Borrowing former world champion James “Firebat” Kostesich, Reynad’s team prevailed over Liquid 5-1 in the grand finals.
Hosted by RedBull, the Team Brawl held on February 6 had the brave idea of bringing the “team sealed” format to Hearthstone. Each team of three players was given 240 random Hearthstone cards of which to build three 30-card decks. It is a test of deckbuilding ingenuity, team work and flexibility.
Eventual champions Tempo Storm came up with a Paladin, Mage and Priest line-up, allocated to Eloise, Reynad and Firebat, respectively. Tempo came close to elimination in the group stage after dropping their opening match but recovered with dominant victories over Cloud 9 (7-2) and Archon (6-3).
Yet their most one-sided victory yet came in the grand finals. Ordinarily, the Team Brawl matches are played in three heaps of three simultaneous games, but T/S finished it right after the second. With the score at 5-1 following the first four games, there was no chance for a comeback for the horseheads.
The tournament itself caused mixed feelings in the community. While the idea, concept and storylines was universally welcomed, certain aspects of production like the camera work and the mismatch between what’s being cast and what’s being shown on stream resulted in several threads of displeasure on community boards.
