The 14 best moments in competitive Hearthstone ever

Blizzard asked. You answered. We compiled, rated and wrote about them. We give you the 14 best moments that ever happened in competitive Hearthstone games, from the start of 2014 till now!

14. A game of fails

In September last year, Hearthstone prodigy Rdu met Kungen in the first round of the Deck Wars finals. The young MYM players was on a hot streak, winning several events in the summer of 2014 and was widely regarded as one of the best players in Hearthstone at the time.

This game didn’t show that, not even closely. For months to come, it would be remembered as the game with the most misplays per player per turn. It was as embarrassing as it was hilarious as the players missed lethals and obvious Ragnaros steals to produce one of the most chaotic and befuddling games of Hearthstone ever.



13. Ekop's Frostbolt

The problem with players like Ekop – infamous for their trash talk and in-game BM – is that you never know what to think of their plays.

Take his game against Pappastoma in Viagame’s HouseCup for example. Sitting on his Frost Mage, Ekop had enough burst to kill the Swede, though he himself was in the single digits, in danger of dying. Spells started raining when all of a sudden Ekop was hit by his own Frostbolt…

This was obviously a misclick – as Ekop exclaimed repeatedly in person – but it was still funny as hell. Those watching online actually thought that the master of BM had taken it one step further, unaware of Ekop’s frustration of himself. The funniest part – he actually went on to win the entire series.





12. Savjz's murloc comeback

In early 2014, murlocs were a thing and players actually brought them to televised tournaments. This was before the good days of zoo so if you wanted to play an aggressive Warlock, these pesky flappers were your only option, as silly as they were.

On the night of April 4th, however, they were Savjz’s best friends. Down 0-1 to Realz, the Finn had only his Murlock deck left but that was more than enough for him to make one of the greatest come-backs in early Hearthstone history.





11. Amaz's gigantic Priest draws

Once again, we have Realz on the receiving end of some serious Hearthstone beating. At DreamHack Summer, the now-retired player was playing Handlock against Amaz’s signature Priest, a match-up usually considered an auto-win for the Handlock.

Then, the Thoughtsteals happened.





10. Neirea's Backstab/Leeroy play

The consistently good Hearthstone players are such for a reason, and this Miracle Rogue versus Frost Mage match-up between Neirea and Hyped proves it. It’s one of those rare occurrences where killing your own minions is better than killing opponent’s.





9. Firebat gets crowned

To be fair, the world championship grand finals weren’t the best Hearthstone matches every played. It was a 3-0 Druid sweep and those were pretty common in the old “last hero standing” format.

In spite of that, we cannot take anything away from Firebat on that particular day. His exiting out of the booth, stepping into the rain of glitter pouring over him and lifting of the Blizzcon trophy were all very special. The first world champion was crowned. And we applauded as the first chapter of Hearthstone’s competitive history was now finished.

Here’s to many more to come.





8. ThijsNL vs Savjz at KFC Spring

Pros never give up. Pros never surrender. Pros come home with their shields or on them.

This must’ve been going through Thijs’ Druid head as he faced Savjz’s Mech Mage in their fifth game in KFC Spring. By T10, Thijs was reduced to 6 hit points, staring at Archmage Antonidas from Savjz and being fully aware there’s a Fireball in Finn’s hand. What follows are multiple nail-biting turns as Thijs dances with death on the verge of elimination.





7. StrifeCro vs Kolento at DreamHack Winter

When two giants of the game face each other in one of the most stacked tournaments ever hosted in Hearthstone, there’s bound to be a lot of hype. When one of those players brings a deck nobody has seen before and bets his grand final chances on it, though, things go absolutely insane.

What makes this game unique is that despite all the tension surrounding it and all the background storylines following StrifeCro and Kolento, the point of attention lay elsewhere: StrifeCro’s no-win-condition mage. Even today, watching the puzzled face of Kolento and listening to the confusion in casters’ voices as they try to figure out StrifeCro’s plan is priceless.





6. Forsen's comeback against Rdu at HouseCup

A Frost Mage with 2 hit points and no Ice Block in hand or in play is usually an easy victim. Unless you’re Forsen. Enjoying a sequence of insane top decks, Forsen manages to summon his last Ice Block out of his deck by killing his own Mad Scientist, winning him enough time to play Alexstrasza and thus checkmating Rdu’s Miracle Rogue, who had a measly Conceal and Shiv in hand.

And that wasn’t even the best part…





5. "The Artosis"

Nowadays, it’s a wide known fact that you cannot Execute your own minions. Unfortunately for Artosis, he was the one to find out about that the hard way. In a match against Monk, our dear Mr. Stemkoski was eager to wound and then kill his own Sylvanas Windrunner in order to steal the enemy Cairne Bloodhoof. An otherwise brilliant plan, hindered only by a treacherous card wording.

I have to give it to Artosis, though. His expression of genuine shock and embarrassment made for one of the most memorable and emblematic moments in Hearthstone and is certainly the fondest memory of all of ESGN.





4. Kitkatz's triple KT

I’ve followed ThijsNL since the start of his career and I’ve seen him battle all kinds of bizarre scenarios. But never like this one.

In an ESL Legendary Series game, Thijs was paired against Warrior expert Kitkatz and more particularly his Sneed's Old Shredder. Obviously, the Shredder is a cool minion as it replaces itself with a legendary minion which a lot of the times isn’t that fantastic but sometimes you happen to get Kel'Thuzad out of it. And then another. And then another.

Honestly, I don’t think that for all the overwhelming disbelief which took hostage of his facial expressions Thijs was really mad about this loss. I mean, that outcome has a 0,00041% chance, it can literally happen to anybody.

For the record, I also don’t believe those “Sorry that happened” emotes from Kitkatz were sincere.





3. Hungry, hungry crabs

Sorry, Artosis, but we have to talk about your Hearthstone misfortunes again.

Rewind back to the first major tournament in Hearthstone, SeatStory Cup I. Murlocs are still a thing and everyone hates them (people still do, even if they never see play). This "everyone" also included Trump, but what Trump realized and everyone else didn’t was that Murlocs, you see, have a hard counter.

I watched this game live in Take’s apartment and I can still hear the entire room laughing manically about the funniest top deck in Hearthstone history.



2. Reynad's Kill Command

In my “Fluff Awards” article in December, I praised Reynad’s Kill Command play at DreamHack Bucharest for being one of the best displays of puzzle solving I’ve ever seen in Hearthstone. Not one of the casters saw the play and they kept repeating how Reynad’s dead next turn.

Not that I could blame them – the solution to the puzzle was so well concealed that even after watching the footage dozens of times I still get amazed how Reynad found it before the rope burn-out.





1. The sandstorm

“Watch a Hearthstone pro-player experience his worst nightmare,” I wrote in January after I beheld the funniest thing to happen in a Hearthstone pro-mate ever. Period. With all the Hungry Crabs, triple Kel'Thuzads and whiffed Executes, nothing beats this hilarious turn of fate as Lifecoach – fondly nicknamed “Ropecoach” by the community – gets to play against a card that’s shit in every other situation but this one.

You can’t make this stuff up. Also - dudududu.





If my words made you fondly remember, follow me on Twitter @GGNydra.



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