Photo: Gfinity
Archon's champion persevered against the opposition of the open qualifier winners and ran away with the $4,000 first prize check of Gfinity Spring I.Â
After two days of Hearthstone at Gfinity Arena, James "Firebat" Kostesich was crowned champion. The world finalist came to London as the only American player and by the semi-finals was also the only invited player left in the tournament as everybody else had fallen victim to the advancement of the open qualifier underdogs.
Firebat's run started with a second place in Group B after losing to Trig Esports' headliner Jan "Faramir" Engelmann. The quarter final pairings put him against Group A surprise Stanislav "Anaro" Jirak, the Czech player who helped oust one of tournament's favorites Thijs "ThijsNL" Molendijk out of Gfinity. Despite Anaro taking the 2-1 lead in the series, Firebat's Frost Mage and Oil Rogue carried him to an eventual 3-2 win.
His semi-final match was somewhat easier, facing Vega Squadron's Ole "Naiman" Batyrbekov. The Hunter specialist who's also currently on the top of the European World Championship leaderboards managed to take just one game off of Firebat before his Warlock pick betrayed him to a 1-3 loss.
Eventually, Firebat was joined in the finals by Polish player Mateusz "Zozus" Matejko of Black Ravens. Zozus had made it to playoffs beating Amaz twice in the group stage and then drilled through Liquid's Neirea and Infused's Sottle in the quarter and semi finals respectively for the right to challenge Firebat for the trophy.
Just like Naiman, however, Zozus managed to take just one game from the eventual champion. Zozus lost two games on his Druid and two more on his Rogue towards the final score of 4-1 in favor of Firebat.
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