by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

We now know who will be facing off against one another in the initial phase of the Hearthstone World Championships at BlizzCon. Blizzard recently announced the groups, along with who will be providing casting and commentary.

You can see the breakdown of the qualified players here:

We’re going to take a run at some thoughts on what you can expect from these players at BlizzCon prior to the convention, but prior to that, it’s useful to understand how these players made it this far.

Americas

Firebat – Firebat came into the Americas qualifier a relative favourite, with a direct seed into the latter stage of the tournament. He advanced from the group stage behind StrifeCro in his group, placing him against the undefeated Hyped (the other direct seed) in the playoffs. Defeating Hyped to advance to BlizzCon, his big winners were Hunter and Warlock, so seeing him reprise those classes in Anaheim would not be a shock.

StrifeCro – Arguably one of the best known players appearing at BlizzCon, StrifeCro had an inspired run, going undefeated in the group stage and narrowly overcoming StUnNeR in the playoffs 3-2. He has been shown to favour Druid play in the past, so that may well be his class to lean on in the World Championships.

Tarei – Another Druid lover, Tarei finished with a similar overall record to StrifeCro. He had to come back from behind down 0-2 against Chakki in his initial group stage match, taking three consecutive games with his Druid; his other group stage opponent, DTwo, would fall 3-1 in similar fashion (to three consecutive Druid victories). Another close 3-2 match in the playoffs had him relying on more aggressive Hunter and Rogue decks to secure his ticket to BlizzCon.

DTwo – All four of the eventual BlizzCon qualifying players actually played in the same two groups in the group stage, and DTwo was forced into the decider match in Group C by Tarei. After advancing using an assortment of midrange decks, DTwo would authoritatively defeat Deerjason in the playoffs 3-0 with his signature Druid style.

Europe

Kolento – The other ‘big name’ to qualify for BlizzCon, Kolento has had success in a number of tournaments this year. He was able to secure a ticket to the World Championship almost exclusively on a combination of Druid and Warlock.

Greensheep – A young British player, Greensheep had close series in the group stage, but turned around and 3-0’d Thefishou in the playoffs with his preferred Shaman deck.

Numberguy – Formerly a Yugioh player, Numberguy made it look like he enjoyed playing from behind. In all three of his matches, he came back from a starting 0-2 deficit to finish 3-2, with a variety of styles – Priest, Warlock, and then Druid in the playoffs. He played with impressive cool under pressure, and could be a serious contender to do very well in the finals!

Kaor – Kaor had a similar run to Numberguy, sneaking through with narrow 3-2 victories in the group stage (after his 2-3 loss to Numberguy forced him into the decider round), and then took three straight games with his Priest deck over MrYagut to win 3-1. He also saw success with Druid and Paladin in the qualifiers.

Korea/Taiwan

Kranich (KR) – In a slightly different format, Kranich won a best of seven series 4-2 over Hearthstone using Hunter and Shaman decks.

RenieHouR (KR) – RenieHouR was pushed to the seven game limit by tranzit, but ultimately managed to secure his World Championship spot with his Warlock deck and a Priest to recover from a loss in the mirror match (as well as a lone Shaman victory).

FrozenIce (TW) – A different format yet again, FrozenIce was the recovering player in the double elimination Taiwan qualifiers, after being knocked into the Loser’s Finals by the other qualifying Taiwanese player!

tom60229 (TW) – The qualifying victor, tom60229 won over FrozenIce 3-2 in the Winner’s Finals to ensure his BlizzCon spot.

China

RunAndGun – The Chinese qualifiers were run in a single elimination format across four brackets. RunAndGun won convincing victories in his three rounds with Rogue, Druid, and Shaman decks.

Nicolas – A closer set of games saw Nicolas take his group with Rogue, Mage, and Hunter decks.

TiddlerCelestial – This is definitely a player to watch out for. He didn’t lost a single game, going 9-0 in his qualifier bracket in games using his Warlock deck.

Qiruo – The final Chinese player to qualify, with a strong preference for Rogue and Warlock decks in the Chinese meta.

So what does all of that mean? It means that each of these players is guaranteed a minimum $5,000 prize for their troubles. The BlizzCon finals will use a dual tournament-style format, popularized by the Global StarCraft League for professional StarCraft. This is the same format that the American and European qualifiers used for their Phase 2 qualifying segments.

Stay tuned for our next segment, where we will evaluate some of the possibilities you might see these players bring to BlizzCon!