Europe and China are tied at two in terms of group winners.
Thijs “ThijsNL” Molendijk continued to show top form and looks to be in prime position to be the next world champion. The Dutchman faced Group A underdog Kno and let him take just one game before his Patron/Freeze Mage/Dragon Priest dominated the playing field. The G2 player thus became not just the first one to qualify for the BlizzCon playoffs but also broke his own GosuRankings record, setting a new peak at 1430, more than 110 points ahead of the second highest ever, TiddlerCelestial’s 1317.
In Group B, Celestial’s Hong “Zoro” Yije snatched a hard-fought five game thriller against Dignitas’ Hak-Jun “Kranich” Baek. This was the second time the two players met after the bootcamp week organized by NetEase to prepare the Chinese quartet for BlizzCon. There, Zoro ran away with the victory as well, dismantling the Korean 5-1.
Swedish pride Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall stole the first place in Group C from ROOT’s Dylan "Hotform" Mullins, the other Rogue player in the group. Ostkaka’s only loss came in the opening game of the series, where his Freeze Mage was shut down in an unfavorable match-up against Hotform’s Druid, but it was all wins from there on. The Tempo Mage of the Canadian suffered two losses in a row before he decided to switch to his Oil Rogue for the fourth game, hoping the big AoE clears of [card]Blade Flurry[/card] would help against Ostkaka’s Patrons, but the Swede maneuvered the match-up perfectly, playing conservatively and drawing out Hotform’s most powerful threats.
Goa “DieMeng” Zihao took the top spot in Group D, putting China on even footing with Europe in terms of pool winners. The Team Celestial player met Taiwan’s Kwo-Ping "Pinpingho" Ho, a great storyline following the only two Shaman players in the tournament. As it becomes such class, a Thrall mirror eventually closed the five-game series with DieMeng’s mech overrunning Pinpingho’s midrange build. DieMeng's success also means that thus far Team Celestial is the best performing team at worlds, with two of its players taking their respective groups.
The last four matches of the group stage will be played tonight, determining the complete line-up for the BlizzCon playoffs.
The matches tonight:
17:00 CEST - Kno vs JAB
18:00 CEST - Kranich vs Lifecoach
19:00 CEST - Hotform vs Neilyo
20:00 CEST - Purple vs Pinpingho
More World Championship coverage:
The classes of the BlizzCon finalists
The decks of the BlizzCon finalists
VODs
