The very first National Championship of 2021 got underway last Saturday, the first major tournament in the United Kingdom! This National Championship was hosted by Living Realms, a local game store in Castleford, England.
Living Realms is well known in the community for its friendly staff and welcoming environment. They previously turned their Skirmish event in June into a FAB Fest, with an Ira learn-to-play session to warm up, providing lunch before the event began, and dinner after the top cut.
For the National Championship, they partnered with the team at Tabletop 24 to provide livestream coverage of the event, stretching across all three days. Special guests on the livestream included local content creators Baz the Bard, and the team from Push the Point.
The National Championship was hosted at the Royal Armories Museum in Leeds, which is host to the UK's national collection of arms and armour. With over 4,500 objects on display across five galleries, weapons such as Winter's Wail or the Edge of Autumn wouldn't be amiss here.
After a season of Road to Nationals events, 86 players were qualified for the invitation-only National Championship, starting off with a Battle Hardened tournament to warm up their skills ahead of the big event. This 64-player tournament was streamed live as part of Living Realms' event coverage, and featured a diverse range of heroes. Lexi was the favourite of the day, with twelve players picking up the mantle of ranger for the battle to come.
Jason Hamer and Hamish Dean both went 5-0, their match in the final round ending in a draw between the two players. Sharif Shaaban, Dan Trip, Adam East, and Oliver Dutton all went 5-1.
When Saturday rolled around, players were ready to sink their teeth into the main event, preparing for a great day of games and fighting for their spot in the Top 24.
Players started with three rounds of Classic Constructed. The field was broad and varied, with almost all heroes taking up arms in an attempt to take the crown. Bravo sat atop the metagame as predicted thanks to his great matchups across the board, followed closely by undoubtedly the breakout deck of the weekend, Briar. With a lightning quick deck full of zero cost attack actions and enough non-attack actions to get a few Embodiment of Lightning tokens live, the Warden of Thorns set the tone for a spooktacular weekend. Katsu, Prism and Lexi rounded out the top five most played heroes of the weekend.
This was immediately followed by three rounds of Tales of Aria draft; things were relatively even between the three Elemental heroes with no single hero taking a significantly larger share of the field and a hero breakdown truly resembling a crossroad of elements.
This was immediately followed by a final three rounds of Classic Constructed, to finalise the Top 24 players who would prepare for Sunday morning's draft. The Top 24 featured a surprising array of heroes; not a single Prism was to be found among these decks, her 11% share of the metagame disappearing without a trace. Perhaps Briar and her rabble of ravenous red line cards had sent Prism back to the Library or maybe she was simply pre booked for Halloween. Speaking of spooky, one legendary Levia player made the top 24 cut and the cheers from the bellows of hell could be heard around the globe on such a fitting day for the Shadowborn Abomination.
Top 24 Hero Breakdown
| Hero | Number | Hero | Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boltyn | 1 | Katsu | 3 |
| Bravo | 5 | Levia | 1 |
| Briar | 7 | Lexi | 3 |
| Chane | 1 | Viserai | 1 |
| Dash | 2 |
Once the last Sunday draft morning and three matches with the new decks had concluded, we had our first Top 8 of the National Championship season! Our lone Levia player, Darren Hazelden, came just shy of making it into the Top 8 cut, taking a loss to Mike Kerslake in the final round before the cut.
The final Top 8 consisted of George Rodger with Bravo, Showstopper; Hamish Chisholm Brown with Viserai, Rune Blood; Simon Knowleden and Aaron Simon with Katsu, the Wanderer; and Sharif Shaaban, Matthew Foulkes, Aaron Boyhan, and Simon Denning playing Briar, Warden of Thorns.
Viewers were in for a treat as we saw fantastic matchups such as the delicate dance that is the Briar mirror, two servings of Katsu versus Briar in some certified thrillers and a brilliant Bravo versus Viserai.
The final four saw Matthew Foulkes take down Sharif Shaaban in the Elemental Runeblade mirror and George Rodger and Bravo stop the show and pick up the win over Simon Denning’s Briar.
The grand final of the United Kingdom National Championship saw Matthew Foulkes face off against George Rodger. It was aggro versus control. Briar versus Bravo. Aria versus...Aria.
Matthew was a thorn in the side of George from his first attack, never letting up or giving Bravo any breathing room. George kept his life total high and defended well, looking for that window to turn the tide and regain tempo, waiting for the Crippling Crush or Spinal Crush to arrive at the show. Despite a few slower turns from Matthew, the majestic Crush cards never came. George took Matthew down to 2 life but the constant pressure and lethal lightning assault from Briar proved too much in the end.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the first National Championship of 2021, and to the team at Living Realms, who worked hard to host an outstanding event.
This weekend, the National Championships get well underway, with events taking place across the United States, Germany, Spain, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, and Malaysia. Find out more about your nearest event here: