introductionPLAYOFFS? YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS? YOU KIDDING ME? I JUST HOPE WE CAN WIN A GAME! We’re at the end here, folks. It’s playoffs time. This will be our final power rankings for the Perils in Paradise era. As a reminder, we use internal data calculated into a formula called PAR to create these rankings. PAR calculates data such as win/loss, game win rates, and strength of schedule. Feedback is welcome as we continue to iron out the kinks in the format and stylizing of this blog series. legacy
The end is nigh. The ever-competitive Legacy series is entering its final moments. Obviously, I have some bias here going into the playoffs. How could I not? McMarin’s is going to eat everyone else alive. From an objective standpoint, I think the most likely upset we could see in round 1 is McMarin’s over The Dog Ate Our Team Name. I only say this because I feel like the other matchups are going to go the way they’re seeded while with this matchup we have 2 teams that are very evenly match with only a slight numbers advantage on one side. Could we see FiddleFyre Festival taking out JUSTINx4? Sure. Do I think it will honestly happen? No. Do I want it to happen? Yes, but the Justins are just too strong I fear. This is going to be a very interesting playoff race to keep an eye on whether you’re in it or not. -Mako hero
Playoffs are here and only our top 4 teams remain! Alternative Pet Merchants easily made it with an impressive 15 point advantage over Defias. Mistah Lah Vistah, Baby had a close call, but clutched a 16-8 win in the final week before playoffs securing their spot. Player wise we gotta give credit to Fsorace1! Not only is he our top player of the week but they made playoffs in Legacy and Pro as well! Alternative Pet Merchants has almost their full team on our top player list this week. Playoffs are always an exciting time in the season and any team could go all the way. We will have to see which team comes out on top over the playoff weeks! -amazingoo pro
We have a playoff cut, let the real games begin! Congratulations to Cheese Mongers and F2L for clinching the top two spots and the bye that comes along with it. Enjoy the week off while the rest of us figure out if we still force Big Spell Mage or not. Onto the matchups: Staff of the Five Dubs vs The Terrible Tourists Kudos to the Tourists for grabbing a playoff spot in this field of top competition. They've played well throughout the season, winning big when it counted to finish with an even record. All that said, I don't see them topping the Staff this week. Staff had three players contending for the undefeated record most the season (Empol, Copa, Pace). And while each of them ended 5-1, I don't see multiple upsets happening for the Tourists. Whodack's Baseless Educated Wish: Staff 17 - Tourists 11 A Possible Miscalculation vs BrushyTuna I hope they stream some of this series. RonMexico v CalebEM? Fsorace1 v Dagda? Yes, please! This series has the makings of a THL classic. And, I see it coming down to the last match. I'm going to give BrushyTuna the edge on this one. RonMexico is still on an undefeated streak. And when McBanterFace is your 4 seed your team should be well positioned for a good playoff run. Whodack's Baseless Educated Wish: BrushyTuna 15 - APM 12 -Whodack wild
layoffs have been set in stone for a long time. The top two teams, Sunburnt Shakers and F2L: Viridian, have been terrorizing wild for a long time, but both went out in the semis last season. Does that signal a shift in the meta? I’m not sure, but both Staff of the Five Dubs and Wild THL Fanatics place multiple players in the top ten. When it comes to players, we finish the season with only one undefeated player - and to everybody’s surprise, it’s not Lorthos, who picked up a loss in the final week to push his record down to 5-1, but rather kvlt, a regular presence at top legend who showcased why he belongs in the running for THL Wild MVP this season. Well done to kvlt! (Checks my opponent this week…oh no). In second and third are two of the Shakers’ pillars, both sitting at 5-1 and proving why some want these overpowered teams broken up. OTZaixia and Tigereye habitually sit near or at the top of the leaderboards each and every season, and Season 13 is no exception. Well done! In fourth place, we see our first Dub in Nice Jewish Owl, whose opponents may disagree with the “nice” moniker, as he has stomped over the competition without much trouble. In fifth place is…Devalion! That’s me! I missed a week due to my trip to Poland but I’m still sitting comfortably in the x-1 bracket: I’ll take it! My teammate Superbase takes a solid 4-2 record into 7th place, where he will face 8th-place Itachi in what may well be the most even matchup (at least, as per power rankings formula) of the entire semifinals. Naturally, all who are on the side of light and goodness believe in Superbase. In ninth place is one of THL’s best fine-tuners, Sinferno, sitting comfortably at 4-2 and a lethal weapon in the 3 seed who could very well power the Staff into a shock upset. And, finally, we round out our power rankings with its only 3-win player, ForChrist, but look