Greetings and salutations once again, my fabulous FAB folk! I’m some random #fabdad, also known as Donnie K. or @Dracohominis87, depending on where you find me. Today we’re looking at the coverage provided for the Flesh and Blood 2023 World Championship in Barcelona, Spain!

Without further ado, let’s get the party started!!

All Eyes Converge on Beautiful Barcelona!

“Even the moon was embarrassed by the beauty of Barcelona.” – Andrew Barger, Author

The very best of the very best Flesh and Blood players from around the world gathered in Barcelona, Spain last weekend to crown the game’s second World Champion. Coverage for the event was produced by the same team that handled Calling: Birmingham back in July, Tabletop 24.

The entire event was hosted on the Flesh and Blood official YouTube channel in three live streams, and Legend Story Studios brought out some of the very best casting talent available for this event. Romain Nicolas, Pankaj Bhojwani, Bryan Gottlieb, Matt Di Marco, Erika Forslof, Newsun Zeng, and Brendan Patrick all took turns in the booth all weekend long. Every round had a fresh set of voices who were familiar with the meta that made these exciting games that much better.

The whole team combined to create a wonderful experience for us as viewers. Now, on to the good stuff!

The Numbers We Really Want to Know…

Day One

There were 463 players who arrived in Barcelona to vie for the title of World Champion. The top five represented heroes were only surprising in regards to which hero had the most pilots. There were 79 players who brought Iyslander, Stormbind to the tournament, narrowly passing Dromai, Ash Artist (76) as the most played deck. Bravo, Showstopper was third with 61 pilots and right behind him was Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire with 57. The fifth most represented hero was Fai, Rising Rebellion with 45 total players.

Out of the 21 heroes currently legal in Classic Constructed, there were only two that had no pilots willing to bring them to the main event. Prism, Awakener of Sol and Arakni, Huntsman were both forced to watch the event from the sidelines, but every other hero had at least one player brave enough to sleeve them up.

Day Two

After the first seven rounds of Swiss, the cut-off to continue playing on the second day was set at five wins. A total of 223 players survived the four rounds of Classic Constructed and three rounds of Draft on Day One to keep their dream alive. Seven more rounds of Swiss, consisting of another three rounds of Draft and then four Classic Constructed, was their reward.

Four players dominated the field with a perfect 7-0 record, but Yuki Lee Bender (Canada) sat on the throne in first place. Alex Lo (Hong Kong), Shing Tsang (Hong Kong), and Philip Van Donselaar (Netherlands) were right behind Yuki, all sharing that perfect record as well.

The Day Two field looked very similar to the Day One field, except Fai switched places with Azalea, Ace in the Hole for the fifth most represented hero. Iyslander carried 40 players into the second day, while Dromai brought 36. There were 31 Bravo and 29 Dash pilots that made the cut, and Azalea came in fifth with 25 total.

The pilots of the following heroes were not able to secure enough wins to have any representatives on Day Two: Riptide, Lurker of the Deep, Viserai, Rune Blood, Vynnset, Iron Maiden, and Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate. Interestingly, six out of the eight Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn players made the cut, for an impressive 75% conversion rate.

Top 8 Cut

The final cut at the World Championship in Barcelona was a twist on what I personally expected. (I thought Bravo was going to win it all, but he didn’t even make the cut. And I certainly didn’t expect three Ninjas!) The Top 8 consisted of two Iyslander, Stormbind, two Fai, Rising Rebellion, two Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire, only one Dromai, Ash Artist, and one Katsu, the Wanderer. Yuki Lee Bender remained in first position throughout the tournament and cruised into the highest seed in the Top 8.

1. Yuki Lee Bender (Canada) / Iyslander, Stormbind
2. Easton Douglas (USA) / Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
3. Shing Tsang (Hong Kong) / Iyslander, Stormbind
4. Aaron Shantz (Canada) / Dromai, Ash Artist
5. Matthew W (USA) / Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire
6. Pudding Tam (Hong Kong) / Katsu, the Wanderer
7. Daniele Frattarelli (Italy) / Fai, Rising Rebellion
8. Alexandros Argyriou (Greece) / Fai, Rising Rebellion

Round by Round Breakdown

For the round-by-round breakdown, I’m once again skipping the Draft portion of the event to focus on the Classic Constructed coverage. Bright Lights limited is a very deep, intricate, and interesting format, but there’s only so much time available in the day.

