Welcome back to our coverage of ProQuest Season 2! This week, we saw 94 events across 28 countries, including our first events of the season in Hungary, Norway, Slovakia, and Sweden. Gamestower hosted the first-ever ProQuest event in Luxembourg, while P-Games hosted the first ProQuest event in Slovakia.
Lorenzo Silvestri won the P-Games event with Chane, Bound by Shadow, one of 19 players to push him closer to Living Legend status. Once his results from the week are tallied and added to our records, it looks almost certain that he will hit the 1000 point threshold by the end of the season. If he does, he'll join Bravo, Star of the Show in the history books with our scheduled Banned and Suspended announcement later this month. 'Starvo' racked up another 36 wins this week, with wins across Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, Slovakia, France, Malaysia, Indonesia, Canada, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Bravo, Showstopper won another event this week, courtesy of Antonio Briola in Italy. Fellow hero of Aria Lexi, Livewire added three events to her tally, with Seth Penner in Canada, Nick Allen in the United States, and YiFei Ruan in Australia; while Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity won an event in the United States with Lucas Birch.
Briar, Warden of Thorns won ten events, including six in the United States with Thomas Battaglia, Mikael Conrow, Christopher Iaali, Timothy Wells, Trent Lennon, and Evan Hutto. The other four victories came courtesy of Søren Madsen in Denmark, Marcel Fetsch in Germany, Liam Hartles in the United Kingdom, and Jimmy Nguyen in Belgium.
After winning three events in the opening weeks of the season, Rhinar, Reckless Rampage rolled a critical failure this week, but did make the Top 8 at 15 events, including making the finals of an event in Australia with Brent Gordon.
However, congratulations are in order for Levia, Shadowborn Abomination, who won her first event for either ProQuest season! This will mark the first time that she has earned Living Legends points in Classic Constructed, making Azalea the only remaining hero on zero points. Congratulations to Luo Sheng-Xun in Taiwan, who won the battle against CYK Lionel's Chane in a Shadow showdown, and officially put Levia on the leaderboard!
Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn also won his first event of the season this week with Alwart Nijveld in the Netherlands, while fellow Solanian Dorinthea Ironsong celebrated the release of Classic Battles with a victory in Norway, beating back the shadows with Oscar Kruse.
Speaking of the Light, Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light honored the Herald of Triumph at 19 events, including a win in Greece with George Melissakis, in Malaysia with Colin Tang, New Zealand with Lucas Ward, Germany with Alexander Hempelmann, Canada with Julien Abenhaim and Nathan Fortin, and the Netherlands with Kevin Zänker.
That leaves just five heroes remaining. Unfortunately, while her fellow Ranger secured three more wins this week, Azalea, Ace in the Hole now remains the only hero who has yet to win an event this ProQuest season. However, she did make the Top 8 at five events; Paweł Leszuk in Poland; Sebastian Kleiner in Austria; Jan Demian in Slovakia; Levi Rauch in the United States; and a finals finish with Ricardo Nguyen in the Netherlands. Her fellow Arcane Rising hero from Metrix, Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire, added two more trophies to her belt with Valentine Nguyen in Australia, and Faustin Falissard in France.
Finally, we turn to our sole hero of Misteria, and our one remaining Runeblade. Due to a error in our data last week, Viserai, Rune Blood only has one winning event so far this season, not two, and failed to secure any more points to his name this week despite making the Top 8 at 12 events. Katsu, the Wanderer also didn't secure any wins to his name, but did make the Top 8 at 20 events, including four second-place finishes with Christian Andersen in Indonesia, and Steve Clarke, Xan Johnson, and Tyler Brotton in the United States.
Congratulations to all of our winners and Top 8 finalists this week! There's now only one weekend of ProQuest events remaining, so if you want to put your favorite hero on the map, you can check out our locator to see your nearest ProQuest event. Get out there, shuffle some cards, and best of luck in your final games of the season!
Table Top Warfare - Australia
"It was an awesome day of hard battles amongst the FaB community here at TTW Gawler today! After 8 rounds we finally have a winner of our ProQuest event. Alex F and Fifi faced off for the top spot and they didn't disappoint! The final game was an epic struggle taking both players down to 1 life each before Fifi managed to get in the final damage and win the converted Gold Foil!
Big congrats to Fifi, the entire top 8 and all of the other players who made today such an awesome event."
Top 8:
1st: YiFei Ruan - Lexi, Livewire
2nd: Alex Forndran - Bravo, Star of the Show
3rd-4th: Joe Barbaro - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3rd-4th: Connor Archer - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Matt Brandwood - Chane, Bound by Shadow
5th-8th: Alex McDonald - Chane, Bound by Shadow
5th-8th: Martin Hodge - Lexi, Livewire
5th-8th: Hannah Quirk-Meeks - Briar, Warden of Thorns
Dragon´s Lair Kungsholmen - Sweden
"We started the day with a bit of delay because of technical issues with the stream, and ended up not doing a stream for first round. People were excited, a lot had played the ProQuest in Trollhättan the day before but still was hungry for more.