at the murderer’s row of opponents he’s had to face! After a week one victory vs CosmicGhost, it’s all been heavy hitters from there: a loss vs NeonHeron (who frankly I’m surprised didn’t make it on the list, he’s had a cracked season and his opponents should be…shaking…in their boots (ba dum tsh) in a tight 5 game series, successive defeats of Nice Jewish Owl and rebobson, and another 5-game loss vs the always-scary nhlnjfan. My predictions: Wild THL Fanatics beats F2L Viridian by 1 point (there can surely be no bias in there, no sirree), but the miracle run ends in the finals where the Sunburnt Shakers show the world why they’re the favorites each and every season as they roll to yet another championship, losing only one match each series. But rest assured, BOMD and the boys will do all we can to make sure those predictions don’t come to pass! DOWN WITH THE SHAKE-IARCHY! -Devalion duos No more meme predictions. This is the final week of the regular season for Duos. It’s time to lock in. TIHCWWPICWP IS GOING DOWN THIS WEEK! For real though, Duos has been very competitive in its first season. We’ve seen a consistent top 10 from week to week with barely any new duos entering. As a reminder for playoffs, the top 2 teams from each division will make playoffs. As of right now that is tihcwwpicwp, W9SH(ED), Bop, Death Hunters, Staring at Bros Vol. 1, purple, and bone block. With this final week, those teams could change but most of those teams are locks at this point. The most likely change would come in the 2 seed from the Turquoise Division, right now being held by W9SH(ED) by a very small margin.
-Mako
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introductionWELCOME TO THE FSORACE1 SHOW! As we continue our weekly tracking of the top players and teams in each series, we are starting to see the inklings of some patterns across the divisions. As a reminder, we use internal data calculated into a formula called PAR to create these rankings. PAR calculates data such as win/loss, game win rates, and strength of schedule. Each week we will be updating you on how these players and teams shift throughout their respective series, as well as highlighting individuals and their journeys. Feedback is welcome as we continue to iron out the kinks in the format and stylizing of this blog series. legacy
You’re going to notice a theme across all of the power rankings this week if you just look at the number 1 player spot. There wasn’t a whole lot of excitement this week in terms of the shaking-upping of the rankings for Legacy. We saw some new teams enter the top 10 who have been there previously and everyone else stayed in the same spot, or close to it. We seem to be at that part of the season where things have mostly settled. I’m more interested in seeing how these player rankings shake out week-to-week. We are 6 weeks in and have an incredible number of players with 1 or fewer losses and 0 of them sharing a team. I can’t remember a time where we had multiple players finish a season undefeated and if it has happened, it is very rare. -TwoStarMako hero
Our top 2 teams really do not want to lose those spots! Defias was able to take a leap on the leaderboard thanks to their 15-8 win this week. Mistah La Vistah also sneaks into the list after a tie in their match. Player-wise our top 2 for the week have flip-flopped places. Molestar was able to jump up the highest this week after a 3-0 win. We also have quite a few new faces that were not in our top places last week. Overall, it looks like Alternative Pet Merchants have taken quite a lead with 89 points which will be hard to beat this late into the season. -amazingoo pro
Welcome to The Traveling Travel Agency! We need a mix-up to the meta, because the Pro Series Top Four teams did not budge or move around in the top four seats. All four teams only have one loss a piece, the data point separating F2L from the rest of the top teams being that they are taking their bye this week. The other three teams will need to win to each have a shot at stealing the top seed. If I've done my math right, any team finishing with 4 wins is getting a pass to the playoffs this year. This means that F2L, BrushyTuna, Five Dubs, Cheese Mongers, and A Possible Miscalculation have five of the six spots locked in. The last spot will be open to The Terrible Tourists if they finish with a win this week, or may be open to Washed Up if the Tourists slip to 3-3 and Washed wins and ends 3-2-1. OPP and Imp-posters have a long shot if both Tourists and Washed Up fall and either of them get to 3-3, but the tie breaker math is not in their favor. Best advice for all teams: Play it out to the end. All those teams locked into the playoffs can still go up and down in seeding, and all those trying to sneak into the playoff need to finish strong to have that small window of opportunity open up! Looking real quick at the individual players: Fsorace1 saddled up the top spot again with close 3-2 win over Empol, who gets knocked out of the undefeated standings. AgentPWE remains the only 6-0 player, with nVision at 5-0 and DragonRider and RonMexico having 4-0. Congratulations to all the players still standing, and good luck going into the last regular season week! -Whodack wild
