Posted in: eSports, Games, Video Games | Tagged: blizzard, eSports, Hearthstone

Hearthstone 2018 HCT Summer Championship Results: Day Two – Quarterfinals

After yesterday's long run of games where most of them went the distance, we get to the Quarterfinals of the Hearthstone 2018 HCT Summer Championship. Today is the best of the best who have made it this far with four from the European set of players making it this far. Here's how the day played out!

Quarterfinal Match One: XiaoT vs. A83650. Winner: A83650 (3-0)

The first match showed both players essentially feeling each other out, but A8 managed to take the first win fairly quickly to go up 1-0. The second match dragged out as XiaoT put up a hard defense, but it wasn't enough to withstand as A8 crushed him at the end for a 2-0 lead. The last match forced XiaoT to play much more aggressively, but in the end, it just wasn't enough as A83650 crushed it and took the sweep over the last Chinese player in the tournament. It was also one of the slowest sweep matches we've ever seen in Hearthstone tournament play at almost 80 minutes of play.

Quarterfinal Match Two: Jinsoo vs. killinallday. Winner: killinallday (3-0)

The second game started strong as Jinsoo looked like he was on the verge of taking the match quickly, but then got stalled and gave way for killin to come through and take the first match 1-0. Jinsoo fired back and looked like he was going to take the second match, but it eventually became a close and intense nail-biting encounter with killin edging out a victory at the end to go up 2-0. The third match wasn't even a strong matchup as killin scored some early hits and made it pretty much impossible for Jinsoo to make a comeback, becoming the second person of the day to take a 3-0 sweep.

Quarterfinal Match Three: Nalguidan vs. Viper. Winner: Viper (3-2)

This Hearthstone battle started off really uneventful as they slowly trudged their way to Viper taking the 1-0 lead at the start. Nalguidan decided he wasn't going to take that lying down and slowly wore Viper down in the second match to break the sweep streak and even it out at 1-1. The third match felt like an absolute grind for both as each man made mistakes and missteps in their attacks that cost them dearly and left them at a stalemate at periods in the match. It was just a bad match that led to a concession from Viper, giving Nalguidan the 2-1 lead.

The last match must have had a much more emotional toll than we suspected. After seeing Nalguidan rage for a moment, he went into the next match frustrated at some level, and it clearly bled into his game as he made some crucial mistakes that opened the door for Viper to take the fourth bout and tie it up 2-2. It was downhill from there as Nalguidan was clearly frustrated moving into the last match, combined with bad RNG from the cards and the last match was a travesty. Viper built himself up and ended up walking over Nalguidan until he practically rage quit and packed up, not even clicking to concede, but shutting down the game client instead and leaving the arena.

We also enjoyed this lovely Reddit comment on the entire affair that we didn't want to just quote — we needed to share its glory. Great job, Wraithfighter.

Quarterfinal Match Four: BunnyHopper vs. Turna. Winner: Bunnyhoppor (3-2)

The first game started out strong with Turna making quick work of Bunnyhoppor's defense. After feeling each other out, the second game saw both players dragging out the pacing and trying to determine the best combinations to roll out with. But ultimately the game became a grueling, dragged-out fight that ended in Turna conceding and giving BH the 1-1 tie. After dealing with that mess, both men got their act in gear and went forward with some give-and-take combat, ending in Turna taking the 2-1 lead.

The fourth game was, as best I can describe it, a slow march to dying in your sleep as a player. The feeling in the arena was one of perplexion as both men dragged the match out to the wire and made it one of the least exciting battles of the entire bracket, eventually ending in Bunnyhoppor coming back to tie it up 2-2. Which led to the first on-air bathroom break for two players in the entire tournament. The last game became their longest of the set, both men throwing what they could at each other until finally BunnyHopper slammed Turna with everything he could and took the last match 3-2.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!