Gaming
As Hearthstone’s Championship Tour moves into the final stages, we look at the champions to beat.
Hearthstone's World Championship has officially begun, with the group stages getting underway before BlizzCon this week. Already we're getting a feel for who's going to be a tough opponent in the playoff stages, but before we're too deep into the deck, perhaps we'd better get a good look at the field first.
Players have worked their way into the final 16 by winning seasonal region championships or scraping in at the final hurdle in the Last Call tournaments. Now that they're sitting down, face-to-face, in Anaheim, California, who'll blink first? Here's a rundown of the early leaders of the pack as players prepare for 2016's final test.
Amnesiac
Just 15-years-old, American wonderkid William 'Amnesiac' Barton has been steadily rising the Hearthstone ranks throughout this year. Having coached many of Archon's pro players, he eventually found himself playing for the side, before earning NRG a spot at BlizzCon through the Americas Winter Championship in March. Not a bad year for a teenager.
Now, down in California, Amnesiac effortlessly cleared his first hurdle over Hong Kong's Chun Pong 'Yulsic' Ng – a relatively easy match considering his group also contains Virtus.pro's Artem 'DrHippi' Kravets and Team Celestial's Chen 'Breath' Yuxiang. But it was his second victory against DrHippi, sending him to the main event, that showed the youngster is more than qualified to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with such Hearthstone heroes at BlizzCon.
Jason Zhou
A staggering 20,000 wins on Warrior make Zhou a fearsome opponent indeed. The Chinese player's performance so far in the World Championship has only backed up this reputation, and not just on his favoured deck. Holding his nerve against Julien 'Cydonia' Perrault, fresh off a 4–0 hot streak in his first group match, Zhou earned his Top Eight spot early this weekend against arguably one of the favourites from the Americas region.
So far his decks have proven too spicy for opponents to handle, even outside of his feared Control Warrior. If Zhou can carry his overwhelming experience onto the main stage this week, there's a distinct chance of him running away with the title. But with many young prodigies still lining the brackets, the potential for an unexpected improvisation could leave him lost on the day.
HotMEOWTH
America's last solid invite, the Summer Champion Edwin 'HotMEOWTH' Cook, has found himself in quite the fortuitous position in the lead up to the biggest tournament of the year. While the latest round of Hearthstone card nerfs have nipped a number of aggro decks in the bud, HotMEOWTH's Shaman remains one of the most viable sets, and is serving him well.
His first opponent, Europe's prodigious Pavel Beltukov, fell in a 4–1 rout sure to rock the young Russian's confidence, while boosting the American's. Whether that's a wave he can ride into the upper reaches of the final stages or not is up to him.
Che0nsu
Kim Cheonsu is the dark horse – or Dreadsteed – of the pack. This year, South Korea has dominated the Asia-Pacific region, winning two of the three seasonal championships. But their third attendee at BlizzCon, Che0nsu, battled his way to Anaheim through the Last Call qualifier, beating out the rest of the region's big hitters, including Singapore's Aaron Koh.
Making his way to the final stages of this year's Championship Tour, Che0nsu has been up against China's Zhuo 'Hamster' Wang and America's Last Call contender Hao 'Bbgungun' Li, both of whom he dispatched with decisive 4–2 sets. Reacting the same way under pressure, whether in the lead or behind, Che0nsu has kept his cool this far. But what about when the heat is on in BlizzCon?
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