Five North Americans will play China’s best for this season January 16-22.
The third CN vs. NA Challenge is coming in less than two weeks and the host country has a lot to prove. China lost both previous challenges in 2014 and 2015 and is still far behind in its war against the west, in spite of Bohan “Lovelychook” Zhang winning the third annual CN vs. EU clash last year.
As is often the case with these direct clashes, China will form a line-up from its best performing players. For the upcoming tournament, the top four players from the 2016 Hearthstone Gold Series Grand Finals (which begins tomorrow, January 8), will join Blizzcon semi-finalist Jason “JasonZhou” Zhou to form a team of five. Against them will stand a full-invite roster of North Americans, the line-up of which was just announced.
Breakout star of 2016 Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang – winner of the Community Choice GosuAward for “Biggest potential for 2017” – and LG team-mate Keaton “Chakki” Gil will lead the team into battle. NA’s team will also feature Blizzcon quarter finalist Julien “Cydonia” Perrault, as well as two veterans of the Hearthstone scene: Liquid’s David “Dog” Caero and Tempo Storm captain Andrey “Reynad” Yanyuk. Of the five, Dog is the only player to have fought in a CN vs. NA Challenge before.
Little has been officially announced on the challenge details. In 2015, the teams sparred in a Last Hero Standing series of Best-of-3’s over three days, with NA ultimately winning two of the three face-offs to complete its victory. The bracket to determine to four Chinese players to stand behind JasonZhou is available below.
