by hsdecktech - 6 years ago     show comments

HCT Fall Championships are starting up tomorrow, which means that Choose Your Champion closes tonight at 11:59 p.m., Pacific time. Remember, you get at least one pack just for participating, so there’s no reason not to at least pick someone. If you’re still undecided, this post might help you choose. And if you’ve already chosen your champion, it will give you a little preview of what you can expect to see this weekend.

The Schedule

Choose your champion submissions are due before midnight, Pacific, today. Group stages begin tomorrow at 8:30 a.m., Pacific (on stream only) and continue Friday at the same time and place. Elimination and decider matches are on Saturday (live and streamed), whereas the playoffs and finals are on Sunday (also live and streamed).

The Stakes

Players will be competing for their share of the $250,000 prize pool and four seats to the 2018 Hearthstone World Championships!

The Players

The tournament features 12 players who qualified through seasonal playoffs and 4 Chinese representatives who qualified through a separate Chinese system. Those players are a mix of some of the most well-known and hottest players right now, as well as some players who are not as well-known to most viewers. The 16 players break down into four brackets of 4; two players from each bracket (so a total of 8) will advance through to the playoffs and compete for those four seat to the World Championships. Here are those groups, with my two favorites to advance from each group in bold. My selections are based on both lineups and perceived player skill (which means some of the lesser-known players might just surprise me).

Group A: bloodyface, DacRyvius, GoeLionKing, Sintolol

Group B: Akumaker, Caimiao, justsaiyan, Moyen

Group C: Bloodtrail, Hatul, lnguagehackr, LPTrunks

Group D: Islandcat, RENMEN, Tincho, Tyler

Update: Hearthstone has just released a collection of the “Player Cards,” which also help provide a snapshot of the players’ play styles and personalities, if that helps you choose. At the very least, you can check them out because they’re fun.

The Decks

First, some stats to put the decks into context: All 16 players brought some form of Druid, 14 players brought some form of Warlock, and 13 brought some form of Rogue. Those top three classes really shaped the tournament meta with, as you can see, most players bringing all three. The main debate came as to the fourth deck, with nearly half the players bringing Shudderwock Shaman and the other near-half bringing some form of Hunter. To round out the stats, four players brought Mage, two brought Priest, and one brought Warrior. Nobody brought Paladin.

For as dominant as the deck seemed going into this tournament, it seems that that Quest Rogue took a bit of a backseat as it only made up four of the thirteen Rogue decks. Token Druid, the ladder powerhouse, also took a backseat, claiming only two of the sixteen Druid slots! Evenlock and Zoolock are evenly split, each being brought by six players. Malygos Druid and Odd Rogue tie for the single most prevalent archetype, each being brought by nine players. Shudderwock is, perhaps, the biggest difference between the tournament meta and the ladder meta, as it is a very popular “fourth deck”–so much so that it is the third most popular individual archetype overall!

Generally speaking, it seems like a lot of players went for more middle-of-the-road lineups instead of hard-targeting anything. Even the uptick in Shudderwock seems to fit this mold as current versions of the deck are evolving towards a more well-rounded utilitarian deck than a pure combo build. This hedging might be a product of the fact that the metagame is very open and difficult to predict, even when just about everyone agrees on the three best classes. The downside is that we seem to have lost things like Mecha’Thun lineups at this stage. The upside is that we should expect to see some competitive games this weekend!

Anyway, without further ado, the players’ lineups:

Group A:

[wcp_deck id=”25727″]

[wcp_deck id=”25728″]

[wcp_deck id=”25729″]

[wcp_deck id=”25730″]

[wcp_deck id=”25735″]

[wcp_deck id=”25736″]

[wcp_deck id=”25737″]

[wcp_deck id=”25738″]

[wcp_deck id=”25740″]

[wcp_deck id=”25741″]

[wcp_deck id=”25742″]

[wcp_deck id=”25743″]

[wcp_deck id=”25778″]

[wcp_deck id=”25779″]

[wcp_deck id=”25780″]

[wcp_deck id=”25781″]

Group B:

[wcp_deck id=”25717″]

[wcp_deck id=”25718″]

[wcp_deck id=”25719″]

[wcp_deck id=”25720″]

[wcp_deck id=”25731″]

[wcp_deck id=”25732″]

[wcp_deck id=”25733″]

[wcp_deck id=”25734″]

[wcp_deck id=”25754″]

[wcp_deck id=”25755″]

[wcp_deck id=”25756″]

[wcp_deck id=”25757″]

[wcp_deck id=”25768″]

[wcp_deck id=”25770″]

[wcp_deck id=”25771″]

[wcp_deck id=”25772″]

Group C:

[wcp_deck id=”25721″]

[wcp_deck id=”25722″]

[wcp_deck id=”25723″]

[wcp_deck id=”25726″]

[wcp_deck id=”25744″]

[wcp_deck id=”25745″]

[wcp_deck id=”25747″]

[wcp_deck id=”25748″]

[wcp_deck id=”25758″]

[wcp_deck id=”25759″]

[wcp_deck id=”25760″]

[wcp_deck id=”25762″]

[wcp_deck id=”25763″]

[wcp_deck id=”25764″]

[wcp_deck id=”25765″]

[wcp_deck id=”25766″]

Group D:

[wcp_deck id=”25750″]

[wcp_deck id=”25751″]

[wcp_deck id=”25752″]

[wcp_deck id=”25753″]

[wcp_deck id=”25774″]

[wcp_deck id=”25775″]

[wcp_deck id=”25776″]

[wcp_deck id=”25777″]

[wcp_deck id=”25786″]

[wcp_deck id=”25787″]

[wcp_deck id=”25790″]

[wcp_deck id=”25791″]

[wcp_deck id=”25792″]

[wcp_deck id=”25793″]

[wcp_deck id=”25794″]

[wcp_deck id=”25795″]