The world of esports has seen a decent bit of disruption in the last few months. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads through the world, driving much of the world to a bit of a standstill, the gaming community has suffered more than a few blows.
Nowhere is this felt more than in the world of conferences and esports. Entire leagues have been suspended while massive conferences have been moved online. Some events, like GDC 2020, have found a medium of moving online and preparing smaller in-person events for once the world starts turning again.
But esports, thankfully, can be a bit easier to move around. Such is the case with Hearthstone‘s Masters Tournament, which has had several of its events moved online. The original event was located in Indonesia but was relocated all the way to Los Angeles to help battle against the then-growing COVID-19 pandemic. As time went on, the organizers eventually moved the tournament to be completed online.
Warcraft icon Illidan is coming to @PlayHearthstone as a hero! Here's the behind the scenes story of how @Blizzard_Ent brought the Demon Hunter class to life. https://t.co/GXJF38eb9j
Thanks to @Blizzard_ANZ. pic.twitter.com/mX3X66v7Xt
— IGN (@IGN) March 20, 2020
Either way, online or not, the tournament continued as planned. The eight finalists were named at the end of the Swiss Rounds yesterday, with the following eight moving forward:
- Facundo “Nalguidan” Pruzzo, with a 9-0 record
- Thijs “Thijs” Molendijk, with an 8-1 record
- Zakarya “xBlyzes” Hail, with an 8-1 record
- Kevin “Casie” Eberlein, with an 8-1 record
- Xiaomeng “Liooon” Li, with an 8-1 record
- Luke “NoHandsGamer” Kooken, with an 8-1 record
- Poramet “Bankyugi” Putchakan, with a 7-2 record
- Wan “TNCAnswer” Maozhi, with a 7-2 record.
Of course, there can only be one champion. Not only did someone come to claim the crown, they added it to their growing trophy cabinet.
xBlyzes has claimed victory at the Master Tour Los Angeles, becoming the first champion to win more than one Masters Tour. After defeating TNCAnswer in a 3-2 matchup, xBlyzes has earned his spot in the upcoming second Grandmasters season. xBlyzes managed to take the victory with a reverse sweep using his Galakrond Rogue deck, having lost the first two matches before coming back and winning three in a row. The player is considered the master of the Rogue class in the Chinese scene, and it’s certainly worked well for him here.
Only two stops in the Masters Tour have been completed in 2020, and xBlyzes has now taken both of them. Having already secured his spot in Grandmasters Season 2, he may decide to sit out the rest of the tournaments.
Either way, there’s still plenty more tournaments to be had. Grandmasters Season 1 will be beginning on April 17th, but until then xBlyzes will just have to revel in his victory.
