even further, as the player to constantly defend his throne - Firebat on the other hand had the change to become only the second Sunday Cup champion to make it to a reign.
The match started out right for Firebat with his Handlock having a better time against Amaz's control Warrior. Back-to-back Twilight Drakes followed up by a Mountain Giant were too much to handle for the reigning and defending king. After that defeat Amaz flipped the script and became the Hunter, away from the hunted. He brought out his midrange Hunter deck he had experimented and practiced a bit on stream earlier, now it was time for the real contest for his beasts.
It turned out to be the right call on his part, as the "Beast Mode" did not only even up the series at one a piece, but also took off and rolled every other deck Firebat threw at him. The mirror match didn't work out for him, just as his Ramp Druid couldn't really get it down. The last match between Rexxar and Malfurion actually was very close and Amaz was hanging on by a thread with only eight hit points left - unfortunately for London Conspiracy's Firebat he was lacking the burst to finish it out. He didn't draw into another Druid of the Claw, had no Swipe at his disposal and so had to witness the Savannah Highmane, constant bow shots to the face and wild Dogs running rampage on the battleground.
This title now elevates Amaz to six wins in the King of the Hill format all together, furthering his lead even more. Only Reynad comes even close with two wins in this event - distributed over two attempts. Amaz remains the only player to have ever defended the title as the King, while Twisted remains the only player to have ever captured the crown coming from the Sunday cups.
If you want to be the one having a crack at both of these streaks, make sure to sign up for the next batch of NESL tournaments. The Wednesday cup for practice and experience can be found here - the big Sunday cup is open for registration over here.
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