After a weekend of tough
competition, the Hearthstone
Americas Winter Championship tournament is over, and a winner for the region
has been crowned: 15-year-old William "Amnesiac" Barton (pictured on
the right above), the youngest professional Hearthstone
player in the world.
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| © Provided by Polygon |
Amnesiac's path here wasn't easy.
He narrowly won his first best-of-five series against Talion on Friday, then
lost in a 3-0 sweep on Saturday against a dominant performance by Nostam. This
pushed Amnesiac into the lower bracket, where he had to face off against Talion
once more to kick off the final day of the tournament. He beat Talion again and
then took down AlSkyHigh for a spot in the grand finals.
Amnesiac's finals match was
versus Nostam, the same opponent who had defeated him on Saturday. Amnesiac
quickly took a two-game lead, winning with his druid and rogue decks. Nostam
clawed back a win with his own druid deck, but in a final match-up of
Amnesiac's control warrior versus Nostam's Reno warlock, Amnesiac proved
victorious and took first place in the tournament as a whole.
Amnesiac first became a name to
watch in the Hearthstone scene
last year when, at the age of 14, he managed a number one finish in the ranked
format for the game's August 2015 season. Players began turning to the young
competitor for thoughts on deckbuilding and the current state of the meta. Soon
after, Amnesiac was signed Team Archon, a Hearthstone-centric
esports team run by Jason "Amaz" Chan.
Amnesiac participated in the Hearthstone World Championship
North American qualifiers last year but failed to progress very far. By winning
the Hearthstone Americas Winter
Championship, Amnesiac has guaranteed himself one of 16 spots for the 2016 Hearthstone World Championship,
plus $25,000 from this tournament.
Interviewed following the final
match, Amnesiac described the feeling of winning as "unreal" and
"incredible." He thanked all the viewers for watching and supporting
him throughout the weekend. During the interview, he was flanked by his mother,
who accompanied him to the tournament and was interviewed as well during the
broadcast, gaining the tongue-in-cheek name "Momnesiac" by the
casters.
Hearthstone's winter tournament season isn't
done yet. The Europe Winter Championship will run from March 18 to 20, and the
Asia-Pacific Winter Championship will run from March 24 to 26. Similar
Championship events will be held in those three regions in Spring and Summer,
along with a Last Call Invitational in the fall. These will determine the
competitors who will meet up at the 2016 Hearthstone World
Championship at BlizzCon in November.
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