Posted in: Blizzard, eSports, Games, Hearthstone, Video Games | Tagged: Blizzard Entertainment, eSports, Hearthstone, Hearthstone Masters Tour Ironforge, Huang “KZGXiaobai” Dehui

Huang "KZGXiaobai" Dehui Wins Hearthstone Masters Tour Ironforge

Published Sun, 14 Mar 2021 23:40:09 -0500

by Gavin Sheehan

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This evening, the Hearthstone Masters Tour Ironforge came to a close and crowned Huang "KZGXiaobai" Dehui as 2021's first champ. The weekend saw a lot of competition with some unexpected names coming to the forefront of the brackets out of the 389 competitors, including a couple who were seeing the goal for the first time and a tase of the prize pool. The competition ended when Xiaobai swept his fellow finalist, Michaël "Maverick" Looze, in a 3-0 victory. Here are some details on the final round from Blizzard themselves.

The main logo for Hearthstone Masters Tour Ironforge, courtesy of Blizzard.

After going 8-1 in Swiss Rounds, Xiaobai secured his spot in the Top 8 after defeating Hearthstone Grandmaster Wesley "lambyseries" Seek, 3-2, in their match. This momentum carried him into the final day with a 3-2 quarterfinal win over Kenta "Okasinnsuke" Sekiguchi. He then went on to best Marco "Turna" Castiglioni 3-1, in the semifinal. Xiaobai's Zoo Warlock, Whirlkick Rogue, and Libram Paladin decks made short work of Maverick, despite the Belgium player's seemingly smooth fight to reach the final match. In a stunning show of mastery, Xiaobai utilized his flexible lineup to quickly secure the championship, despite predictions from both Darroch "Darroch" Brown and Jia "Jia" Dee that the match would go the full five rounds.

The end result of tonight's tournament gives Xiaobai a top-tier victory along with the Masters Tour trophy and $25k in prizing to add to his pocket. For those of you looking to check out all of the matches, including the finals, you can do so on YouTube. Now that this tournament is over, Blizzard will now look toward the first season of Grandmasters, which will begin competition on April 9th. As for the Masters Tour itself, it will hold its next event next month as well, as the Orgrimmar event will run from April 30th through May 2nd.

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