Tournament Organizer Henrik Montin ran a tight ship, and even though we only had 20 players we had a big crew working with the stream, tournament, and even having a event photographer on site. Tobias Lind was playing in his home community and was already a favourite, but it was the Karlstad player Niklas Bengtsson (Briar) and our imported New Zeeland pro - André Pankhurst (Chane) that went 4-0 and had to battle out who would go as first seed into Top 8.
Mr. Pankhurst showed who is the real Runeblade master and took down Bengtsson that looked amazing all day. We had our top 8, and of course both national ruling champ Christofer Lindholm (Chane) and international player Tobias Lind (Starvo) took two of the spots, teammate of Niklas - Albert Schütt also played his Briar into the quarterfinals. One of our most technically dominant players in Stockholm, Niklas Astner on Dash, zapped a spot as well after losing his first round against his worst matchup. Gothenburg´s own son, the dominating force of Armin Soleimanpor (Bravo), managed to beat his opponents and took a spot. Lastly Mikael Lundberg (Starvo) one of our meta-analyzing and always top performing players in Stockholm was starring in his own show taking the last spot!
Quarters took down Niklas Bengtsson, Niklas Astner, Armin Soleimanpor and Mikael Lundberg after well fought games from all players.
In the semifinals, we saw Albert and André facing off, and two runeblades makes a pretty fast and good show. André didn't manage to get the right cards for his really great combos, so Albert was very happy to take a spot in the finals.
On the stream, we could see a rerun of last year's National Championship finals - Tobias Lind against reigning champ Christofer Lindholm. After some defensive play, Tobias could make sure his opponent died from blood debt and joined Albert in the finals.
In the finals, Tobias was too strong and knew his opponent too well, and didn't wanna give away that ProQuest Invite for Lille! We had our winner, and after a long (because many prizes) prize ceremony for all players, because of generous prize support from Dragon´s Lair, all placements received a prize!"
Top 8:
1st: Tobias Lind - Bravo, Star of the Show
2nd: Albert Schütt - Briar, Warden of Thorns
3rd-4th: André Pankhurst - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3rd-4th: Christofer Lindholm - Chane, Bound by Shadow
5th-8th: Mikael Lundberg Bravo, Star of the Show
5th-8th: Armin Soleimanpor - Bravo, Showstopper
5th-8th: Niklas Astner - Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
5th-8th: Niklas Bengtsson - Briar, Warden of Thorns
Invictus Forge - Malaysia
"We had four overseas players who flew in for PQ2, and two of them (Singapore) entered the Top 8, with one of them going into the final. A local content creator (One Two Juice) also sponsored 6 Herald of Rebirth promos (from their Content Creator Appreciation Kit) for a lucky draw. More of the event description can be found on our Facebook page. All in all, a great event!"
Top 8:
1st: Aimran Kamarul Bahrin - Bravo, Star of the Show
2nd: Daniel Roses - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
3rd-4th: Kok Bin Ng - Bravo, Star of the Show
3rd-4th: Abdul Salam - Katsu, the Wanderer
5th-8th: Alexi K - Dorinthea Ironsong
5th-8th: Keng Fai Lee - Lexi, Livewire
5th-8th: Elliot Lucas Marcell Tan - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Calvin Mah HP - Bravo, Star of the Show
Bali Awakening Zone - Indonesia
"The very first ProQuest in Bali! Thanks to LSS for giving us the opportunity.
Everyone in our community was so excited! A few new players that just play the game recently also join the event.
Also thanks to several players that come from outside the island only to join the event and share the experience together. Players that usually only connected via chat, now can meet each other.
We're looking forward to the next big event!"
Top 8:
1st: Dhedy Hindrawan - Bravo, Star of the Show
2nd: Christian Andersen - Katsu, the Wanderer
3rd-4th: Rama Wirakusuma - Dorinthea Ironsong
3rd-4th: Adrian Samyudia - Kano, Dracai of Aether
5th-8th: Romanos Defiano - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Ralf Wijaya - Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn
5th-8th: Wisnu Agung - Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
5th-8th: Abdurrahman Putra - Briar, Warden of Thorns
Hairy Tarantula - Canada
"41 players entered our ProQuest event and we had a pretty diverse meta overall. The top 8 featured 5 players who played at Pro Tour New Jersey but also new challengers like Noah Clark who only started playing about a month ago and is already making an impact. In the semis, we had Gabe Sher who faced off against Joel Repta and was able to get revenge after losing to him in the finals of a ProQuest just 24 hours prior. The finals then had Gabe face off against Aaron Shantz who is fresh off his 9th place on tiebreakers finish at Pro Tour New Jersey. Gabe took his more aggressive build and fused some key moments early to win before Aaron could set up a 2nd cycle plan. Congratulations to Gabe Sher on qualifying for his first Pro Tour after many near misses!"