If you’re interested in the high-level Draft strategies employed, I suggest going back and rewatching the live coverage. (Yuki Lee Bender put on a clinic with Dash, Database during several of the featured Draft games.)

Day One (Four Rounds Classic Constructed, Three Rounds Draft)

Round One – Vlastimil M. (Dash, I. E.) vs Michael H. (Bravo, Showstopper)

Imagine looking at the pairings for the first round of the Flesh and Blood World Championship tournament and seeing that last year’s winner, the reigning World Champion, is your first-round opponent. Then you get called to the feature match area for thousands of players to scrutinize every decision you make while playing against him. That would be intimidating for anyone.

Vlastimil did a respectable job of putting nerves aside and just playing the game. He managed to assemble a full board of Pistol-supporting items for Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire to use, but Michael’s Bravo, Showstopper was on the war path. Eventually, Bravo put Dash down to one life point and no cards after a critical Pummel hit and followed it up the next turn with a dominated Crippling Crush to end the game.

Round Two – Matthew F. (Iyslander) vs Jack T. (Hong Kong)

In the second round of Swiss, we saw another early feature match favorite in Matthew F. on Iyslander, Stormbind taking on Jack Tang and the second Bravo, Showstopper of the day. The life totals ended up much closer than Jack probably wanted, but he managed to sandbag a Sigil of Solace in the arsenal for the critical final turn. When Iyslander committed Storm Striders to push for the final points of damage instead of blocking a lethal attack, the Sigil kept Bravo alive and Matthew extended the handshake.

Round Three – Matthew M. (Dash, I.E.) vs Mariusz S. (Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate)

Much to the delight of the YouTube chat, in the third round we saw Matthew M. on Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire take on Mariusz S. and Teklovossen, Esteemed Magnate. Both players were still undefeated going into this round. Teklovossen’s game plan into the match was to stall until Dash ran out of steam (pun intended), and Mariusz managed to execute it perfectly. Dash pushed Teklo down to five, but with no cards left in deck, Matthew extended the fist bump as soon as he played his final blue attack.

(Mariusz spoke briefly about his deck in a post-game interview starting at time stamp 3:13:00 of the Day One stream if you’re interested in hearing his thoughts on Teklovossen in the metagame.)

Round Four – Paul Le Gouez (Rhinar) vs Matteo Favretto (Boltyn)

The last round of Classic Constructed for Day One pitted Paul Le Gouez on Rhinar, Reckless Rampage against Matteo Favretto on Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn. Rhinar looked to be firmly in the driver’s seat of the game until Boltyn presented a double Lumina Ascension turn, where the life totals were brought back to parity. A few more blows were traded and both players ended up with single-digit life totals, but Matteo came away with the win after cashing in Snapdragon Scalers to present enough chain links to clear out Paul’s hand for the final Command and Conquer to end it.

Round Four (Backup Game) – Zach B. (Bravo) vs Ethan V.S. (Levia)

While the pros were drafting their pools for the last three rounds of the day, the backup game from Round Four was shown on stream. Zach B. on Bravo, Showstopper faced off against Ethan V.S. on Levia, Shadowborn Abomination. The game was dynamic but, by the end of it, Ethan was able to show off his mastery of the Shadow Brute class. Barraging Beatdown pushed a Mandible Claw to five, and the only thing Zach had left to block with on the final turn was his Civic Steps. Not enough to survive when you’re only at two life.

Ethan secured the win, going 4-0 with Levia in the Classic Constructed portion of Day One.

Day Two (Three Rounds Draft, Four Rounds Classic Constructed)

Round Eleven – Alex L. (Katsu) vs Yuto S. (Dorinthea)

After Yuki Lee Bender cleaned house in the Draft rounds again on Day Two to become the only undefeated player left at the event, we got back to Classic Constructed in Round Eleven. Alex L. on Katsu, the Wanderer faced off against Yuto S.’s Dorinthea Ironsong in a throwback to the original Welcome to Rathe battles.

This was one of the most intense games of the event, and the one most worth going back to watch, other than the Finals. Both players had monstrously huge power turns, showing off the highest ceilings each hero could reach, but Katsu was the last one standing at the end of a double Bonds turn, followed by another full combo line on the next turn to finish things up.

