Shawn "Triton" Footitt and Team Hafu Take Home Red Bull Team Brawl Championship
- Josh Limon
- Aug 15, 2017
- 2 min read
Last Saturday, UCLA’s own Shawn “Triton” Footitt competed alongside University of Texas at Arlington’s “Egstirminate” and professional player Rumay “Hafu” Wang in the Hearthstone Red Bull Team Brawl at the Red Bull headquarters in Santa Monica, CA. Players competed for the grand prize of $4500 and the opportunity of having Hearthstone events hosted at the winning students’ universities.
The Red Bull Team Brawl began with teams creating three unique decks from a limited selection of cards. Team Hafu carefully selected a Shaman, Warlock, and Mage deck from a pre-determined pool of cards. The selection featured cards from Hearthstone’s most recent expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne.
Shawn and his team had a rocky start in the round robin portion of the Team Brawl. In the first round, Team Hafu faced against Team Reydan and lost 1-3 in a series of tight, well-played matches. Although our Bruin and his team were down, they weren’t out of the competition.
After securing a clean 3-0 victory against Team Firebat, it was time for Team Hafu to face off against Team Amnesiac. Team Hafu needed to win only one game in this set to have more wins than Team Reynad and proceed to the tournament’s grand finals. Despite Team Amnesiac’s impressive record of victories over the other two teams, Team Hafu and their Mage deck forced Team Amnesiac into a top-decking defeat, guaranteeing Team Hafu a spot in the grand finals
In the finals, Shawn and Team Hafu kept their cool and, against the odds, managed to make their way to the last game of the conclusive best-of-five. The conquest format, which disallows reusing winning decks, led both teams to use their Shaman decks in a final duel for the grand prize. At no point did the match allow either team to have a dominant lead or victory. The climax of the tournament arrived just two minutes before the end of the set when Team Hafu had only two cards in hand and a cleared board on screen. Through a final series of calculated plays, Team Hafu won the final match, the tournament, and the title of the champions of the 2017 Summer Red Bull Team Brawl!
Thanks to Shawn’s victory at the team brawl, a Blizzard and Tespa sponsored Hearthstone event will take place in the fall at UCLA! We at Esports @UCLA are excited for this opportunity and look forward to keeping you updated on this upcoming event as the fall approaches. Congratulations to Shawn on an extremely well-played tournament win! Esports @UCLA is excited for Shawn’s future in competitive Hearthstone and will continue to cover his collegiate career. Go Bruins!
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