Danish player Frederik “Hoej” Nielsen is the first player from group C to advance to the playoffs of the Viagame HouseCup 3. Although he made some serious errors against his opponents Stanislav “StanCifka” Cifka and Jon “Orange” Westberg, he still managed to fight his way through.
In the first match, Hoej had to face StanCifka, who won the DreamHack Bucharest tournament. In a match between StanCifka’s Hunter and Hoej’s Paladin it was StanCifka who took the win. However, Hoej managed to defeat his opponent’s Control Warrior with his Freeze Mage and bring the series to a 1-1 score. Then a clash of Warlocks followed, with Hoej playing his Zoo deck and StanCifka bringing out his Handlock. For a long time Hoej was controlling the game, until StanCifka topdecked [card]Molten Giant[/card] and managed to clear the board. Again Hoej managed to build up a threatening situation, but this time it was [card]Lord Jaraxxus[/card] that slipped into his opponent’s hand. Though this was definitely a setback for Hoej, he kept his mind straight and with a [card]Power Overwhelming[/card] and a [card]Bane of Doom[/card] he still was victorious.
StanCifka then switched back to his Hunter deck, which had proven to be too strong for Orange earlier. Again this was the case, as it managed to defeat Hoej’s Zoo and bring the series to a tie once more. The final match offered an unexpected plot twist for StanCifka. Hoej brought out his Hunter deck, which was what StanCifka was hoping for. He had built a Paladin deck, featuring [card]Guardian of Kings[/card] twice, hoping that it could counter FaceHunters. However, Hoej’s Hunter deck was not a regular FaceHunter deck, with the most change being [card]Leeroy Jenkins[/card]. Eventually StanCifka’s deck didn’t prove strong enough, and Hoej advanced to the winner’s match.
Here Hoej had to face team Archon’s Orange, who had advanced to the winner’s match as well after beating Gu “Immortal” Luo. It didn’t start too well for Hoej. With his Druid deck he was up against Orange’s Freeze Mage. As is commonly seen against a Freeze Mage, at one point Hoej’s board was frozen by [card]Frost Nova[/card] and a [card]Doomsayer[/card] was staring him in the face, alongside an [card]Emperor Thaurissan[/card]. Instead of using his [card]Keeper of the Grove[/card] to silence the Doomsayer and let the [card]Ragnaros the Firelord[/card] do the rest, Hoej chose to silence his Ragnaros to kill the Doomsayer and then silenced his [card]Ancient of Lore[/card] to kill the Emperor Thaurissan.
This allowed Orange to use another Frost Nova and Doomsayer later in the game. However, it was when Hoej failed to spot lethal that Orange struck back and win the first match. The next two matches were won by Hoej, after beating Orange’s Freeze Mage with a Shaman deck built to counter Freeze Mage and beating Rogue with his Paladin. The fourth game was unexpectedly interrupted by a bat that managed to find a way into the room where Hoej and Orange were battling each other. Given the fact that the location of the HouseCup is held in what is dubbed as “Dracula’s Castle”, it is not unlikely that the Vampire Lord sought revenge for the noice the players are making, while he is trying to take a nap. After host Rachel managed to fend off the bat, the match continued and Orange took a win with his Hunter over the Paladin of Hoej. In the final match it was Hoej’s Priest that proved too strong for Orange’s Mech Shaman, resulting in Hoej entering the playoffs.
Hoej will be joining the strong looking Dutchman ThijsNL, HouseCup 2 runner-up Roger, world champion Firebat and last but not least Lifecoach in what seems to be one of the most thrilling playoffs in the HouseCup history. For more information on the Viagame HouseCup 3, please click here. For all the decklists, this is the link you must click.