We now know the eight players who will compete for the crown the coming weekend.
Friday and Saturday brought good news to one half of the line-up in Burbank, California and bad news to the other. As the group stage of the 2015 World Championship drew to a close, the playoffs bracket started filling up with the most deserving of the sixteen.
ThijsNL, Zoro, Ostkaka and DieMeng qualified on Friday, topping their respective groups and setting a delicate Europe-China balance. For the other regions, Saturday was the last chance to make a splash and move forward into the competition.
Last night was one of those true déjà vu moments that happen so very rarely. Every single decider match was a re-game from the opening days. By the end of the night, all of the four outcomes would repeat themselves.
Japanese underdog Kno ended the tournament life of JAB, sending another American home, making it now two for two, counting Nias’ elimination on Thursday. In Group B, Kranich was even more dominant against Europe’s titan Lifecoach and steam-rolled him a 3-0, one of only two clean sweeps of the entire group stage.
As groups C and D approached, fans of NA Hearthstone held their breath. Should Hotform and Purple lose, it would mean no representative of the Americas would play in the playoffs, ending the dream of double world championships for the region.
ROOT’s Hotform made sure that dream doesn’t die, though it was a close fight. Paired against Vietnam’s Neilyo, the Canadian needed all five games to triumph, and he closed the series in style, winning a hugely unfavored Oil Rogue versus Control Warrior match. The pressure was now on Purple to equalize the score of all four regions.
Unfortunately for the NA fanbase, GamersOrigin’s playing coach suffered the same 1-3 loss to Pinpingho as he did on opening day. Purple’s freeze mage was once again a big part of his downfall, losing him the first two games.
With the group stage now over, the reckoning has the APAC region – considered to be the underdog – leading in number of players in the Blizzcon playoffs. Europe and China are tied at two and last comes NA, having placed all its power on Hotform’s shoulders.
The HWC 2015 playoffs will begin on November 6th. Make sure to place your bets for a chance to win some slick ROCCAT hardware.
Quarter final matches:
ThijsNL vs Kranich
Ostkaka vs Pinpingho
DieMeng vs Kno
Zoro vs Hotform
