After a very successful Americas Championship in Las Vegas, Prague will be the home to the Europe Championship. This weekend, the 3rd and 4th of October, is promising us the best games the European scene has to offer.
November 6th and 7th, those are the days that the Heroes of the Storm world champions will be decided. For months now, teams from all over the world have participated in Road to Blizzcon events with the purpose of qualifying for the World Championship Grand Finals at Blizzcon.
Out of the eight teams that will get to play at Blizzcon, four teams are already known. Both eStar Gaming and Team YL qualified after placing first and second in the China Championship, and Cloud9 and Tempo Storm did the same at the Americas Championship. With Korea and Taiwan each still working out which one team will represent their region, the Europe Championship is the next event that will bring forth two new HWC qualified teams.
This coming weekend, the best teams from Europe will compete for just those qualification tickets, as well as their part of the $100,000 USD prize pool. The teams that are playing in Prague are:
- Natus Vincere - Qualified by winning the EU July Open
Read a Team Spotlight here. - Team ROCCAT - Qualified by placing second in the EU July Open
Read a Team Spotlight here. - Virtus.Pro - Qualified by placing third in the EU July Open
Read a Team Spotlight here. - Team Liquid - Qualified by winning the EU August Open
Read a Team Spotlight here. - Bob Question Mark - Qualified by placing second in the EU August Open
Read a Team Spotlight here. - Gamers2 - Qualified by placing third in the EU August Open
A Team Spotlight is coming soon. - Fnatic - Qualified by placing fourth in the EU September Open
Read a Team Spotlight here. - Pirates in Pyjamas - Qualified by placing fifth in the EU September Open
Read a Team Spotlight here.
These teams have been divided into two groups, and will play to decide the top two teams per group. These two teams from both groups will then move on to the Single-elimination playoffs to decide the two teams that will qualify for BlizzCon. All matches are expected to be Bo3, with the finals being a Best of 5 series.
The teams have been divided into groups as follows:
Unlike the Las Vegas event, the event this weekend will host Hearthstone and World of Warcraft competitions as well as Heroes of the Storm. Due to time constraints a majority of the Heroes games will be played on Friday before the event is open to visitors. We have not received confirmation yet that all of these games will be broadcasted online, but can expect that at least a number of those games will be viewable on Twitch.
Saturday will be the day when the matches that decide the first and second place finishers in the Group Stage will be played, as well as the Semi-Finals of the playoffs. This means that at the end of the Saturday schedule, we will already know the two teams that will represent Europe at BlizzCon.
On Sunday, the finals of this weekend's event will be played out in a Bo5 series, with the winner taking home $40,000 USD in prize money and the second place finisher taking home $24,000 USD. For full information on the event's schedule, please check out the official event website.
ESL and Blizzard have not yet announced the caster talent that will be hosting the event, but Kaelaris and ToD are both expected to cast games this weekend.
EDIT: The official line up for casters and hosts has been released. We will be able to enjoy the casting of Manuel "Grubby" Shenkhuizen, Jacob "SolidJake" Kulinski, James "Kaelaris" Carrol, Yoan "ToD" Merlo and Michael "KendricSwish" Kratzel.
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