My first Hearthstone tournament

Soe min alerted me to this tournament that went on at Bugis+ : basically there were 8 time slots where 12 people can sign up in each time slot, and your aim is to win as many games in a row against the AI opponents, in sequence (from Mage to Warlock, then move on to insane), within one hour. The highest streak of each time slot moves on to the playoffs. One caveat - you could only use the preset basic decks.



 

I went on Friday, and lost on my 6th game due to a stroke of bad luck. Soe min went for a time slot after me, and he won his slot with a streak of 12. He kept egging me to go again, but I was abit reluctant as it is quite dependent on luck. But after my basketball was cancelled, I went down to Bugis again on Sunday.

It was kind of a rush - I actually planned to go for the 4pm slot, but I decided to rush over to try to get into the 1.30 slot. Somehow, to my luck, there weren't that many participants, and so I managed to get into it despite arriving at 1.20pm (on Friday, the 3.30pm slot filled up by 3pm sharp, the moment they opened registration).

I was the second wave, so I had to wait for the first 6 participants of my slot to play first. I watched nervously as I hoped that the other participants lost (so that the highest streak to beat was lower). In the end, the highest in the first wave was 9.

The previous day I had actually tried out at home to see what I could hit in an hour, and I actually got 14 wins in an hour. So I knew I could beat the 10 win streak no problem.

So I went in, and played. and played. and played. And as the time ran out... I hit 12 wins.. and narrowly beat second place who had 11 wins! (I used Mage until Priest Normal, then used Priest against the Priest, Rogue, Pally, Warlock, then switched back to Mage against Expert AIs. I found this most optimal as I had difficulty beating Priest Normal with Mage when he drew well)

This meant I won $50 and qualified for the playoffs, together with Soe min. So we waited around for the playoffs to begin, and they randomly drew for matchups.. and me and soe min got drawn against each other >< We wanted to only face off in the finals but... oh well.

The games went in my favor due to a nice stroke of luck, and I took the series 2-0  (Mage > Priest; Mage > Mage). I won another $50 because of this! Then came the semifinals .. which I lost narrowly 2-1 :( (Mage > Priest; Mage < Mage; Mage < Mage) The last game was pretty tense and close, and everyone was watching it, and when the game ended, everyone actually applauded us. Wow. I would have felt on top of the world if I had won.  :(

Oh well, it was a fun event overall. I also got to go on stage to play a game (which I won easily, and won $5), hopefully the photos get uploaded by the organizers. I also won another $5 from answering a simple question (Name another Blizzard game). Overall loot - $110 :D