The second stop of HCT Season 3 finds itself in Krefeld, Germany this weekend. This is the first tour stop after the release of The Boomsday Project expansion. These tournaments right after release are the most fun to watch. High level players push their theorycrafting capabilities to the max as refined decks have yet to fully develop by the time of HCT Germany.
The upset potential is high, and a share of $15,000 along with 191 HCT points are on the line. Tune in on the TaKeTV twitch channel to catch all the action on August 11 and 12.
Top flight talent from all over Europe will travel to HCT Germany to compete. The groups are as follows:
Group A: [compLexity Gaming] Kevin “Casie” Eberlein, [Team Genji] Linh “Seiko” Nguyen, Loic “Dizdemon” Poulain, and [NOXsports] Marco “Khamul” Katholitzky
Group B: [G2 Esports] Thijs “Thijs” Molendijk, [Panathinaikos AC esports] Chris “Logan” Boutakidis, Sigurd “Impyyyyy” Riber, and “Trec”
Group C: [Team Vitality] Maxime “Kalàxz” Thierry, [TeamViral] Simon “Whiplash” White, [Crowns Esports Club] Peter “Deathboose” Laihinen, and [NidhoGG esport] “Handerman”
Group D: [Team Run’N Gun] Felix “kolmari” Baum, [G2 Esports] Eugene “Neirea” Shumilin, [Team Vitality] Damien “Yogg” L’Hostis, and “JDart”
In the qualifiers, 2048 contestants went at it for their chance to play at HCT Germany. While three of the four qualifiers were European exclusive, there was one Global Qualifier. Yet, not a single person from outside of Europe advanced from that qualifier. One could argue that this proves Europe’s strength as the strongest region in Hearthstone.
left to right: Thijs, Neirea, Yogg and Kalàxz
There are two pairs of teammates in this final 16 for HCT Germany. Yogg and Kalaxz of Team Vitality, as well as Thijs and Neirea of G2 Esports. This is a good sign for their team standings on the Hearthstone Championship Tour. They rack up points towards their efforts to get cash bonuses for all the players of their teams. The negative side is that the team mates are in the same tournament as each other. They hope to be the two to advance from their respective groups and then they may have to defeat one another to advance.
We, the fans, have a lot of hopeful expectations for what we will see at this tournament.
Good or bad? Time will tell.
For one, many would like to see victory by Mecha’thun occur on a world stage. Many would have liked to also see a Whizbang the Wonderful deck in a championship lineup, before he got banned.
This could be a good preview into whether or not the mech decks will be viable in the new meta, and other new archetypes made possible by the new cards. Druid looks like it will continue to be a monster in the new meta, as Malygos and other Druid archetypes were only made stronger by the new cards.
Good luck to all the competitors at HCT Germany, and may we see some cool new decks.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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