Yet again, not much movement around the teams. The playoff field feels like it was set in stone since Week One, and the only drama remaining is if I AM A SHAPE! can pull off a ten-point upset over Staff of the Five Dubs to sneak into the last playoff spot. The top three teams are just resting and prepping their guns for semis. The players power rankings, on the other hand, still has some drama, and it’s worth noting that even the weaker teams are starting to get their top players into the top ten. Lorthos wins yet another week by a clean 3-0 to retain the first place. Maxiebon1234 rises up to second with an upset of NeonHeron, paving the way for Devalion (myself) to rise into the top three. kvlt, our second undefeated player (does anybody know how to get G**gl* drive not to constantly “correct” my formatting? grr), takes a massive jump into the top half of the top ten, leapfrogging over OTZaixia and Tigereye of the Shakers to jump into fourth. My good friend Nice Jewish Owl, who just scammed me out of a beautiful 12-win Marin the Manager arena deck yesterday, enters the leaderboards for the first time this season. He sits comfortably in seventh. Seventh is below third. Seems like a skill issue. Superbase, who as a fourth seed was the lowest-seeded player to be in the top ten, has been running through a murderer’s row of opponents - his sweep of Bonemasher clinched a playoff spot for Wild THL Fanatics last week. We wouldn’t be in playoffs without him so this eighth place is well deserved. MtgSquirrel may have only played three weeks, but he’s won each time, so he enters into the top ten. Finally, I’d be remiss not to harp a bit on Copa, who welcomed me in to THL with a spot on his fledgling Worldshakers (RIP Worldshakers, we were so close) team two years ago and took me under his wing, teaching me the ins and outs of THL and taking me from a nearly-winless season (thank you disqualifications!) to last season’s MVP. Along the way, he also took time to captain every other series multiple times, serve on the board, and generally make THL a more inviting and inclusive place. Copa, you’re the GOAT, and it’s so good to see you rising to the top this season. And you’d better keep winning, because if you fall down to that 2 seed come playoff time, you know who awaits - and he’s hungry… -Devalion duos Okay, maybe my one bold prediction was just an anomaly. Maybe just predicting the only undefeated team to lose is just a cop-out easy way for content. OR MAYBE NOT…PYLET PROGRAM OVER TIHCWWPICWP THIS WEEK BAYBEEEE
-TwoStarMako When it comes to playing Hearthstone, THL is an entirely different beast compared to ladder. There’s an added layer of preparation to matchups, giving THL more depth than what you’ll ever find on ladder. Consider lineup construction—there’s a lot to take into account. What classes/decks/archetypes does the opponent like? What does the ladder meta look like? What are the top performing decks? What decks have you played the most lately? There are so many questions and only four options to bring at the end of the day.
The Meta Analysis Team wanted to look into how THL constructs its lineups given these questions, so we queried some of the league’s players across the community to learn about their approaches to lineup strategies. Here are some of the methods they told us: introductionAs we continue our weekly tracking of the top players and teams in each series, we are starting to see the inklings of some patterns across the divisions. As a reminder, we use internal data calculated into a formula called PAR to create these rankings. PAR calculates data such as win/loss, game win rates, and strength of schedule. Each week we will be updating you on how these players and teams shift throughout their respective series, as well as highlighting individuals and their journeys. Feedback is welcome as we continue to iron out the kinks in the format and stylizing of this blog series. legacy
Legacy this week saw a small shake-up as I’m not your Bouldering Buddy, Friend saw their first loss, leaving us with only one undefeated team. We could see our final undefeated team fall this week as JUSTINx4 faces a fairly tough matchup against Fiddlefyre Festival. One other biased note regards the continuous climb of McMarin’s up the power rankings. Over on the player side of things, only one of the previous group of five undefeated players fell last week. Inside of the top 10, we see a small pattern developing. If you’re in the top 10, unless you’re undefeated, there’s a good chance you’re in the Gold conference. Red ez mode?? -Mako hero
This week in Hero we saw our top 3 teams stay right where they were last week! Seems like they are all fighting hard to keep that place. We also saw team Defias make their way into the top 5 thanks to their close win against Mistah Lah Vistah, Baby. Every team was fighting hard during this week as the biggest point difference was only 4. Nobody wants a blowout this late in the season it seems. Player wise, our top 4 were able to keep their spots and we were able to see some new faces on the bottom half of our top 10. Starlax, Molestar, and Copa were able to get themselves right on the list as all of these players won their matches this week! As the weeks go on, everyone is continuing to fight their hardest for a top spot and we will see if the top teams and players can remain on top. -amazingoo pro
