The 2022 season of Road to Nationals has officially begun, with 52 events taking place across 23 countries. Our largest event of the week came courtesy of Cat Footprint Shilin (貓腳印士林店), who hosted a 56-player event in Taiwan. Close behind was sister store Cat Footprint SongChiang with 55 players, and MinMaxGames in the United States with 54 players.
Guest writer Yichin Liu (MalZenith) will be bringing a more in-depth article next week analyzing the Classic Constructed metagame; in the meantime, let's take a Rapid Fire look at the first week of events.
Both of our remaining Runeblades in the format won four events apiece. Briar, Warden of Thorns won with Ian Holland in Ireland, Floris van Asch in Luxembourg, and Biing Chyn "Benson" Lai and Ian Smith in Canada. Viserai, Rune Blood won with Peter Markovič in Slovakia, Sunny Yang in Canada, Hayden Dale in Australia, and guest writer Hamish Chisholm Brown in the UK.
Shining a light on our illusionists, Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light also picked up four wins, courtesy of Jerome Bastogne in Belgium, Shawn Hill in Canada, and Ian Zhang and Rob van der Burgh in the Netherlands. Dromai, Ash Artist broke into the Classic Constructed format this week with three wins in Greece with Gregory Patellis, and in the UK with Nguyen Giang and Tom Gould.
Fellow Uprising heroes Iyslander, Stormbind won one event with Kristian Čurla in Croatia, and Fai, Rising Rebellion won one event with Hung Aaa_Man in Hong Kong. Fai's predecessor, Ninja of Misteria Katsu, the Wanderer also won one event in Poland with Bartłomiej Chrobak.
Of our other Welcome to Rathe heroes, Bravo, Showstopper won an event in France with Ludovic Guilmard, Dorinthea Ironsong won an event in Germany with Hagen Lindert, and Gene Brumby, the original Genis Wotchuneed, won an event with Rhinar, Reckless Rampage in New Zealand.
While Briar was off winning events, the other heroes of Tales of Aria were almost claiming victories. Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity claimed victory in New Zealand with James Gilchrist, and Lexi, Livewire added points to her Living Legends record with KeDuo Yang in Taiwan. Levia, Shadowborn Abomination rounds out our wins for the week, starting out the season with Devon Bridge in Canada.
While our four remaining heroes didn't secure any wins this week, they all made at least one appearance in the Top 8. Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire made the Top 8 at 11 events, including the finals of three matches against Briar in Ireland with Dylan Thompson, Dromai in the UK with Craig Damario, and Iyslander in Croatia with Luka Kramaric.
Meanwhile, an unlikely pair made their only Top 8 appearances of the week at the same event. At ReRoll Games in Ireland, Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn made the Top 8 with Jonathan Butler and Stephen McKeever, and Azalea, Ace in the Hole made the Top 8 with Ciaran Harrigan.
Finally, Kano, Dracai of Aether made his sole Top 8 finish with Nikos Tavoulareas in Greece.
Of course, Classic Constructed events made up a little under half of all tournaments over the weekend. Road to Nationals is our first in-store competitive event series to feature Uprising Draft, coinciding with the release of Uprising in the United States last Friday. Fai picked up 15 wins across all events, while Dromai and Iyslander got off to a slow start with 6 and 7 wins, respectively.
Congratulations to all of our winners this week, and to all Top 4 players who are now qualified for their National Championships! If you want your shot at greatness, check out our event locator to find your nearest Road to Nationals event, and join the fight!
Fantasy Shop - Greece
"17 brave souls resisted the urge of summer in Greece and the calling of our beautiful beaches, to compete in the first Road to Nationals event for Fantasy Shop, hosted by OrganizedPlay.eu. Top 8 featured a very diverse meta with 2 Dromai, 2 Briar, 1 Kano, 1 Viserai, 1 Prism and 1 Iyslander. The top 4 found one Briar losing to Dromai and the other winning against Kano. Our final was Dromai vs Briar, with Gregory Patellis getting the win for Dromai! Dragons everywhere!"
Top 8:
1st: Gregory Patellis - Dromai, Ash Artist
2nd: Alexandros Argyriou - Briar, Warden of Thorns
3rd-4th: Nikos Tavoulareas - Kano, Dracai of Aether
3rd-4th: George Karampinis - Briar, Warden of Thorns
5th-8th: Yorgos Samaras - Viserai, Rune Blood
5th-8th: John Kitsos - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Michael Vournas - Dromai, Ash Artist
5th-8th: George Melissakis - Iyslander, Stormbind
El Tesoro del Dragón Blanco - Spain
"The event saw 16 brave players battle the heat outside to come play the first RTN event in Spain this last weekend in L'Hospitalet (Barcelona) perfect number for 2 draft pods of 8 players, seeing a very balanced drafting experience.
Fai was the most favored hero in both tables, but after the Top8 Draft, we could see all 4 heroes represented in the Semifinals, and Nico took down the event with Iyslander.
Some would say he was the real winner of the event even before he won the finals vs Sergi, as he opened a RF Coronet Peak during the first draft pod, and a CF Ghostly Touch in the top 8 Draft!
After the dust settled, 3 out of the 4 players who managed to qualify didn't have enough EXP to qualify because they were new to the game, or were in risk of seeing their position taken over in the following weeks.
¡A great day of great games in the Flesh and Blood!"
Top 4:
1st: Nicolas Scandalis - Iyslander
2nd: Sergi Barqué - Fai
3rd-4th: Max Dieckmann
3rd-4th: Mario Leon
Voxymoron - Germany
"31 Players came together in the 2nd Road to Nationals event in Germany. Only 12 were from the local community, 29 from surrounding cities.
Benjamin Adler traveled about 500 km and every km was worth it: He took the win going at 3rd place (5-1 in swiss) into the final rounds.
Abhinav Jha made it into the top 4 and could qualify after a merely 1-2 in the first draft pod. It shows that Booster Draft is a challenging but also forgiving format. :)
The players who didn't make it into the Top 8 did seek comfort in opening HP1 Black Label (German) and found the RF Herz von Fyendal!"
Top 8:
1st: Benjamin Adler - Fai
2nd: Nino Zimmermann - Dromai
3rd-4th: Abhinav Jha - Fai
3rd-4th: Hanno Lünser - Iyslander
Sushi Knight - New Zealand
"A huge thank you to everyone who came to play in our first ever Road to Nats! 34 players contending for a top 4 spot which would guarantee them a spot at this years Nationals! And after the dust had settled and we had our 9th game of CC to end it all! it was Gene Brumby winning over Cameron Hay to lock in his first ever Road to Nats win and with Rhinar! Huge congrats to Gene, who took home the main prize the Cold Foil Adult Iyslander!
Amazing event and again super cool to see so many heroes and players playing this game to the fullest - A huge shout out too to Adam Little for his Levia build! See you all at Nats!"
Top 8:
1st: Gene Brumby - Rhinar, Reckless Rampage
2nd: Cameron Hay - Oldhim, Grandfather of Eternity
3rd-4th: Jethro Thomas - Viserai, Rune Blood
3rd-4th: Ryan Bastion - Briar, Warden of Thorns
5th-8th: John Jaurigue - Lexi, Livewire
5th-8th: Oliver Berry - Fai, Rising Rebellion
5th-8th: Richard Gillingham - Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light
5th-8th: Adam Little - Levia, Shadowborn Abomination
Invasion Toys - United States
"It was an exciting day for Invasion Toys to host our first event with competitive invites on the line. We had 20 players for our July 2nd Draft format Road to Nationals which was a great turnout since not many people had a chance to practice draft due to the launch date being pushed back for the USA. Many people were nervous to play their first Competitive REL draft event, but local judges Hugh Wang and Amanda Lee put the players at ease.
After 6 Swiss rounds and two Draft pods, no one was left undefeated. We had Austin Chinn in the lead with 5 wins and the rest of our Top 8 with 4 wins. A few of the Top 8 were no strangers to Competitive play though. We had heavy hitters Alan Chavarin (Top 8 at Battle Hardened Vegas 2022), Zayne Johnson (Winner of 2 ProQuests), Michael Passer (Pro Tour New Jersey), and Andrea Biaggi."
Top 8:
1st: Andrea Biaggi - Dromai
2nd: Zayne Johnson - Iyslander
3rd-4th: Austin Chinn - Fai
3rd-4th: Michael Passer - Fai
Cat Footprint Song Chiang (貓腳印-松江) - Taiwan
CFP Song Chiang included a series of interviews with the Top 8 players, including an short interview in English with the winner of the event, Tai Yuan Chen.
Q: When did you start to play FAB?
A: Welcome to Rathe Alpha
Q: Which hero do you play?
A: All three rounds is Iyslander
Q: What is your strategy for today?
A: Just play Iyslander!!!
姓名：翁祥育
遊玩ＦＡＢ的時間（系列）：五彈
今日成績：八強
牌表：
八強輪抽職業：龍忍
本次輪抽有準備什麼策略呢？：有什麼最好的牌就抓什麼。
姓名： 十六夜
遊玩ＦＡＢ的時間（系列）：二彈
今日成績：八強
牌表：
八強輪抽職業：龍忍
本次輪抽有準備什麼策略呢？：培桐贏了
姓名： 建廷
遊玩ＦＡＢ的時間（系列）：四彈
今日成績：八強
牌表：
八強輪抽職業：龍幻
本次輪抽有準備什麼策略呢？：只能頭鐵。
姓名：培桐
遊玩ＦＡＢ的時間（系列）：四彈
今日成績：八強
牌表：
八強輪抽職業：龍幻
本次輪抽有準備什麼策略呢？：不抓冰法，往龍幻抓
姓名：威銘
遊玩ＦＡＢ的時間（系列）：四彈
今日成績：四強
牌表：
八強輪抽職業：龍幻
本次輪抽有準備什麼策略呢？：忍者強無敵，但太多人搶QQ。小丑Forever。
姓名：阿傑
遊玩ＦＡＢ的時間（系列）：三彈
今日成績：四強
牌表：
八強輪抽職業：龍忍
本次輪抽有準備什麼策略呢？：最大化輸出，但顏色配比很重要。小丑
Forever。
姓名：Nathan
遊玩ＦＡＢ的時間（系列）：WTR Alpha
今日成績：亞軍
牌表：
八強輪抽職業：龍忍
本次輪抽有準備什麼策略呢？：看前五包的強卡再決定要打哪個職業。
姓名：泰源
遊玩ＦＡＢ的時間（系列）：WTR Alpha
今日成績：冠軍
牌表：
八強輪抽職業：冰法
本次輪抽有準備什麼策略呢？：打冰法就對了！