After the first day one thing is sure, that the Americas Spring Champion will come from North America.
The final Spring Championships have begun, with the Americas region presenting its candidates this weekend for a free ticket to Blizzcon and a $25,000 prize. Eight players face off this weekend in a Single Elimination, Best of 7 Conquest format to determine who will be joining America's Winter Champion Amnesiac to represent the continent later this year. So, what happened on day 1?
Deerjason vs Cydonia
Kicking off the first day of the Americas Spring Championship, Deerjason had to face Cydonia, a player hailing from Canada. In the first game Deerjason lined up his Midrange Hunter against Cydonia’s Aggro Shaman – generally in favor of the Shaman. However the game took a huge swing in Deerjason’s favor, when his [card]Harrison Jones[/card] managed to tackle Cydonia’s [card]Doomhammer[/card]. Together with [card]Call of the Wild[/card] this proved enough to hand Deerjason the initially unexpected win.
This turn of events did not prevent Cydonia from doing the same thing. Choosing his C’Thun Druid, he faced Deerjason’s Aggro Shaman. This time it was Cydonia who switched the board around, cleverly using the combination of [card]Brann Bronzebeard[/card] and [card]Disciple of C’Thun[/card]. From there on Deerjason couldn’t get a grip on the board anymore, and conceded the second game to Cydonia.
The entire match seemed to be in the theme of turn-arounds when Deerjason managed to win the third match. Again in an unfavorable match-up, this time the American used his Tempo Warrior – Cydonia the favored Midrange Hunter. Slowly but surely both players began to run out of resources, when Cydonia topdecked his [card]Savannah Highmane[/card]. This seemed to be too powerful for Deerjason to immediately deal with, when his [card]Varian Wrynn[/card] showed up and decided to pull out a [card]Cairne Bloodhoof[/card], [card]Bloodhoof Brave[/card] and [card]Arathi Weaponsmith[/card] directly on the board. This huge swing allowed Deerjason to take the lead again: 2-1.
The score continued to go back and forth, with Cydonia winning with the Aggro Shaman mirror, followed by his Dragon Warrior defeating the same Aggro Shaman deck. This put Cydonia on match point, leading with 3-2 and only having his Midrange Hunter deck left to win with. Deerjason once again chose his Aggro Shaman to go with, and this time it pulled of the trick. His [card]Leeroy Jenkins[/card] came to the rescue to tie up the score again: 3-3.
The final game was between Cydonia’s Midrange Hunter and Deerjason’s Yogg-Saron Druid. Though Deerjason started off strong, with an early [card]Innervate[/card] into [card]Fandral Staghelm[/card], he couldn’t get a grip on the match. After being forced to use [card]Kill Command[/card] on the Fandral, Cydonia started to take over the board bit by bit. When he dropped his [card]Savannah Highmane[/card] on the board, Deerjason was forced to play his [card]Harrison Jones[/card] just to contest. By that time it was already too late, and when [card]Deadly Shot[/card] targeted Deerjason’s [card]Ancient of War[/card] the game was over, with Cydonia grabbing a 4-3 win.
Napoleon vs Duane
In contrast to the match between Deerjason and Cydonia, the match between Napoleon and Duane was rather one-sided. Duane, the last hope for Canada in this tournament, ran into Napoleon’s Tempo Warrior with his Midrange Hunter. Napoleon – having proclaimed before the match that he would play flawlessly – did indeed not give a single turn away, and just when Duane’s Hunter deck ran out of steam, he managed to get a nice [card]Battle Rage[/card] to refill his own hand and take the lead.
Duane picked his Midrange Hunter again and queued into Napoleon’s C’Thun Druid. Although the game can usually go either way, this time it wasn’t tense at all. Napoleon had control over the board from early on, especially when he used [card]Innervate[/card] to get out his [card]Dark Arakkoa[/card] on turn 4. From there on Napoleon just continued to fill the board with strong minions – something Duane’s deck did not have an answer for.
Seemingly having lost his trust in Rexxar, Duane switched over to his Aggro Shaman. With only his Zoolock and Freeze Mage left, Napoleon made a good read and chose the Zoolock to queue into the game, providing himself with a more favorable match up. This proved true when he flooded the board with cheap minions and Duane had no way to clear any of them. Napoleon used effective trades to keep control of the match and navigate himself to a 3-0 lead: match point.
Trying to regain some steam, Duane used his Aggro Shaman first to defeat Napoleon’s final deck: the Freeze Mage. Although he didn’t have an ideal opening hand he still managed to place many minions on the board early in the game, and chip away at Napoleon’s life total. After the latter had found a [card]Blizzard[/card] and started to control the board more, Duane switched over to using more burst damage. In the end it was the burst damage that gave him a spark of hope and take his first game.
Having regained some trust, Duane switched back to his Midrange Hunter. Much like the overall match, this game too was fairly one-sided, mainly because Napoleon managed to control the board in the early game, allowing him to find enough burst damage. On turn 2 Duane coined out his [card]Carrion Grub[/card], which Napoleon answered with a [card]Doomsayer[/card]. Duane then didn’t have a follow up plan on turn 3, so used his hero power, allowing Napoleon to use a pre-emptive second Doomsayer to prevent anything big landing on turn 4. From there on Duane did manage to slowly but surely refill his board, but by the time he had achieved that, Napoleon had managed to stack enough burst damage to finish the match with a 4-1 score.
Joster vs PNC
The third match of the day featured the only Latin American player that had managed to qualify, the Argentine player PNC who had to take on Joster from the U.S. The match was tense and close, with the score going back and forth. The first game went to PNC, who played his Zoolock into Joster’s Miracle Rogue. Although sometimes the Rogue does manage to have some control over the board using [card]Backstab[/card]s and [card]Fan of Knives[/card], that was not the case this time. PNC just filled the board with strong cheap minions, and finished it all off using a [card]Doomguard[/card].
