We are less than a week away from the 2019 Hearthstone World Championship. We have already previewed the talent in both Group A and Group B. This week, the players’ decklists were submitted and publicly released so we can factor that into our predictions. Now we will jump right into our Hearthstone 2019 World Championship Group C Preview, the most stacked group in the contest.
Hunterace has to be favored to advance from this group thanks to his performance over 2018. In 2018, Hunterace won two HCT Tour Stops and finished in the Top 4 a total of five times. This is an unmatched performance, and he looks to carry this momentum into the World Champs.
The most interesting matchup in this group is between David “justsaiyan” Shan and Hunterace. The two battled against each other all throughout the 2018 year to be the number one player on the Tour. Hunterace won earlier in the year, beating saiyan in HCT Seoul, and taking an HCT Italy victory away from saiyan in the quarterfinal.
Hunterace doesn’t have a ton of experience against Mark “Ike” Eichner or Kacper “A83650” Kwieciński. If he does make it out of the group, two obstacles could stand in his way. In sets against both Wu “XiaoT” Juwei and Wu “BloodTrail” Zong-Chang, Hunterace lost 3-2. He could have easily won those sets and will look to win the revenge matches at Worlds should they happen.
Hunterace will bring Control Warrior, Conjurer Mage, Thief Tempo Rogue, and a very off-the-wall Control Shudderwock Shaman to Worlds. Every other player has at least two aggro decks in his group, so the control decks were good picks. The Conjurer Mage will beat control decks, but It will be interesting to see how the Shaman deck handles other control decks.
Justsaiyan is the second player expected to make it out of this group due to his performance in 2018. With the first half of the year belonging to Hunterace, the second belonged to saiyan. Saiyan only had one Tour Stop win, but many Top 4’s and Top 8’s.
Saiyan will look to edge out Hunterace in the series for the year between the two. He also has plenty of experience against players outside the group. However, Ike and A8 are the wild cards of this group, and might prove to be upsets against the two expected winners in the group.
Saiyan will bring with him Control Warrior, Control Shaman, Zoo Warlock, and Tempo Rogue. Saiyan’s Shaman is much more suited to beat aggro and may require him to ban other players’ Control Warriors. Given he is also taking Zoolock, Warrior is a good ban. The Zoo could have a hard time against A8 and Hunterace’s Shaman decks though.
A8 should not be slept on in this group, having finished second in the first Seasonal Championship of the year. His time in the spotlight definitely faded after that performance, since his participation in international tournaments was very low.
A8 has very little experience against players in his group, and really only has a history with Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer in the whole tournament. He is 1-1 against Bunnyhoppor, and will likely have to win a rubber match if he advances from Group C.
A8 will be bringing Thief Tempo Rogue, Overload Shaman, Zoo Warlock, and Control Warrior. A8’s lineup is a kind of middle of the road lineup. He should likely ban Control Warrior because of its strength against Zoolock, but other than that he has a lineup that might be the best suited to win the group.
Ike looks like he might have the hardest time making it out of the group, considering his lineup. He had an inspiring story getting to the World Championship, battling health issues all the way, but Ike’s run might end in Group C.
Ike has in tournament experience against Bunnyhoppor as well, but not really against the players in his group. He definitely knows his way around Hearthstone, but his lineup might set him back. He will bring Zoolock, Control Warrior, Tempo Thief Rogue and Token Druid to Worlds.
The problem comes from having both Zoo and Token Druid in his lineup. Having the Druid suggests a ban on Zoolocks, but the Zoo wants to ban Control Warrior. His best matchup is against Hunterace since Hunterace didn’t bring Zoo, but Saiyan and A8 will be difficult.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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