Clan-Members » that collective battle. Too many easy outs.SUZUKI

And then there were eight. The long road to the Hearthstone World Championship has ended, with eight competitors surviving the grueling thinning-out process, facing tougher odds to survive than a character in a teen slasher movie.Jason Jasonzhou ZhouJasonzhous path to the final eight consisted of two close wins in Group A, considered the toughest bracket based on the names involved. Not only did he topple the favorite, Thijs Thijs Molendijk, in his first game, he also defeated the Americas Spring champion, Julien Cydonia Perrault to be the 2-0 advancee in the bracket.As a noted Control Warrior player, Jasonzhou certainly hasnt passed up bringing a Warrior deck, this time going with a heavy Dragon Warrior that includes Deathwing and The Curator. Also coming for the tourney is a fairly traditional Shaman build with Harrison Jones as a card-drawing tech choice, a possible indication that hes going to avoid banning Shaman in his games, using Harrison to deal with the troublesome Spirit Claw.Rounding out Jasonzhous lineup is a fairly traditional Miracle Rogue, Discolock with the Young Priestess choice, and a Malygos Druid that still retains the nerfed Yogg-Saron.Zhuo Hamster WangFacing off against Jasonzhou in the first round of the quarterfinals is Chinas Hamster, who survived the bottom of the bracket, knocking Hao Bbgungun Li out of the tournament in the final set of games last Sunday.Hamster made some unusual -- and for this analyst, exciting -- choices in the round of 16, playing the only Priest and Paladin decks of this stage of the tournament. Hamster is again bringing those decks, a Priest with two Doomsayers, hopefully drawn early to keep from falling too far behind in the initial turns, and the bursty Anyfin Paladin.Also coming along is a Ramp/Token Druid, not only eschewing Yogg-Saron that is no longer a must-include, but also not bringing Malygos, which has become a common feature in the standard Druid deck of the moment. While there are lots of spells and the Arcane Giants to go along with it, there are two Ancients of Wars, indicating the desire to build a very strong board as his win condition rather than the unavailable Malygos shenanigans.CThun Warrior and a standard Midrange Shaman deck finish up Hamsters lineup.William Amnesiac BartonDescribed fairly as a prodigy as one of the youngest top competitors in Hearthstone, 2016 was really Amnesiacs breakout year and he almost coasted his way through the final 16 with two fairly easy matchups.Amnesiacs going for the tried-and-true, but choosing to not bring a Warrior deck, going with Midrange Shaman, Malygos Druid, Tempo Mage, Midrange Hunter and Discolock. The Shaman deck included the tech choice of Kobold Geomancer, in order to have another early spell damage minion that can activate Spirit Claws. In Druid, theres Baron Geddon, who can decimate Shamans totems and stealthed Cat Trick minions.For Hunter, while Amnesiac is playing the Cloaked Huntress, its still more of a Midrange build, only going with the two Freezing Traps (Huntress is a 3/4 minion which is fine in itself). Stranglethorn Tiger is included, one of my favorite choices in Midrange Hunter builds, simply because its a terrific Kill Command activator in this meta and going against very few Doomsayers, is harder to remove on that first turn than the Savannah Highmane, in a lot of situations.Pavel Pavel BeltukovNot every player that makes a major mistake in a high-pressure game gets the opportunity to redeem themselves, but Pavel does. Eliminated in the European World Championship in 2015 and missing BlizzCon after a play order mistake that resulted in Adrian Lifecoach Koy stealing his Dr. Boom with a Sylvanas Windrunner, Pavels getting that second chance this year.Like Hamster, Pavels bringing a heavy CThun Warrior deck (as opposed to the lighter, cycle CThun that was played a few months ago). Gorehowl is in the build and two Brawls as well to deal with faster decks, so Pavels not likely to be banning Druid or Warrior.For Rogue, Pavels going with the Malygos Rogue, a Miracle-type deck that uses Thaurissan-reduced magic spells rather than Leeroy Jenkins for the final burst. Tempo Mage and the Yogg-Saron-and-Malygos themed Druid deck complete Pavels lineup.Kim Cheonsu CheonsuThe round of 16 was a tough-time for players of the Asia-Pacific region, with only Cheonsu advancing of the four participants (China is a separate region from Asia-Pacific in Hearthstone).Cheonsus five-deck slate consists of Discolock, Midrange Shaman, Dragon Warrior, Malygos Druid (no Yogg-Saron) and Tempo Mage. While the deck order is familiar, Cheonsus tinkered with some of his choices, with some interesting ideas like playing Demonfire in Discolock, a reach/board card that is almost never seen in tournament play. Gone from the round of 16 is his Secret Hunter, a powerful deck that can sometimes run out of steam after a big Secret turn.Julien Cydonia PerraultWhere other players have either cut Secret Hunter for Discolock or backed off the secrets package somewhat, Cydonias going all-in with his Hunter, going with the full slate of secrets. Cydonias Hunter is even going a little more aggressive, swapping out the Deadly Shot for an Argent Horserider, the latter common in more face-oriented builds.The rest of Cydonias lineup stays the same as the round of 16, and given that he had the second-best record in last weeks games, behind only Amnesiac, its hard to blame him for not tinkering with success.Edwin HotMEOWTH CookHotMEOWTHs deckbuilding in the Americas Summer championship was a real treat, featuring some distinct choices such as Lance Carrier in Zoolock that really spiced up the tournament games. The BlizzCon finals are no different, with HotMEOWTH going way out of the box, eschewing all the common Warrior archetypes and going with a highly unusual Patron Warrior build. This isnt the Patron Warrior deck you remember from 2015 or even the modified post-Warsong Commander nerf list, but one featuring Bloodmage Thalnos, Blood Warriors, Wild Pyromancer and Commanding Shout. Patron Warriors lack of charge ability due to the loss of Warsong means it wont suddenly hit you for 60 damage out of the blue, but literally nobody is teching in for this particular deck. Hopefully for the viewers, it wont simply be banned all weekend as a result!HotMEOWTH is also choosing similar tech to Amnesiac, bringing Baron Geddon in his Malygos Druid and Kobold Geomancer with Shaman.Artem DrHippi KravetsUkraines DrHippi had a terrific 2016, not only winning the European Summer championship, but also collecting a cool $15,000 as the runner-up in the European Winter championship, another $5,000 in the Starladder Series, and joining Virtus.Pros new Hearthstone division.DrHippis Dragon Warrior is a more tempo-heavy version, featuring Malkorok, a card that we saw in Tempo Warrior before Dragon Warrior took over its spot in the meta. With a Tempo Mage deck with two Water Elemental and an Argent Horserider in his Midrange Shaman, DrHippi looks to deal directly with minion-based board control. Denis Malgin Jersey . A statement from the worlds top-ranked player says all checks "were satisfactory and showed positive evolution" regarding the injury, which contributed to his loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the final in Melbourne. Colton Sceviour Jersey . -- Playing time has been limited for Maxim Tissot this season, so the Montreal Impact defender made the most of his first scoring opportunity on Saturday. http://www.hockeypanthersofficialonline.com/evgenii-dadonov-hockey-jersey/ . Parker had 26 points and eight assists and San Antonio beat Toronto 112-99 Monday night. "We won that game because of Tony Parkers aggressiveness," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "His juice; his aggression all night long. Vincent Trocheck Jersey . "Trying to breathe," he said with a grin. Bernier stopped 42 of 43 shots on Monday night, including all 22 in a hectic middle frame, his heroic performance propelling the Leafs toward an undue point in their final game before the Christmas break. Custom Florida Panthers Jerseys . Jon Montgomerys gold medal in skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre and his subsequent auctioning off of a pitcher of beer in the village square elevated him to folk-hero status. MIAMI -- It took a career-high 122 pitches, but Carlos Rodon was able to end his winless drought.Rodon pitched six innings to record his first victory since May as the Chicago White Sox beat the Miami Marlins 4-2 on Friday night.Rodon (3-8) had been winless in his previous nine starts following a win against Kansas City on May 22.I tried not to think about it, he said. Sometimes its out of your control but its nice to have one tonight.Rodon, who spent his early childhood in Miami, allowed one run and three hits while striking out four and walking three.I knew he was going to get an extra day, White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. We kind of let him go a little bit. I wouldnt say it was one of the sharpest. He labored through a little bit but guys swung the bat early and at least got him to a point we get it to the bullpen and those guys did a nice job.Adam Eaton tied a career-high with four hits for the White Sox, who had four players drive in a run in their first game in Miami since 2004.Its kind of nice to come to the ball park and not have `BP and just play baseball, Eaton said.David Robertson pitched the ninth for his 28th save in 34 chances.Andrew Cashner (4-9) allowed four runs, nine hits and five walks over five innings for the Marlins, who have lost three of four.Melky Cabrera and Jose Abreu had RBI singles in the first inning and Tyler Saladino had one in the second for a 3-0 lead as the White Sox loaded the bases in both innings.Were lucky those first couple of innings that Andrew was able to get some big outs to kind of limit it, but it could have very easily have been very bad, Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.J.T. Realmutos hit cut the Marlins deficit to 3-1.Tim Andersons sacrifice fly pushed the Chicago lead to 4-1 in the fiftth.ddddddddddddI think in the fifth Ive really got to come out after we score a run and shut them down, Cashner said.The Marlins got a run back in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Dee Gordon to pull within 4-2.Abreu went 2 for 5 with an RBI and is hitting .417 (15 for 36) with three home runs and six RBI over his last eight games.The Marlins had four hits and have scored four runs in their last three games.Offensively weve just got to be collectively better, Mattingly said. ... We dont see that collective battle. Too many easy outs.SUZUKI CLOSING IN ON KALINEMarlins OF Ichiro Suzuki doubled in the seventh giving him 3,003 hits -- four shy of tying Al Kaline for 28th on the all-time list.TRAINERS ROOMWhite Sox: RHP Miguel Gonzalez (groin) was placed on the 15-day DL before the game.Marlins: 1B Justin Bour (ankle) has suffered a setback in the rehab process and might not join the big league club until September after the team looked to have him back last week. I dont know whats happened, but its not going anywhere, Mattingly said. Its not getting better and it seems one thing has led to another and has not been able to progress. I feel like weve gone backwards. ... RHP Bryan Morris (back) is looking to begin a rehab stint by the end of the month.UP NEXTWhite Sox: RHP James Shields (5-14, 5.43 ERA) starts the second game of the series on Saturday night. Shields has allowed 14 runs and 15 hits in 6 1/3 innings over his last two starts, losing both games.Marlins: LHP Adam Conley (8-6, 3.70) takes the mound Saturday looking to continue his recent success at home where he is 3-0 with a 1.37 ERA over his past four starts. ' ' '