Top 8:
1st: Gabe Sher - Bravo, Star of the Show
2nd: Aaron Shantz - Bravo, Star of the Show
3rd-4th: Brandon Chow - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3rd-4th: Joel Repta - Bravo, Star of the Show
5th-8th: Matthew Pelletier - Chane, Bound by Shadow
5th-8th: Michael Jaszczur - Bravo, Star of the Show
5th-8th: Noah Clark - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Shawn Dhaliwal - Bravo, Star of the Show
Faraos Cigarer Odense - Denmark
"We held the largest ProQuest on Danish grounds with 34 players (players came from Finland and Germany as well.) It was the biggest event of our store so far."
Top 8:
1st: Søren Madsen - Briar, Warden of Thorns
2nd: Daniel Ipakchian - Bravo, Star of the Show
3rd-4th: Rene Skyggebjerg - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3rd-4th: Thorbjørn Lind Jensen - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Peter Nielsen - Chane, Bound by Shadow
5th-8th: Rasmus Møller - Briar, Warden of Thorns
5th-8th: Jyri Ollila - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Henrik McQuoid Jespersen - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
The Imaginarium - Singapore
"We had a player that flew in from Thailand. There were others who were keen but couldn't get the flights in time. We also partnered up with another store (Bricks Play), who didn't get the ProQuest this time, but are a friendly store with us to let us use their space for the event. Good collaboration between the stores to run a successful and fun event for all in attendance."
Top 8:
1st: Jin Han Toh - Chane, Bound by Shadow
2nd: Abbey Fong - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
3rd-4th: Aaron Khoo - Katsu, the Wanderer
3rd-4th: Marco Ng - Bravo, Star of the Show
5th-8th: Melvin Chew - Chane, Bound by Shadow
5th-8th: Elliot Lucas Marcell Tan - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Gideon Law - Bravo, Star of the Show
5th-8th: Alex Mearns - Kano, Dracai of Aether
Brood en Spelen - Belgium
"It was the weekend of our 100th Flesh and Blood event and we could not have wished for a better way to celebrate the occasion. 44 players all excited by the events that took place last weekend on the Pro-tour came to compete for their chance at Glory in Lille. With the Pro-tour so close to our home the pressure is on!
The meta looks diverse, the Starvo players seem to have shifted over to other heroes, why practice on a hero that will soon not be part of the game, some say. The Briar and Chane players are the majority now, followed by Prism and Lexi. But the Top 8 gave us some nice variation, Thomas van den Berg and Sybren Dewulf fought for the pride of their respective heroes: Oldhim and Boltyn.
In the semi-finals, we had 2 mirrors so we really got to see the mirror match skills of these players. In the end, it was Steven de Canck with Chane we took the win against Prism in the finals."
Brood en Spelen included a Q&A with their players, which can be found below!
Top 8:
1st: Steven De Canck - Chane, Bound by Shadow
2nd: Jerome Bastogne - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
3rd-4th: Kugane Gaming - Chane, Bound by Shadow
3rd-4th: Khalid Abatouy - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Sybren Dewulf - Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn
5th-8th: Kevin Lerens - Chane, Bound by Shadow
5th-8th: Thomas den Berg - Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity
5th-8th: Thibaut De Meyer - Briar, Warden of Thorns
Player Interviews with Brood en Spelen
Thibaut De Meyer
You're one of the Runeblades that has historically always stuck to Briar - is there any reason for this?
She is my comfort zone, but also has a lot of good matchups in this meta. She does well against Chane, Dash, Lexi, Bravo, and Oldhim, but the prevalence of Prism is the biggest obstacle at the moment.
Kevin Lerens
I understand that you already got your invite [to the Pro Tour], so you were quite relaxed I guess
Yeah, I got to relax and enjoy the rounds. I also dodged all the Oldhims, so that was nice. It was a great event and very well-organized; looking forward to the next one.
Thomas van den Berg
As the only Guardian to make it to the Top 8, how do you view Oldhim's position in the coming months?
It will depend on the Generic Illusionist support I think. Oldhim is in a really good spot with only Prism being a problem, so if she does not get too many new tools, it should be fine.
Sybren Dewulf
We have seen you be loyal to Boltyn and doing really well. What would you like to see from coming sets to give Boltyn a bit of a push?
Maybe another Light card, the selection of Light cards at this moment is rather small so you have little wiggle room. Ideally, another card that buffs the next attacks in the turn to maximize Boltyn's hero effect optimally.
Kugane Gaming
How was your event today?
Great it is one of my favourite places to play the community is great and we got to enjoy a lot of matches with realy enjoyable opponents. My favourite moment was my game against Kevin Faut and his Lexi, it really came down to those last exciting moments where it could have gone either way.
Khalid Abatouy
We know you for your more aggressive Prism here, what is it that draws you to the Herald-heavy playstyle?
I always preferred the aggro playstyle, and now with Fractal Replication, I can set up some really crazy combos.