Photo: Gfinity
James "Firebat" Kostesich successfully defended his title at Gfinity Spring II after a rather one-sided 3-0 against Greek underdog Philippos “Kroba” Mamantzis. The Archon player is the first one to win back-to-back championships in the same tournament series.
Returning to London with the previous Gfinity trophy in his pocket, all eyes were deservedly on Archon’s Firebat. The American was in a great shape and with more than excellent chances to win the championship again, his most serious competition coming – on paper – from the likes of Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy or Jon “Orange” Westberg.
Firebat exited the groups with a top seed after getting a walkover in the opening match due to a player no-show and then 3-2’ing Spring I runner-up Mateusz “Zozus“ Matejko to get a quick trip to the playoffs. Once in the quarter finals, however, he was almost ousted by Dstar’s Anton “Airbrushed” Bystedt, who forced Firebat into a full five-game series before finally conceding a Mage vs Zoo game.
Although one would expect Firebat’s trials to become harder as the bracket progresses, it was the other way around. Liam “ibdutchboy” Brouwer from the Netherlands managed to take just one game off of the defending champion while Kroba – playing a peculiar [card]Dark Whispers[/card] Druid deck – couldn’t even do that, despite shocking out Dima “Rdu” Radu and Harald “Powder” Gimre in the previous rounds.
Thus, with a steamrolling 3-0, Firebat became the first player in Hearthstone’s history to defend a major championship title. This time around, he’ll go home with bigger spoils as not only will he bank $5,000 but also valuable World Championship points.
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