by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm
It was a long time in the making. The compLexity Gaming history in Hearthstone is over a year long with ups and downs, great runs and brutal losses on the cusp. Today that luck changed when Jan “superjj” Janßen went ahead and defeated everyone in his run through the SeatStory Cup 4 in Krefeld, Germany.
For JJ it was the third LAN attended as a member of the compLexity family, establishing himself quickly as one of the hardest workers in the entire organization. The run through SSC showed that hard work pays off even in a volatile game such as Hearthstone, when the German player ran the table.
While the tournament started on Thursday, both superjj and Ryzen from coL started into it on Friday in the later groups. While Ryzen couldn’t quite make it out of the group stage on his LAN debut, the veteran JJ lived to fight another day on Saturday with a win over SjoW and BlizzCon Top 4 player Thijs – only dropping a game to surprise group winner Frodan.
That loss later turned out to be the only misstep of JJ, who went on a winning streak through Saturday and Sunday. First it was Group D that felt the wrath of the Sultan of Salt, sending both Zalae and Powder into the Lower Bracket of the GSL style groups. With those two wins, JJ already entered uncharted territory, as the new competitor had never reached the money ranks of any tournament yet. Back at DreamHack Summer 2015 he bombed out straight away, while making it into the Top 16 at DreamHack Cluj just a few weeks ago. Steady improvement, hard work and a bit of luck, all factors for his success.
The bracket stage then saw him go up against his only slayer, Frodan. The match for redemption was close for a long time, ultimately coming down to the dreaded Druid mirror. A timely combo later JJ advanced with a 4-3 score line: Setting up the battle of the two remaining Germans in the TakeTV studios. Another storyline was also the second battle against a TempoStorm member in Gaara. First the manager Frodan had to admit defeat, now former DreamHack Bucharest champion Gaara had suffer through one of the most heartbreaking 4-3 losses of his career – especially since it featured a 29 heal Reno Jackson of JJ’s Freeze Mage.
That became a common occurrence almost for JJ, who brought the new card to the table – throwing a curveball towards his opponents. In the Grand Finals against StanCifka the Reno Jackson Freeze proved to be too big of a force, getting it off twice against a slower lineup of the Czech player. Smartly the Warrior of his got banned straight up, leaving the Freeze Mage with favorable matchups across the board. In the end it was a Tempo Reno Jackson against Cifka’s Priest to mix things up, followed by Alexstrasza and plenty of burst to go along with that. A 5-0 sweep in the Grand Finals, the first LAN championship for the coL.Hearthstone division and the Sultan of Salt becoming the King of Krefeld.
Congratulations to our boy JJ, as well as Ryzen and Noxious on-side, showing the black and red brand in the Hearthstone community. Next up for both JJ and Ryzen is the WePlay Season 1 Hearthstone League, a perfect opportunity to follow up this success and continue the positive trend.
Images courtesy of TakeTV