For the second time Tempo Storm player TidesofTime could successfully defends his NESL King of the Hill honor. After ousting Realz and Gnimsh in the weeks before, the former Dota 2 player took Trump's head in the latest event.
The curse clearly seems to be gone. After weeks and weeks in the NESL King of the Hill events, when only Priest master Amaz could hold on to the title for more than a week, TidesofTime is beating the odds for a second time by extending his reign. The American was able to regain the throne against Realz two weeks ago and has been on a roll since.
Before Trump even had the honor in challenging the reigning king, he had to overcome the first ever Indian player to enter the competition and make a bid for the throne - gcttirth. Not only his origin was unusual on this King of the Hill event, but also his choice of deck. It's widely believed that Miracle Rogue is the most dominant deck but gcttirth decided to go away from. A Zoolock, a Shaman and a Druid were his choices, unfortunately not getting him the win.
Gcttirth's Zoo had a nice start against Trump in the first round but then the floodgates opened for Mountain Giants, Molten Giants and Twilight Drakes pouring from Trump's handlock. The deck rolled over the Zoo and demolished the Druid, but then looked flustered by the perfect answers of the final deck in Shaman. Two Earthshocks and a Hex early on neutralized three threats straight away, while dealing with the second Mountain Giant by trading in a Lightning Bolt and two totems. Unfortunately not even this great start was enough to keep the momentum rolling for gcttirth, who lost his board to the AoE clear and couldn't deal with two Molten Giants coming out.
Trump advanced, determined to become the fourth player in NESL King of the Hill history to wear the crown in two seperate reigns. Those dreams were crushed in a hurry by TidesofTime though, who found his Auctioneer in all three matches and was able to efficiently cycle through his deck as a result. He even weathered bizarre moments in this match, especially in the second matchup against Trump's Handlock. Trump played all his cards, Soulfire'd the face of Tides' Rogue moving all-in and hoping that his roughly 15 hitpoints would be enough. In a weird way they were and Tides suddenly was in the position to dodge two bullets with the lifetap draw. At that most unfortunate time Trump drew into two consecutive Mountain Giants and then saw all his hopes to win the clash go up in flames with Leeroy charging in.
That match was really the only time Tides had his back against the wall, making the matchup against Shaman a fairly one-sided affair - although facing a potential Bloodlust lethal at one point.
That sweep marks the third shutout victory by TidesofTime in the NESL King of the Hill events, a number only reached by Amaz so far. Next week he will get a chance to make history with a fourth win, facing either the invited guest of the tournament or the NESL Sunday Cup Champion. If you want to be that challenger, sign up here to make a run for that opportunity.
