ThijsNL, Dziany and Arneej secure their place among final 8 Hearthstone players vying for the $25,000 prize pool.

PGL Tavern Tales’ top 16 matches have concluded after a dizzying display of surprise eliminations, heavy Warrior wins and last-minute top deck victories. Thijs “ThijsNL” Molendijk (now the first two-time breaker of GosuGamer’s 1,400 ranking barrier) will challenge Harald "Powder" Gimre's unstoppable Handlock deck, whilst Romanian unknown Nistor "xTracKyStyLe96" Marius will see his hat-trick Aggro Shaman fend off against the expert timing of Belgium Arne "Arneej" Huysegom's Secret Paladin.

Out of all the best-of-5 matchups, only one was played out to the final game: Danish player Simon “Crane333” Raunholst delivered a win-loss-win streak before his opponent, the Czech Republic newcomer Pavel "Scruffy" Janík, emerged the victor. Otherwise, all other games were solid 3-0 or 3-1 exchanges, though that’s not to say the individual bouts were as clear cut. Both Mateusz "Dziany" Karwat and xTracKyStyLe96 just barely triumphed after desperate last-minute grabs for [card]Doomhammer[/card] burst damage, whilst the day’s grand finale was decided when Greek Warlock user Athanas forwent a safe [card]Reno Jackson[/card] play in lieu of giving Freeze Mage Arneej the final 23 damage-in-hand he needed to advance.

Sandwiched between the playoffs was a novelty Tavern Brawl, where Likeabawse and Thefishou built wacky Warlock decks for one another (lots of [card]Alarm-o-Bot[/card] and [card]Lorewalker Cho[/card]…). It was an oddly amusing yet frustrating sideshow better ignored for other day 2 highlights, such as the turn one [card]Loatheb[/card] or the inevitable [card]Doomsayer[/card] drop from [card]Piloted Shredder[/card].

The PGL Tavern Tales quarter finals will begin streaming at 11:00 CET on the PGL_HS Twitch channel.