As the $190,000 Hearthstone tournament gets underway, the host nation shows it's not to be underestimated.
The biggest Hearthstone event to date outside the BlizzCon World Championship began this morning with the first batch of group stage games. A mix of European, American and Chinese players clashed, starting off Groups A-D and providing some arguably unexpected results.
At the end of the first day, China stands undefeated, contrary to what the Western audience might have expected. China finished second to last in the recent $62,000 WEC tournament, outclassed by Korea and North America, but the second major event saw the Chinese win all of their four matches against the foreign players, with a total map score of 8-3.
The first to fall was PkD's Lothar who scoreboarded a 1-2 loss to iG's Kowfox at the very start of the tournament. The Pole now has to pull a way more convincing performance if he's to go through two more Chinese players in IceFox and LiBo.
In the equally split Group C, Forsen and Monk also couldn't find the strength to defeat the hosts. World Elite's HuLu blanked the former Liquid Value captain while #4 China player and BlzzCon CN winner TiddlerCelestial scored a 2-1 comeback on his Zoo against Forsen's control Warrior and Handlock.
The last player to fall to the Chinese was Kungen who was paired against another World Elite player HunterMing. The Swede won the Hunter vs Handlock opener due to a fatal misplay by his opponent but was easily shit down by HunterMing's Mage deck, making for China's perfect run through day one.
That is not to say that Westerners' hope is completely dead. Two players will make it out of the all-foreign Group B where Hyped and Alchemixt are currently leading the group with Savjz and ThatsAdmirable having to play catch-up tomorrow. In Group D, Cloud 9's ace and #3 in Europe Ek0p got a sweeping victory against Tempo Storm captain Reynad and is likely to top the group should he overcome HunterMing as day two resumes.
The second batch of group stages resumes at 03:15 CET this morning. Highlights of the day include foreign heavy-hitters like Gnimsh, Gaara and Darkwonyx fighting back against China and TidesofTime, Rdu, StrifeCro and Amaz entangled in the Group G of Death.
