1st round vs Mizrael, 6lm
I was pretty happy about my map, good roads, nice development on Aislinn and double tower. I took maxi cons on 122 without losses, then another cons for 2 angels, and split my army into 4 directions to pick up resources and expand on map. At 127/131 I made mistake and lost a turn with Aislinn because I tried to take first tope with earth elementals, but spell power was too weak. Thankfully guild was nice and gave DD for first try, and TP for second. In one crucial turn I found flux ai who had 4 cons in his zone. This greatly helped my army and allowed to take topes much easier. There was small contact with opponent, who didnt attack me in tower so I cleared the rest of the map with Aislinn, Grindan and Aenain. I had enough money to triple build giants week 3, and my army was formidable enough to start pressing on 141.I think towards end of week 4 I killed an important hero, and had very strong army so opponent gave up. Turned out he got fullcontrol before I did, but didn't immediately press to the center towns, including flux AI with 4 cons. This allowed me to take these cons and had time to clear the majority of the map.
2nd round vs Falcone, 6lm
This map was not bad either, at least it looked very good in the first days. Sadly my roads turned out to be terrible, at least underground supertreasure was accessible, and I built max lvl guild really fast. I found one mini tope in treasure, it gave titan cuirass. Guild only gave DD on the 5th try, and opponent was already pressing my towns with full control and multiple good mages. I just managed to hold on for a couple turns while Thant took maxi tope in supertreasury, it gave blue hat, thunder helmet, and I think gladius. Blue hat allowed me to come back from treasure, but lvl4 didnt give tp for 4 tries and I eventually lost my good secondary heroes. Only Thant was left with superior army and stats, but no way to catch opponent. At one point I was left with no towns and 3 heroes. It was really tempting to just give up, but I continued playing. I went for opponent's tower to get TP, which he did not rebuild. Spent 50k money hoping to get one of my good secondary heroes back, but no luck. Although the next day Merist arrived in my tavern when I had almost no money left. The situation was still completely hopeless but I tried to pressure opponent into making a mistake, and right after getting Merist back, it happened. Timer ran out and Grindan+Labetha were left at the tower. Merist grabbed the flux, and from there Thant reached these 2 heroes, killed Labetha with an arrow, and defeated Grindan's army in 3 turns.
3rd round vs FTS, 6lm
Another rollercoaster game, even though I think this generation was the most balanced of the 5 maps I had. Map was not rich, I had gorgon dwelling but capturing it was a challenge. Flux AI killed some of my army, but Valeska, advanced archery and 19 lizard warriors did the job well. Alkin showed miracle development, with expert earth on level 4(!). Took mini hive and 2 cons for 6 angels, I thought my situation is pretty good. I made a strategical mistake though by building guild in flux, because opponent came rushing with a huge army and I had no way of protecting it. My only hope was my supertreasury, which turned out to be very good. +6all on ground, 3 topes, library, some hives. First tope gave +3all, the next tope was maxi and gave wings+earth book. Last tope was also maxi but complete garbage. Opponent found DD in his treasure, and was jumping around, killed my valuable Grindan. I started guild in my necro town, and wanted to take the flux town with Alkin. Without DD of course there was no chance to reach, so I hid him in a place, where he could still reach, but normally opponent wouldn't see the hero. This turned out to be winning move, because next rebuild would give TP in flux, and opponent tried to defend the town from my potential scout heroes. Alkin reached and secured the win with shackles.
