We take a look back at the second week of the ProQuest season. Last weekend, saw 134 ProQuest events take place in 29 countries with nearly 4000 players across the total attendance!
The European community are clearly used to dealing with Ice... many braving the snowfall and hypothermic temperatures to make it out to their local game stores to compete.
The Weekend was packed full of action and milestones seeing the first ever ProQuest run in Cyprus, the largest FAB event in Romania, a deadly Arakni in California and a memorial for the Emperor in Amsterdam.
ProQuest events can give you the opportunity to compete at Pro Tour: Baltimore in April. Come together in the flesh and blood through the common language of playing great games and join us in Baltimore for a fantastic weekend of competition, socialising and fun!
For all the latest information on the metagame, look to Parker Brown's article on Friday, crunching the data to give you some key insights for the months to come. We're entering an exciting new realm of possibilities for Classic Constructed, with the release of the Outsiders on the horizon to shake up the metagame once again. Who will you play this season of ProQuest?
The memorial table at Friends & Foes ProQuest in Amsterdam must have pleased the spirit of former Draconic ruler with the first participation Booster Pack of the day containing a Marvel Emperor!
Friends & Foes - Netherlands
- Winning Decklist - Donovan van Beek (Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity)
With the tragic death of Emperor and a uprising going on outside. Inside of Pro Quest Amsterdam people were fighting it out to become the champion of the day.
At the entrance everyone got an letter from either Fai or Dromai. Asking them to help them in these troubled times and fight as many players from the opposition as possible. Bringing an end to this uprising once and for all.
And for those mourning the loss of Emperor there was a moment to grief and remember the Emperor by writing in his memorial guest book. But even in death he would never find rest as Arakni was still watching him from the exact opposite side of the venue.
Heroes from all of Rathe came out to fight in this tournament. There were 15 different heroes spread amongst 46 players. But Dromai and Fai were both most represented at the tournament. With Dromai being the most popular with 9 players and Fai with 8.
After 6 rounds of swiss we had our top 8.
But the finals were tense.
Dutch national champion Donovan van Beek was on Oldhim. Facing off against Mariusz Wojciechowski on Viserai. Many thought this was going to be an easy win for Oldhim as he had faced Viserai earlier that day giving Viserai his only loss during the day before the finals.
Oldhim started with an intense head start. At one point having Viserai down to 20 while he was still comfortable at 35. But then it happened. With some intense tight plays Viserai pushed back. Turning the tables. Bringing Oldhim down to 4 life while Viserai was still at 12. Could he arcane damage Oldhim down? Unfortunately no. He was one pitch short of winning the game. He decked out and Oldhims tight plays and never losing focus won him the tournament. This was one match we will never forget.
Top 8:
1st: Donovan van Beek (Oldhim)
2nd: Mariusz Wojciechowski (Viserai)
3-4th: David Kuric (Dromai)
3-4th: Hendrik Wytze Kluitenberg (Fai)
5-8th: Kerwin Holtslag (Briar)
5-8th: Mateusz Zawieracz (Dorinthea)
5-8th: Calum Young (Fai)
5-8th: Alwart Nijveld (Bravo)
Isengard Fantasy Shop - Cyprus
- Winning Decklist - Nicolas Kyriakou (Dromai, Ash Artist)
This was the first ProQuest made in Cyprus and it shows our slow but steady growth of the F&B community.
Big thanks to LSS for the support and proving an amazing game.
We had 11 players and played 4 Swiss rounds with top 4
Victor of the Event is Nicolas Kyriakou with Dromai, Ash Artist in a game against Nicolas Lazarides who piloted Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire.
The final game was a masterclass from both players and finished by attrition when Nik.Kyr. managed to burn through all 6+ attacks from Dash killing the Phantasmal dragons and cleverly blocking weapon attacks with his Phantasmal Footsteps.
Game reached the final stage at 3 to 1 in life totals and Nik.Laz surrendered to the dragons supremacy.
- Isengard Fantasy Shop, Cyprus-Nicosia
Gongaii Games, Inc- United States
- Winning Decklist - Nathan Dollman (Rhinar, Reckless Rampage)
- Event Stream
Two great stories of the event.
Round 2, we had a Rhinar (Kevin Set) take down an Oldhim player with a *double* Reckless Swing, dealing 4 damage for the win!
In the Top 4, our champion (Nathan Dollman) took down an Oldhim player by pick stacking and setting up his big play - 2x Red Barraging Beatdown into Alpha Rampage!!! Quad intimidate into 17 damage!
Lots of great stuff over the day, and streamed by our friends over at Dice Commando!
