Photo: Adela Sznejder / DreamHack
The biggest event since Blizzcon is ready to hit the streams on December 17th.
With a prize pool of $220,000, WCA 2015 is getting ready to enter Hearthstone history as the largest individual tournament outside Blizzcon. 29 players will be flying to Yingchuan, China for the second edition of the event. Half of the prize pool is reserved for the winner alone, making it the single largest championship cash award in the game.
With qualifiers happening all over the world, WCA is truly an international competition. Contenders are hailing from Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, Korea and China ready for the highlight event of December 2015. The groups are drawn and the clock is ticking away the hours until Thursday, December 17, when the tournament is set to begin.
The group seeding has been kind to some, but quite punishing for others. Group B is notably stacked, featuring a trio of European household names including Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh, Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy and Stanislav Cifka. Keaton “Chakki” Gil and HWC 2015 runner-up Dylan “Hotform” Mullins are also in the mix, together with Asia qualifier bronze medalist Teck “SilentStorm” Wei and Big3’s Wu “Blue” Yang.
Big names are also present in Group B, featuring two world champions in James “Firebat” Kostesich and Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall. SEA champion Lan “Neilyo” Tran, Archon’s founder Jason “Amaz” Chan and 2014 Gold Series winner Zhang “Ruoji” Bohan will also compete for playoff seeds.
Four players in each group will advance to the 16-man single elimination bracket. Featuring a very top-heavy prize pool distribution, only the top four finishers will take a cut off the massive purse.
