The Hearthstone Global Finals made history with one of the most intensive plays ever where young talent Xiaomeng “VKLiooon” Li was crowned Global Champion.
What a tournament that was! The relative newcomer VKLiooon completely took the game by storm and turned out to be one of the most accomplished players in the entire history of Hearthstone.
At only 23 years of age, Xiaomeng “VKLiooon” Li is the first Chinese and the first woman to win the grand trophy in Hearthstone’s most important esports event of the year.
She had an absolutely impressive run. First, she eliminated Taiwanese legend Chen "tom60229" Wei Lin, the 2017 World Champion, with a one-sided 2-0. Later, she defeated one of Europe’s best card-slingers, Greek-born Chris "Fenomeno" Tsakopoulos with another 2-0. It is important to note, that such scores aren’t commonplace in the high echelons of competitive Hearthstone play, where tug-of-war style matches of constant back-and-forth are the norm. VKLiooon really had to work on her skills to achieve such a massive success.
Her Global conquest was far from smooth sailing, though. The Chinese girl had a hard time versus Kevin "Casie" Eberlein where she barely prevailed in a nerve-racking 3-2 to earn her spot in the Finals.
Speaking of the Finals, her final adversary was famous American contender Brian "bloodyface" Eason. As the final blow was struck, confetti flew everywhere to announce the new Champion.
The classic tornado-looking Hearthstone World Championship trophy was given to VKLiooon by the 2018 champ, Norwegian prodigy Casper "Hunterace" Notto. At this point, the hard-working Chinese pro player began cracking up and showing her excitement and happiness.
The patch to the top isn’t just a dream for Xiaomeng Li. She views her efforts as a mission to spread positivity and serve as a role model to other aspiring female esports pros. In her excitement, she stated:
“I want to say to all the girls out there that have a dream for esports, for competition, for glory, if you want to do it and you believe in yourself, you should just forget your gender and go for it.”
As always, the entire spectacle was streamed live and a VOD is available on the official Hearthstone Esports YouTube channel. One thing is certain: this year’s grand finale will be remembered for a long time. We can’t wait to see what’s next for VKLiooon on her way forward. Stay tuned and we will keep you up to date.
