After earning their spots through the Qualifiers we've held for the past six weekends, sixty-four players will battle next weekend for the top spot at the $5K Championship.
You can check dates, format and the list of all competitors (link)…
… read the First Part of this presentation (link), and meet sixteen of our Competitors…
… and meet twenty-four more in the lines below.
Meet the Competitors
Sirturmund, multiples Top 1 in Ladder (AM), two Top Cuts in Seasonals, Winner of MaRu Qualifier #2.
"I am a 27-years-old guy from the Dominican Republic," says Sirturmund, "and I work as a Project Manager somewhere in the North East. I am a very competitive player, and as such have gone full try-hard with LoR."
Playstyle: "I have a preference for Midrange decks, leaning more towards Aggro than Control. My favorite decks are Star Spring, Scouts and Azir Irelia, so you can tell I’m a degenerate…"
Sqweeby, Top 11 in Ladder, Top 32 at Seasonals
Sqweeby hails from California, and currently lives in Los Angeles. "When I'm not playing LoR," Sqweeby tells us, "I'm filming and editing adventure/nature documentaries with a production company -- most of our work is for Discovery Channel.
"Before LoR I played Hearthstone Arena almost exclusively, but ever since I first booted up LoR back in open beta I've been hooked. I've been streaming LoR for over a year and make Deck Guides on Youtube in my free time."
Playstyle: "My favorite decks of all time are Slow Burn, Targon Infinite Value, and whatever Twisted Fate Fizz was! For my tournament lineups, I like soft-targeting the 2nd most played deck and ban the most broken one. If I can't do that, I play decks I'm comfortable with."
Goddraw, reached 7-2 in five Seasonals, 28 Prime Glories
"I live in Montreal", says Goddraw, "and, after working as a manager in FLGS for 7 years, I've just started studying to become a software engineer."
Playstyle: "Lineups where my opponent goes 'Oh, no!' every round…"
LazyGuga, 3x Top 32 in Seasonals; Captain, Hydra Gaming.
31-years-old LazyGuga is a writer from Diadema, Brazil.
Playstyle: "I love Midrange decks and lineups."
LordVon, several Top 100 in Ladder (EU)
A 19-years-old music student from Rome, LordVon favors aggro decks for the Ladder, but never for tournaments.
Playstyle: "I think I have never brought an aggro lineup, except when forced due to not having enough cards for other decks. In tournaments, I prefer Control-Combo decks with multiple win conditions, like Lee Sin, FTR, or Nasus-Thresh."
Makantor, Top #7 in Ladder (AM), 1x Top 16 and 1x Top 4 at Seasonals
Makantor is a sales representative from Canada.
Playstyle: "Control." (with a smile)
Maybenextime, Top 3 in Ladder (AM); 2x Top 8 and 1x Top 4 at MaRu Qualifiers
Maybenextime lives in Dallas, working as National Accounts Manager for a logistics firm.
Playstyle: "I prefer Control decks, or decks with a lot of decision points. I'll play whatever gives me the best chance of winning, though."
Metal, Top 16 at Seasonals
Sirturmund has no shortage of praise for this engineering student from Canada. "Metal is one of the smartest players I have seen in this game," says Sirturmund, who arrives at this Invitational by way of winning the second Qualifier. "Every time I have fought him in scrims or in the MaRu Qualifiers, he always finds a way to sneak out a win, or make me sweat a lot. He reminds me a lot of Alan, knowing when to pass and when to commit, and is more than willing to just wait you out.
"In my opinion, what may hold him back is that he likes to play decks he has fun with, rather than just the strongest decks. When he got to top 8 in the first MaRu Qualifier, he was the only player playing mono-Targon Invoke, for example.
"One of the players I'm most scared of to face."
Playstyle: "Midrange-style decks: decks where your choices are fewer in number, but more impactful."
Renrag27, Top 100 in Ladder
"I live in Vail, Colorado, and I'm putting this whole remote work/life thing into full gear," says Renrag27. "When I am not skiing or playing Runeterra, I am a backend Dev who loves never having to write any CSS."
"I much prefer to play Gauntlet or Tournament than Ladder. I have a 26-10 record at Seasonals, and I was waitlisted for Worlds, but have never had 7-2 tiebreakers yet."
Playstyle: "Targon is my favorite region, but Curious Shellfolk
is my favorite card of all time. I love decks that are value-oriented and have flexible win conditions.
"My favorite deck of all time is probably Zilean Shellfolk, and using it to crush foes in the first week of this tournament series was amazing! But anything with Zoe, my favorite Champ, is also great."
Sley, Top 4 in MaRu Qualifier #5
Sley is a lawyer from Venezuela, and a prolific LoR LATAM Youtuber and podcaster from Venezuela
"I love competing," says Sley, "but sadly I don't participate in Tournaments as much as I would like."
Playstyle: "Midrange. And I love Ionia."
Trinathan, Masters every season since joining LoR
"I live in Amish country, Pennsylvania," says Trinathan, "where I work from my basement closet office, managing construction projects all around the country.
"I'm 32, I have eight children and we're waiting our ninth. We named our first son, Aven, after an MTG card, Aven Cloudchaser. I'm also an avid gardener and keep chickens."
Playstyle: "I like Aggro, Burn, and pressure-oriented decks. My favorite deck since I started playing in August 2021 was Poppy Ziggs."
WashedUP, Top 10 in Ladder; Winner of last EU Masters for Germany; multiple Top Cuts at Seasonals
Known as Kuraschi in the EU shard, WashedUP works in Risk Management for a bank.
Playstyle: "I love playing broken Tier 0 decks like Twisted Fate Fizz back in its time, Ahri Kennen now, or whatever is currently the best. I dislike heavy Control decks."
