In the first tournament to ban GvG and Naxx cards, G2’s Thijs “ThijsNL” Molendijk took his fourth tournament gold.
2015 player of the year ThijsNL did not have the best of times following the release of League of Explorers. The G2 marquee broke multiple ranking records last year but the drastic change in the meta caught him somewhat underprepared. The tail end of 2015 brought ThijsNL his lowest monthly win rates of his career, with 28.57 per cent in November and 46.15 per cent in December. With January being a traditionally slow month, only now was ThijsNL given more opportunities to recover his past form.
Thijs’ appearance at the $30,000 Curse Trials – a tournament aiming to give a preview of the upcoming standard by forbidding GvG and Naxx cards – came in the wake of winning the qualifiers for PGL Tavern Tales Spring and was a well-welcomed opportunity at winning big cash after failing to qualify for the Winter Championship.
Going through the opposition at Curse Trials was anything but walk in the park. Thijs had to go through his group’s losers bracket to qualify for the playoffs which only led to more and tougher challenges, including a quarter final match against team-mate Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy and a re-game from the 2015 HWC semi finals against reigning world champion Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall.
Thijs’ opponent in the final match was a name whose appearances in the booth have been scarce lately: Janne “Savjz” Mikkonen. Over the weekend, the Finn had proven that his championship spirit is not lost, having scored victories over Kolento, Rdu, Amnesiac and SuperJJ.
The grand finals made for a five-game ode with Savjz’s Druid/Priest/Shaman going against Thijs’ Druid/Priest/Warrior line-up. The series is not only a highly recommended entertainment but led to ThijsNL’s first championship run since triumphing at the HWC Europe Championship in October last year and his return to the top of the GosuRankings.