4th round vs Preds, Mini-Nosta
Initially , roads looked normal and I had luna as 8th hero, had trade post too. Unfortunately map turned out to be garbage, the only 2 things that saved me were movement booster artifacts and rebuild in tower. There was a bug in generation, and I had no access to my biggest treasure without DD.Week 2 I picked up a bunch of useless boxes in treasure, then entered underground treasure in hope of more army. Only found 1 hive, and tope close to road. Planned to take this with expert resurrection and a bunch of mana, but it was maxi, and I wasn't sure I can even survive the battle. I decided not to risk and went for other 2 topes in the previous treasure, which gave some stats, but nothing great. Maxi tope then gave dragon scale armor, +5all and 2 garbage relics. After this I saw stats advantage and took opponent's inferno town, but was scared because army was very weak, so quickly left. Guild finally gave tp on 5th try with library. Opponent had a tope in his stronghold AI's zone, I took this and got +6all. He didn't take the inferno back and I purposely built castle, so 141 had 6 pit lords and started demon farming. With many towns it went well. I entered my inaccessible treasure with DD and cleared most of it. My army towards 147 was 222 horned demons and 60 wyvern monarchs. Found opponent in necro town, with small army, 8 angels, 35 demons, 33 wyverns. I was sure he had AOTD because of suspicious stats, but still attacked because had expert ballistics and indestructible demon horde.
Finals vs Redwhait, Mini-Nosta
With Dessa and Jeddite, good roads and enough money, I was happy with the map, even though it was the 5th generation with fast roads. I think my tempo was pretty good, Dessa developed like shit, but Jeddite developed amazingly. On 124 I was ready for maxi tope, but on lava turned out to be mini and didnt give anything at all. On 125 opponent already took my inferno town and broke my chain to the other treasure that I started clearing with Dessa 124. I calculated and it turned out I cannot surrender my whole army, but I can bring 53 demons and 3 angels which should be able to clear treasure efficiently. Dessa visited library, and 1 day later took tope in the corner of this treasure, my reward was sandals. I scouted one more tope close to town, which Jeddite could take on this day, but was another disappointing mini. I got +4all from it, when I already had +3+3 shield. Since opponent didnt care to take my rampart town, I surrendered my army again and bought back Dessa there. Took my inferno back with Dessa and just managed to bring my second half of army (28 wyvs, 4 efreets) back too. I didn't have control, but with 30/10/20/20 stats I could pressure opponent in flux, where he intended to put grail. With expert tactics and chain lightning of 1440 damage, I was hopeful. My plan was to kill his angels and wyverns immediately with chain lightning+angels, and hit skeletons with wyvern stack, then 2nd round with speed advantage and expert resurrect (which I got on the last day from Jeddite) can gang on skeletons and force opponent to surrender. This didn't happen, because my chain was denied by 10% resistance, so I lost my spellcast and opportunity to devastate his army with 30 attack skill. This meant GG for me. I am sad to lose because I played my absolute best, and had some pretty stressful 4 games before this final. Overall the games were really exhausting, for most of the games I felt luck was not on my side, but managed to turn the game in my favor somehow. Many people asked me, why I didn't dig the grail. I don't know why they assume it would bring me 100% victory, since opponent already came rushing on 125 as red player. Map was extremely high tempo, there was no time or free heroes to dig around. Even if I did know where the grail was, I might have just abandoned digging before 125, because it would mean huge loss of pace. Assuming that I would have the same tempo, with 2-3 heroes digging around for a week, is ridiculous. Not to mention to make use of full control, you need good heroes, so developing Jeddite and Dessa was the priority, I cannot do much with full control and underdeveloped heroes, especially when Thant already takes the flux 126. Giving full control to a stronger opponent is not a very smart idea. If the map wasn't such high tempo, I would agree that digging the grail would be prime strategy here, but that is not the case, and all those who jump into conclusions regarding this match, please look deeper into the facts before commentating. With that being said, I congratulate Redwhait on the title, because he played amazingly, I think it is well deserved.
I'm sorry if this post is too long, I would like to say big thanks to Oxygen and Merlin for making this event so great, Dirty for refereeing and Mizrael, Falcone, FireToSky, Preds, Redwhait for memorable games. The language barrier was a bit of a problem, but I've met many nice people and I am very thankful that I could attend this event. Hope to see many of you next year!