Tons of movement this week in the top 10 of the Pro Teams Power Rankings. F2L dispatches Terrible Tourists, knocking Tourists out of the Top 5 and reclaiming the number one overall for F2L. Staff of the Five Dubs finished another 4-1 week, keeping the Imp-osters out of Top Five consideration another week. At the other end of the Top 10, Opportunistic Pro Players sneak into the 10 spot sliding in off of a bye, and a group of 2 win teams including Washed Up and ET Yogg-Saron are all lingering to try to sneak into the top six for a playoff spot. Looking at the top players, I have respect that needs to be put on a few names. I said we had six undefeated players but left two players off of that list: Copa (Staff of the Five Dubs) was on the Top 10 in the 9th spot, and Empol (also Staff) was undefeated but not in the Top 10. Both players had decisive 3-1 wins for their team, skyrocketing Copa to the #1 spot and Empol up to #9. The other undefeated players still looking at a potential perfect season are: AgentPWE (F2L), Dragonrider (Hearthstone Queens), Fsorace1 (BrushyTuna), nVision (Opportunistic Pro Players), and RonMexico (BrushyTuna). -Whodack wild
In Week 5’s most anticipated matchup, Wild THL Fanatics defeated Staff of the Five Dubs by a score of 16-8 to leapfrog (pun absolutely intended) them and F2L: Viridian to move into second place behind the Sunburnt Shakers, who took a week off after their dominant first half of the season. This week, stay tuned to F2L vs the Staff, as the two jockey for a high playoff spot. We see a few changes to the player’s power rankings as the wheat begins to separate from the chaff. Master’s Tour winner Maxie, representing I AM A SHAPE! rises to third place. Despite his first loss of the season, SiNF3RN0 of the Staff hangs on to ninth place due to a gangbusters start to the season. F2L’s kvlt took a sub, so his slip to eighth place is merely due to the other good players picking up wins. The other seven players on our list all belong to the Shakers or WTF. WTF, indeed! In tenth place we see WTF’s Superbase, who took a four-game match over the Staff’s four seed to become just the second four seed with three wins and a winning record. Seth, probably better known as ForChrist, the aforementioned “other cracked four seed” rises to seventh on his week off with the Shakers. In sixth place is TigerEye, who defeated me earlier this season (not mindful, not demure). He’s very good. In fifth place is yet another 3-1 Shaker, this time OTZaixia. In fourth place is Wild’s reigning MVP - me! (Devalion). I started the season poorly with a loss to TigerEye in week two but since then I haven’t lost another match! Let’s go WTF woooooo!! Wait, you mean I’m supposed to be unbiased here? Um…*coughs*...anyway, in SECOND place is WTF’s actual one-seed, NeonHeron. He beat the previously-undefeated SiNF3RN0 in four games to move to a 4-1 record on the strength of two new decks. With wins over Wild all-stars such as SiNF3RN0 and Seth, in most seasons he’d be well on his way to an MVP. Of course, most seasons don’t have Lorthos. What can be said about Lorthos that hasn’t already? In a relatively short time, he has quickly become the undisputed GOAT of Wild THL. Perhaps the only player who can instantly take a team from irrelevancy to the playoffs all by himself, putting him on the Shakers is just overkill. I’ll simply state without comment a statistic I found while researching this week’s power rankings. In five-and-a-half seasons, including playoffs, Lorthos has five, count em five, match losses. He has twenty-eight match wins. His record is 4-0/12-3 this season btw. While the playoff race is heating up, with WTF, the Staff, and I AM A SHAPE! all duking it out to avoid elimination (despite a slight deficit in the standings, I AM A SHAPE! has matches against both its competitors and as such could still sneak into the playoffs), and there is intrigue at the top of the pack of player standings, season 13’s MVP is all-but-decided. Lorthos merely has to avoid two losses in a row (which to the best of my knowledge has never happened to him before) and his second MVP will be his to claim! But as a card-carrying WTF member myself, I’d be remiss if I didn’t glaze up NeonHeron, who is the only player with a realistic chance to catch him. Here’s for an EPIC final two weeks of the season! -Devalion duos Oh boy does it feel great to say, “I told you so.” Just last week I predicted the defeat of the once-undefeated Death Hunters. Should this become a running gag? Do I have the touch of death? Let’s find out. “Mako’s Prediction of Peril” for this week is the defeat of the brotherly love duo of tihcwwpicwp to fellow top 10ers, The Burnouts. Everything else in Duos is unimportant right now. All that matters is that I continue to be right. We will return to your regularly scheduled coverage next week if I am incorrect.
