Zakarya “xBlyzes” Hail was officially declared the champion in this year's Hearthstone Masters Tour 2020 Arlington. This is the second time that the Masters Tour saw two French players in the finals, with xBlyzes winning 3-1 against Romaric “AyRoK” Dubois. The win gave xBlyzes the championship trophy and $32,500 in prize money.
This tournament is the first season of Hearthstone's 2020 Masters Tour series for GrandMasters 2020. It started on January 31 with 256 players going at it. After two days of intense matches, the number of players eventually dropped to eight. Along with xBlyzes and AyRoK, the other six players were Brian “bloodyface” Eason, Thomas “totosh” Vandekerckhove, Théo “Felkeine” Dumont, Brian “brimful” Schneider, Li "TIZS" Ching-Li, and Shih-Hsun "Alan870806" Chiang.
During the Playoffs, AyRoK took on totosh with the game going the distance and AyRoK moving forward 3-2. Up next was a fight against Felkeine, with AyRoK getting a Finals spot through a 3-1 win. Meanwhile, xBlyzes won 3-2 versus brimful and then 3-2 again against Alan870806.
The finals wasn't just an all-French one, as both players bought similar decks. The first match had xBlyzes on his Mage deck beating out AyRoK with his Warrior deck. This led to AyRoK using his Warrior deck and evened things out against xBlyzes. In the third match, xBlyzes continued to use his Warrior, and managed to win against AyRoK on Mage deck. This win boosted xBlyzes to take the lead 2-1.
In the fourth match, AyRoK made the decision to stay on his Mage deck with xBlyzes going for the Warlock deck. The excellent use of the Warlock deck allowed xBlyzes to eventually beat AyRoK and get the championship.
In a statement on the Hearthstone website, xBlyzes said that this was his goal, so he knew that he would be able to do it. During last year's season, he had placed 156th in Las Vegas, 182nd in Seoul, and finally 32nd in Bucharest. Because of this he wanted to do better for this year and "wanted at least make the Top 8.” xBlyzes said that to make his goal happen he needed to to practice closely with his fellow French competitors. He added by saying that “I believed I could achieve a good place by trusting my friends and teammates. They are all great and I had to be at their level.”
One such friend was Felkeine, who won last year's Masters Tour Seoul. While he did want to win another Masters, with four French players in the Playoffs, he added that he just wanted one of them to be the winner.
The next tournament of the season is the Masters Tour 2020 Indonesia, which is scheduled for March 20.
