Thijs “ThijsNL” Molendijk is the first European champion of Hearthstone and goes into BlizzCon as one of the heaviest favorites.
Considered by many the current best player in Europe, the Dutch player of Gamers2 went on to prove them right. After finishing first in Group A and demolishing fellow teammate Lifecoach in the semi finals, Thijs was confidently marching towards his first major individual championship since DreamHack Bucharest.
Druid/Handlock/Patron were the line-ups for both Neirea andThijs in the finals, though each player relied on small tech changes to win the series. Neirea had put in a double [card]Big Game Hunter[/card] for the Handlock mirror while Thijs had brought a singleton [card]Brawl[/card] against enemy patrons.
A Patron mirror opened the series with Thijs getting the first Patron explosion of the game. And while the board looked scary for the Dutch, the combination of Warsong, double Frothing and double Whirlwind set up Neirea for more than exact lethal.
That was the last victory Neirea took this series, however. Thijs maneuvered around the double BGH of Neirea and evaded the Handlock mirror until the very last moment. Even though both giant snipers came down from the Ukrainian, the direct damage reach of Hellfire and Doomguard wrapped up the series for the Gamers2 soldier.
Hoisting the trophy awarded Thijs with $10,000 but also a GosuRankings all-time record. At 1,359 points, the first ever European champion is the highest peaking player in the rankings history, beating the previous record of 1,327 by TiddlerCelestial.
