Photo: Carlton Beener / Blizzard
The trophy is guaranteed to stay in Europe.
For the first time, the Hearthstone World Finals will have two participants from the same region.
After an emotional series against Will “Amnesiac” Barton yesterday which included a complete reverse sweep after the American went up by three, Pavel Beltukov returned today for his semi-final match against Estar’s Jason Zhou.
Millenium’s new signee also brought along his godlike RNG that helped him top the 15-year-old prodigy on opening day and enjoyed several on-point [card]babbling book[/card] and [card]firelands portal[/card] pulls, including a [card]leeroy Jenkins[/card] for the win against Jason’s Dragon Warrior. The Chinese player himself made a few fumbles deeper into the series, misplaying on his Miracle Rogue in two consecutive games to give Pavel the grand finals spot, Europe’s second in a row.
The next quarter final also finished in six games as Artem “DrHippi” Kravets followed Pavel’s example and eliminated Asia from the tournament. Considered to be the heaviest favorite for the crown after the elimination of Amnesiac on day one, DrHippi will contest the $250,000 after winning a tense, value-based Tempo Mage vs. Dragon Warrior game against Cheonsu Kim.
Europe’s success comes after a very disappointing start for the region in the group stages, where three of its four players opened with losses. Following recovery on redemption day and stellar play throughout the playoffs, Europe is guaranteed to take almost half of the total $1,000,000 prize pool and keep the trophy in the old continent.
