The line-up for Blizzcon will be completed by tomorrow as the Americas Championship gets on the way at 19:00 CEST tonight.
Three of the four regions in the World Championship have already determined their representatives. Zoro, Zihao, NoTomorrow and LoveCX were the first to punch tickets for the Anaheim event, conquering China. In back-to-back events last weekend, Europe and Asia-Pacific (APAC) also found their worthy quartets, with Thijs, Neirea, Lifecoach and Ostkaka coming from the old continent and Kranich, Kno, Neilyo and Pinpingho hailing from the east.
The eyes of the Hearthstone community now turn to San Francisco, where the last batch of regional championship matches will be played. Enter the Americas Championship.
The two-day tournament will be the conclusion of the qualification process for the World Championship and promises action with no clear favorite. A lot of the renowned names of the region got eliminated during the online qualifier, including veterans from established teams like Reynad, Hyped, Amaz, Zalae, Dog, SilentStorm and more. As a result, the final line-up for the Americas championship seems to be very close skill-wise, even if not as stacked as the European lot at first sight.
The format is the same as all other championships – two double elimination groups which will determine the four representatives from the region to fly to California in November. The best four players after the group stage will battle in a small four-man single elimination bracket to split the lion’s share of the $25,000 prize pool.
Similar to its European counterpart, the Americas championship also has its group of death. Jeffrey “Trump” Shih, Justin “JAB” Black and Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root – voted the three top players in the tournament by our power rankings committee – all share the same battlefield, with JAB opening against Trump in the first match of the evening. With Group A so stacked, it’s also bad news for Brazilian underdog Vinicius “Coreia” Pupo who will have to be on the very top of his game if he’s to survive the culling.
Dylan "Hotform " Mullins and Victor "Vlps" Lopez look like the favorites in Group B, but the pool is just as, if not harder to predict than Group A. Despite his tender age of 14, Alexandre “MoleGel” Souza recently came out as the upper bracket winner of the Latin America qualifier, while Victor “Nias” Shelstad has built himself the reputation of a Patron Warrior slayer.
Make sure to stay up to date with the tournament by bookmarking our World Championship coverage hub.
