A mix of newcomers and veterans, the playoffs promise some titanic clashes.
After nine rounds of Swiss, the top 16 of the first big LAN counting for the new HCT season are set. Spread across two days over a hundred players brought their digital card set to Jönköping, Sweden, to collect the first points for the Winter Championship Preliminaries.
Finishing on top of the list are Dawn from South Korea , Zorstan from Spain, and Matty from the Czech Republic, all dropping only one match out of nine played. DawN's biggest win thus far is the 2015 edition of World Cyber Arena, in which he defeated Firebat in the finals. Zorstan and Matty aren't well known yet, but if they keep up the performance level set thus far DreamHack Winter might very much be their breakout tournament.
Looking at all the qualified players, some big names stand out. Torpedo's Ness, winner of the Insomnia Truesilver Championship II, proves once more he is a strong player in a Swiss format. The same can be said of SuperJJ and StanCifka, whose year thus far has been nothing short of consistent performances. Some names in the top 16 have been seen in HCT events, with Loyan reaching Europe's Spring Championship's semi-finals, and Sintolol and Nicslay both participating in the Last Call.
Just falling out of the brackets are Luminosity Gaming's Fr0zen - runner-up of DreamHack Summer and ONOG champion - and Millenium's Odemian. Both finished the Swiss with a 7-2 score, much like 13 of the players who qualified, but through tie-breakers didn't make the cut.
The full list of players who made it through:
 SuperJJ |  DawN |  Matty |  Weghuz |
| Pokrovac | Nicslay |  Ness |  A83650 |
| Loyan |  Mitsuhide |  Zorstan |  Kufdon |
| Sintolol | TheFallen |  Un33d | StanCifka |