Hearthstone Championship Tour America Summer Playoffs happened this weekend. The tournament began with 72 players, top 64 with most points and 8 tavern heroes. In a conquest best of 5 format, the competition started with swiss group stage, the top 8 then moved on to a bracket single elimination best of 5.

Many famous players took part of the tournament, Muzzy, Zalae, Cydonia and Amnesiac to name a few.However, the top 8 was filled with lesser known names as DPacman (a tavern hero), Empanizado, Ike, Nalguidan and YAYtears.

Empanizado in particular seemed to be having the tournament of his life until he met PurpleDrank in the semi-finals, ending his hopes for the title. Still, he and all other semifinalist qualified to compete in the upcoming Summer Championship Global Finals.

The tournament ended up crowning PurpleDrank, a Canadian pro, as its champion. PurpleDrank won every single best of 5 in this tournament, going 10-0. Using his particular spin into the well known decks of Karazus Priest, Jade Druid, Handlock and Murloc Paladin. You can find his decklist with all its cards here. His decks proven to be very well crafted for this tournament and his daring playstyle suited them, often leaving his opponents stunned.

His Murloc Paladin ran without a boardclear, so he was going all in for it early winning it early, often succeeding at that in a great fashion. This deck seemed well suited for beating Pirate Warriors and other aggro decks. It was go big or go home for Purple’s paladin and it went big.

Despite all the surprises and beauty, the competition has shown some serious problems in Hearthstone online tourneys. The players were often disconnected from their matches and many remakes had to be done, changing the expected results of matches and possibly the results of the tournament itself. As a viewer, it was certainly frustrating to watch, I can’t even imagine how frustrating it was for the competitors.

The whole situation with disconnects has angered the community and brought up questions about the single-elimination format, as well as the lack of a tournament client. Two professional in the top 8, Luker and Amnesiac, voiced their concerns about this, you can check out their posts below.

Luker post on reddit

Amnesiac thoughts on reddit

The meta has shown up big in this tournament. Almost every player brought Jade Druid, 69 to be exact and Karazus Priest (58). Murloc Paladin (34) and Pirate Warrior (28) were also very popular archtypes. However, it’s important to point out that Midrange Hunter, whilst not being a very popular choice (only 4 players brought this deck), they performed surprisingly well, 2 of them making it into the top 4 and Nalguidan making it all the way to the finals.

The next step for 2017 Hearthstone Championship Summer is the Global Finals that will take place in Los Angeles, from October 13th until October 15th.

Until next time 😉

PurpleDrank Decklist for HCT Summer Playoffs