World Championships Grand Finals (16/17th June)

**Sisyphos** · 06-16-2012, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by kentuequi

I disagree, 3/4 hero in the top4 are human warrior. They are obviously OP.

If anything, blood frenzy is, but to be fair when that is taken down by severed ties all that remains is one of the weakest card pools. Teching focus for many players were majiya and zaladar though, i think, not warriors. Maybe moonstalker was seen by some as a good match-up vs warriors, but when faced with 4x retreat, crippling blow and priest of the light chances become less than so-so for them, too, if moon isn't much prepared for that build (by f.e. leaving out wrath of the forest in favor of shadow font which many moon players don't even run anymore 'cause it's useless vs mages and makes their decks overall less stable, i.e. more easily decided by match-up alone). Not prepared (enough) for warriors pretty much sums the wc finals up imo. Next tournaments i guarantee you there's gonna be many more decks with severed ties and/or santas in it, not to mention Lance

might cease to lay low, until warriors start to become less popular again, after they are going to see a rise now due to these results. They aren't OP, only spot-on calls for this tournament.

Anyway, i'm sure the semis and final are worth looking forward to (remember to needlessly use rippers to entertain us, Amber!).

**Raphael Majere** · 06-16-2012, 09:59 PM

Originally Posted by Sisyphos

Anyway, i'm sure the semis and final are worth looking forward to (remember to needlessly use rippers to entertain us, Amber!).

Zhanna

with BF, F**king OP!!!!

**Kehagi** · 06-16-2012, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by Sisyphos

If anything, blood frenzy is, but to be fair when that is taken down by severed ties all that remains is one of the weakest card pools. Teching focus for many players were majiya and zaladar though, i think, not warriors. Maybe moonstalker was seen by some as a good match-up vs warriors, but when faced with 4x retreat, crippling blow and priest of the light chances become less than so-so for them, too, if moon isn't much prepared for that build (by f.e. leaving out wrath of the forest in favor of shadow font which many moon players don't even run anymore 'cause it's useless vs mages and makes their decks overall less stable, i.e. more easily decided by match-up alone). Not prepared (enough) for warriors pretty much sums the wc finals up imo. Next tournaments i guarantee you there's gonna be many more decks with severed ties and/or santas in it, not to mention Lance

might cease to lay low, until warriors start to become less popular again, after they are going to see a rise now due to these results. They aren't OP, only spot-on calls for this tournament.

Anyway, i'm sure the semis and final are worth looking forward to (remember to needlessly use rippers to entertain us, Amber!).

Just adding to your very well put response.

The answer may be simpler than explaining stable decks or OP heroes. It simply comes down to this: Everyone entering the tourney chose their hero for a specific reason. I promise you that reasoning was not to run up against a bad mach up but to have a favorable match-up against anything you might expect.

Regardless if something is OP or not, they chose to put their deck together a certain way. Did you see any Baduruu

? I didn't. I think it would have been a more telling story if you saw over a third of the original field posting decks with the same hero. There were only two doubled characters in the final eight. I think thats impressive. there were a lot of very good matches.

**Atomzed** · 06-16-2012, 11:21 PM

Originally Posted by Sisyphos

Not prepared (enough) for warriors pretty much sums the wc finals up imo.

+1. I think in MTG parlance, the meta-decks lost, while the anti-meta (Zhanna

) and non-meta (warriors) got in. Warriors are non-meta because it was no longer popular in the meta, and no one teched against them.

So I echoed bayfighter's point that the DT is the winner here, having seen such a varied spread of heroes in the Grand finals! (and of course PFG helps

)

**Raphael Majere** · 06-17-2012, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by Atomzed

+1. I think in MTG parlance, the meta-decks lost, while the anti-meta (Zhanna

) and non-meta (warriors) got in. Warriors are non-meta because it was no longer popular in the meta, and no one teched against them.

So I echoed bayfighter's point that the DT is the winner here, having seen such a varied spread of heroes in the Grand finals! (and of course PFG helps

)

Excellent post by atomzed.

The choice of heroes and the decks were analyzed by me and ogausp later. Our main conclusion was that the heroes and the card choices were made not just to counter 1 deck type or MU but also did well against another popular deck type.

I'll cite my own portal maj deck as an example, I played it cos I expected a lot of lances. (which did not happen), but I was also well prepared vs anti Mage decks like bb, or the ogausp inspired 'swift' ms types with conscious card choices like acid jet.

Lastly, all the WC 32 guys played with well thought and unique decks. I saw 2 weapon types in rayzie's zal, chimera in barca's zal, hbm in sisyphos bb, BMs in wreon's ms.

In short, these great players were able to find great potential in cards in a 'tourney' meta which varies from tourneys to tourneys depending who's playing in them.

**kentuequi** · 06-17-2012, 01:25 AM

Originally Posted by kentuequi

I disagree, 3/4 hero in the top4 are human warrior. They are obviously OP.

I was kidding... :P

**danae** · 06-17-2012, 03:24 AM

Would be awesome if Iclipse wins this with Zhanna

and then we'll have two World Champions with using Priests.

**Mongoosey** · 06-17-2012, 07:02 AM

Really impressed by the varied heroes involved. I saw some great matches. All 32 really deserved to be there! Good luck to final 4.

**Atomzed** · 06-17-2012, 08:02 AM

Some stats of the Heros in Grand Finals.

- 10 heroes used (Gwen, Lance

, Eladwen

, Boris

, Amber

, Zhanna

, Zaladar, Majiya, Moonstalker, Banebow

)

- 8x Majiya

(Hatts, Greymouser, Larus, Ninjaducky, B0hater, Raphael Majere, Bluejet, Redpuma)
- 6x Zaladar

(Barcafan, vAct, Dai, Rayzie, Youanthe, FDL)
- 5x Moonstalker

(Bobwei, TJ Ace, BDK, Wreon, Farqtheorc)
- 3x Lance

(Nickey293, Dollmaster, RVD)
- 3x Banebow

(Sisyphos, Ogausp, Harahtke)
- 3x Amber

(Jacqui, Flycheung, KA Jeff)
- Zhanna

(Iclipse)
- Gwen (otto7)
- Boris

(Busti)
- Eladwen

(Finneri)

An important point to note is that there were only 1 Zhanna

and 1 Boris

in the whole Grand Finals, and they got into top 4.

I think the stats shows clearly that the first set of SE is really balanced, that even at the highest level of competition play, you can see so much variety of heroes.