Chapter I: The prodigy (Amnesiac)
Chapter II: The red flags (China)
Chapter III: The king of ice (DrHippi)
Handsomeguy's Blizzcon line-up: Malygos Druid • Midrange Shaman • Midrange Secrets • Control Warrior • Malygos Rogue
In its short, three years long history, competitive Hearthstone has seen its fair share of unique, historical achievements. Displays of the highest skill in the game have come from all over the world as the big book of competitive narrative fills up.
We’re talking about Thijs “ThijsNL” Molendijk, who became the first to repeat an HCT Championship, or his team-mate Radu “Rdu” Dima as the only multi DreamHack champion. There’s James “Firebat” Kostesich who until recently was the only player in Hearthstone to defend a LAN title at Gfinity. There’s Hak-Jun “Kranich” Baek, the first to make back-to-back World Finals, or Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh’s 17 career grand finals, or Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert who, at the time of this article, is entering his tenth consecutive week as the world’s best player as ranked by GosuGamers.
But none of them ever made it to three consecutive HCT Championship grand finals. None, except Il-Mook “Handsomeguy” Kang.
By beating all the odds and all records, Handsomeguy did something few have achieved in the past: he brought attention to the otherwise under-televised Asia-Pacific region. A colorful blend of cultures, APAC is often regarded as the weakest and least developed part of the Hearthstone scene, even with South Korea and Taiwan’s dedication to esports in mind. The narratives coming from that end of the world have been lacking in quantity and have made for a Hearthstone terra incognita, even though the region comprises a quarter of the World Championship line-up.
Overnight, Handsomeguy got the whole world talking.
The above is barely an overstatement. It took the Korean player three consecutive Championship grand finals and back-to-back golds for the community to start paying attention, proving just how distant APAC feels compared to the rest of the scene.
To be fair, the West had its own very similar storylines to follow, that would have drowned out the story of Handsomeguy before he set a record that likely won’t be beaten any time soon. In Spring, ThijsNL got himself a second Europe Championship and stole the spotlight from the Korean who at the time was on his way to second APAC grand finals and first major championship. In Summer, everybody was talking about the repeat Championship appearances of Artem “DrHippi” Kravets and George “Georgec” Connoly and had Handsomeguy not achieved the unlikely, his three-in-a-row would’ve likely gone quietly into the night.
To the joy of all writers and experts, that wasn’t the case and Hearthstone got itself another first-in-history.
While the majority celebrated Handsomeguy’s success, however, others drove attention to APAC’s unique circuit structure, which plays by different seeding rules, qualifying the top points earner of each season directly into the Seasonal Championship. Being one of those in all three seasons, Handsomeguy never had to play a single Preliminary match, a luxury which wasn’t offered to the competitors in the western regions. In his entire HCT campaign, ladder and open cups notwithstanding, Handsomeguy played only ten matches. In contrast, it took Greece’s Giorgos “Likeabawse” Papadimitrak eleven matches to qualify for a singular Europe Championship.
Others tried to put Handsomeguy’s hegemony in perspective, putting it in the context of the perceived weakness of the APAC region. His path to triple grand finals was strewn with bodies from Japan, Australia, Hong Kong and South East Asia, none of which was really known to the wider public for its strong Hearthstone scenes. Handsomeguy’s run, it could be argued, would’ve been impossible in the west and the cut-throat preliminary system makes the records of ThijsNL, DrHippi and Georgec much, much more impressive. They would’ve easily done just as well, if not better, had they played in a similarly structured circuit like APAC.
While there’s certain merit to these statements, it matters very little in the end, because it’s the final outcome that counts. Just like Wayne Gretzky’s hockey greatness cannot be belittled by the perfect storm of circumstances – such as his top scorer career in an era of weaker goaltending – Handsomeguy’s deeds will be forever remembered.
Yes, he took advantage and snowballed off of the APAC structure, but he still had to overcome many of his countrymen, including OGN KR Masters champion “Caster”, not to mention Filipino veteran Euneil “Staz” Javinas and Australia’s finest Alex “NaviOOT” Ridley, all of whom are world class players. During his back-to-back championship runs in Spring and Summer, he averaged at 6.17 games per Bo7, meaning he came close to elimination multiple times but persisted through for a flawless record.
Yes, he competed in a less-developed region, but people quickly forget that the very same less-developed region outperformed Europe and China and almost completely eliminated North America in last year’s World Championship. For all its existence in the competitive shadows, Asia-Pacific has been a breeding pool of marquee players which has captivated the audience multiple times in the past, whether we’re talking Hak-Jun “Kranich” Baek’s World Championship stories; Jung-Soo “Surrender” Kim whose talent got him contracted by esports powerhouse Natus Vincere; Yuichiro “Kno” Sato who clawed his way to a top four finish at Worlds; or Wei Lin “Tom60229” Chen, a multi-major champion on international soil.
Handsomeguy coming out as the undisputed best from that region is a roaring testament to his class. May it never be questioned again.
