Xixo tops three Hearthstone ladders simultaneously using Zoo

German professional player Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert is the first to simultaneously hold the position of Rank 1 Legend across all three of Hearthstone’s available servers

German professional player Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert is the first to simultaneously hold the position of Rank 1 Legend across all three of Hearthstone’s available servers.

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Using his variant of a Warlock Zoo, featuring the new Goblins vs Gnomes card Implosion and a Sea Giant, the ROOT Gaming player achieved the feat with relative ease, only tweaking the deck slightly to account for what he faced on each server. After taking around four or five hours to climb the last few hundred ranks he needed on each of the Americas and Europe servers, Bentert topped the entire Asia ladder in just over a single day.

Hearthstone places players in one of four regions—Europe, Americas, Asia, or China—based off their geographic location. Users can then choose to play on one of three regions, excluding China, but card lists are unique per region. That means Bentert had to build his deck list on each server independently.

The Americas were the most difficult, Bentert told The Daily Dot. “People kept stealing my rank, so I had to play a lot of times to gain it back,” he said.

The Hearthstone ladder doesn’t just take skill. It’s a massive and often frustrating grind, as evidenced by Bentert’s experience in the Americas. So why put yourself through it not once, but three times? 

Simple. Bentert wanted to do something that had never been done before.

He did so using his own version of the ladder stalwart minion-heavy Zoo archetype.

The decks that dominated Legend in three regions.

The decks that dominated Legend in three regions. Xixo

In the European region, Bentert made use of an old favorite: Tinkmaster Overspark. While Tinkmaster is seeing some play in new Paladin decks, Bentert included it in his Zoo list because of the limited downside from turning one of the deck’s small minions into a slightly smaller creature. With this card not available to him on his America and Asia accounts Bentert had to go without it, but said he would have included in if he could.

“Making your 1/2 a 1/1 and playing a 3/3 for three mana isn’t great but still not a game-losing turn,” Bentert said. “Making your own minion a 5/5 however often just makes your opponent concede.”

While climbing the final stages of the Asia ladder Bentert encountered a large number of Warrior, Hunter and Paladin decks, so he added an Acidic Swamp Ooze to counter those weapon-heavy classes, a strategy that worked successfully.

In addition to his ladder exploits, Bentert ended the year in great tournament form. A third place finish at Seat Story Cup 2 in October highlighted a year that also included victory in the EIZO Hearthstone International and the DKMR Cup.

Image via TakeTV/Twitch


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Weekend Editor, Dot Esports.