The Korean has established himself as the most consistent player in the region.
For a third season in a row, Il-Mook “Handsomeguy” Kang competed in the HCT APAC championship. Since the start of the circuit, he’s appeared in every single grand final of his region, winning two of the three, the last one being just this Sunday. To achieve what no other player in Hearthstone has ever done, the Korean had to go through Hong Kong player “Yulsic”, which took him only five games.
With that, Handsomeguy has increased his winnings to over $65,000 this year alone and is the undisputed points leader in the APAC region, a consistency that cannot be denied and hasn’t been replicated by any player in any region. While Handsomeguy’s mastery of the game has played a major part in his success, he’s also got a helping hand from how the HCT qualifications are set up for the APAC region, in which the HCT points leader for any given season is extended a direct invitation to the corresponding championship, which by itself guarantees at least 10 HCT points going into the next season. Still, in spite of the structure differences between the regions (in Europe and North America, all players have to go through the preliminary bracket regardless of their position in the HCT standings), Handsomeguy’s three-in-a-row grand final appearances will remain Hearthstone’s first achievement of such scale.
With the Blizzcon seed from APAC Summer Championship now transferred to runner-up “Yulsic”, it’s a temporary halt of Korea’s hegemony over the precious world finals tickets. The nation will have one more shot to qualify a third player for the world championship at the APAC Last Call invitational in the second week of October.
