The dust has finally settled in the Deathmatch Arena, and as the crowds stumble merrily back to their homes, each of them shares the same feeling:
Best. Weekend. Ever.
Thank you to everyone who joined us in the mountain-laced beauty that is Queenstown, Aotearoa for the heart-thumping, blood-spilling, gold-wagering frenzy of the first Calling of 2024! From the intense battle between our esteemed Celebrational guests, to the highly anticipated World Premiere of Heavy Hitters (which many are claiming to be the BEST limited Flesh and Blood set of all time), to the roaring highs and crushing lows of the Calling, to the chaotic rumble of the Team Battle Hardened, an extraordinary cosplay performance, thrilling side events, a masterclass live stream, and much more - this was truly an unforgettable experience!
Celebrational
To celebrate our awesome community and Flesh and Blood going strong into its fifth year, we flew out a dream team of pro players, content creators, and community superstars to New Zealand for a jampacked weekend of jetboating, bungee jumping, tours of the LSS office, and a unique tournament featuring whacky formats and the ultimate prize - to craft their very own card.
Across Underdog Blitz, Heavy Hitters Blitz Preconstructed, Heavy Hitters Solo Constructed, and Living Legend, our heroes persevered. Living Legend in particular showcased some fantastic games. After Starvo dominated the Battle Hardened at World Championship: Barcelona it's clear the tables have turned. The star of the Everfest carnival remains a significant threat in the format, but the waiting wings have now opened up for new leading roles. With so many powerful tools and a wide arsenal of deckbuilding options, Living Legend has been cracked wide open, with many viable strategies that have players cooking up all kinds of nonsense.
You can check out what Living Legends the Celebrational guests brought to the table here:
Brodie Spurlock - Lexi, Livewire
Kelvin Law - Bravo, Star of the Show
Carolina Alvarado - Bravo, Star of the Show
Melody Wehipeihana - Fai, Rising Rebellion
Elliot Tan - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
Mara Faris - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
Yui Tokiwa - Fai, Rising Rebellion
Saint Hung - Bravo, Star of the Show
Viet Pham - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
Sascha Krüger - Bravo, Star of the Show
Stephen Cookus - Kano, Dracai of Aether
Andrew Heintz - Briar, Warden of Thorns
Aurélie Violette - Briar, Warden of Thorns
LSS - Chane, Bound by Shadow
More decklists from the Celebrational can be found in the Decklists section of our website.
After a nail-biting best of three finals against Kelvin Law, the prodigal son Brodie Spurlock took home the gold, glory, and the right to be called the first ever Celebrational Champion! His design, Silent Auction, will be developed into a final card to be released in a future product. You can read our interview with Brodie HERE.
Heavy Hitters World Premiere
With the bloodthirsty crowd hyped and ready to rip into their packs, more than 220 brave combatants piled into the Deathmatch Arena for the World Premiere of Heavy Hitters. Featuring new mechanics spanning across Brute, Guardian, and Warrior classes, invoking the old days of Welcome to Rathe while simultaneously throwing powerful new Might, Agility, and Vigor tokens into the mix, players immediately fell in love with the set. The initial stages were rampant with aggressive Kayo decks and towering Betsy decks. Players quickly learned that simply chucking in a pile of all your playable cards wouldn't guarantee you a win through fatigue. With many high-power attacks and low defenses, harsh lessons were learned in the arena that day.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with new players expressing excitement over the action packed gameplay of pitching a card to hit your opponent in the face very hard, and veteran players slowly realizing the sheer amount of subtle nuance and hidden depth this set has to explore. With two Heavy Hitters Sealed Callings and a Pro Tour featuring Heavy Hitters Booster Draft on the way, players are already itching to dive into the arena once more! If you didn't catch it already, check out James White and Bryan Gottlieb as they walk through the basics of building a Heavy Hitters Sealed Deck HERE.
The Calling
Time for the big leagues. More than 215 players braved the throes of the Heavy Hitters Sealed Calling to claim fame and fortune. Gone were the simplicities of yesterday. Now the competition was fierce, with Brutes attacking three times in a turn, Guardians throwing overpowered attacks for 16+ damage, and Warriors running their foes out of cards with a simple bluff.
In Day 2 players had to engage in a much more dangerous game - Heavy Hitters draft. Heroes like Olympia and Victor started to see more popularity as players took what they had learned from the last two days and found new ways to beat each other to a bloodied pulp. Eventually, eight champions emerged, scarred, sweaty, and caked in bloodstained sand.
The finals came down to New Zealand legend Darryn Ying and Vietnam National Champion Khoi Dinh in an absolutely terrifying game that came down to the very last few swings from both ragged heroes. Darryn on Kassai forcing Khoi to 1 life off the back of an attack reaction, followed by Khoi sacrificing a Gold for The Golden Son for a whopping 10 with overpower, but this last ditch effort was met with a Rally the Rearguard, allowing Darryn to scrape by on 1 life and close it out with an aptly named Adrenaline Rush!
Top 8
1st: Darryn Ying - Kassai
2nd: Khoi Dinh - Victor Goldmane
3rd-4th: Nick Butcher - Betsy
3rd-4th: James Shirley - Kassai
5th-8th: Eugene C - Kassai
5th-8th: Andrew Qi - Kayo
5th-8th: Daniel McKay - Kayo
5th-8th: Nish Nimmagadda - Kayo
Battle Hardened
To round out the Heavy Hitting weekend, more than 30 teams cracked packs to build the ultimate arena fighting force. Team Sealed can be incredibly dynamic, testing your ability to share cards and advice with your comrades. Team Draft is even wilder, with a whole new level of signaling, forcing, and hate-drafting taking place.
Eventually the crowd was whittled down to two teams, captained by Brodie Spurlock and Legend Story Studios own Tom Penny. With a win and a loss on either side, it all came down to a grinding Guardian mirror between Dennis Zhang and Sang Wook Kim. With only a mere handful of cards left in both players decks, Dennis pushed forward an overpowered wager, threatening to drop Kim to 1 life. Kim defends, hoping to scrape by into the next turn, then Dennis reveals the card he's had tucked away in his arsenal for so long - Lunging Press for game.
Top 4
1st: Brodie Spurlock, Michael Feng, Dennis Zhang
2nd: Tom Penny, Luke Badger, Sang Wook Kim
3rd-4th: Jacob Pearson, Jared Fung, Gavin Wu
3rd-4th: Matthew McInnis, Kelvin Law, Viet Pham
Many unforgettable memories were made this weekend. From the coveted new Ravenous Rabble promo drawing fans to side events, to the clash of hammers and daggers at the Commoner table, to the beautiful masterpieces signed by renowned artist Joseph Qiu, to a bonkers cosplay performance with screaming Brutes that was hijacked midway by a shirtless Karol on a rampage... Calling: Queenstown is being praised as one of the greatest Flesh and Blood tournaments of all time. If you thought 2023 was spectacular, you ain't seen NOTHING yet!
A massive thank you to everyone who joined us in our own backyard for this legendary landmark event - players, Celebrational guests, judges, staff, our stellar commentary team, live coverage team, host Iron Knight Gaming, friends, and family for making this weekend possible.
A special thank you to Ethan Van Sant for managing a kick-ass back-to-back live stream throughout the week. You can watch the action here:
