Written by. Ryuki Ishii based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2021-12-20 16:55 JST)

The Hearthstone 2021 World Championship took place on December 19-20, and Wataru “Posesi” Ishibashi took home the crown, earning the first-place prize of $200,000. The reigning champion Kenta “glory” Sato, who is also a Japanese player, finished second, taking home the second-place prize of $100,000.

Six players from Grandmasters and two players from the Chinese Gold Series participated in the event. Posesi earned a spot by winning Season 1 of the Asia-Pacific Grandmasters. Matches were played with the 4 Hero 1 Ban rule in place, where each player brings 4 decks, bans one of the opponent’s decks, and competes in a best-of-five Conquest format.

This year’s championship was full of highlights, with Kenta “glory” Sato attempting a first-ever two-peat and Gabriel “Gaby” Jeanne, a highly skilled player who was previously too young to participate in official matches, making a much-anticipated appearance.

Posesi faced the tournament favorite Gaby in the first round. Posesi’s deck seemed disadvantageous against Gaby, but he was able to outplay Gaby and win the round 3-0.

Posesi struggled in the semi-final against Kyle “McBanterFace“ Spigelman, but was saved by the opponent’s mistake, and managed to win 3-2. The combo deck used in the current meta utilizes the same card for both offense and defense, and this match showed how one mistake can lead to a defeat when using the meta deck.

The Grand Final between Posesi and glory was also a close match, with Posesi barely topping glory by 3-2. Even the poker-faced Posesi couldn’t help but throw his fists up in the air and smile when he secured the victory.

成しとげたぞーーー、最強じゃーーーーーい
— posesi (@posesi8) December 19, 2021

“I’ve done it, I’m the best”

Hearthstone isn’t particularly popular in Japan, but the competitive scene is pretty fierce and high level. I (the original author of this article) don’t think it was a series of luck that a Japanese player took the crown two years in a row.

Starting next year, official tournaments for the Battlegrounds, a game mode that uses the auto-battler mechanic, will begin. There are some high-level players in Japan who are among the top rankers in overseas servers, so I have a high hope that Japanese players will compete well in major tournaments for Battlegrounds as well.