It was about $250,000 at the ATLC, the largest Hearthstone tournament to date. Exciting games and RNG frustration went hand in hand …
More viewers than at BlizzCon
Last weekend, the final rounds of the Archon Team League Championships took place, a Hearthstone tournament with a total of $250,000 at stake. Last Sunday, over 120,000 fans watched the streams, making the ATLC the most-watched Hearthstone tournament ever – even ahead of the finals at the last BlizzCon. Although the last matches were somewhat monotonous, there were still a number of exciting games that were decided by individual mistakes or the great improbability of chance. If you want to see all the games, just watch the following videos in full, otherwise, we’ve taken some highlight matches from pcgamer and fast-forwarded them.
If the Patron Warrior runs out of steam …
One of the most exciting matches was definitely the duel between StrifeCro (Cloud 9) and Dog (Value Town). Every player has developed a personal hatred against Patron Warrior, but this game shows how such a matchup can become a nail-biter:
Secret Paladin of a different kind…
With The Grand Tournament, some new decks appeared, such as the Secret Paladin. It is already quite annoying on its own, but in a duel against a Druid, it can get pretty exciting. The encounter between Hyped (Tempo Storm) and RDU (Nihilum) is spiced up by a Young Dragonhawk Cho, who pulls a lot of spells. But see for yourself how the game takes an amusing turn when the panda pops out of the shredder:
Overall, the ATLC games were very entertaining and created many moments that Blizzard had hoped for: Crazy plays with a lot of randomness that players will remember for a long time.
