The Americas region gets split into two smaller regions: North and South. Unfortunately, South American players tend to get overshadowed by North Americans because of the increased media coverage. This does not make these players any weaker though, as 50 percent of the players from the Americas in this tournament hail from South America. Let’s dive right into the analysis of the 4 players from the Americas.
Lucas “Rase” Guerra
Red Canids player Rase wants to be the first player from Brazil to win a World Championship. The former Pro Evolution Soccer player makes a strong argument for himself as in the qualifier he was able to beat killinallday 3-1.
Rase spent a lot of time in the lab cooking up his deck lineup for the Summer Championship. He has four completely different lists than those with which he qualified. Rase hasn’t lost many games on his path to the HCT Summer Championship, so he must have a specific plan for countering the lineups in his group.
Rase hopes to prove the worth of Warrior as a viable tournament class. He is the only one of the 16 players to bring a Warrior list to the tournament. His full deck lineup is total control and hopes to use the value found in his decks to beat out all others. He starts in Group A with Torben “Viper” Wahl, Wu “XiaoT” Jiwei, and Shuhei “Tansoku” Omura.
Decks for HCT Summer: Taunt Druid, Control Mage, Shudderwock Shaman, Quest Warrior
David “killinallday” Acosta
#YOKAD has been the fad for Endemic eSports player killinallday and his fans. This fad could very well be the cause for killinallday narrowly missing making a Seasonal Championship two times last year.
Killinallday had a very difficult road to qualifying for the Summer Championship. He made the top eight in the qualifier only by way of a tiebreaker and took the final set to the very last game in order to qualify. He has already called out the European players, stating he wants to prove the Americas is a better region.
Killinallday loves Quest Rogue to death but finally decided to not bring it to tournament. Conversely, he hopes to win on the back of a very aggressive lineup. He is one of only three players to bring a Paladin list. He looks to battle his way out of Group D against Gao “Leaoh” Yang, Kenta “Glory” Sato, and Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer.
Decks for HCT Summer: Token Druid, Odd Paladin, Even Shaman, Even Warlock
Facundo “Nalguidan” Pruzzo
Furious Gaming’s Nalguidan is back for his second HCT Summer Championship in a row. He’s definitely looking to improve on his last year’s performance as he was unable to make it out of the group stages.
Nalguidan had a very strong showing in the qualifier and was able to sweep Dog three games to none. However, Dog was pinned to playing Control Priest all three games against a lineup that was favorable for Nalguidan. A rematch between the two players is due given that they both advance from the group stages.
Nalguidan heads in a different direction with his Summer Championship decks compared to the qualifier. He is now favoring a control game plan instead of the much more aggressive decks he took at the qualifier. He will play in Group B featuring Kacper “A83650” Kwieciński, Wu “BloodTrail” Zong-Chang, and Li “YuYi” Daixiong.
Decks for HCT Summer: Taunt Druid, Recruit Hunter, Miracle Rogue, Shudderwock Shaman
David “Dog” Caero
Team Liquid’s Dog is probably the most popular player in the tournament. Gathering a huge following on Twitch, the audience is more than likely going to be rooting for this guy to win.
Dog had to beat Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam two times in playoffs during the qualifier to make it to the Summer Championship. An impressive feat by Dog as Muzzy is the current HCT Points leader in the Americas region. Dog is a long-time veteran in Hearthstone, playing way back in the 2015 HCT Summer Championship. That makes this his second Summer Championship appearance.
Dog throws a real curveball into the mix with one of his decks choosing to take a Combo Priest. This deck relies on the 1-mana card Inner Fire to give a high-health minion high-attack for a lethal punch. Many of the other decklists at the tournament are running Skulking Geist so Dog will have to be especially careful to play around that card. Dog is in Group C alongside Marco “Turna” Castiglioni, Qu “Rugal” Yixian, and Jinsoo “Jinsoo” Park.
Decks for HCT Summer: Taunt Druid, Combo Priest, Shudderwock Shaman, Even Warlock
Good luck to all the players from the Americas region in the HCT Summer Championship.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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