Without a doubt, the story of the weekend is couple Daniella Grijalva and David Frayer both making Top 8 in a field of 171. What’s more, they’re on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning they may end up playing in the finals. What happens there is anyone’s guess, although Daniella has made it known that she covets the championship title and trophy.

If she wants to get to the finals, however, she’ll need to get through Ben Stoll this round. Stoll is no stranger to Sunday, with second and third place $10K finishes under his belt. On the other side of the spectrum, this is Daniella’s first $10K (although the fact that she made Top 8 on the first try speaks volumes about her talent).

Game 1

Ben played Boliver Trask, getting Hounds of Ahab. It came into play on turn 2, and Daniella missed drops through turn 3. Ben had a great draw, playing Sentinel Mark II. On turn 4, Ben had a second Mark II, and Daniella had her first character of the game in Sentinel Mark V. Ben team attacked it with three of his characters (the Hounds left behind), and Daniella had Flame Trap. She then played two Micro-Sentinels in a row, each targeting a Mark II. A Mark II and a Mark V were stunned, and after recovery, Daniella had a Marv V while Ben had two Mark IIs with Micro counters on them.

Daniella played Nimrod, and Ben played a Trask to get a Mark V, as he started to fall behind the curve. Nimrod attacked the Mark V, and it was stunned—Finishing Move got it off the board. Ben came back with a team attack on the Mark V, and had a Finishing Move of his own. Still, the Micro-Sentinels were set to do their job as both Mark IIs were KO’d. This left Ben with only a Trask, and Daniella with Nimrod (still sporting his repair counter).

The all important turn 6 came—Ben had Bastion, Daniella did not. Instead, she had to settle for a boosted Mark V. It was stunned by a Bastion attack, and Daniella sent Nimrod after Trask. Before the stun, Trask was exhausted to Finishing Move the stunned Mark V. Daniella had Two-Face, Split Personality on turn 7, and Ben had Magneto, Master of Magnetism. Two-Face exhausted Magneto, and attacked him. No Man Escapes the Manhunters made Magneto smaller on DEF, and both characters were stunned. This left Daniella at 20, and Ben at 18. Daniella then used Genosha, and attacked Bastion with Nimrod, making him angry with Savage Beatdown. This stunned him, and Nimrod lost a repair counter. After recovery, Ben had Bastion, and Daniella still had both her characters. She was at 20, and he was at 10.

It was now turn 8, and Ben brought down Apocalypse, while Daniella finally played Bastion. At the start of combat, Apocalypse KO’d Daniella’s two face down resources, and she responded by using some Bastion activations, and flipping one of them over to reveal Reconstruction Program. Ben used two Genoshas, and then sent Apocalypse into Bastion, flipping over Mojoverse. Before he went, Bastion gave Two-Face +6 ATK/+6 DEF (in addition to the previous activation). This made Two-Face 23 ATK/23 DEF. Still in the attack, Apocalypse took eight Bastion activations to smash through Bastion, and Ben’s Bastion went through Daniella’s Nimrod. She was now at -8, and the big Two-Face couldn’t push through enough damage to even out the endurance difference.

Daniella Grijalva 0 – Ben Stoll 1

Game 2

Ben had a turn 2 Trask, getting Sentinel Mark II. Daniella still had no drop on turn 3, as Ben joked, “I’m just a better player than you.” She had a Mark V on turn 4, as did Ben. Ben team attacked Daniella’s Mark V with his own Mark V and Trask—Daniella played Flame Trap to stun Trask, and both players used two power-ups. Daniella announced, “You won’t go down, will ya? Five bucks says you’ve got Finishing Move!” Luckily for her, that was not the case. Micro-Sentinels targeted the Mark II, and on turn 5 she had Nimrod to Ben’s boosted Mark V. Nimrod went after the unboosted Mark V, and stunned it. Her Mark V attacked Ben’s boosted copy of the character, and No Man Escapes the Manhunters forced a double-stun. This left her with a Mark V and Nimrod to Ben’s boosted Mark V and an about-to-die Mark II.

Both players had Bastion on turn 6. Ben team attacked Daniella’s with the Mark V and Mark II, and it was stunned. Bastion stayed back, clearly signaling Finishing Move. Nimrod attacked the Mark V, bringing Ben to 24 while Daniella was at 26. The inevitable Finishing Move KO’d Daniella’s Bastion, and she had a copy of her own to KO Ben’s Mark V. On turn 7, Daniella had Magneto, and Ben had no 7-drop, settling for Reconstruction Program and a boosted Mark V. Daniella team attacked Bastion, threatening to get it out of the way permanently, thanks to Magneto. Bastion activated enough times to make him 17 ATK/17 DEF; just big enough to avoid being stunned. Ben stunned the Mark V instead of forcing Nimrod to lose a counter. Finishing Move cleared it out of the way, leaving Ben’s Mark V exhausted, and enabling Daniella’s Magneto to cause breakthrough. After this mistake, Ben hit himself on the head and moaned, as he went down to 13 (Daniella was at 14).

Still, he had initiative on turn 8, and the Apocalypse to go along with it. Daniella could only muster Trask, a Mark V, and a Mark II. Ben’s Mark V went after a Mark II in the back, and Bastion attacked Trask in the support row as well. Apocalypse did the rest.

Daniella Grijalva 0 – Ben Stoll 2

Ben Stoll advances to the semifinals!