Photo: WESG Flickr
Argentina’s Fran “PNC” Leimontas triumphed in Sao Paulo, Brazil yesterday and is set to bank $12,000 for his championship run.
Latin America hasn’t had the best success on the international Hearthstone scene, but this weekend’s WESG Americas LAN finals were a major breakthrough. The South Americans, although having the numbers advantage, were dwarfed – at least on paper – by the power brought by their northern colleagues, including LG duo Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang and Paul “Zalae” Nemeth and Canadians Josh “Impact” Graham and Fred “Talion” Yu.
Before the group stage was over, however, both Luminosity players had to face elimination in possibly the biggest upset of the tournament, winning just three matches between them. At the same time, Canada performed excellently, as Impact and Talion won nine out of the ten total games they played combined, the latter going undefeated in Group A. Getting direct semi-final seeds and showing impeccable play in the group stage, the two were on their way to an all-Canadian final.
The maple leaves started strong with Impact blanking Peruvian “Nessteban” in the round of four, continuing his tear through the tournament, but his countryman ran into perhaps Latin Americas’ best known player: PNC. A finalist from both the HCT Spring Championship and Copa America, PNC took down Talion in five games and proceeded to scoreboard a final 4-2 against Impact in the closing match of the tournament, bringing Latin America its first major gold.
The six who passed the group stage will also play in the $300,000 WESG Grand Finals in Shanghai, the line-up being:
Nessteban
Impact
PNC