Posted in: eSports, Games, Video Games | Tagged: CD Projekt Red, gwent, Gwent Challenger, HRL, the witcher, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt

CD Projekt Red Crowns Freddybabes the Gwent Challenger Champion

Published Mon, 18 Dec 2017 16:05:57 -0600

by Madeline Ricchiuto

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CD Projekt Red, creators of The Witcher games, announced today that Frederick "Freddybabes" Bird has won the December 2017 Gwent Challenger tournament, which took place this weekend in Moszna castle, Poland.

CD Projekt Red Crowns Freddybabes the Gwent Challenger Champion — Credit// CD Projekt Red

Fighting for their share of the $100,000 prize pool were 8 of the best players of Gwent Masters — the official esports series of GWENT: The Witcher Card Game. The tournament's winner also claimed the December 2017 Gwent Challenger winner's ring and right to compete in the grand finale of Gwent Masters — the 2019 Gwent World Masters.

The venue for the tournament was the beautiful Moszna castle in Poland. For the duration of the tournament, the castle was transformed into a royal Nilfgaardian stronghold, populated by many fan-favorite characters from the world of The Witcher, including Emperor Emhyr var Emreis himself because CD Projekt Red know that Gwent is all about wish fulfillment.

Quarterfinal matches took place on Saturday, December 16th. Two of them ended in complete 3:0 shutouts, with Gwent's top Pro Ladder players Andrzej "Adzikov" Bal and Raffael "GameKingAT" Iciren eliminated from the tournament. Only Elias "Shaggy" Sagmeister and Magnus "J0rah" Botscher managed to take a single game off their opponent's quarterfinal track record.

Sunday's first semifinal match saw Gwent's Open finalist Damian "TailBot" Kaźmierczak go up against Wild Card player Benjamin "Kolemoen" Pfannstiel. The match ended with a close call 3:2 win for Pfannstiel. However, it was the second semifinal between November Gwent Open winner Frederick "Freddybabes" Bird and previous Gwent Challenger champion Adrian "Lifecoach" Koy that turned out to the real surprise, with Bird pulling off a 3:0 win.

That match was then followed by a fierce final showdown between Benjamin "Kolemoen" Pfannstiel and Frederick "Freddybabes" Bird. The winning play came from Bird, who defeated Pfannsiel 3:0 to take home the ring, as well as the title of the December 2017 Gwent Challenger winner.

The tournament's final standings are as follows:

Finalists