This article is part of our Hearthstone Recap series.
The first major tournament of the 2017 Hearthstone Championship Tour, the Hearthstone Winter Championship saw 16 of the greatest players in the world compete for the right to be named Winter World Champion over the course of the four day event. Bragging rights weren't the only thing on the line as the winner also walked away with a cool $60,000 and an invite to the Blizzcon World Championship, one of three invites dished out on Sunday. Aleksey "ShtanUdachi" Barsukov, representing Russia, emerged as the best player, edging out the American Frank "Fr0zen" Zhang for the championship.
ShtanUdachi gets the win
ShtanUdachi has been on the brink of winning tournaments in the past, namely the StarLadder StarSeries and DreamHack Summer, but was never been able to capture that elusive title. He came in as one of the favorites to win it all, but nothing was guaranteed in a field of 16 players of such high skill level. ShtanUdachi started the tournament absolutely on fire, breezing through his group, winning both games to advance into the final eight. One of his two group stage victories came over Fr0zen 4-1, a preview of the eventual championship match. It wasn't until ShtanUdachi's semifinal matchup with Sam "SamuelTsao" Tsao that he finally faced an elimination game. Even staring at a 3-1 deficit, ShtanUdachi put together quick and dominant plays to cap a historic comeback. In the championship match, ShtanUdachi kept the pressure on, always seeming to be a step ahead of his opponent. Normally a person who brings unique decks, ShtanUdachi switched up strategies and was rewarded handsomely for his efforts. His lineup consisted of Reno Warlock, Miracle Rogue, Pirate Warrior, Aggro Shaman and Reno Mage.
Congratulations to 🇷🇺@ShtanUdachi on being the #HCT Winter Champion!#HCTBahamas 🏆 pic.twitter.com/bnx1qXNNL7
— Hearthstone Esports (@HSesports) March 26, 2017
Stars crumble
ShtanUdachi's win wasn't the only bit of surprising news, as notable names in the competitive scene finished with underwhelming results. Take for example the current defending World Champion Pavel "Pavel" Beltukov. Pavel's attempts to repeat as World Champion certainly got off to a rocky start as he was knocked out in the group stages by newcomer Julien "DocPwn" Bachand from Canada. DocPwn, the oldest player in the field at 32, was one of the newcomers who benefited the most from the Winter Championship stage, earning respect from all reaches of the competitive Hearthstone scene. Additional to respect, he earned envy from other professionals as he claimed a spot at the World Championship by virtue of a final four finish.
Another big name to have a very disappointing showing was Chinese representative Zheng "OmegaZero" Lin. While not well known in America, OmegaZero is king of Hearthstone in China. For him to not even make it out of group stages was shocking, especially factoring that he lost to a newcomer in SamuelTsao in the process. SamuelTsao did not just stop after defeating OmegaZero though, as the little known player from Taiwan continued to surprise people en route to a top four finish, earning himself a spot at Blizzcon. Along with DocPwn, SamuelTsao had an absolutely huge tournament in terms of advancing his career as a professional Hearthstone player.
Battle for Top Region
Being one of the first global competitions of the 2017 season, the Winter Championships also acted as a comparison for the respective competitive regions. Each player wants to say their respective region is the strongest, but lately it has been difficult to argue against Europe as the strongest region, given they house the last two World Champions. However, it was the Americas region that came out on top in the Hearthstone Winter Championship, having a region-best 8-5 record through group stages as well as sending three representatives to the final eight. Europe came in second with a record of 7-5 through group stages, but ultimately did have the champion in ShtanUdachi.
