ESL, one of the top e-sports gaming networks, concluded their second Hearthstone Legendary Series today. Phonetap won the championship and $10,000, by beating Reynad after a 3 day tournament.
Phonetap is a lesser known player (I’d never heard of him before this this tournament) but his Hearthstone skills have placed him up with some of the best. Reynad is very well known and after beating Lifecoach in their quarterfinal match was probably one of the favorites to claim the championship. Phonetap also beat out Silentstorm, the returning champion from ESL Legendary Series Season 1 to secure his spot in the quarterfinals.
The tournament was run with a best of 5 conquest format. Each player brought 3 decks and, to secure the series, had to win with all 3 decks. Unlike the Viagame House Cup recently, the conquest format means that when a player wins with a deck, that deck is locked out. Any of the remaining decks can be chosen with a blind pick (meaning the opponent doesn’t know your deck until the start of the match). In the finals series, Phonetap beat Reynad 3-1, getting him the $10,000 first prize and 100 World Championship points.
With only 3 decks to chose from, most people were bringing warrior, hunter and warlock. This makes Phonetap’s deck choices a bit unorthodox. He brought a midrange hunter deck, but that was his only “standard” choice. His other two decks were mech shaman and druid.
ESL’s Hearthstone website can be found here. The VOD’s from Friday and Saturday’s matches are up on Youtube and hopefully the finals matches will be up soon, as I’m sure they are worth watching.
