The National ESL has made more and more efforts for Hearthstone in the last couple of weeks with the introduction of the NESL Preseason Cups. Twice a week, the North American elite in Blizzard's online card game gets together and fights for $500 USD per cup and valuable ranking points.
The Champ is here! The seventh edition of National ESL's Preseason Cups was won by a US player with the name of DJBigRuss. The name itself might not ring a bell for the Hearthstone audience just yet, but the victims he eliminated to reach his first ever NESL title are nothing short of spectacular. First on his hit list was Denial eSports Greek player Logan, followed by NSNick - before the big showdown with NESL Preseason Cup #5 Champ spOh was on the horizon. One might think a former champion is the toughest of challenges you can get, for DJBigRuss it was just the beginning. After spOh, DKMR player dtwo was next, only to then be challenged by the Brazilian nightstalker. Once again this name might not be familiar to all of Hearthstone's scene yet, but the stalker ousted known streamer and master tactician TheGwalls and the reigning NESL Preseason Cup Champion Twisted in the rounds prior to going up against DJBigRuss.
The duel of the two "big name killers" went in the American favor, who then switched gears from a South American opponent to Icelandic professional player kaldi, currently part of Reason Gaming. The player from the freezing north of Europe had to team-kill Ostkaka to reach the Semifinals against DJBigRuss - so he had his challenges on the road to there as well. In the end, DJBigRuss also overcame that challenge and proceeded to the big Grand Finals against fellow country man LuigEzz. It was two underdogs in the Final, who had overcome all tasks to fight for the lion's share of the $500 USD.
As mentioned above DJBigRuss takes it home, cashing in on $250 USD and 100 ranking points. Runner up LuigEzz can bring $150 USD to his bank account and 75 ranking points to his NESL account, and the two Semifinal losers kaldi and Simplexity get $50 USD plus 55 ranking points.
NESL Preseason Cup #7 Final Standings
- 1.
![UnitedStates]( "UnitedStates")
DJBigRuss - 2.
![UnitedStates]( "UnitedStates")
LuigEzz - 3./4.
![Iceland]( "Iceland")
kaldi - 3./4.
![UnitedStates]( "UnitedStates")
Simplexity
DJBigRuss
kaldiFull Bracket here.
With this victory DJBigRuss is not only bringing home some bacon, but is also striving for the crown this Tuesday. The title brings him into the challenger match for the NESL King of the Hill competition, in which he will square off with invitee Applejacked for the privilege to compete against the reigning King of the NESL in Amaz.