-Mako IntroductionAs we continue our weekly tracking of the top players and teams in each series, we are starting to see the inklings of some patterns across the divisions. As a reminder, we use internal data calculated into a formula called PAR to create these rankings. PAR calculates data such as win/loss, game win rates, and strength of schedule. Each week we will be updating you on how these players and teams shift throughout their respective series, as well as highlighting individuals and their journeys. Feedback is welcome as we continue to iron out the kinks in the format and stylizing of this blog series. legacy
Another week of Legacy gone by and we see a lot of shake-up in our top 10 teams and players, with the latter containing 50% new players. Two evenly matched matches, McMarin’s vs The Dog Ate Our Team Name and Lethally Blind vs Anotharrr Patches Meta, provided our biggest shake-ups of the week with the latter of both matches falling by five spots each in the top 10. The top 10 players saw an influx of new players as the standings start to even out. With it being this early in the season, one loss can drop you from the top 10 and we saw that this week. It will be interesting to see if this pattern continues or if the top 10 starts to settle with a consistent group of players in the coming weeks. -Mako Hero
Hero saw many new players coming into the spotlight this week with 4 brand new players on the top 10 list! Neverland also took a large leap straight into first place with their teammate Fsorace1 right on their tail. Our top teams for the week mostly stayed the same with teams 1-4 all jumping up or down a spot. It seems these teams are all trying extra hard to remain up on the top! F2L Black was just able to slip themselves into the top 5 with a close 12-11 win against (yet) Another Premium Mountain who were our top team from last week. Everyone and every team seems to be in a close race for those top spots and I am sure we will see the top players and teams continue to shuffle as the season goes on. -Amazingoo pro
Pro Series saw a leader swap this week as BrushyTuna continued their win streak and the previously undefeated F2L fell to the up and coming Cheese Mongers United. The top three spots all share a 3-1 record. And the last two spots in the Top Five are rounded out by the undefeated Staff of Five Dubs and The Terrible Tourists who traded 4th and 5th this week. No new teams broke into the Top Five this week, but there was lots of movement with the teams at the top of the list. In Top Players, there are six players still undefeated. At 4-0, Fsorace1 (BrushyTuna), AgentPWE (F2L), Dagda (A Possible Miscalculation), and nVision (Opportunistic Pro Players). At 3-0, Dragonrider (Hearthstone Queens) and RonMexico (BrushyTuna). With three weeks left in the season, there's a good chance at least one of those will still stand undefeated - WHO WILL IT BE? -Whodack wild
The wild team power rankings see little change. After getting upset by the Worgen Greasers, my own team, WTF, sees itself fall to the fourth slot, while F2L: Viridian has done its customary “lose the first week and start winning again” strategy. It climbs to third place exiting its bye week. As for the players, there are still four undefeated players remaining: in first place is, as usual, Lorthos, with Sinferno, THL’s resident shaman specialist and brewer beyond compare (bompare?) sitting in second. Kvlt, a man who needs little introduction to those who have the misfortune of being his opponent in top legend, is 5th, and Copa, a consistently strong-but-not-elite player has taken a BIG jump up, along with his teams, in all five series. He is undefeated, his team is ranked second in the power rankings, and the Staff could well be on their way to picking up their first crown! Lorthos is joined by TigerEye, OTZ, and Seth, probably better known as ForChrist, in the top ten. The Shakers were upset in the quarterfinals last season and swore to end this ignominy: the team is undefeated and four of their five players are in our top ten! Entering the bye week, this is the team to beat, Wild players. Copa and Sinferno are joined by Gummbii, a man who took revenge for Even Shaman falling out of the meta by entering into the top 10. However, he faces his hardest test yet in week five: can he cling on to his spot? We shall see… (no this isn’t arrogance on my part I have absolutely no idea who his opponent could possibly be, why do you ask?) My own 1 seed, NeonHeron of WTF, has been performing exceptionally well, only losing one match in four weeks despite bringing the exact same lineup each time. That’s some skill! With a five-game victory over last week’s top player, OTZ, our final new entrant into the power rankings, placing at sixth place, is none other than THL’s resident Superman (Superteen?), maxiebon1234! He is well on his way to yet another excellent season, and it should come as no surprise for those who know him. It feels like every season he reaches new heights. Thanks everyone for tuning in, sorry for the e-sub last week (I was on vacation to Poland, thankfully MartyB is an absolute madlad and stepped in with only a couple hours to go, writing an AMAZING roundup, I owe him a lot of thanks), and I’ll be back with another one next week. As always, happy hunting, lions! Oh and a Master’s Tour win is nice too I guess… -Devalion duos Duos is the perennial underdog when it comes to excitement levels compared to other series. We have three teams sitting comfortably above the rest while everyone else fights for a top spot. It’s a week-by-week battle to see if any of these three powerhouses tumble and fall. I think if it is going to happen, it could happen this week. The 4-0 Death Hunters take on the 0-4 Abusement Park. The kicker here being that our underdog team happens to also feature our current #1 Legacy player in the likes of LLCoolRay. We could see a massive upset in the making.
