DH Valencia: BLOG #2 – Promising Friday and sad Saturday

Friday

The second day in Valencia started a little better than the previous one due to improved organisation of the Hearthstone tournament. After the announced start which was supposed to be at 4 PM we were all aware that we have a couple of hours to spare. It was at the end confirmed because the second phase started to be played around 6 PM. So the powerful crew team did not disappoint us once again.

Nevertheless everything went quicker than on Thursday.  Pokrovac managed to get finally to the computer so he was able to put to use all the hours spent by training. He did very well in the first game where he managed to beat his Spanish rival  Guismo 3:1. This victory gave him the necessary confidence and so he could fearlessly settle on the main stage for his second match. There he sweated a little more when he at first lost to another Spanish player with the nick  Evangelion.

To play on the stage is quite significant disadvantage, especially when facing domestic rivals. It was confirmed by several well known players such as  Gaara,  Ek0p, or  Mirrari. The reasons are domestic commentators who, though unintentionally, affect the whole game by reporting all cards really loudly and reveal possible strategies. For Spaniards therefore is no problem to hear it and imagine different scenarios and play with them in mind.

Fortunately for us, Evangelion was listening to music and so the whole game was really fair. Pokrovac managed to turn the unfavourable situation into a final score 3:1. Playing with patron really pays off to him. This victory gave him quite guaranteed chance to advance to play-off. However, there was still one last opponent called  Cabrix.

Pokrovac didn’t hesitate even in the last round and beat Cabrix quite quickly 3:0. He clearly dominated his group with the total score 9:2 and could look forward to the Saturday’s TOP16 play-off.

Three Czech representatives managed to get among the best 16 players.  Swissking and  Standa Cífka played in the Saturday’s part together with our player. The only Czech player who failed was Mirrari. He lost one match on the stage and finished second is his group – which was not enough to advance.  
The Saturday’s play-off was planned as single elimination, which surprised many of us. Nevertheless, all three Czech players believed in themselves.

Saturday

Saturday started much earlier for all players than the previous two days – at 10 o’clock when the final top sixteen officially begun. Wonder of wonders, the delay was really minimal.
But the draw was not very generous to Pokrovac – it gave him as opponent in the first round the member of the Dignitas team  Blackout. Nevertheless, we all believed that it is humanely possible to defeat this well-known player. Mikuláš was fighting like a lion but in vain. With the score 2:2 everything was decided by the last match. And here the RNG was on the side of the British representative who therefore could celebrate his advance to a second round of play-off. It was a really sad loss for Pokrovac and he was recovering from it for a long time.
Standa Cífka also finished his attendance on this tournament in the first round. He fought Gaar from the TempoStorm team on stream and he didn’t manage to get even one point. So he said goodbye to the tournament with the score 0:3.

The only Czech player who got to the second round was Nikolas „swissking“ Kožlej who managed to beat the very popular Spanish player  meybee. He gave to this darling of the crowd three points in a row and could thus celebrate his advance further. Unfortunately even Nicolas’s luck was limited and he ran out of it in the second round against waesel. Swissking fought again very well but his opponent’s draw was really well timed and therefore he had an answer for everything. Swissking also with the score 0:3 said goodbye to this year’s DreamHack in Valencia.

The whole tournament was ultimately dominated by players from the Dignitas team – Blackout and GreenSheep. They met each other in the final round where GreenSheep was luckier.
Even though he didn’t win, Pokrovac tried the DreamHack atmosphere and gained valuable experience. He will be able to apply it in a few days in Helsinki or on this year’s LanCraft. Therefore let’s keep our fingers crossed for him.