F.l.t.r.: OmegaZero, Breath, JasonZhou, Hamster
Chapter I: The Prodigy (Amnesiac)
In Hearthstone, possibly more so than in any other esport, China ought to be looked at as a single entity. The country has been waging war on the west since the earliest days of the game, constantly issuing challenges and even flying the “white dudes” – as WarCraft III legend Jae-Ho "Moon" Ho would put it – to the heart of its domain so it has the home soil advantage.
Over the years, the feud evolved. What started as a friendly invitational became a battle of pride and honor, especially for China. Every time the westerners arrived, they returned home with the money and the title. Many of the encounters weren’t even close and it didn’t matter whether it was Europeans or Americans: Every time, it ended with a defeat for the red flags.
It’s not to say that China didn’t reap any individual successes on the international Hearthstone scene but they were limited, confined to the genius that was Xieyu “TiddlerCelestial” Wang. A runner-up from the first ever World Championship, the founder and owner of Team Celestial managed to also defeat the westerners at the very heart of esports Europe – DreamHack Summer. He was proclaimed the Godfather of Hearthstone in China. He became a mentor, an aspiring pillar of the community. But he was one and the west had many like him, so China kept searching for a major championship that wasn’t conquered by the Godfather.
In 2015, the red flags reached as far as the quarter finals of the World Championship, despite the region having high hopes for Yijie “Zoro” Hong and Zihao “Zihao” Guo, both members of the established Team Celestial, especially after they underwent a special “Training for Blizzcon” bootcamp tournament a month before the world finals. It was a bitter defeat, especially after China lost the CN vs EU invitational in March of the same year – a tournament which had a real Ferrari for a prize for any Chinese winner – not even reaching the grand finals and letting Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh and Apostolos “Hawkeye” Karaiskos battle it out to split half of the $60,000 purse, as well as the $96,000 CN vs NA Challenge in August. Even APAC, the least developed Hearthstone region of them all, outperformed China at worlds. The local community did not like that, not one bit.
So, things had to change in 2016, and who better to whip the troops then China’s star player. In an interview from January this year, TiddlerCelestial pulled no punches as he lay down the harsh truth: his region was far, far behind.
For example, Lifecoach actually moved and lived with Thijs for five days before BlizzCon. They practised 12 hours a day. And another is that at Celestial Invitational, there was a Korean player (Shrink: Surrender, since he was the only Korean there) that hardly went out of the hotel room. He just sia in his room playing the game. Even though he hasn't achieved much, the attitude that Koreans displayed by playing 10 hours a day is not what we can compare with. And this hard-working spirit is why Korea leads the way of e-Sports. I hope we don't get caught up and surpassed again in Heartstone.”
Before the month was over, and potentially due to TiddlerCelestial’s tough love, China’s reinvigorated motivation or just dumb luck, the region won its first major since Godfather’s DreamHack title. In Belarus, Yolo Miracle’s “Robin” hoisted the StarLadder trophy. A good start and a much needed success. Fortunately for China, it wasn’t to be the only one this year.
In May, despite all odds and opposing the reigning world champion Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall, world’s best player at the time Jan “SuperJJ” Janssen and the last winner of the event Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh, Bohan “Lovelychook” Zhang achieved what seemed to be impossible. For the first time in history, China won a challenge event against the west, and the hardest of them all at that, with Europe’s line-up being exclusively cherry-picked from the best players on the continent. The east roared in exultation. Even their opponents had to stare in awe, acknowledging just how much was achieved for China that day by the efforts of a single players. The best rivalry in the game got itself a new chapter and a much needed twist in the narrative.
Now, as China looks forward to yet another worlds challenge, it looks more ready to triumph than ever. The collective spirit has united its four players into a singular crushing fist with the faith and belief of millions behind it. For Chinese fans, it doesn’t matter which of their players is to win championship, only that it arrives on home turf come November 5.
OmegaZero is largely considered to be the best Chinese player of this year
That isn’t to say individual talent isn’t in abundance in the ranks of the red flags. Yuxiang “Breath” Chen is another student of the Team Celestial school, a Hearthstone old-timer who’s proven himself in multiple God Series tournaments, with a first, second and third place to his name. Breath is a player who’s always trusted to carry his team to victory and in fact did so when Team Celestial won the $150,000 Team Story at the start of the year.
Another highly esteemed player is “OmegaZero”, who achieved an unprecedented success in Hearthstone this year, winning back-to-back Fall Championship and Gold Series. That’s all on top of him achieving #1 legend almost every month, a Sisyphean task considering the scale of Chinese Hearthstone. His peers consider him the best in all the country, and as HCT caster Dan “Frodan” Chou put it:
In three days, China goes to war, the most important one of its Hearthstone history. Their banner-bearers have raised the red flags high up. And all of China is hoping they won’t be turning white by the end of the event.
Photos: Blizzard
