Germany rules HyperX Invitational day one as Wuaschtsemme and Theude occupy the winners final

It is another Germany versus the States in the second winners bracket semi final as Innovation's Theude meets Tempo Storm Reynad's. Seeing what success the ramp Druid brought him in the first round, Theude bring out the deck first and makes the right choice - the armada of fat taunters deals Reynad's Druid its second loss for the night and also eliminates the Rogue that helped him win the previous game against Reynad.

Reynad's Warrior is next and Garrosh packs the muscle needed to overpower the forces of nautre. Not even Cenarius, Ragnaros and the Ancient of Wars can keep Theude alive and the America muscles his way through with an enraged Grommash and his own Rag.

Game four is a nailbiter. Reynad manages to put Theude's Handlock down to the single digits and is looking for a Grommash finish but the German summons Jaraxxus to get outside lethal, clears the board and hits the End Turn button for a final 3-1 in his favor.

HyperX Invitational returns to its slow pace with the winners bracket semi finals between Trump and Wuaschtsemme. The German opens the series with an odd, old-school Druid which falls victim to Trump’s control Warrior.

The two continue to trade blows without any impressive plays by either, simply hard-countering each other. A Handlock ends Trump’s Warrior, whose Priest in turn disposes of Gul’dan in a game so long it fatigued out the Lucky Draw player.

Down 1-2, Wuaschtsemme has just one more deck left and that, to his luck, is a Miracle Rogue. In game four, Trump finds himself in trouble as he slaps an Auchenai Soulpriest only to find he’d much prefer to heal himself rather than race down the Rogue. With the score tied, the American falls back to the Zoo that evaporated Tides in the previous round but that too fails – Wuaschtsemme has more removal than Trump has minions and Valeera takes the series for the open qualifier player.

Tides versus Trump is the only quick series that WBR1 sees. It begins with Tides’s Paladin outlasting Trump’s control Warrior but the next deck of the “mayor of value town” – the only Zoo in the tournament so far – makes for a strong comeback.

A persistent Zombie Chow alongside an annoyingly big board chews through Tides’s Paladin army, even after Consecration wipes half of Gul’dan’s minions. The Tempo Storm player picks up a control Warrior to answer the Zoo but even after a huge Brawl and a Ragnaros on the field, Tides can’t deal with the draw-play-attack onslaught of the Arena specialist. The score iss 2-1 and Trump iss one game away from a WB semi finals.

The coveted 3-1 comes after Tides’ Mage succumbs to the same pressure that took the life of his Paladin and Warrior. On T6, Tides threw down a Blizzard to freeze  Trump’s entire board, clearing half of it, but at that point he was already on 4 hit points. A Doomguard topdeck from Trump came to seal the series in what could be called the third upset for the night.

It’s a slow start for the Amaz/Theude series as players’ preferences lay in the control archetype. Amaz opens with the Paladin deck that brought him success at VGVN 1 but Theude makes short work of it after the #1 GosuRanked player never finds an Equality to deal with German’s humongous threats.

Amaz’s deck choice for game two is his signature Priest and once again clutch plays came from the Liquid ace. Baiting Theude to overcommit to a big board, Amaz hits a double Circle of Healing through an Auchenai Soulpriest to establish a dominant position. Holding two Shadow Words: Death further cements Amaz’s dominance as Theude’s Ragnaros and Alexstrasza die as soon as they hit the board. The score is tied at 1-1.

Hoping to break the tie in his favor and take advantage of the control profile of the match-up, Theude resorts to his Ramp Druid, a deck which can just slap down fat threats if it survives the early turns.

Game three, however, goes in Theude’s favor more due to a mistake by Amaz then phenomenal plays by the German. Thinking he can snipe Kel’Thuzad with a Big Game Hunter, Amaz throws away his Ragnaros sniper and dies to a top-decked Firelord over the course of few turns.

Game four sees Amaz on the Shaman as his last deck but this match goes even worse for him than the previous. Theude keeps putting threats and Amaz keeps not drawing Hex and slowly succumbs to Theude’s monstrous taunters.

The Reynad/Forsen series begins with the Swede pulling out an unorthodox class for the current meta – an midrange Mage. Forsen’s cards align in a perfect 1-2-3-4-5 curve; Reynad is forced to waste removals and Shapeshift activations to keep the board clean but by T6 he’s down to just 11 health all the same. Two turns later, Reynad is checkmated as he runs out of ways to stabilize the board and staring at a Sylvanas and Baine, the Tempo Storm captain hits the concede button.

Reynad chooses to go for a Miracle Rogue in game two which seems like an odd decision considering the aggressive nature of Forsen’s Mage. Valeera is indeed pressured heavily but her two Gadgetzans live long enough to draw the combo for Reynad. Still, the win is not clear for Reynad as Forsen’s secrets pose a big puzzle he has to solve. Down to a single-digit hit points, the Tempo Storm player survives after Forsen doesn’t draw a lethal Fireball, plays around the Counterspell on the field, sets up a 10/10 Van Cleef and smashes the Swede down for the equalizer.

Game three ends up a standard Miracle vs control Warrior scenario where Garrosh is dropped down low and killed just before he casts Alexstrasza. This only sets the stage for the best match of the series, though, as Forsen brings out a Priest as his last deck.

The game turning moment is Turn 7. Reynad has a concealed Gadgetzan and a Farseer, while Forsen’s board consists of a single injured Sylvanas. A lucky Thoughtsteal gives the Swede an SI:7 Agent, or a way to kill his own Sylvanas and steal away the Auctioneer. This sets up a monstrous T8 for the Priest where he clears the board and re-fills his hand, allowing him to stabilize and live by the skin of his teeth as Reynad draws his Leeroy just a few turns too late.

As the game is tied at 2-2, the players enter a sluggish Priest versus Warrior control fest. Forsen gets into trouble on T7 as Reynad Faceless’s his Cairne and puts the Priest in a conundrum which looks unsolvable.

Eventually, Forsen does manage to clear the Cairnes but not before he’s Alexstrasza’d and hit twice in the face which puts him down to 7. The ex-Managrinder wipes Reynad’s board but decides to not heal himself. Although both Cruel Taskmasters have been used and a 12/8 Grommash is out of the question, there’s still the Grommash plus War Axe swing that kills him.

The series start with Rdu on a Handlock against Wuaschtsemme’s Miracle, a match-up considered in favor of Gul’dan. Several turns into the game, it does seem like Rdu would indeed take the lead as he establishes a monstrous board but Wuaschtsemme keeps a Gadgetzan alive and keeps drawing until he cycles through his whole deck. A Shadowstepped Leeroy comes to finish Rdu’s low life and the Romanian is forced to let Gul’dan go.

Game two is a Miracle mirror which almost puts Wuaschtsemme in the lead. The two Valeeras exchange jabs until their decks thin out. At the very end of his, the ex-Managrinder unleashes an array of spells and sets up a 20/20 Van Cleef, staring Rdu in the face for Lethal. It never gets to attack, though, as Rdu’s Leeroy comes swinging, leaving Wuaschtsemme at 1 hit point, which he loses due to fatigue in his draw step.

The series goes back to a Handlock vs Miracle but this time Wuaschtsemme makes sure the Warlock prevails. Rdu doesn’t stumble upon a Gadgetzan and ends up with an impotent hand that allows the Handlock to live till his Leeroy/PO finisher.

Down to his last deck, Rdu takes out his control Warrior but the series goes Wuaschtsemme’s way almost all the time. The Handlock manages to keep the upper hand in the board control game and slowly exhausts Rdu’s resources until the Romanian is down to cards which won’t make a difference.