Battle Hardened Bologna saw another record setting attendance, 160 players turning out to the largest Italian Flesh and Blood event to date. 2 more coveted PTIs were awarded to the winners of Saturday's main event and Sunday's PTI qualifier, giving those players the chance to compete at the Pro Tour Baltimore.
Relive the action on the Flesh and Blood Italia YouTube Channel here!
Romain Nicolas from L'Oeil d'Ophidia who helped stream the event, brings you the run down of how the weekend went below!
Flesh and Blood players can't get enough! It seems like there is a sold-out/record-breaking event every other weekend in Europe. And the reason why it seems that way is simple: that’s what happened! Only two weeks after a 226-player Battle Hardened in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, some of the very best players of the European continent gathered in sunny Bologna for another huge tournament. 160 players battled it out in what is the biggest Flesh and Blood tournament ever in Italy. BAM, another record crushed! With a very diverse metagame (every single hero was represented), all eyes were on the event thanks to the efforts of Flesh and Blood Italia's Pietro, aka Arc, and Romain from L'Oeil d'Ophidia, who were in the commentary booth - to determine if the Ice Domination would come to an end.
After being abandoned for a long time while Fai was the deck of choice of aggro players, Briar came back strong as ever as the most represented hero at the event, tied with Iyslander and Dash, with 21 players picking the Elemental Runeblade. Next were the Draconic heroes: Dromai and Fai, picked by a little under 12% of the competitors, including Pro Tour #1 winner Pablo Pintor, who chose to believe in Fai despite the Belittle ban. The biggest surprise was probably the relative disappearance of Oldhim among the heroes chosen, picked only by 6.8% of our players.
Maybe it was a mistake to think that the Old Man couldn't reach the top after being hit hard by the Winter's Wail ban, because at the end of the eight Swiss rounds, only one player was undefeated: Fedir Kokhan, from Switzerland. Kokhan alone at the top showed that the Oldhim was far from done.
Long Dao from Austria (Lexi), Daniel Correas from Spain (Iyslander), Yegor Borshch from Ukraine (Iyslander), Alex Chitu from the UK (Viserai), Luka Kramaric from Croatia (Bravo), Rafaelo Sarmiento from Austria (Dromai) and Alberto Di Blasi from Italy (Fai) completed the Top 8. After a very long and exhausting game against Alex Chitu's novel Viserai deck (which packed Deathly Duets and Pummels!), Kokhan managed to reach the finals, only to be defeated by Luka Kramaric's Bravo after another very intense game. Kramaric admitted later during an interview that he wasn't really a Bravo player but that he decided to try the game after opening a Grandeur of Valahai with his brother in a booster pack!
Top 8
1st: : Luka Kramaric - Bravo, Showstopper
2nd: Fedir Kokhan - Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity
3rd-4th: Alex Chitu - Viserai, Rune Blood
3rd-4th: Long Dao - Lexi, Livewire
5th-8th: Daniel Correas - Iyslander, Stormbind
5th-8th: Yegor Borshch - Iyslander, Stormbind
5th-8th: Alberto Di Blasi - Fai, Rising Rebellion
5th-8th: Rafaelo Sarmiento - Dromai, Ash Artist
The week-end was completed with a PTI Tournament on the following day, which saw Pablo Pintor reach the finals with his Fai deck against Julian Felix Flury, a Swiss player who channeled the power of the icy peaks of his home country to bury one of the most accomplished players in the history of Flesh and Blood under an avalanche of Frostbite tokens and disruption from Channel Lake Frigids and a very gutsy Insidious Chill. Another very tense game, and a well-deserved victory for Flury.
Written by Romain Nicolas