Joster seemed taken aback by his loss, as in the next match he made some plays that were odd. He had chosen to go with his Aggro Shaman, and faced PNC’s Midrange Hunter. The fact that the match-up is heavily in favor of the Aggro Shaman seemed to make Joster a little lax. For example: he chose to first play his [card]Feral Spirit[/card] and then kill off PNC’s [card]Fiery Bat[/card], unnecessarily dealing 1 damage to one of the Spirit Wolfs. This did not affect the outcome of the match however, as in classic Aggro Shaman fashion still enough burst was gathered to tie up the series to a 1-1 score.
A Miracle Rogue mirror followed. As the board went back and forth Joster saw the game slowly but surely slipping away from him. Having stacked a bit of burst himself, he decided to [card]Conceal[/card] his [card]Azure Drake[/card] and [card]SI:7 Agent[/card] with hope to topdeck the final piece of burst next turn. PNC noticed his opponent’s plan, and having stacked more burst himself he copied the plan of creating a strong board and then concealing it. Joster did not find the burst he needed, and PNC managed to take the lead once more.
PNC then puth his faith in his Dragon Warrior for three consecutive games, of which the third game finally got him a win. In the first game he faced Joster’s Midrange Hunter and although PNC had an aggressive start, Joster’s double [card]Desert Camel[/card] created enough tempo for PNC to lose control over the game.
PNC’s Dragon Warrior came closer to a win against Joster’s Reno Warlock, putting Gul’dan to only 6 health. PNC probably would have won the game if it weren’t for two cards Joster managed to acquire in his hand: a [card]Shadow Bolt[/card] to deal with the [card]Frothing Berserker[/card] and, played on exactly turn 6, [card]Reno Jackson[/card] to go back to full health. The game turned even further in Joster’s favor when PNC slammed down [card]Ragnaros the Firelord[/card] and Joster could use [card]Faceless Manipulator[/card] and [card]Siphon Soul[/card] (reduced by [card]Emperor Thaurissan[/card]) to create his own Ragnaros.
PNC finally managed to pull off a win with his Warrior when Joster was left with his Miracle Rogue, when a [card]Frothing Berserker[/card] and [card]Blackwing Corruptor[/card] proved to be too strong. It all came down to Joster’s Miracle Rogue versus PNC’s Midrange Hunter. Although PNC started off very aggressively, Joster managed to take over the midgame and steer it from there. PNC did not recover from this and Joster secured his spot in the semi finals with a 4-3 victory.
Bradfordlee vs Rosty
In the fourth and final match of the day two players of the United States faced each other. Bradfordlee met Rosty to decide who would take the final spot in the top 4. Rosty, arguably having the most peculiar line-up of all players, first opted for his Hybrid Hunter – a mix of Face Hunter (with early aggressive minions) and Midrange Hunter (strong late-game cards, such as [card]Call of the Wild[/card]. Unfortunately for Rosty Bradfordlee had chosen his C’Thun Druid. Quickly Bradfordlee had control over the board, and finished the first game with a 13/13 [card]C’Thun[/card].
The second game was a fairly easy win for Rosty, as he queued his Aggro Shaman against the Miracle Rogue of Bradfordlee. As simple as it gets, the Aggro Shaman just played its minions, had a strong curve, and the Rogue couldn’t get a hold of the board. With a topdecked [card]Argent Horserider[/card] Rosty dragged in his first win of the day.
Having faith in his Hybrid Hunter deck he selected it again, whilst Bradfordlee stuck to Miracle Rogue. Rosty put in a fair amount of damage in the early game, but Bradfordlee managed to stop the tempo by playing [card]Azure Drake[/card] into [card]Preparation[/card] [card]Sap[/card], of which the latter was a lucky topdeck from the Azure Drake’s draw effect. This did not prevent Rosty from building a threatening board again, however, and this time the Rogue did not find a way to deal with it: 2-1 for Rosty.
Looking to continue the streak, Rosty went for his Zoolock, and Bradfordlee tried to stop him with his Miracle Rogue. Though the Zoolock managed to flood the board, and the Rogue had not drawn a [card]Fan of Knives[/card] to clear it effectively, a [card]Sap[/card] into an [card]SI:7 Agent[/card] regained some of the tempo for Bradfordlee. When Rosty filled his board using [card]Forbidden Ritual[/card], Bradfordlee made the clever decision not to clear any of the 1/1’s, but instead push for lethal. Leaving up all the 1/1’s had made it impossible for Rosty to play any strong or tactical cards like [card]Sea Giant[/card] or [card]Defender of Argus[/card]. This allowed Bradfordlee to finish the match and set the score to 2-2.
The following game, similarly to the second game, was quite one-sided in favor of Rosty. His Zoolock faced Bradfordlee’s Midrange Hunter, and just dominated the board all game through. The Hunter’s [card]Unleash the Hounds[/card] did manage to clear some of the threats, but when [card]Sea Giant[/card] came down the game was sealed and put Rosty on match point.
Having only his Freeze Mage left to beat twice, Bradfordlee deemed it a good idea to first go with the most favorable match-up, and picked his Aggro Shaman. Maybe the fatigue had hit him, but Bradfordlee did not play the match perfectly. He made various questionable plays, including to not pop Rosty’s [card]Ice Block[/card] at 3 health, but at 6 health, ultimately costing him the game. Against the odds Rosty played out the match, took the victory, and guaranteed a spot for himself in the top 4.
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