APAC crowns its Winter Champion, all HCT Winter players now known

With b787 taking the title we have all sixteen names that will travel to the Bahamas for a spot in the World Championships.

The last weekend of HCT Winter 2017 Playoffs has concluded, with the Asia-Pacific region being the last to select their four players. After a seven round-long Swiss, eight players emerged who then faced off in a single-elimination bracket to determine not only the regions' Winter Champion, but also which four players would make it to the Global Winter Championships, held from the 23rd of March until the 26th. In a tense finals between the South Korean Palmblad and Japanese b787, it was the latter who took the title after five games. He will be joined by Palmblad, Yulsic (who also represented Asia-Pacific at the last World Championships) and SamuelTsao.

The most memorable match of the Asia-Pacific Winter Championships was by far the showdown between eventual champion b787 and his opponent Lojom, in the quarter finals of the tournament. Having a seemingly huge disadvantage line-up wise, Lojom was almost certainly destined to be wiped 3-0. He surprised everyone by still putting himself in a great spot, however, and suprised everyone even more when he threw away a guaranteed win in a Warrior mirror-match. If you haven't seen the game, be sure to check it out here.

The quartet from Asia-Pacific will join the twelve other players from the Americas, Europe and China, who already had determined their representatives earlier. Each player will travel to the Bahamas at the end of March, where they will fight for one of four tickets to the World Championship. Additionally, a prize pool of $250,000 will be on the line, so even those who don't end up in the top four won't go home empty-handed.

These are the players playing at the Hearthstone Winter Championship 2017: