The HCT Fall Championship is coming up on October 11-14. There is a nice $250,000 prize pool and 251 HCT points on the line. The top four out of the 16 players will advance to the World Championship. We’ll be reviewing the talent in our HCT Fall Championship Group Preview.
Group A
The first group is made up of Thomas “Sintolol” Zimmer, Brian “bloodyface” Eason, Sim “DacRyvius” Dasol, and Wang “GoeLionKing” Zhe.
Sintolol is playing in his first Seasonal Championship of the year and is looking strong going in. The German representing Team Genji has been playing a lot of competitive Hearthstone this year and consistently places just outside of top eight finishes. No stranger to the big stage, he is in a favorable position to advance from this group.
Bloodyface has been around Hearthstone for a while, but doesn’t have a lot of competitive experience. Qualifying for this tournament has been the most exposure this unsponsored American player has received.
DacRyvius is one of the hottest South Korean players right now. Representing DDA.AC Pro Game Team, he has made several top eight Tour Stop finishes this year. He looks to continue his hot streak and is a favorite to advance from the group.
LionKing is a little known player from China. We got to see him play a little bit in the recent EU vs CN Championships, but he got dropped early with an 0-2 performance. He hopes to win as a definite underdog in the tournament.
Group B
Up next is Group B with David “JustSaiyan” Shan, Jowen “Akumaker” Chee, Jan “Moyen” Moy, and Zhao “Caimiao” Haixiao.
JustSaiyan is the man to beat in this tournament. The American of team Tempo Storm has been playing absolute lights out Hearthstone the last few months. He won HCT Montreal, and is on the current number one team in the world. He is chosen by many to win the Championship, and is highly likely to at least advance from the group.
Akumaker is a strong contender from Australia. With a couple of strong showings early in the year, he is one of a group full of really strong players. He has to start off the Championship against Saiyan and work his way through the bloodbath from there.
Moyen is the second German player in the tournament representing Team Vertex. With very little tournament experience at all, he hopes to kick start the rest of his Hearthstone career with a strong showing here. He beat Sintolol in order to qualify so he definitely has the talent.
Lastly we have Caimiao, another of the Chinese players. We have little information on him, but he also recently played at the CN vs EU Championship. He dropped 0-2 there but in two very close 2-3 sets.
Group C
Group C contains Wu “BloodTrail” Zong-Chang, Mihai “lnguagehackr” Dragalin, He “LPTrunks” Huan, and Eden “Hatul” Zamir.
BloodTrail has been pretty good, managing to make it to back-to-back Seasonal Championships. Hailing from Taiwan, he hopes to improve on his performance from the Summer Championship. He played very poorly and maybe the pressure got to him. He made some adjustments and should be ready to go this time.
Lnguagehackr comes from Canada representing Grizzlys eSports. He’s been playing competitive Hearthstone for a while and has seen decent success on the tour. He is determined to see his first chance of Wold Championship play.
Trunks is one of China’s best players right now. Representing Wukong Gaming, he returns as someone who was also a participant at the HCT Summer Championship. Consistently making top finishes in the Chinese Gold Series, he hopes to improve on his early exit from last time and solidify himself as one of the best.
Hatul is a player from Israel with very little information on him. A newcomer from the Challenger Finals, he will look to make the transition from Hearthstone amateur to Hearthstone pro. He is definitely a huge underdog in Group C.
Group D
The final group, Group D, is where all the sleeper picks lie with Roman “Renmen” Kudriavtsev, Liu “Islandcat” Chang, Tyler “tylerootd” Hoang Nguyen, and Martin “Tincho” Guillermo Mazza.
Renmen is a currently un-sponsored player from Russia. He’s been playing the game for quite some time, as he made a competitive appearance at StarLadder StarSeries way back in 2015. There’s not too much footage of his play but he was able to roll over opponents in the qualifier to reach the Fall Chmapionship.
Islandcat is another of the Chinese players who has yet to make any sort of name for himself. With next to no information on how he likes to play, he could crack under the pressure of the big stage or shock the group and advance to the top eight.
Tyler is probably the only one with an established popularity from within the group. A long time streamer and ladder grinder, he has taken 2018 to transition more into the competitive scene. Having recently moved from Netherlands to Vietnam, he could be the star of compLexity Gaming’s Hearthstone team.
Tincho is a long time Hearthstone player getting his first opportunity on the big stage. Hailing from Argentina, the Quad Gaming representative played in Copa America Season 3 way back in 2015.
Don’t forget to tune in and watch starting October 11 on the PlayHearthstone twitch channel.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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