Intro

To celebrate the release of Curse of Naxxramas, Video Games Voters Network (VGVN), along with Liquid Hearth and One Nation of Gamers (ONOG), are proud to kick things off this weekend with the first VGVN Naxxramas Release Tournament. The tournament will feature six top tier players invited from around the world along with the two finalists from last weekend’s Liquid Hearth Open #2.

Since the release of Curse of Naxxramas, Hearthstone has entered a new and exciting phase full of new deck ideas and crazy combinations. We have already seen the metagame shift drastically with the release of the Arachnid and Plague quarters and with the Military quarter being unlocked this week, the game will no doubt change once again. In this turbulent environment, all our players will need to not only out-play their opponents but also stay ahead of the pack with their understanding of the new cards and decks.

Also check out the Live Report Thread and Liquipedia.

Due to scheduling issues, Kolento will unfortunately be replaced by Rdu.

Group A	Group B
Liquid'Amaz	Managrind Forsen
Managrind Realz	Tempostorm Reynad
MYM.Rdu	Savjz
Root Xixo	Lucky

Schedule:

• Saturday, Aug 09 4:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): Group B
  
• Sunday, Aug 10 4:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): Group A
  
• Monday, Aug 11 9:55pm GMT (GMT+00:00): Semifinals/Finals

Watch it on the ONOG twitch channel

Match Order:

Group A (Sunday)				Group B (Saturday)
Rdu	VS	Xixo		Forsen	VS	Reynad
Amaz	VS	Realz		Lucky	VS	Savjz
Amaz	VS	Xixo		Forsen	VS	Lucky
Realz	VS	Rdu		Reynad	VS	Savjz
Amaz	VS	Rdu		Forsen	VS	Savjz
Realz	VS	Xixo		Lucky	VS	Reynad

The Format

The VGVN Naxxramas Release Tournament will feature two 4-player round-robin groups. During the group stage, each player will bring four decks of differing class with the class being revealed to his opponent prior to their match, allowing his opponent to veto one of the decks. Each player will face every other player in his group in a best-of-5 ‘winning deck stays’ format.

The top two players from each group will advance to the semi-finals. In the event of a tied score, players will be first separated by game differential followed by their head-to-head record. If there are still players tied, a best-of-1 tie-breaker round will be played.

The semi-final and finals will be a single elimination bracket with Group A’s winner facing Group B’s second place player and vice versa. Each match will be a best-of-7 with both players bringing an additional deck from a class they have not used yet. Each player will still be allowed to veto one deck from his opponent’s decks.

Player Introductions

Liquid`Amaz

The path to victory lies with buying Ragnaros a new sniper rifle!

Amaz rose to fame streaming and playing his beloved Priest class. Since then, he emerged from his acolyte training as a fully-fledged Priest master showing a string of strong performances recently winning IEM Shenzhen. Whilst he is known for his strong Priest play, Amaz has shown that he can play every other class just as well.

Notable Achievements	IEM Shenzhen 1st Place
	Numericable Millenium Cup 1st Place
	DreamHack Summer 2nd Place
	Dreamhack Bucharest 3rd/4th Place

MYM.Rdu

DND mode set, victory will now follow!

MeetYourMaker’s Rdu became popular following a strong run in Dreamhack Bucharest where he reached the semi-finals against a strong field of players in the Open Bracket tournament. While he was known as a strong player previously, Bucharest was where he began to paint his name as one of the best players in Europe. His results since have been extremely impressive with many top finishes and winning Dreamhack Summer.

Notable Achievements	Dreamhack Summer 1st Place
	Dreamhack Bucharest 3rd/4th Place
	WEC EU Qualifiers 1st Place
	IEM Shenzhen 3rd/4th Place

Managrind Forsen

How will Forsen BM his opponents this time?

Forsen is the other player from Managrind in this tournament and a popular streamer. He has proven that he is one of the strongest players in Europe with multiple high ranked finishes. Along with his team mate Realz, Forsen is still looking for his first big individual tournament victory. He is known for having extremely solid Miracle Rogue play and will be looking to demonstrate it in this tournament.

Notable Achievements	Deckwars Season 1 Finale Top 6
	EU Season 1 Final Rank #16
	EU Season 3 Final Rank #1
	US Season 3 Final Rank #2

Savjz

Hopefully Artosis didn’t curse Savjz this time. (http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Artosis_Curse )

Savjz is a well-respected and solid player from early on in the beta days of Hearthstone. Savjz boasts strong decision making and deck building skills essential to the current shifting metagame. He will be looking to utilize his skills to secure a strong victory here after a few disappointing results recently in the WEC qualifiers.

Notable Achievements	OGN Invitational 1st Place
	EU vs CN 2p.com Qualifier 1st Place
	PVP-Live Tavern Takeover #1 2nd Place
	Assembly Summer 1st Place

Interviews

With Xixo and Lucky the two to get through the LH Open #2 into the VGVN Naxxaramus tournament we had a few words with them.



Hey, xixo, can you introduce yourself to everyone?

Hey, I'm Xixo, mostly known for my legend climbs on the first of the month. I play for ROOT Gaming and invest most of my day's time into hearthstone.

How did you feel when you qualified for the VGVN Naxx tournament?

I was short 1 win in both Deck Wars and NESL's KOTH, so I kept telling myself I'll lose this anyway, even when I was already up 2-0 in semi finals. So breaking the curse felt really sweet.

What about emotionally and what the victory meant for you as a player?

