The 2022 Dominion World Cup has reached its final week. In the Championship Match, Team Germany A looks to defend their 2020 World Cup title against Team Japan A, and in the Third Place Match, we will have a battle for America, with Team USA A squaring off against Team USA B. Now, a quick look at how we reached this stage of the tournament.

QUARTERFINALS

In the first quarterfinal, national bragging rights were at stake. Group A winner Team Germany A defeated Group B runner-up Team Germany A by a score of 2.5-0.5. Sicomatic got things started off with a 4-2 victory over Naesala, followed by a 5-1 victory for drsteelhammer over Julu. Heading into the third match, LTaco needed a victory over HolZ to extend the quarterfinal to a deciding 4th match. While the 3-3 result was not enough to force a final match, it did put a half point on the board for Germany B.

In a match that was decided over the course of less than 12 hours, Group C winner Team USA A defeated Group D runner-up Team Canada A 2.5-0.5. The match started with a 3-3 tie on the top board between JNails and hsypsx. Shortly thereafter, wharf_rat bested xyrix 4-2 to give Team USA A a 1.5-0.5 lead headed into the evening match between Lemonspawn and kaplane. Needing a win in game 6 to seal the victory, Lemonspawn came through, winning the match 4-2 and securing a spot in the semifinals for Team USA A.

Group B winner Team Japan A needed all four matches to eliminate Group A runner-up Team United Kingdom. In the first match of the quarterfinal, yurikamome edged out heth 3.5-2.5 to give Japan A a 1-0 lead. Team United Kingdom struck back and leveled the match at 1 with a 4.5-1.5 victory by martlet over Mercury44F. cha-shu then took their match over Chorus by a score of 5-1, forcing JerryDot into a must win situation against cider01. Team United Kingdom’s bid came up short, with cider01 scoring a 4-2 victory, earning Team Japan A a spot in the semifinals.

4 matches weren’t enough to determine the winner of our last quarterfinal. In regulation time, Group D winner Team USA B and Group C runner-up Team Japan B tied 2-2 in matches and 12-12 in games. Team USA B took an early 1-0 lead when Ketyri defeated GrassWonder by a score of 4-2. With a 3-3 tie between mayakuzuki and Minionpawn, the stage was set for an exciting side-by-side duel to determine who would reach the Semifinals. With simultaneous matches between Sharur and syamii4 and sweetjohn33 and yoifuro, any result was possible. Team Japan B fought off a few “match points” in their matches, with syamii4 battling Sharur to a 3-3 tie and yoifuro earning a 4-2 victory, pulling the match even. This set up a tiebreaker match between captain’s choices: mayakuzuki for Team Japan B and russ2 for Team USA B. In a match that took all of 5 minutes to set up once the pairings were set, russ2 claimed three wins in a row, earning a 3-0 match victory and a spot in the Semifinals for Team USA B.
SEMIFINALS

Team Germany A punched their ticket to the Finals with a 2.5-1.5 victory over Team USA A. Very little separation was to be found after the first match, with RTT and tracer tying their contest 3-3. Lemonspawn put the US squad in a good position, besting drsteelhammer 5-1 in the second match of the Semifinal. The Germans then got a clutch performance from their Captain, Sicomatic, who leveled the match at 1.5-1.5 points and 9-9 games with a 5-1 victory of their own over JNails. This set up a winner-take-all fourth match between Neqativ and Fircoal. Riding the strength of two ties as 2P, Neqativ won the match 4-2, clinching the full point for Team Germany A and giving them the opportunity to defend their crown.

In the second Semifinal, Team Japan A topped Team USA B 2.5-1.5. Much like the other semifinal, things started off tight, with the first match being a 3-3 tie between sweetjohn33 and yurikamome. Spectators were then treated to a pair of matches happening simultaneously. In one matchup, we had cider01 squaring off with Quarterfinal hero russ2, and in the other cha-shu battling with Sharur. Both matches were claimed by Team Japan, with cider01 earning a 4-2 victory and cha-shu a 5-1 victory. This clinched the match for the Japanese team and earned them a spot opposite Team Germany A in the Championship. Despite the overall result being determined, the final match between kazumaru0828 and Minionpawn was contested. Minionpawn scored a 5-1 victory, bringing the final match score to 2.5-1.5 in favor of Team Japan A.

CHAMPIONSHIP AND THIRD PLACE MATCHES

Lineups for the Championship match have been submitted and the Third Place Matches will be finalized shortly. For the Championship, we have the following pairings and match times:

Championship (Team Germany A v. Team Japan A)

Sicomatic v. kazumaru0828 (February 26, 1900 UTC)
RTT v. cha-shu (February 23, 1100 UTC)
Neqativ v. cider01 (February 26, 1200 UTC)
drsteelhammer v. yurikamome (February 23, 1400 UTC)

Third Place (Team USA A v. Team USA B)

TBD

Good luck to Japan and Germany in the finals!