Round Twelve – Daniele F. (Fai) vs Pedro U. (Rhinar)

Traditionally, Rhinar is not happy facing off against super aggressive decks, and particularly not happy to see Fai now that Lexi, Livewire is gone from Classic Constructed. However, Pedro U. and his Rhinar, Reckless Rampage did a perfect job of navigating through the constant barrage of fire from Daniele F. and his Fai, Rising Rebellion.

Eventually Fai dropped to one life in order to keep applying pressure once Rhinar hit two life. But by then Pedro had found the Reckless Swing he needed to end the game in the reaction step before Fai could finish the Brute off.

Round Thirteen – Aaron S. (Dromai) vs Philip V.D. (Fai)

At this point in an event at this level, tensions are running high, and a loss can be devastating. When you’re this close to securing a place in the top cut, a lot of players’ nerves start to show. Aaron S. on Dromai, Ash Artist had to hate seeing Philip V.D. presenting a Fai, Rising Rebellion this late in the Swiss, since it’s a notoriously hard match for Dromai to win. (That didn’t stop him from actually winning the game though.)

When Dromai summoned Dominia, Aaron was able to rip one of the only poppers in the deck out of Philip’s hand in a critical turning point for the tempo of the match. The real nail in Fai’s coffin came later on though, when Aaron played a Tome of Imperial Flame and then Tome of Fyendal to gain critical life and cards when his Dromai already had the tempo. Philip wasn’t able to clear the board and threaten Aaron’s life total while defending himself and lost to Burn Them All‘s arcane damage not long after.

High Stakes Mistake

There was a serious play error on Philip’s part that stalled the game for a brief period of time. At Day Two time stamp 5:48:39, he pulled a Phoenix Flame from his pitch zone and played it instead of reaching for the one in his graveyard. He ended up putting the Phoenix Flame from the pitch zone into his graveyard at the end of the chain and the game continued with neither player realizing the mistake.

The judge staff fixed the error a few turns later, putting the Phoenix Flame back on the bottom of the deck where it belonged, and also reversing two life points worth of damage dealt to Aaron/Dromai. The damage came after Philip returned one Phoenix Flame at instant speed on Aaron’s turn with Fai’s hero ability to use as a chain starter and then pulled the second one on his turn to end the combat chain with the illegal copy.

Round Fourteen – Philip V.D. (Fai) vs Pudding T. (Katsu)

Philip had very little time to reset from the loss in Round Thirteen before he was back on camera again, this time putting the Draconic Ninja Fai, Rising Rebellion up against the original Ninja, Katsu, the Wanderer and Pudding T. The casters were spot on in saying that Fai doesn’t like dealing with all of Katsu’s triggers and break points. It’s not an easy match for Fai to win most of the time, and Pudding demonstrated why.

Once the life totals were low, Katsu was able to trade damage while blocking efficiently and Philip’s Fai couldn’t keep up. Pudding ended the game by going wide enough to pull all the cards from Philip’s hand and then breaking the combat chain to use Heartened Cross Strap to pay for a Command and Conquer for lethal.

Day Three / Top 8 Playoffs

Each game of the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and the Finals was shown on stream, so you can go back and watch any of the games that particularly interest you. As I’ve done before though, I’m going to highlight one game from each round to summarize here.

Quarterfinals – Aaron Shantz (Canada) (Dromai) vs Matthew W. (U.S.A.) (Dash, I.E.)

Here on the East Coast of the US, the Quarterfinals of the World Championship started sometime around 3AM locally, so I missed watching this game live. Aaron Shantz and Dromai, Ash Artist returned to the camera to defend themselves against Matthew W and his Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire. A furious series of boosts sent several of Matt’s critical power cards to the banish zone and Aaron was able to manage his life total while presenting dragon after dragon for Matt/Dash to deal with. Ouvia created a “dumpster” of Aether Ashwings for Aaron in the final turns of the game and Dash couldn’t clear them quickly enough to end things in Matt’s favor. Aaron Shantz/Dromai advanced to the semifinals.

In the other quarterfinal games, Shing Tsang (Hong Kong) / Iyslander, Stormbind defeated Pudding Tam (Hong Kong) / Katsu, the Wanderer, Easton Douglas (U.S.A.) / Dash, Inventor Extraordinaire fatigued Daniele Frattarelli (Italy) / Fai, Rising Rebellion, and Alexandros Argyriou (Greece) / Fai, Rising Rebellion pulled off an upset by running away with the game against the first seed, Yuki Lee Bender (Canada) / Iyslander, Stormbind.

