Group A
With many people picking Sweden to win the tournament, the real battle in Group A is between Canada and Spain for second place. Brazil, who arguably feature one of the weaker rosters at the event, are expected to come in fourth.
Surefour (Canada, Cloud9) is, in my opinion, Canada’s best player by far. Capable of playing both hitscan and projectile DPS heroes, he’s best known for being dominant on Pharah during the “Pharmacy” (Pharah+Merch) meta. Spain looks to be the stronger team on paper, so if Canada are to make it out of the group, it will likely require heroics from Surefour.
Chipshajen (Sweden, EnVyUs) may be the best support player in the game today. Lethal as Ana and even more so as Zenyatta, expect him to get on the kill feed regularly even in Sweden’s absurdly talent-laden team. Perhaps more than any other support in the pro scene, Chipshajen is comfortable facing off against DPS heroes in a 1v1, and he wins those engagements more often than a support hero has any right to.
Group B
Group B features the United States, Russia, and Germany – all teams that have a realistic chance of finishing first or second in the group – with Chile rounding out the group. Whichever team takes first place will become a dark horse to win the whole event.
ShaDowBurn (Russia, FaZe) is almost certainly the best Genji player in the game today. He’s solid but not spectacular on the other projectile DPS heroes and on Reaper, but his skill on Genji is so great that you’ll often see him on the swordsman even in scenarios where most other players would run a different hero.
Adam (United States, Cloud9) recently put on an incredibly impressive Lucio display at the Alienware Monthly Melee. A lot of the attention on the USA team will go to the star DPS players Talespin (EnVyUs) and Seagull (NRG), but many of the teams at the event have star DPS players. What they don’t have are elite support players, and that could give the USA the edge they need.
Group C
There’s very little question in my eyes that Finland and South Korea are the two teams that will make it out of Group C. The only question is which order they’ll advance in. The other two teams – Taiwan and Australia+New Zealand – are unlikely to pose much of a threat.
Tseini (Finland, free agent) has the most to play for out of anyone at BlizzCon. Recently cut by Luminosity, he’ll be looking for a strong performance at the tournament to catapult him into a new contract. As flex player, he was put on support during the qualifiers. The meta has changed a lot since then, and it’s now anyone’s guess what composition Finland will roll out with and which heroes Tseini will play.
Miro (Korea, Lunatic-Hai) won universal praise for his performances at the APAC Premier. A Zarya and Winston specialist, a number of commentators are now calling him the best Zarya player in the world. Should the finals come down to Korea vs Sweden, he’ll have the opportunity to go toe to toe with one of the few people that can challenge him for that title, cocco (EnVyUS).
Group D
France and China headline Group D, which also includes Singapore and Thailand, two of the three teams to make it through the Asia region online qualifiers. Although it’s probably the weakest of the four groups, France did have one of the harder qualifying routes (China was one of six teams to get a direct invite and thus bypass qualifying).
Kryw (France, Misfits) is one of two members of the French squad signed to a world top-5 team, with KnOxXx (Rogue) being the other. During qualifiers the two were their nation’s tank pair (despite KnOxXx playing Lucio for Rogue), showing that tank play was the strength that France wanted to build their roster around. It will be up to Kryw to serve as the backbone of the team, and he’ll have to put on a career defining performance if they’re to make it past the quarterfinals.
Yuan7 (China, IG Fire) is one of five members of Invictus Gaming Fire to represent China at the World Cup. During the APAC Premier, which saw IG.Fire knocked out right before the quarterfinals, Yuan7 looked their best player. A flex, he spent time on everything from Tracer to Reaper to Roadhog, making key plays throughout, and keeping IG.Fire competitive against such powerhouses as Lunatic Hai and Rogue.
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