-Mako IntroductionThis week kicks off our weekly tracking of the top players and teams in each series. We use internal data calculated into a formula called PAR to create these rankings. PAR calculates data such as win/loss, game win rates, and strength of schedule. For each series, you will find the top 5 or 10 players and teams in that series ranked using their PAR score, while including their record and game win rate percentage. Each week we will be updating you on how these players and teams shift throughout their respective series, as well as highlighting individuals and their journeys. Legacy
With only three weeks into the season, Legacy holds only two undefeated teams and one of these teams is putting on a clinic. I’m not your Bouldering Buddy, Friend is currently dominating Legacy Red with a 64.52% game win rate and three players remaining undefeated. Notably, we have an even split of teams in the Red and Gold divisions in our top 10 this week, showing the competitiveness of the series. On the players side, we have a total of 12 players remaining undefeated entering week 4. How many of these players will remain undefeated? History shows at most one, but with Legacy being as competitive as it is we could see zero by the time it is all said and done. We also have two teams that hold more than one player in this week’s top 10: I’m not your Bouldering Buddy, Friend and McMarin’s. AgentPWE, Freshmastafunk, and moonkie are all three representing the former, while Niemz and aharmlessdog represent the latter. -Mako Hero
Three weeks into the season and one team for Hero is pulling ahead. (yet) Another Premium Mountain remains undefeated with a 2-0 score and an impressive game win rate of 65.85%. This season appears rather competitive with only a 4 point gap between the top 5 teams ranging from 37-41 points. It really could be any team's game this season! Our current top 5 players all remain undefeated within this season so far, but it is likely this number will decrease as time goes on. This series has the potential to flip on its head at any moment as a sweep in week 4 could boot any team straight into first place. -Amazingoo Pro
With three weeks in the books we are passing the midpoint of the season with this week's games. There is a top half and bottom half of teams forming, but still plenty of room for any team to make a hard run to the top or a sharp fall to the bottom. A deep dive shows that there are five teams who jumped out in front over the pack. | With Staff of the Five Dubs, we welcome back a group of THL veterans. Will this be the season that Copa and crew take down Pro? We'll see. Weeks one and two Staff had back to back 4-1 series to start the season. Watch out that your team isn't the one to give them the Five Dub sweep they're after. | The Terrible Tourists have a bye this week after catching a beatdown last week from fellow Top 5 team, BrushyTuna. The tourists keep their spot in the Top 5 because they took down another perennial Pro team in Cheese Mongers United in Week One. The Tourists have shown they can hang, look for them to bounce back after the bye. | Cheese Mongers lost a 14-15 squeaker in Week One, and since then they've let the rest of their opponents know how they feel about that. They put up 20 and 24 points in the past two weeks to put themselves back in the Top 3. This week will have huge Top 5 implications as CMU faces off against the top team in the Pro Series (see below). | BrushyTuna's only loss this season is a week one loss to the Pro Series top team (keep seeing below). Since then BT has dispatched teams, including other Top 5 contenders. Expect BrushyTuna to ride into the playoffs like their strange lightsaber wielding avatar. | Death. Taxes. And F2L being a top contender. Currently the last remaining undefeated team. They've had a few tests as they've knocked off other top teams. Can they carry this momentum to an undefeated season? We'll see who else wants to take a shot and try to get themselves in the Top 5! -Whodack Wild
The Sunburnt Shakers have started Season 13 as expected, boasting the top spot on our power rankings. The series favorites are led by their top seed and #1 player in our Power Rankings, OTZaixia. The biggest surprise of the season so far, meanwhile, is Staff of the Five Dubs. Although the team is 1-1, their by-game performance has shot them up to the second spot of the power rankings. Will their captain Copa lead them to a playoff berth this season? There are still a lot of matches to play, but their prospects are looking good right now. - MartyB Duos The first season of Duos is here and we’re off to a fast start. The top half of our top 10 is noticeably ahead of the bottom half when it comes to game win rate and record. Comparatively, the Maroon conference holds a whopping 80% of their members in the top 10. Is Maroon that much more challenging of a conference? We’ll have to wait and see how the coming weeks affect Maroon’s stance in the top 10. -Mako
