For the past two weekends, 40 of the best European players have been in competition for the eight coveted seeds for the European regionals.
With the bracket stacked to bursting, a lot of heads were expected to fall. Only eight of the 40 participants would make it to Prague in October to compete in the regional championship – the tournament that would cut off the four to represent the old continent in the world championship.
As the tournament progressed, the lower bracket took the tournament lives of multiple high-profile names. Among those was Cloud 9’s finest in Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh. A quarter-finalist from last year’s world championship and a holder of thirteen gold medals in his career, Kolento was a lock for regionals and even for the world championship in the minds of Hearthstone fans. That expectation was also rooted in the fact that Kolento was a top 8 seed in the bracket, giving him two byes in the first rounds and putting him exactly two wins away from winning a seed.
It was a rough weekend for the Ukrainian, however. His first – and only – victory in the bracket came after a tense five-game series against French player Damien “Yogg” L’hostis, which moved him onwards to meet one of Na'Vi inaugural trio Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall.
Showing top shape, Ostkaka steamrolled through Kolento 3-0 and sent him down to the lower bracket where Millenium’s Michael “Maverick” Looze was waiting. The Belgian had already eliminated Nihilum’s Dima “Rdu” Radu from the tournament and after five back-to-back games he added the name of Kolento to his list of victims.
In the end, the line-up that will fly to Prague is almost exclusively made up of known names. Nihilum and Na'Vi each have two representatives going with ThijsNL and Lifecoach for the former and Ostkaka and Hoej for the latter. Teams Empire, Liquid and Millenium will send one each in Pavel, Neirea and Maverick, respectively.
The biggest surprise of the tournament is without a doubt Italian player Gera89. An unknown name to the scene, Gera made a heroic run through the bracket, getting wins over players like Cipher and Maverick and will try to repeat the Cinderella story of his compatriot Ricardo “Kaor” Giammanco from last year.
HWC Europe regional championship line-up:
Ostkaka
Maverick
