The best from the Asia-Pacific region are crowning their champion this Sunday.
The Eastern regions don't get as much coverage as the Western in the world of Hearthstone but this weekend is a big one for them. Players from Taiwan, Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Japan are being gathered for the last HCT APAC Championship of the year. As with every other region, $80,000 and a Blizzcon seed are on the line.
As usual, South Korea is the favorite once again, having three of the eight seeds and if it's dominant again, it will have a flawless record coming into the Last Call qualifier, something no other country in multi-national regions (i.e. other than China) has done. This is also a historic moment for Il-Mook "Handsomeguy" Kang, who is playing his third APAC Championship in a row, finishing second in the first and winning the second one. If he wins his two opening games, the Korean would be the first player to reach three HCT championship grand finals, beating Thijs "ThijsNL" Molendijk's two. Although he's already sure to play at the world finals, there is still money to be won at APAC Summer for Handsomeguy.
The decks of the eight players have also been released to the public, and we're looking at a largely standard meta with a few deviations. Miracle Rogue is seeing a rise in popularity and it's the fourth most popular class behind the power trio of Druid, Shaman and Warrior, the former two of which are present in every line-up. Paladin and Priest are, expectedly, nowhere to be seen, and are joined at the bottom by Hunter and Mage, at 3/8 and 4/8 line-ups, respectively.
Druid: 8/8
Archetypes: 7 MalyYogg, 1 Tokens
Hunter: 3/8
Archetypes: 3 Midrange
Mage: 4/8
Archetypes: 3 Tempo, 1 Freeze
Paladin: 0/8
Priest: 0/8
Rogue: 6/8
Archetypes: 5 Miracle, 1 Malygos Miracle
Shaman: 8/8
Archetypes: 5 Midrange, 3 Aggro
Warlock: 4/8
Archetypes: 4 Zoo
Warrior: 7/8
Archetypes: 5 Control, 2 Dragon
Click on players' names to see their line-ups
Alpe
Flurry
Gundamflame
Handsomeguy
Jowen
Ledah
MalygosTW
Yulsic