Photo: Carlton Beener / Blizzard
The bracket is progressing towards the expected Asia finals.
After flawless performances in the group stage saw all three Asian representatives qualified for the playoffs, the west might not be able to conquer the Hearthstone ALLSTAR invitational after all.
Two rounds before the end of the tournament, the “foreigners” are competing without their star player, world champion Pavel “Pavel” Beltukov. Millenium’s newest signee fell in seven games to Wei Lin “Tom60229” Chen. Though the Taiwanese gave Pavel a run for his money, connection issues played a big part in world champion’s loss, as replay was forced on a couple of games arguably heavy in Pavel’s favor, including the deciding Priest mirror in game seven.
Ole “Naiman” Batyrbekov also ended his run in the quarter finals, losing the western face-off against another Blizzcon participant, Canadian player Julien “Cydonia” Perrault, in another seven-game series, heavily contrasting the back-to-back 4-0 sweeps in the top half of the bracket. Cydonia, who commended his opponent after the series, remains the only westerner to punch a ticket to the offline semi-finals, happening in Taiwan next week.
China’s Jason “JasonZhou” Zhou and Japan’s “Mattun” are the other two semi-finalists, guaranteeing at least one Asian representative in the grand finals after eliminating Sang-Hyeon “Ddahyoni” Baek and Aaron “Aaron” Koh, respectively.
