![Image](http://www.sanitarium.fm/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/hearthstone-world-championship-2016-e1478357170757.jpg)
After the furious fighting of the quarter-finals the previous day, the remaining four Hearthstone players took back to the stage at BlizzCon 2016 today to compete first in the semi-finals before the winners of those matches then went on to take on each other for the title of Hearthstone World Champion of 2016.
After the events of yesterday, the field of 3 Americas players, 2 European, 2 China and 1 Asia-Pacific player was cut down to eliminate one China player as well as all three of the remaining American players, two of them going out to the European players and the last one to the sole remaining Asia-Pacific representative. This effectively ended America's run, but gave Europe a great chance of retaining the title after the win of Ostkaka in 2015's World Championship.
The first semi-final was a match between the remaining player from China, JasonZhou and Russian player Pavel. JasonZhou had made it here by beating his fellow China player, Hamster; while Pavel had taken on Americas player Amnesiac previously. The first match up saw JasonZhou playing his Zoo Warlock against Pavel's Rogue, one that he won after a timely Doomguard draw gave him the amount of direct damage needed to finish Pavel off. The second game was taken by Pavel's Malygos Druid against JasonZhou's Dragon Warrior, before JasonZhou's own version of the Malygos Druid deck took the third game against Pavel's Tempo Mage. JasonZhou then played Dragon Warrior again for the forth game, coming closer to a victory this time; but Pavel's Tempo Mage managed to pull a Leeroy Jenkins out of a Fireland Portal which again gave the player the amount of direct damage needed to take the game. Equalised at 2 games apiece now, JasonZhou opted to use his Rogue deck which Pavel defeated first with the Rogue deck, then finally with his C'Thun Warrior. This won him the set and moved the Russian on to the Final round, to face the winner of Semi-Final #2.
![Image](http://www.sanitarium.fm/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/jasonzhou-vs-pavel-e1478391640321.png)
------
The other semi-final was between che0nsu of the Asia-Pacific group and DrHippi of the European group. In order to get here, che0nsu had beaten Cydonia the previous day to knock out another American player, and DrHippi had taken on HotMEOWTH to finish the total elimination of the Americas team from the running. As with the last semi-final, the first four games were taken by each player alternatively, with DrHippi taking the second game with his Druid after a Yogg'Saron play late in the game paid off for him yet also potentially making a game-changing decision that could have lost him the match by using an equipped weapon from Yogg before he used his Hero power to gain an extra point of damage that would have been lethal in that round just then. The third round was won by che0nsu's Bloodlust Shaman using its titular card to power up and rush down DrHippi's hitpoints, while the forth round saw his Dragon Warrior deck suffering from having a bunch of cards that synced well with Dragons but having no Dragon activator in the hand and by the time one was drawn DrHippi's Zoolock deck had too firm a grip on the field. The fifth match saw a bit of a reversal with DrHippi's Dragon Warrior being the one missing the crucial Dragon and instead having to rely on some late-game Ragnaros RNG which fortunately paid off after DrHippi held back the 8/8 Minion until che0nsu had played his already so there was a chance of one Rag destroying the other. The sixth game was the final one as che0nsu played his Dragon Warrior again against DrHippi's Tempo Mage. Although the Dragon Minions were around at the start, once again che0nsu's deck let him down by having a lack of drawn Dragons in the mid-game, which allowed DrHippi to take the set 4-2 and making the final a fully European one.
![Image](http://www.sanitarium.fm/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/che0nsu-vs-drhippi-e1478391619232.png)
------
So the final opened with the guarantee of Europe retaining the title for another year, and the question just being whether the Russian Pavel or the Ukrainian DrHippi would be the one to take it with them. The first match was between Pavel's C'Thun Warrior deck which had finished his semi-final, and DrHippi's Dragon Warrior. DrHippi took that first game, but then Pavel pushed back taking the next three games in succession with his Tempo Mage first, then his Malygos Druid and finally the C'Thun Warrior deck in which Pavel managed to eliminate two 8/8 Arcane Giants from DrHippi's side of the field while keeping his 6/6 Ancient Shieldbearer with a lucky RNG roll of his Brawl. DrHippi pulled back with the fifth game using his Zoolock deck against Pavel's lone remaining Rogue deck; but in the end Pavel only had to win one more game and did so. The sixth game was between the Rogue deck and DrHippi's Druid and was decided very early with a critical chain play from Pavel that saw him able to get out a Van Cleef with a 10/10 stat that the Ukrainian player just had no answer to in the end.
![Image](http://www.sanitarium.fm/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/drhippi-vs-pavel-e1478393495392.png)
So the Hearthstone World Championship is concluded for another year, with Europe retaining the title for a second year and Russian Pavel being crowned as the Hearthstone World Champion of 2016. Congratulations to the Champion and well done on such expertly played games of Hearthstone.
Here's to another year of great plays and wonderful new cards to come!
![Image](http://www.sanitarium.fm/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/pavel-world-champion-hearthstone-2016-e1478391596838.jpg)