“And then at one of the worst possible moments, I denied a friend a Worlds spot. So it’s a bit bittersweet.”
Tom "PocketTrain" Swinton won the 2023 Hearthstone Masters Tour Fall Championship! Between Oct. 28 and Oct. 29, Hearthstone players dueled for the crown and the bulk of the $50,000 USD prize pool. A direct invitation to the 2023 Hearthstone World Championship was also on the line. Read on for PocketTrain's winning deck lineup and his thoughts on the tournament.
Masters Tour Fall Championship 2023 decks
PocketTrain's winning lineup featured Rainbow Mage, Control Warrior, Nature Shaman, and Mech Rogue decks. Prior to the tournament, he posted this list on social media.
Throughout the weekend, PocketTrain duked it out against players such as Shuhei "Tansoku" Omura, balance, and Franjo "reqvam" Blažević before battling Kyle "McBanterFace" Spigelman in the finals.
Day 1 of the event took place on Oct. 28, where 16 players in total fought under the best-of-five conquest format. This involved bringing four decks into the tournament and banning one of them from an opponent. Eight players then earned spots in Day 2 and dueled under a single-elimination bracket.
Soon, only four Hearthstone players remained to battle for a place in the finals. While PocketTrain achieved victory over hemlock, McBanterFace won against balance.
When it came down to PocketTrain versus McBanterFace, the players first traded wins before PocketTrain had a 2-1 lead. Although McBanterFace used Primordial Wave to stop the bleeding in the fourth game, it was to no avail.
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PocketTrain wins Hearthstone Masters Tour Fall Championship 2023
With a score of 3-1, PocketTrain won Hearthstone Masters Tour Fall Championship 2023. However, the victory was bittersweet for him. In the post-match interview, he revealed the reason for this.
"Gotta me honest, man. That's the worst way to do it," PocketTrain said. "I'm very confident I was gonna have enough points to make Worlds anyway. I really don't want to have to grind ladder for the last month. I felt really bad beating Banter out of all people. I was hoping he'd make it."
PocketTrain then recalled feeling stressed in the previous Masters Tour because he knew that was a ticket into Hearthstone World Championship 2023.
"I've done the hard part," he continued. "And then at one of the worst possible moments, I denied a friend a Worlds spot. So it's a bit bittersweet, but I'm happy that it's finally over."
According to Blizzard, Hearthstone World Championship 2023 will take place between Dec. 16 and Dec. 17.
That's all for now. Stick around on esports.gg for more news and updates.
