Every class except Shaman is represented, Warlock leads in numbers.
Another $80,000 is on the line this weekend for the European Winter championship. Starting in a few hours, eight players will engage in a three-day brawl to be old continent’s first king of the new year.
There’s a lot to look forward to. A high profile tournament, the Winter Championship is a career-maker, especially when it comes to lesser known names, which most of the player line-up gathered in Hollywood is. With few competitors having actual storylines, many eyes are fixated onto Ole “Naiman” Batyrbekov, the Kazakhstani player who was issued a ban in 2015 due to wintrading but has made his way back for a chance to redeem himself. Remi “Tars” Roesch from France also caught the attention of experts, qualifying back-to-back for the Winter Championship and the recently concluded PGL Tavern Tales Spring.
The groups have been drawn and so have the pairings for the opening matches:
14:00 CET – DrHippi vs Cereza
15:00 CET – Nicslay vs Naiman
16:00 CET – Diggen vs Tars
17:00 CET – Pokrovac vs BunnyHoppor
We’ve also learned the class line-ups for the players. Compared to the NA championship, the metagame seems a bit more balanced, with only Shaman not being played. There’s no ubiquitous class and the most a class is being used is Warlock, featured in seven of the eight line-ups.
BunnyHoppor: Druid, Paladin, Warlock, Warrior
Cereza: Druid, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior
Diggen: Druid, Paladin, Warlock, Warrior
DrHippi: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Warlock
Naiman: Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Warrior
Nicslay: Druid, Paladin, Warlock, Warrior
Pokrovac: Paladin, Priest, Warlock, Warrior
Tars: Druid, Mage, Paladin, Warlock
Thus, the totals for each class are:
Druid: 6
Hunter: 2
Mage: 3
Paladin: 6
Priest: 1
Rogue: 1
Shaman: 0
Warlock: 7
Warrior: 6