Introduction Hello! Welcome to the THL Meta Analysis brought to you by Sprinkle, Amazingoo, and Chewie. We have analyzed the Week 2 match data from both Pro and Duos (decks brought, lineups, deck win rates) and are summarizing it with some added commentary and observations. This will be an ongoing series of blogs as the meta develops and shifts throughout the season. Data Charts
 Death Knight Death Knight was the most popular bring in Pro and Duos with Rainbow Death Knight being the most popular archetype. There is not a set list for Rainbow DK yet, with some lists using the recently buffed Buttons along with Razzle-Dazzler to great effect. Rainbow Death Knight was 19-9 (a WR of 68%), while also being the most brought deck and most banned deck.  Demon Hunter Demon Hunter was not seen very much this week. Pirate Demon hunter is the current popular choice for Demon Hunter. This deck is able to get a very aggressive start with cards like Patches the Pilot, Sock Puppet Slitherspear, and Treasure Distributor with all the fast pirates it can get out. The deck has an amazing early game start, but can quickly fall off once it gets to the late game. With a VERY small sample size, Pirate Demon Hunter had a 100% winrate going 1-0. The class was not banned at all this week. Demon Hunter seems like it has been mostly solved with what it wants to do with the only ongoing question being whether or not to run the pain package in the deck.  Druid Druid is another very popular class currently and is split into 2 main archetypes, Dragon/Tempo Druid and Concierge Druid. Tempo Druid focuses on ramp with the dragon package, Doomkin, and New Heights allowing them to get up to a maximum of 16 mana. This allows for a huge payoff with Trogg Gemtosser. This ramping allows them to quickly get to huge payoffs with cards such as Eonar, Zilliax, Marin, and more. An uncontested Dorian on 4 can also end games with the right draws. Concierge Druid remains a great deck as the nerfs did not hit it too hard. The deck is able to do massive bursts of damage with spell damage from Chia Drake, Magical Dollhouse, and Go with the Flow. It can then output massive loads of damage with Swipes and Seabreeze Chalices. The dragon package also allows them to have a great amount of tempo in the early game. Both lists maintained a positive win rate this week with Tempo Druid going 10-8 (55.56%) and Concierge Druid going 7-5 (58.33%). In total Druid was banned 12 times. The class is in a great spot and will likely continue to be brought in future weeks.  Hunter Not much to say here. Hunter was brought a total of 2 times in both Pro and Duos. The class does not bring much to the table currently and it does not seem like it will unless it sees some buffs. Sorry hunter players, you’ll have to wait.  Mage Mage has not been looking the best since the patch. The big spell synergies it received simply have not paid off very much. While spell mage may very much still be viable, the main deck we saw brought this week for mage was Elemental Mage. This deck focuses on playing an elemental each turn to cash in on effects from cards such as Lamplighter and Overflow Surger. With the recent nerf to lamplighter it is not surprising to see that this decks win rate has significantly tanked going 2-8 (20%) This deck was banned a total of 0 times. We will have to see if any new mage lists pop up within the coming weeks, but overall the class does not have the most exciting options.  Paladin Untouched by nerfs, Paladin has been a popular bring for many players. The class is mainly split into two different decks, Aggro Paladin and Handbuff Paladin. Aggro paladin focuses on an aggressive rush to get the opponent to die while handbuff focuses more on its late game with large stats and otk potential. Surprisingly, aggro Paladin's win rate remains negative going 12-16 (42.86%) and handbuff also goes slightly negative going 7-8 (46.67%). Despite the negative win rate, Paladin is a very popular ban being banned a total of 19 times between aggro and handbuff. It will be interesting to see if this negative win rate encourages people to take a different approach with their bans.  