Kolento has won the battle of Cloud9 over StrifeCro in a nailbiting 4-3 series to secure himself a spot in the $10,000 final of DreamHack Winter against Thijs. The series was highlighted by a pair of lengthy Mage vs Warrior games that have likely taken their toll on Kolento.
Kolento has won an emotional and hard fought victory over his Cloud9 team mate StrifeCro and is currently being rushed straight into the grand final against Thijs. Avening his loss to StrifeCro in the group stages of the World Championships, the series went to the full seven games including two that went to fatigue in a marathon two hour series.
StrifeCro got the early advantage, picking Zoo into Kolento's Druid. The Zoo put up an insane amount of early pressure and swept aside what little taunt the Druid had take a swift victory. Kolento attempted to hit back with Warrior but the draws failed him in the midgame. After a slower Zoo start Kolento was able to establish board presence, but when a Doomguard and a Loatheb came down in quick succession it was too much for the Warrior to deal with without Alexstraza - which sadly came just one card too late. Kolento revived his Warrior to try his luck a second time and this time got a Fiery War Axe and Death's Bite early on to much more easily deal with the attack from Zoo. Five turns in the Zoo had no board, two Undertakers in hand and no deathrattles. Kolento was able to clear out the midgame board with a brawl, and eventually used Geddon and Grommash to seal the victory.
What happened next was most likely the most unpredictable and enthralling two games of Hearthstone seen at the competitive level to date. StrifeCro's unique and brand new Mage deck was picked against the Warrior, and the cagey game ended up in a mutual fatigue situation with Kolento not physically able to pop the ice block and praying for fatigue. StrifeCro was able to use Kolento's Acolyte to draw him into fatigue first, but the Warrior hero power kept him ahead in the fatigue race. The crucial decision to not play a Sludge Belcher knowing that StrifeCro had Black Knight likely won Kolento the game, as StrifeCro was forced to play the Knight without the battlecry and the Belcher went unchallenged.
Kolento tried his luck again after the marathon game, and after some Sylvannas and Duplicate shenanigans (that saw StrifeCro play three Mad Scientists in one turn), StrifeCro hit fatigue much faster which cost him the game. Grommash was the 30th card in Kolento's deck, and he was able to use it to seal the game just before fatigue this time. StrifeCro hit back with a turn six Hunter kill to knock out the Warrior after a near perfect curve, but in the deciding game StrifeCro had the complete opposite draw against Handlock. With two Snake Traps in hand from the beginning and Unleash the Hounds sitting dead, StrifeCro never stood a chance.
With the fatigue in game likely causing some real life fatigue for Kolento he has just minutes to recover before jumping into a BO7 with ThijsNL for the championship - and that alone must give Thijs something of an advantage.
