On July 9th, 2022 the best players in the Triad gathered at Out of the Box Gaming to fight it out in the colosseum. 40 players entered, but only one could emerge victorious!
The players started the event with six rounds of gladiatorial swiss combat. Each round becomes exponentially more challenging than the lather. Players fought it out not only in a battle to the proverbial death but also in a battle of wits. With each participant desperately trying to finish with a record of 4 wins to allow them an opportunity to move to the next step: Top Cut. Ultimately, striving to achieve the Road 2 Nationals invite awarded to the Top 4.
After six rounds of an emotional roller coaster, we arrived at our Top 8:
(Click on the Hero names below to check out their decklist)
1st - Aaron Grace: Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
2nd - Matt Winnings: Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
3rd - Zack Phillips: Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
4th - Andrew Epermanis: Viserai, Rune Blood
5th - Taylor Crawford: Briar, Warden of Thorns
6th - Joseph Marchant: Lexi, Livewire
7th - Alexander Benton: Fai, Rising Rebellion
8th - Chris Waugh: Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity
Honorable Mention:
Logan Vines: Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity
Throughout the evening, Logan Vines demonstrated unparallel mastery with his favorite hero Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his control, he was unable to complete his journey and was needed elsewhere.
Chris Waugh was passed the torch and started his epic underdog journey carving his legacy into the Oldhim slab of legends.
Taking the 8th seed into the Top Cut, Chris was paired with one of the best (if not the best) Prism player(s) on the East Coast. Chris was capable of proving Oldhim can in fact win 5% of the Prism matchups. The way it is done.....pure oppresion. After multiple Spinal Crush turns he was capable of moving into Channel Lake Frigid turns completely locking out Aaron Grace from playing. With this being said Aaron proved his mastery over Prism, keeping a game close that should have been a blowout.
During the Quarterfinals, we also saw Viserai (Andrew) tackle Briar (Taylor), Prism (Matt) hold off an onslaught against Fai (Alexander), and on the stream, we saw Lexi (Joesph) barely fall short against Dash (Zack).
Going into the Semifinals Chirs was placed onto the stream table into Dash (Zack). As we all know Dash is favored into Oldhim, but Chris still had his eyes on the crown. He didn’t back down and Dash, unfortunately, boosted away the majority of her items needed to close the game. As the game pushed further into the evening, Dash was unable to compete with Oldhim's consistent damage.
Off camera, we saw Viserai pair into Prism, and even though Matt demonstrated extreme finesse. He was unable to thwart the coming darkness from the runeblade, placing Viserai into the finals against Oldhim.
The final game.......well it is a nailbiter. We feel like it is better to watch it rather than read it, but I will confess....I love a great underdog story.
CYA at the next event.
Your Friendly Local Game Store,
Out of the Box Gaming
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