I really struggle emotionally. Even after winning a weekly cup or some other match, if I lose 2 ladder games I end the day being depressed. So [one] day I end up with a 3-0 semi final and 3-1 final of a tournament with 256 man grid and around 30 seeded players,[it] feels really good and hopefully helps me breaking through!

Who gave you your hardest match throughout the tournament?

The quarter final against Isokaas. It was 1-1 and I already took fatigue damage. I had 2 minions out and needed both to survive to have lethal, but his Ragnaros was friendly enough to go for my face.

Compared to that, your semifinal match against the on-fire RDU was considered easy?

No. In the first game against RDU, we were both 1-2 damage off lethal for multiple turns. I think with my last life tap I had 2 outs [remaining] out of the last 6 cards, after not getting any of these for 3 turns. Got it with my last chance tho and managed to snowball the series from there.

Going into the the tournament with such a stacked lineup, what did you think your initial chances were?

I give myself a 60% win chance vs every other pro. In a 256 man grid where I already faced BMA in round 2, that would still leave me this a win chance of maybe 5%. So let's go with that.


The VGVN Naxx Release tournament is one of the first 8-man tournaments where anyone can qualify. What do you think about this concept and do you see more tournaments heading towards this trend in the future?

I am really scared of playing it. While my opponents just got invited and will probably just get invited to more tournaments after it anyway, there is a lot of the line for me as I only have one chance to prove myself and had to go through the hard way of getting my spot. Still, I really appreciate the chance the organizers gave me by making this an open qualifier. I hope open qualifiers will become the standard for all tournaments.

How do you plan to take into account the new Naxx cards that will be coming out today for the tournament?

While I don't see any play for Dancing Swords, all the other cards seem to be very hard to judge and require a lot of play testing. Using those will definitely be a huge risk, but might also reward you with the tournament win. Who knows?

You'll be facing your old teammate, Amaz in your group. Having been teammates, do you think you'll have insights as to what or how each other will play?
While I practiced the most with Amaz back in the day I don't think i have more insight on what he currently plays than anyone else. Still, he is a very public person so I definitely have my guesses. If he still knows what I am playing .. We'll see.

You're current on ROOT gaming, a team that's not necessarily as well known in the hearthstone scene. Since the news of the departure of Amaz, we haven't heard much from Root lately. Do you guys have any big hearthstone plans in the future?
I wouldn't say we aren't well known in the Hearthstone scene. With SjoW and EggY we have two of the most popular hearthstone streamers right now. ErA and I also currently work on getting our streams bigger. And yes, you can expect bigger things from ROOT in the future!

Let's wrap this up. Do you have any shoutouts or sponsor plugs to close off the interview?
Shoutout to my team ROOT Gaming, our Sponsors Ttesports, Twitch and V3 Gaming PC, my practice partners Freshca, Atlanta, Frezzar, and Ostkaka and last but not least ￥Ｓ－Ａ－Ｌ－Ｔ－Ｂ－Ｏ－Ｙ－Ｓ￥, including the awesome Monk!





Can you introduce yourself to everyone, your name, your card game background, and your hearthstone background?

My name is Javier Pascual, I'm from Spain. I played a lot of poker before. [Regarding] Hearthstone, I started to play the game around few months after beta was released.

How many other tournaments have you competed in and how do you usually do?

I have not played many tournaments yet because its hard for me to find the motivation.[I] can remember 4 or 5 Zotac cups [that I played in] just for light training where i didn't [finish] anywhere relevant as well as the Hearth2P EU vs CN qualifier, where I played as hard as I could but in the last round I lost vs Gaara and didn't get to next round.

What's your highest rank you've ever achieved?

At end of the season around #40, [the highest at] any time I remember #7 at best, but not completely sure :D

Do you have a team or any practice partners right now?

I haven't team right now nor good practice partners. It's something I'm looking for recently.

How did you get so good without practice partners?

I really like the game so i watch a lot of streams as well as practicing in ladder pretty hard. Anyway i still have so much to learn about the game.

In the Liquid Hearth Open #2, which big named players did you meet through the bracket and what was your toughest match?

I met Xixo in finals who i think was the best and toughest. Haibrara is also fairly good I think. The hardest match until finals could be vs bren06.

Currently, Zoo Warlock are the craze on ladder and Miracle Rogue is still extremely strong, why did you choose not to run those two decks and go with Hunter/Shaman/Druid instead?


Actually, I have very few cards on NA server so I couldn't play miracle. About zoo I just don't like the deck, its not my style.

The VGVN Naxx Release tournament is one of the first 8-man tournaments where anyone can qualify. What do you think about this concept and do you see more tournaments heading towards this trend in the future?

I really like this format. I think a mix between direct invitations and qualifier slots is fair and balanced. I don't know if it will become a trend in the future but i hope so!

How do you feel about your group in VGVN? You are going to be playing against Reynad, Forsen and Savjz. What do you think of each of them?

Savjz is one of my favorite players, I love his stream. Reynad and Forsen have also proven to be very skilled and they are among the best players, so no doubt the group is really strong.

How do you plan to take into account the new Naxx cards that will be coming out today for the tournament? Do you have any practice partners who you'll play with or is it just mental preparation and ladder?

This factor will be really hard for everyone because of the lack of time to prepare well, so yeah, mental preparation and just trying to enjoy the event.

Do you have any shoutouts to close off the interview?

Yeah, shoutouts to all who share their game knowledge in generous way, to all people which talk to me anything about Hearthstone and to my friends who always support me.

Giveaway

Throughout the tournament, viewers at home will have the chance to win a brand new PC courtesy of VGVN and Cyberpower PC. If you would like to enter the draw, please click the button below and register for your chance to win!