Hearthstone's First Wild Open Champion

Eight players made it through the online qualifiers for the Wild Open, but only one walked away a champion last weekend. The Hearthstone Wild Open’s first champion is Albert ‘Alb987’ Reano from Italy, a self-professed Wild specialist. One of two EU representatives in the Wild Open’s offline finals, Alb987 has reached Top 100 Legend in Wild every season since the mode existed...and now, all his hard work has finally paid off. Alb987’s first game in the Wild Open was against South Korea’s Young-Hun ‘Noriggoon’ Kim, a player whose favorite decks are OTK and Reno variants. Alb987 took the first two games swiftly before Noriggoon fought back with his Renolock deck. Noriggoon managed to earn himself a point in one of the longest matches in the Wild Open finals, but it was but a small hindrance in Alb987’s quest towards the grand finals. Semi-Finals The semi-finals featured a classic EU versus NA match with Alb987 playing against Canada’s Albert ‘MeknugetZz’ Bazinet, who, despite his interesting pseudonym, is vegan and does not actually eat chicken nuggets. MeknugetZz and Alb987 traded wins before the latter decisively took the series with his Token Druid deck. Grand Finals The Grand Finals were between Alb987 and Jesse ‘Control’ Chrysler. In the first match, Alb987 brought his Midrange Recruit Paladin deck against Control’s Aggro Token Druid deck. Control took the round with his favored matchup, finishing the game with a full board of Living Mana that Alb987 just could not come back against. In the next game, Control’s Aggro Priest deck started out strong, but couldn’t stand against the slew of poisonous Adaptations that came from Alb987’s Paladin deck. The second game of the series went to Alb987 courtesy of Lady Liadrin. Game three pitted Alb987’s Token Druid against Control’s Pirate Warrior. It was not a favorable matchup for Control, and despite his best efforts, Alb987 retained board control—destroying all the Ship’s Cannons he could see—and took the round. The final game of the tournament saw Alb987 drawing a huge hand for his own Pirate Warrior as he prepared to face off against Control’s Combo Priest. Alb987’s heavy opener dropped four damage from Ship’s Cannon right off the bat and set the tone for the rest of the match. Though the duo were fairly matched, Alb987 managed to back Control into a corner and earn himself the title of Hearthstone’s first Wild Open champion. Congratulations to Alb987! Wild Open Decklists Wild Open VODs Keep up with Hearthstone Esports on Facebook and Twitter!