Misfits, Fnatic, and Team Dignitas are Europe's representatives for the Western Clash.
My Power Rankings from Last Week:
- Misfits
- Fnatic
- Team Dignitas
- Team Expert
- Playing Ducks
- Tricked eSports
- Synergy
- BeGenius ESC
My Power Rankings going into next week
1. Misfits (6-0)
Results this week: Defeated BeGenius ESC and Team Expert 3-0
Misfits is going to the Western Clash. More importantly, they will go as the #1 European seed after they defeated BeGenius ESC and Team Expert by identical 3-0 scores. If they can defeat Tricked eSports 3-0 like everyone expects next week, they will have a perfect match record going into the Western Clash and have dropped just 3 maps overall. Considering the quality of competition they've faced in Europe in HGC 2017, that is incredibly impressive.
So what separates Misfits from the rest of the elite European teams? The answer, I would argue, is the caliber of decision-making and team fighting in the late game. Several times versus Fnatic, Team Dignitas, Team Expert, and even Synergy, they have gotten to the late game without a major lead (sometimes they are even facing a major deficit). And yet, Misfits has overwhelmingly found a way to win almost all of those matches. That shows just how good this team is at the late game, an extremely valuable skill in Heroes of the Storm due to the fact that mistakes in the late game are often game ending.
2. Fnatic (5-1)
Results this week: Defeated Team Dignitas 3-2
Last week's match against Team Expert exposed some cracks in Fnatic's late game play, as Fnatic lost two games they had been comfortably leading. Had they done enough to shore up this weakness before facing Team Dignitas?
Early on, the answer appeared to be a resounding yes. Fnatic simply outplayed Team Dignitas twice in the late game and took a commanding 2-0 lead. Then Game 3 happened. Fnatic made a brilliant core rush maneuver to end the game by having Zeratul prevent the enemy team from backing while the rest of the team went for core. Unfortunately for Fnatic, Ragnaros was able to get Molten Core on to a fallen keep with Heroic Difficulty. And so despite Zeratul preventing 4 guys from backing for quite some time...Team Dignitas was able to survive with 3% on the core.
After the Game 3 loss, Fnatic rushed out to a very big lead on Infernal Shrines versus a Kerrigan composition. It should have been all but over...except Fnatic overextended trying to prematurely end the game. The result was a series of throws from Fnatic, which Team Dignitas capitalized on to come back and tie up the match at 2 all. Fnatic would close out the match with a fairly comfortable fifth game, but this is starting to become a trend for Fnatic: they are frequently dropping several maps to teams they are clearly better than. Nevertheless, they are now qualified for the Western Clash, so they have lots of time to work on this problem and rediscover their BlizzCon form.
3. Team Dignitas (4-2)
Results this week: Defeated Playing Ducks 3-1; Lost to Fnatic 2-3
Playing Ducks' Chris showed off his Chromie in competitive play for the first time in a fairly dominant win over Team Dignitas on Tomb of the Spider Queen. That would be the only map Playing Ducks would get however, as Team Dignitas continued to show that there is still a big gap between the top 3 in Europe and the rest.
Despite being outplayed for much of the match, Team Dignitas showed incredible heart and resolve to take two games off of Fnatic. Obviously there was the 3% core defense in Game 3, but what really stood out to me was the ability to rally from a massive deficit in Game 4 after Fnatic quickly jumped out to a 2-3 level lead off of repeated pickoffs on Kerrigan in team fights. While they haven't quite caught up to Misfits and Fnatic yet, there's hope in the future that they might reclaim the throne as the best team in Europe. In the meantime, they'll have to settle for the 3rd and final spot at the Western Clash.
4. Team Expert (3-3)
Results this week: Lost to Misfits 0-3
Like I said last week, Team Expert has the potential to challenge and defeat the best of Europe, but they aren't there quite yet. Obviously this match loss eliminates them from the Western Clash, so they'll have several weeks to keep working on their drafts and gameplay in preparation for weeks 6-10 of HGC 2017 Europe Phase 1.
Next week's match against Synergy should get them back to a winning record in HGC 2017, as Team Expert has not dropped a single map to a non-top 3 team in Europe. They are also masters at playing off-meta, so I doubt Synergy can show them anything that Team Expert hasn't seen before.
5. Playing Ducks (3-3)
Results this week: Lost to Dignitas 1-3; Defeated Synergy 3-1
We got to see Playing Ducks' Cris play Chromie in competitive for the first time, and he destroyed Team Dignitas with it on Tomb of the Spider Queen. One map does not make a match however, and Team Dignitas won the other 3 maps fairly comfortably. This indicates that Playing Ducks still have a long way to go both draft and gameplay wise if they want to compete against Europe's best.
That hasn't stopped them from making some highlight plays though, like this gorgeous one versus Synergy where they gusted everyone into a Ragnaros Molten Swing for the team wipe. While amazing to watch, these moments happen against weaker teams for a reason - better teams tend to not allow themselves to be put into a situation where such beautiful plays can be made.
6. Tricked eSports (2-4)
Results this week: Defeated BeGenius ESC 3-0
It looks like Tricked eSports has finally started to find their footing in EU HGC. They dominated BeGenius ESC on the first two maps, and survived a core rush attempt from BeGenius ESC after they won a teamfight to complete the sweep.
They are playing Misfits next week, so their improvement is about to be put to a big test. Will they show continued signs of life, or will Misfits crush them and show that Tricked eSports is only viable against weaker teams?
7. Synergy (1-5)
Results this week: Lost to Playing Ducks 1-3
Well, they finally won a game that they were winning by a lot, so at least there's progress with respect to late game shot calling. Nonetheless, this team still takes too many bad fights and gets picked off too frequently. There's still a lot of improvement that is needed if they want to avoid facing relegation in the Crucible.
They probably aren't going to get another win before the Western Clash either, as their opponent next week is Team Expert. Synergy has looked the best when breaking out surprise picks like The Lost Vikings, but Team Expert has not dropped a single map to a non-top 3 team in Europe and is used to playing off-meta.
8. BeGenius ESC (0-6)
Results this week: Lost 0-3 to Misfits and Tricked eSports
While they showed some fight against Misfits and came incredibly close in Game 3 against Tricked eSports to winning a map, the past four weeks of results are making BeGenius ESC's fate abundantly clear: they are going to face relegation in the Crucible. Like I noted last week, they should start to prepare for Best of 7 matches against top European Open Division teams. It isn't going to look any better next week with Team Dignitas as their next opponent.
The HGC 2017 action continues Friday, February 17 @ 18:00 CET / 9:00 am PST on the Valeera Patch
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