WhatAmI, Top 4 at Worlds, multiple Top Cuts at Seasonals
WhatAmI is a poetry teacher from California.
"I have had a couple of tournament matches versus WhatAmI," says Sirturmund, winner of Mastering Runeterra Qualifier #2, " and every time it has been an uphill battle.
"When we met in Top 8 of Seasonals, I only managed to win due to high-rolling with Azir Irelia. When we met again a week later in Fight Night, he absolutely destroyed me with Karma Lee by being very patient and waiting just for the right time to commit his mana. For sure one of the players that plans his turns ahead of time, a skill that is very important for successful LoR performance."
Playstyle: "Whatever is good into the meta."
Yostwiththemost, Top 2 in Ladder a few times
Living in Washington, Yostwiththemost works in vehicle fleet management.
Playstyle: "No particular preference, just whatever is good. My favorite decks past and present include Lee Sin, Twisted Fate Fizz, Azir Irelia, and TLC."
Yrebellion, Masters last season
"I live in Toronto, Canada," says Yrebellion, "and work as a full stack web developer.
I’ve been playing various different card games for many years now -- Hearthstone, Yu Gi Oh, Magic, Artifact, and now LoR -- but I only started attempting to really play competitively this season. I had hit Diamond in Beta, but hadn't hit Masters until this season."
Playstyle: "I prefer playing Control decks, but I also enjoy Midrange. Aggro decks don’t tend to speak to me very much. In terms of lineups I like to try and find a way to beat the best decks in the format, rather than playing the 'strongest' lineups -- sometimes to my detriment."
Aikado, Top 8 Worlds, Seasonal runner up.
"I'm a 25-year-old Call Center Customer Service Rep by day," says Aikado, "and LoR content creator by night. I live in the US midwest."
Playstyle: "I prefer midrange/combo decks or anything with Shellfolk in it."
Art1ficer, Top 18 in Ladder, qualified for every Seasonal thus far.
"I'm from New Zealand, a very underrepresented country in pro Runeterra," Art1ficer tells us, "and I work in our amazing film industry. I never used to play card games… it has definitely cured me of my LoL addiction!"
Playstyle: "I love Control, and play it no matter the meta!"
ATastyCarrot, beater of Jason Fleurant on stream
ATastyCarrot is a 24-year-old attorney living in Austin, Texas.
Playstyle: "I tend to prefer either Aggro or Control decks. My favorite deck of all time is Thresh Nasus, because it allowed me to do a bit of both."
Brokenball, multiples Top 1 in Ladder (EU); multiple Seasonals Top Cuts; Captain, Team Italy, Europe Masters
Brokenball lives in Italy, in a very stereotypical city by the sea, and is currently studying to become a software dev.
Playstyle: "I would like to say I play the best decks, but that would be a lie -- I usually try to attack the meta and spend a lot of time trying to find and tune off-meta decks, but I have been trying to be more open to just playing good decks and being better than my opponents."
C0balt
A Mechanical Engineer from Melbourne, Australia, C0balt reached Top 8 in MaRu Qualifier #5 but then dropped due to being two hours late for work.
Hasn't shared with us what the boss said.
Playstyle: "My preferred lineup is triple Ionia, including Lee Sin and Feel the Minah."
CardGamer, Top 30 in Ladder, Top 10 in MaRu Qualifiers points.
CardGamer studies Sociology at the University of Central Florida
Playstyle: "I like to play Combo/Control decks -- my two favorite decks were TLC and Glorious Evolution Shellfolk. And I like to try and target the most popular lineups, as long as it's reasonable to do so."
Finni, multiples Top 1 in Ladder, Worlds competitor
24-years-old Finni is a member of Hydra, and lives in Brazil. "Currently I help my mother take care of my sister," Finni says, "and I play Runeterra. I dream of being part of the professional LoR scene. I still haven't made the top 32 in Seasonals, but that's what I want."
Playstyle: "I really like playing with aggro burn, or aggro control."
FloppyMudkip, Top 4 in Seasonals
FloppyMudkip lives in Columbus, Ohio, working part-time and spending most of their free time playing or watching Runeterra. 18 years old, FloppyMudkip used to be a top competitive Pokemon player with multiple regionals wins, and was ranked 3rd in North America before the Covid pandemic shut down in-person events.
Playstyle: "I like playing Burn, Tempo and Combo decks. My favorite deck of all time was Twisted Fate Fizz. As for lineups, I like bringing the best deck and beating anyone who thinks they can counter it."
Hobs, Former #1 in Hearthstone Arena, Top 16 in Seasonals
Hobs is a software engineer from the Toronto area.
Playstyle: "Midrange and balanced."
Italianex, Top 4 in Ladder
In spite of their moniker, Italianex is a 23-years-old Brazilian pursuing a Math Major in Belo Horizonte.
"Card games have always been a big part of my life. I used to play Magic and Yu Gi Oh as a kid, and Legends of Runeterra means a lot to me because the game brought me loads of friends during the hard times of the Covid pandemic. I enjoy the game so much that it doesn’t matter if it’s ladder or tournaments, I’m always playing -- I just love it, and all that has brought me."
Playstyle: "I prefer anti-meta lineups. I don’t like to play with what everyone else is playing. Usually I hate the best meta deck, so I try to find lineups that go well against. It’s something that I enjoy very much."
Mati24mayo, Top 1 in Ladder (NA), Top 32 in Seasonals
"I currently live in Chile with my grandmother," says mati24mayo, "and I am in my first year of Computer Civil Engineering."
Playstyle: "I prefer Midrange decks, like Sivir Askhan or P&Z/Noxus Discard. I generally prefer lineups where I have a clear ban target, and have fifty-fifty matchups against most meta decks -- that way the results are defined by skill and draws."
Stay Tuned…
… we'll introduce the remaining Competitors tomorrow! =)