Day 2 of The Calling Cincinnati kicked off bright and early Sunday morning with the top 32 players in the event sitting down to do the last draft before top 8. Across the four pods we saw a reasonably even spread of hero choices between the three, with 9 players on Lexi, 11 on Oldhim and 12 on Briar. Whispers of a more balanced representation of the three heroes in draft (as opposed to sealed where the vast majority chose Briar) came true and the numbers looked like this across the 4 draft pods.
- Pod One: 3 Lexi, 3 Oldhim, 2 Briar
- Pod Two: 3 Lexi, 3 Oldhim, 2 Briar
- Pod Three: 2 Lexi, 2 Oldhim, 4 Briar
- Pod Four: 1 Lexi, 3 Oldhim, 4 Briar
After three final rounds of Swiss we had arrived at our top 8!
Chris Ray (Lexi), Tariq Patel (Briar), Michael Feng (Oldhim), Matt Rogers (Briar), Michael Hamilton (Briar), Andrew Yauger (Briar), Rylie Groff (Oldhim) and Eric Dauernheim (Lexi) rose to the top of the field after two days or hard fought battles. Eric made his second Top 8 in as many weeks and scratched and clawed his way to the draft rounds, but once there, smashed it with a 5-1 record. Rylie ripped through the field after a Round 1 loss then went 7-0 in sealed before running the tables with Lexi in draft rounds. Chris travelled with his friend Briar and played as Briar all throughout sealed and draft! Tariq finished in 9th place at The Calling Dallas Fort-Worth last weekend, this weekend he finished in 1st after Swiss rounds and "is coming for Matt's #1 spot!" Michael Feng is the owner of new Local Game Store Magnolia and "loves big rocks", as proven by his two 3-0 Oldhim drafts. Michael Hamilton is a game designer from Avon, Indiana and Andrew has finally achieved that Calling Top 8 after a year of dedication and fine tuning his Flesh and Blood craft!
For the Top 8 draft, viewers got to follow along with each and every draft pick of The Calling Auckland 2021 Champion, 3rd seed Matt Rogers. His testing partner from the last week, tournament 1st seed, Tariq Patel was drafting in the seat next to Matt which made for a very intriguing draft to follow along as Tariq was himself also drafting the Elemental Runeblade. In the Top 32 draft Tariq displayed his skill with the Runeblade majestic rare Sting of Sorcery. Matt picked one up in pack two and hoped to see similar success with it.
The finals of The Calling Cincinnati saw the top two seeds face off! We saw a very tight back and forth game by two of Flesh and Blood's finest in Tariq Patel and Michael Feng but in the end, Michael's love for big rocks manifested in the rock-solid strategy of pump, Thump and clobber and we saw a gigantic red Glacial Footsteps smash Michael's name into the history books and see him become The Calling Cincinnati 2021 Champion!
The main event was frozen in time and had all wrapped up, however the action in Cinci had not!
139 players signed up for the Classic Constructed ProQuest event in hopes of picking up a Pro Tour Invitation and a Gold Cold Foil Arcanite Skullcap for the winner!
After six rounds of 50 minute massacres, we had a very diverse, exciting and innovative Top 8! The metagame breakdown truly shows how broad the range of heroes players chose to bring was!
- Lexi, Livewire: 14
- Dorinthea Ironsong: 6
- Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire: 14
- Bravo, Showstopper: 21
- Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light: 14
- Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity: 6
- Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn: 5
- Levia, Shadowborn Abomination: 6
- Chane, Bound by Shadow: 5
- Briar, Warden of Thorns: 12
- Katsu, the Wanderer: 13
- Rhinar, Reckless Rampage: 7
- Viserai, Runeblood: 2
- Kano, Dracai of Aether: 2
Our Top 8 players and their chosen heroes were Stewart McGirt - Bravo, Brendan Patrick - Briar, Alex Keeler - Chane, Mathew Frye - Prism, Christopher Higashi - Briar, Stephen Pierce - Lexi , Luke Hackbarth - Katsu and Jason Watkins - Prism.
At the end of six Swiss round and the Top 8, Stewart McGirt was the star of the show going a cool 9-0 with his Bravo, Showstopper deck picking up a PTI and the beautiful Cold Gold Skullcap!
LSS would like to give a colossal thank you to everyone involved who made this event happen! From ChannelFireball to the vendors, the LGS, the content creators, the casters and everyone in between, but most importantly, you the fans! None of this would be possible without you and your passion for Flesh and Blood.
