Wataru “Posesi” Ishibashi edged Sato “glory” Kenta 3-2 in an all-Japanese grand final to win the Hearthstone World Championship on Sunday.
Posesi earned $200,000 as the champion, while glory took home $100,000 as the runner-up.
France’s Gabriel “Gaby” Jeanne, who lost 3-2 to glory earlier Sunday in the semifinals, and the United States’ Kyle “McBanterFace” Spigelman, who fell 3-2 to Posesi in the other semifinal, each made $50,000.
In the title match, on the new “Fractured in Alterac Valley” meta, Posesi’s Rogue beat glory’s Druid and then Posesi’s Druid defeated glory’s Demon Hunter for a 2-0 lead. glory rallied for two wins with Druid and Hunter prevailing over Demon Hunter each time. In the decisive battle, Posesi’s Demon Hunter topped glory’s Demon Hunter.
Posesi said after the win, “I’m very happy, because I am finally the champion. Once it hit and we went 2-2, I was like, ‘It really happened, oh my god am I going to lose here?’ I have to give a shout-out to the entire Japanese community!”
The Hearthstone World Championship began Saturday with eight players divided into two double-elimination groups. Posesi and glory topped their groups with 2-0 records while Gaby and McBanterFace placed second in their groups at 2-1 to reach the semifinals.
Argentina’s Facundo “Nalguidan” Pruzzo and China’s Huang “Xiaobai” Dehui tied for fifth, while China’s Zhu “Tianming” Xinyu and Spain’s David “Frenetic” Neila Quinones tied for seventh. All four of those players received $25,000.
–Field Level Media
