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Hearthstone7 years agoRadoslav "Nydra" Kolev

NA wiped at opening day of Blizzcon playoffs


Photo: Carlton Beener / Blizzard

After dominating the group stage, the Americans are now all out after the first round of matches at Worlds top eight.

North America was the major story of the World Championship group stage. The region suffered a rough defeat last year, getting just one player through the round of 16, but returned in dominant form in 2016, outperforming everyone else, despite having a line-up of up-and-coming, young names. The Americas won two of the group stages with Will “Amnesiac” Barton and Edwin “HotMEOWTH” Cook playing the highest level of Hearthstone and ultimately got three out of their four players through to the round of eight.

With the opening round of the playoffs, it looked like the Americas would continue its ploughing through the tournament. Amnesiac, considered by many to be the favorite for the crown, took a quick 3-0 lead ahead of Millenium’s Pavel “Pavel” Beltukov. Yet, it was randomness that dictated the series for the better part, and viewers saw Pavel deliver a reverse-sweep on the back of precise Ragnaros shots and mad [card]babbling book[/card] pulls. By far the most exciting series of the first day, and a must watch.

Americas’ performance started declining as the day progressed with Julien “Cydonia” Perrault going down 1-4 to Cheon-Su “Cheonsu” Kim. At the very end of the broadcast, HotMEOWTH and his highly unorthodox [card]blood warriors[/card] Patron deck faced the merciless Artem “DrHippi” Kravets. HotMEOWTH queued his Patrons four times in a row but on the back of several misplays and critically bad draws in the last game against DrHippi’s Zoo ended up falling with a blank score.

At the very top of the bracket, the two Chinese played each other in a match guaranteeing a semi final for the region but also the elimination of one of their players. Sticking to his trusted N’Zoth Priest and Anyfin Paladin, Zhuo “Hamster” Wang was the object of much excitement until his defeat in six games to Jason “JasonZhou” Zhou.

18:30 CET is when the playoffs resume again and three matches later, the 2016 World Champion will be crowned.

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