Contrary to what western fans might’ve expected, China is holding its ground against Europe at the $50,000 invitational in Shanghai.
Although Europe brought its absolute finest to bar China from yet another versus championship, the odds for both regions are even going into the playoffs. With the eliminations of Orange and Naiman on day two, ThijsNL’s surprising 0-2 run on Wednesday and StanCifka close ousting at the end of the group stage, the faith of Europe lies in SuperJJ, Kolento, Lifecoach and Ostkaka. They will go against the Chinese quartet of SleepyShaman, Lovelychook, Breath and XingSu this weekend.
These are very promising results for China. The region lost all four previous face-offs against western players – two against Europe and two against North America – but is now showing it can go toe-to-toe with a cherry-picked field of contenders. Over the last four days, the easterners have displayed a more than adequate understanding of the tournament metagame and outside of a couple of weird tech choices, such as XingSu’s [card]Argent Commander[/card]s in Tempo Warrior and region’s love for Tempo Mage, they've piloted top decks like Miracle, Shaman and Tempo Warrior to great heights.
Furthermore, apart from XingSu’s rising talent, the other three players from China are rather experienced in tournament environment. All of them are in the top 50 of the world GosuRankings, with Breath positioned the highest at #17.
The playoff pairings guarantee that at least one Chinese and one European player will advance to the semi-finals, as Lovelychook plays Breath in quarter final #2 and Lifecoach meets Ostkaka in quarter final #4 tomorrow.
