While the EU qualifier went on more or less according to expectations, that was not quite the case with the overseas tournament.
Although the American scene hasn't been enjoying the same level of diversity as Europe, a lot of heavy hitters showed up for the online qualifier nonetheless. The Hearthstone world looked to Firebat, Dog, Amaz, Hyped, Reynad, Dart, PHONETAP, Zalae, StrifeCro and SilentStorm as prime candidates for the Americas championship but none of them made it through.
Cong “StrifeCro” Shu was one of the first major upsets of the tournament, his elimination coming in the second round of the losers bracket. Tempo Storm’s George “Hyped” Maganzini also joined him in the same round, meeting and falling to his own team captain, Andrey “Reynad” Yanyuk.
The next rounds ended the world championship hopes for even more established names. Round 4 spelled the end for Paul “Zalae” Nemeth (0-3 to Reynad), Austin “SilentStorm” Li (2-3 to Dog) and Matt “Dart” Orgel (2-3 to Amaz). All the names in parentheses lasted exactly one more round as they were all eliminated in LBR5, mostly by up-and-coming competitors. The last big name to fall out of the tournament was the reigning world champion himself, James “Firebat” Kostesich. Archon’s marquee stayed in the lower bracket for three rounds against Fishyyy, Dog and Phonetap but met his end in round 7 after a 1-3 loss to Jeffrey “Trump” Shih.
Although not exactly your regular crowd of invites, the NA line-up has a lot of strength in it. The winners bracket saw the triumph of former Archon and current GamersOrigin player and coach Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root, a well-known name in the scene. He was joined by Hearthlytics’ ladder monster Justin “JAB” Black; FollowEsports’ Victor “Vlps” Lopez, known for his strong showing in the NA vs. CN tournament; and ROOT Gaming’s Dylan “Hotform” Mullins, another primarily ladder player who’ll be looking to make a break-out at the Americas regionals.
Popular streamer Jeffrey “Trump” Shih is arguably the biggest name on the NA hexad, adding yet another success to his recent streak of improving tournament performance.
The sixth and final seed from NA is underdog Nias, a player who went through six rounds of losers bracket matches and eliminated players like ProtoHype, JustSaiyan, Fibonacci and Muzzy to make it to the regional championship.
Brazilian players MoleGel and Coreia will accompany the North Americans as winners of the Latin American qualifier.
Americans championship line-up:
Purple
Jab
Vlps
Hotform
Nias
Trump
MoleGel
Coreia