Priest Priest has two viable decks right now, the popular Zarimi Dragon Priest, and the skill-testing Overheal Priest. Zarimi Priest is capable of making extremely big boards, with the help of Gorgonzormu’s Cheese and Thirsty Drifters, and then taking an extra turn with Zarimi. This was tied for the second most popular bring, and the third most banned deck. It went 17-14 (55%). Overheal Priest appears to be a powerful deck, albeit harder to play than Zarimi Priest. The deck performed well, at 5-3 (62%).  Rogue Rogue currently has 2 popular archetypes, Excavate Rogue and Elemental Rogue. Excavate Rogue focuses on quickly getting the Azerite Scorpion and Velarok to get powerful discounted cards. It utilizes cards such as Sonya, Shadowstep, and Breakdance to repeat these powerful effects and find a way to finish off the opponent. Elemental Rogue has the same goal as all the other elemental decks. Play an elemental every turn to get to powerful effects such as Lamplighter. However, Rogue has access to bounce effects such as Shadowstep and Breakdance allowing you to replay Lamplighters for huge burst damage. Due to the nerf of Lamplighter, this deck has taken a bit of a backseat recently. One deck that has been showing up lately at high legend is Miracle Rogue. While it has not been seen much this season, I believe it has the potential to dominate if put in the right hands. We have likely not seen it much as it requires quick decisions and fast APM from the player. It will be interesting to see if it shows up in the following weeks and how it performs. Excavate Rogue fell short of a positive winrate this week going 6-7 (46.15%) and Elemental Rogue went positive with a shorter sample size going 2-1 (66.67%).The class was only banned a total of one time.  Shaman Shaman has several archetypes that performed to varying degrees; Evolve, Pirate, Highlander, and Rainbow. Evolve and Pirate were the two most popular by far, and each performed well. Pirate Shaman went 10-5 (67%) and Evolve Shaman went 13-9 (59%). The decks both utilize the early game aggression from the Demon Hunter Class with Carefree Cookie. Sigil of Skydiving and Patches the Pilot allow the decks to fight for board efficiently in the early game, and Carefree Cookie makes trading super favorable Highlander Shaman wasn’t played very much, but had a high winrate, 6-2 (75%). It is capable of beating Rainbow DK and some of the aggro decks in the meta. Bonk Shaman looks like bait.  Warlock Warlock has two viable decks right now, an Insanity Warlock that is one of the most popular decks in the format, and Pain Warlock. Insanity Warlock is extremely refined at this point, picking up new cards like Tidepool Pupil that give it extra utility in the hands of skilled players. The deck performed okay, 10-11 (48%) mostly losing to aggro or other combos like Concierge Druid. Pain Warlock was less played but nonetheless very effective. It went 4-2 (67%).  Warrior Warrior is in shambles. The popular Warrior deck was Unkilliax Warrior, which fared very poorly in this meta, between Yogg or Reska stealing the Zilliax, other classes being able to get under the deck with aggro, or having other answers, the class looks to be in a bad spot. Unkilliax Warrior in particular went 2-8 (20%). The only decks it was able to beat were off meta decks (Excavate Rogue and Elemental Shaman). Lineups
Sprinkle’s Meta Picks: Rainbow DK Zarimi Priest Pirate Shaman Dragon Druid Rainbow DK in it’s current form looks like a must-ban deck. At that point we’re just bringing the next best things. Solid combination of archetypes between a Aggro / “Combo” / and “Control” that doesn’t leave you open to getting swept. Dragon Druid could be swapped with a Warlock deck of your choice. Sprinkle’s Off Meta / Underrated: HL Shaman Pain Warlock Pirate DH Concierge Druid I think Highlander Shaman would perform well if more people brought it, specifically as a counter to Rainbow DK. Pain Warlock and Pirate DH also seem to perform but lack the sample size to know for sure. Your opponent doesn’t want to play against Concierge Druid and it’ll eat the ban for sure. Happy holidays everyone! We have another set of THLDOKU grids for you to solve. . As always, here are some basic rules to follow:
  As always, answers will be posted in the THL Discord server later this week.
Welcome back everyone! We have another set of THLDOKU grids for you to solve. . As always, here are some basic rules to follow:
  Answers will be posted in the THL Discord server later this week. Good luck, have fun!
Hello everyone! We're back with another set of THLDOKU grids for you to solve. This week, the theme is finals. All players listed were involved in at least one series finals this season. As always, here are some basic rules to follow:
   Answers will be posted in the THL Discord server later this week.
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