Semifinals – Easton Douglas (U.S.A.) (Dash) vs Shing Tsang (Hong Kong) (Iyslander)

All the pressure of winning was on Easton Douglas and Dash this round. Shing came into the game with the goal of pulling off a strong Kano impression after setting up a huge Frost Hex combo to win. Unfortunately for Easton, his list was not set up to play the rush down deck and he gave Shing all the time in the world to set the combo up.

On the combo turn, Shing popped three Energy Potions and the Tunic counter when there was only one card left in Easton’s hand. He then pitched three more blues to present a fused Ice Eternal, creating eight Frostbites under Easton’s control and removing the last card in hand thanks to Insidious Chill. He then used the card he revealed for the fusion to pay for Metacarpus Node, dealing nine damage, and at the end of the turn, the three Frost Hexes on board would have triggered, dealing three damage for each Frostbite left over. With only 12 life remaining and facing down an incoming 24 points of arcane damage, Easton recognized that he was dead, and extended the handshake to congratulate Shing on his advancement to the finals.

In the other semifinals match, Aaron Shantz’s Dromai was not able to stop the relentless aggression from Alexandros Argyriou’s Fai and Alexandros moved on to the finals to face his second Iyslander of the Top 8.

Finals – Alexandros Argyriou (Greece) (Fai) vs Shing Tsang (Hong Kong) (Iyslander)

Like the rest of the 4,000 or so people watching the final game live, I was on the edge of my seat for this whole game, and you should go back and watch it as well if you weren’t there to bear witness to history.

The final game of the 2023 Flesh and Blood World Championship in Barcelona concluded a Top 8 cut dominated by the heroes from Uprising and featured two players who would not be bringing the Champion’s trophy back to North America this year, regardless of the winner. Alexandros and Fai once again faced the difficult task of melting the ice presented by Iyslander, and Shing was hoping to stutter or stop Fai long enough to keep control of the pace of the game.

Shing dropped life rapidly at first, falling to the single digits at an alarming rate, but then managed to find the disruption he needed to stave off the constant assault. Alexandros dropped to a barely safe 12 life, but kept his foot firmly on the gas pedal thanks to a seemingly infinite amount of blue pitch. Finally, Alexandros clinched the victory with an Art of War pumping Ronin Renegade over blocks for Shing’s last life point.

Alexandros Argyriou of Greece claimed the $100k grand prize and the title of 2023 Flesh and Blood World Champion with Fai, Rising Rebellion!!

Final Thoughts

There were a number of audio issues throughout the event that did have an impact on the viewing experience. The camera occasionally experienced focusing issues as well, but those seemed to resolve themselves quickly. Despite all that, watching the tournament unfold live was worth every bit of the technical difficulty and I very much enjoyed the content creator bumps that we were shown between rounds. (Including my own at time stamp 2:30:28 on Day One’s stream!)

If you’d asked me to place a bet on which hero would win before the event started, I probably wouldn’t have had Fai at the top of my list of choices. Alexandros (or Alexander the Great, according to the live chat), demonstrated a complete mastery of Fai and showed the world that there’s still a lot of life left in the Draconic Ninja, even without Belittle. But considering that Fai will be at 724 Living Legend points after the totals are adjusted for Worlds, who knows how much longer he’ll have left in the format?

I’d like to say thanks to Tabletop 24 for producing the event, to all the casters who did an amazing job with the play-by-play during three long days of coverage, and a very special thank you to Legend Story Studios and James White for creating such an incredible game. Amazing job team!

Farewell Until Next Time!

History was made in Barcelona last weekend, and Alexandros Argyriou has cemented his place in the grand story of Flesh and Blood. Without question, his achievement will be remembered for the rest of the game’s lifetime. Congratulations, well played, and well earned!

“Barcelona is a very old city in which you can feel the weight of history; it is haunted by history. You cannot walk around it without perceiving it.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

How many rounds were you able to watch live from your time zone? Did you give up sleep to make sure you missed as little of the action as possible? When you saw the Top 8 on Saturday, which hero did you think would win? Let me know in the comments or find me on Twitter/Discord as Dracohominis87!

If you’d like to hear me and my friends geek out about everything that happened in the event, be sure to check out the latest episode of my podcast, the Siblings in Cardboard Podcast on YouTube or Spotify!

Further reading:

A History of Iyslander Before Her Last World Championship

Pro Flesh and Blood Players Tank, and You Should Too!

Evergreen – Fai, Rising Rebellion