The Eight teams attending are Ballistix, MVP Black, and MVP Miracle from Korea, ZeroPanda, Super Perfect Team, and eStar from China, Team Dignitas from Europe and Astral Authority from North America.
With 3 Korean and 3 Chinese teams, this event is going to be very similar to the Eastern Clash that will be held after the first 5 weeks of league play in 2017. The key difference is that the North American Fall Regional Champion and the Europe Fall Regional Champion were invited instead of teams from the minor regions in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It also helps that the prize pool is 3 times as big as the one available for the Eastern Clash.
Korean Teams
Ballistix
The reigning BlizzCon champions are looking to continue their run at the Gold Club World Championship and prove that they will be the dominant force in the Heroes eSports scene going into 2017. Ballistix is defined by their calm, pressure-free philosophy towards competing on the main stage and their LAN experience in the face of an enormous crowd gives them a big edge.
MVP Black
MVP Black was the dominant team in Heroes of the Storm eSports for much of 2016, but their results have steadily gotten worse and worse. They won the Spring Global Championship in 2016 and then won GHL Spring afterwards, but then lost both Superleagues that came after the Spring Global Championship (to Tempest in Season 2 and Team L5 in season 3) and lost the Summer Global Championship to Tempest.
At BlizzCon, they didn't even make it to the Grand Finals, suffering a shocking 3-1 upset loss to Fnatic. Fnatic won't be here, but MVP Black now has a lot to prove, as they have underperformed tremendously considering that they have many of the best players in the world.
MVP Miracle
MVP Black's sister team finished third place in the Season 3 of Superleague after suffering a devastating loss to Ballistix (then Team L5) that kept them from making it to BlizzCon. They had no problem making it to the Gold Club World Championship, as they won all of their matches in the Global Wildcard (Fnatic and Misfits were not able to play due to it being an online qualifier on the Asian servers).
Chinese Teams
ZeroPanda
The Chinese Regional Champion after winning GHL Summer, ZeroPanda nonetheless got off to an exceedingly poor start at BlizzCon against Fnatic. They would get another chance to push Fnatic to the brink, but ultimately the late game throws were too much for ZeroPanda to overcome. ZeroPanda's biggest area for improvement is their decision-making. If they manage that their chances of performing well increase significantly.
Super Perfect Team
The runner-up at GHL Summer after beating eStar behind the power of Zagara, Super Perfect Team was unable to show what they could do at BlizzCon due to visa issues. Instead, eStar and Super Perfect Team formed a hybrid team under the eStar banner consisting of XingC, Tiger, Tumi, qianxiao, and Misaka. That hybrid team didn't even make it to the 2nd Group Stage, despite other teams raving about their performances in scrimmages.
With the recent drama and roster shakeups in China, it's not exactly clear what the roster will be at the Gold Club World Championship. However, Super Perfect Team must feel this tournament is their chance to redeem the BlizzCon heartbreak.
eStar Gaming
Once the undisputed powerhouse of China, eStar has definitely taken a step backwards after NccCcc and team founder xiaOt retired. This meant that eStar would have missed BlizzCon if not for the visa issues experienced by Super Perfect Team. Nonetheless, they qualified for the Gold Club World Championship in dominant fashion with their new roster, which retains XingC, Tumi and Tiger with Savage and Lucien joining.
Western Regional Champions
Team Dignitas
Yes, I know Fnatic finished 2nd at BlizzCon. No, that doesn't mean they replace Team Dignitas, as Team Dignitas was the Europe Fall Regional Champion. Team Dignitas had a great performance at BlizzCon, making it to the semi-finals and taking a map off the eventual BlizzCon champions Ballistix. They also won both Europe Fall Regionals.
While a lot of that got overshadowed by Fnatic's stunning victory over MVP Black, Team Dignitas is nonetheless well-equipped to represent Europe just fine at the Gold Club World Championship.
Astral Authority
North America got a rude awakening to just how far behind they are from the rest of the world at BlizzCon. However, Astral Authority is getting a second chance on the world stage to prove that there's still hope for the North America region in Heroes of the Storm eSports. With experience against international teams finally under their belt, let's hope they can put up a significantly stronger performance at the Gold Club World Championship.
More Information
The event starts on November 26 with the Groupstages at 17:00 CST (1 am PST). CavalierGuest will provide the English cast.
CavalierGuest also provided the tentative schedule on Reddit:
Read more about the event here
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