This article is part of our Hearthstone series.
We are less than a week away from 16 of the best Hearthstone players in the world to battle it out for $1 million and the right to call himself the champion of the world! Although there is never a shortage of drama or excitement, let's take a look at some of the top storylines to follow.
Battle of the Regions
One of the hottest topic/argument at global tournaments always boils down to what region is the best? Although this time around the question is more centered around whether anyone can stop Europe. This is the first World Championship where there isn't an equal representation across all regions, giving Europe a big advantage out the gate. However, as long as there is an American in the field, you can expect to hear some USA chants as we hope for our 2nd World Champion. Europe has claimed the last two world championships, while the Asia-Pacific and China regions are looking for their first, a difficult task since they are already outnumbered 11:5 combined.
World Championship contestants listed by region:
- Europe (6): Aleksei 'ShtanUdachi' Barsukov, Frederik 'Hoej' Nielsen, Oleksandr 'Kolento' Malsh, Yevhenii 'Neirea' Shumilin, Jon 'Orange' Westburg, Thomas 'Sintolol' Zimmer
- Americas (5): Frank 'Fr0zen' Zhang, Julien 'DocPwn' Bachand-Fleurent, Anthony 'Ant' Trevino, Ryan 'Purple' Murphy-Root, Muzahidul 'Muzzy' Islam
- Asia-Pacific (3): Samuel 'SamuelTsao' Tsao, Kim 'Surrender' Jung Soo, Chen 'Tom60229' Wei-Lin
- China (2): Jason 'JasonZhou' Zhou, Zheng 'OmegaZero' Lin
Out for World Championship Redemption
This will be the second world championship appearance for six of the contestants:
- Kolento, OmegaZero, Purple, Tom60229, JasonZhou & Neirea
It is an incredible feat to make multiple World Championship appearances in a game that involves as much luck and randomness as Hearthstone, but will the experience translate to a victory? All of the six players have very forgettable showings at their first world championship as JasonZhou was the only player of the group to make it to the final four (in 2016).
Who will take home the title?
We need to know who to choose as our champion so we can get the max number of packs!
It seems as if the Europeans are the biggest favorites to win it all, most notably Kolento, Neirea and Hoej (in that order). Fellow European, Orange, looked to be a favorite too, but his inclusion of an Aggro Hunter makes his outlook a lot more difficult to predict. A forgotten European in ShtanUdachi, however, had the most dominant showing out of anybody to clinch his spot at the World Championship when he won the Winter Championship without dropping a series, making him a good sleeper for this tourney.
The China and Asia-Pacific regions combine for five representatives all looking to bring their region their first World Champion. The most notable contenders from this group are China's JasonZhou and Asia-Pacific's Surrender. JasonZhao finished 4th at last year's World Championship and he has been dominating the China scene ever since. There's also Surrender, who arguably has the most momentum of any player in the field, winning the most recent global championship just a couple months ago.
Finally, who can be our American hero? Oddly enough, our best chance at an American hero may not even be American… Canada's Purple has the best chance of winning it all compared to anybody in the region as he has a solid history of coming up big in tournaments that he dedicates himself to. As for a true American hero, our fate is in the hands of Ant, Muzzy, and Fr0zen. As much faith as I have in the USA, it is very difficult to see any of these three taking home the title. We saw both Fr0zen and Muzzy crumble under the pressure of their global championships, making it seem as if they may be even more nervous now that they are on the biggest stage of them all. Ant has taken a huge step forward this year, but his lineup is just so odd. He is the only person to bring 'Big Spell' Spiteful Summoner Priest and paired that with a Murlocadin deck, choosing not the bring the two most powerful decks in the game in Highlander Priest and Control Warlock could end up hurting him in the long run.
Regardless… U-S-A! U-S-A!
What decks are even good right now?
Now that we know who might win, let's take a look at the decks that the players will be piloting.
This is the closest the Hearthstone World Championship has ever been to the release of an expansion as Kobolds & Catacombs has been out for barely over a month. Usually there is about a three-month gap so the meta is nice and settled, but not this time around.
Yes, there are the most powerful classes that are represented very well in Priest, Rogue, Warlock and Druid. Nearly every player brought Highlander Priest and Tempo Rogue, but there are still questions about the power decks as the field seems to be split about 50/50 on a couple big choices:
- What is the better Warlock deck: Control or Cubelock?
- What is the better version of Druid: Aggro or Jade?
But every year it seems as if the world champion does something unique to take the title. In the past, it's been bringing a surprise deck, but in this case, maybe a player is able to redefine the meta in a single tournament:
- Orange is the only person to bring Hunter, with an ultra-aggressive list
- Fr0zen and Sintolol both brought very slow control Mages with big spells
- OmegaZero, Hoej and Ant each brought an Aggro Paladin deck with varying amounts of Murlocs
- No Warrior or Shaman, FeelsBadMan
Now all that's left is to wait for the action to kick off Thursday, January 18.