Game Kastle Westgate - United States
- Winning Decklist - Taotao Chu (Arakni, Huntsman)
Local assassin expert Taotao Chu took down Game Kastle Westgate's 30 person ProQuest, marking his third Top 8 and his second win with Arakni this season! While we had some stellar contenders and a few local content creators battling out in the top tables, it was Taotao that managed to wrestle his second win over MajiinBae's Iyslander. Congrats to the winners!
Jocozaur- Romania
- Winning Decklist - Onica Lucian (Iyslander , Stormbind)
So a quick disclaimer, on our top8 titled photo there are only 5 people because the event was split into 2 days, on the 21st were the swiss rounds/qualifiers and on the 22nd was the top8 elimination rounds, and 2 out of the 8 people had to travel home on Saturday and were unable to come back Sunday for the top8 and another person had to rush home after he was eliminated in the first round because of a personal matter.
Overall the event went smoothly considering that it was the largest Romanian Flesh and Blood event to date, 18 people participated which is a huge jump considering that at last year's ProQuest only 8 players showed up and at the nationals there were 12 players, so we're happy to see that the Romanian community is growing. We were glad that our local meta turned out to be quite varied, we had a good assortment of heroes, even including a very courageous Azalea player. Competition was very fierce for the top 8 spots on Saturday, playing lasted from 13:00 to 20:00 with a little lunch break in-between rounds 3 and 4. Also Sunday every single match was super tight, us judges were sitting at the edge of our seats watching as the tempo was shifting between the player multiple times.
In conclusion the event went super smoothly, no minor or major issues whatsoever, we can't wait to be able to host another big event like this!
3Meeples - Spain
- Winning Decklist - Pablo Pintor (Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity)
3 Meeples is a small game store in a city in the north of Madrid called Tres Cantos. Since last May we have increased our base of regular players and we wanted them to have an unforgettable event.
We ask for help in the city council and they gave us a conditioned space that fully met our needs.
Initially we planned to hold an event for 48 people (very ambitious) but after some logistical issues and the corresponding permits we decided to expand the capacity of the tournament to 64 players, reaching the figure of 59 players gathered for the largest Fab store event organized in Spain.
We have players from many parts of Spain and the friendship of the community was noticeable in a total Flesh and Blood environment where the stakes were high.
6 rounds of Classic Constructed gave us unforgettable battles with up to 14 heroes from Rathe looking for a place in the top 8 of the event.
After a break for lunch our candidates were ready for a top 8 deluxe, with 3 Oldhim, 1 Rhinar, 1 Dromai, 1 Briar, 1 Yslander and 1 Fai. Which ended with an incredible battle between Pablo Pintor (Oldhim) and Andrés Gomes Kostron (Fai) giving Pablo Pintor the opportunity to win a new tournament and his invitation to the Pro Tour.
Congratulations to the entire FaB community in Spain, without them these events would not be the same.
Card Merchant - New Zealand
- Winning Decklist - Matt Rogers (Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity)
The event had a very wide range of heros with no deck exceeding 15% of the field and a metagame including 13 hero’s. It was the Ice heros that rose to the top though and took out many of the top8 seats. NZ National Champion Matt Rogers was crowned king of the cold going an undefeated 9-0 with Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity!
Top 8 consisted of:
Matt Rogers (Oldhim)
Sang Wook Kim (Iyslander)
Dennis Zhang (Oldhim)
Justin Wong (Oldhim)
Prashant Naicker (Fai)
Darryn Ying (Iyslander)
Andrew Qi (Isylander)
James Arnesen (Oldhim)
Metagame breakdown for all players:
Fai 6 / Oldhim 5 / Briar 4 / Dromai 4 / Isylander 4 / Lexi 4 / Rhinar 3 / Azalea 2 / Bravo 2 / Dash 2 / Levia 2 / Dorinthea 2 / Kano 1
RetroPlay Games - Canada
- Winning Decklist - Karl Danninger (Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire)
Flesh & Blood Pro Quest at RetroPlay Games was an absolute blast! It was an honor to host the best players in the region, some of whom traveled down from Toronto and beyond! Everyone was a pleasure to have in the store, incredibly professional and sportsmanlike, and represented the best of the community and why we love this game so much. We were happy to see some of our locals, including FaB YouTube legend Wesley Scott (Sloopdoop) top 8 here, and a big congratulations to Karl Danninger, piloting my personal favourite hero, Dash, to victory! We wish Karl the best of luck as he moves on to the Pro Tour. Extra huge thanks to Legend Story Studios for the opportunity to host this, and to everyone that helped out with the event setup and judging. We can’t wait for the next Pro Quest and for more events through 2023!
