Name: Aleksandr Malsh
Team: Cloud 9
Conutry: Ukraine
Age: 23
Phase 1: Direct Seed to Phase 2
Phase 2: 3-0 thefallen. 3-2 thefishou, 3-1ThisNL
Phase 2 Decks: Druid, Shaman, Handlock, Priest

Here he is, the end boss.

While researching this article we had to stop asking players who they were most afraid of because there was only ever one answer coming back. Kolento is the player to beat at BlizzCon. Kolento is widely considered one of the best players in the world and what's more impressive is how often he delivers on that expectation. With a lifetime tournament win rate of 71% and win rates over 75% for September and October, there is really no doubt that Kolento is a serious threat.

In case the skill on Kolento's side of the table wasn't enough, he also has a strange effect on his opponents. Kolento's opponents just seem to misplay more often than one would expect for pro level competition. Recently Ek0p missed lethal at Viagame House Cup by not factoring in Fatigue against this crafty Ukrainian. Whether Kolento freezes his opponents in fear or is a jedi we don't know, but something is clearly going on.

If tight play and mind tricks weren't enough, Kolento is also an innovative deck builder. Kolento is responsible for some of the most dominant decks in Hearthstone's history. With a month to prepare and a relatively solid metagame to exploit, Kolento is one of the players with the tools to really crack the format open.

Name: Riccardo Giammanco
Team: pownedteam
Country: Italy
Age: 25
EU Phase 1: 6-3 (qualified as a replacement for Theude)
Phase 2: 3-2 Max, 2-3 Numberguy, 3-2 Max, 3-0 Mr.Yagut
Phase 2 Decks: Priest, Druid, Paladin and Handlock

Riccardo 'Kaor' Giammanco is an Italian Hearthstone player on the team powned.it. Coming from a background of Magic the Gathering and WoW TCG, Riccardo fared well in his home country of Italy winning tournaments and earning himself a spot at the qualifiers. There, he squeaked through Phase one being a replacement for Theude at the last minute. With little time to prepare, he decided to keep the same decks he previously used in Phase Two. After a few shaky games, he managed to come second in his group behind Numberguy before convincingly defeating Mr.Yagut in three straight games.

Riccardo's favourite class is Priest and his convincing play against Mr.Yagut displayed his strength with the class. Now that he has time to develop and perfect his decks for BlizzCon, he could be a surprise to make it out of his group and do well.

Name: Filip Samuelsen
Team: Innovation
Country: Denmark
Age: 17
Phase 1: 6-1
Phase 2: 3-2 Neira (reverse all-kill with Priest), 3-2 Kaor, 3-2 Frezzar (Reverse All-kill with Druid)
Phase 2 Decks: Handlock, Druid, Miracle-Leeroy, Priest

SK Gaming's latest recruit, Filip 'Numberguy' Samuelsen is a young Danish player who has consistently placed within the top 100 on the Eu Ladder. Numberguy was a member of Team Innovation before being picked up by SK Gaming. In the European qualifiers, Numberguy progressed to Phase Two with a convincing 6-1 record in Phase Once. In Phase Two, he showed very strong mental fortitude turning a 0-2 deficit against former team mate Neirea around winning three straight games on his Priest. Following a close series with Kaor, Numberguy proceeded to reverse all kill against Frezzar with his Druid deck to make it to BlizzCon.

Numberguy's Druid deck, which has faithfully served him throughout the qualifiers, is a throwback to the old Ramp Druid. Running two Ancient of Wars and two Sunwalkers, Numberguy will look to be a stout wall that his opponents can't break down moving into BlizzCon.

Name: James Luo
Team: Dignitas
Country: UK
Age: 16
Phase 1: 6-3 (replacement for noisyboy)
Phase 2: 3-2 ThisNL, 3-2 Lowelo, 3-0 Thefishou (Shaman)
Phase 2 Decks: Handlock, Shaman, Paladin, Druid

James 'Greensheep' Luo is possibly the youngest player at BlizzCon this year across all games. Hailing from Team Diginitas, this sixteen year old was also a last minute replacement in Phase Two of the European Qualifiers replacing Noisyboy. Making the most of his opportunities, Greensheep showed some impressive plays defeating ThisNL and Lowelo in his group before sweeping Thefishou with his trusty Shaman deck.

Greensheep is definitely someone to look out for as he stares you down during your turn. Combining strong decision making and solid decks, he will be one of the players that are favored to move out of the groups.

Out of the fairly insular Korean Hearthstone scene, RenieHouR is one of the better known players. RenieHouR qualified for the Korean top four playoff by finishing as the highest ranked Korean in the CN vs KR Masters Season 2 where he was the only Korean to make it past the round of sixteen. RenieHouR also had success outside of Korea this fall in the WEC World Championships where he finished third. During his run at WEC, RenieHouR defeated two Chinese players by a 6-2 combined score and made it to the Winners' Final before hitting the wrecking ball known as TidesofTime.

RenieHouR is also the team captain of the top Korean team Golden Coin. Golden Coin contained three of the top four players in the qualifying matches for Blizzcon. Golden Coin is so dominant in Korea that most of the time they just end up in team-kill scenarios: RenieHouR was eliminated from WEC by Surrender and had to defeat tranzit in order to qualify for BlizzCon.

Fun bonus fact: RenieHouR qualified for the very first GSL Open Season and was in Idra's group. Sadly, RenieHouR lost to oGsJookto in the first round.

Kranich is another one of the true unknowns coming in to BlizzCon. With very little actually known about him and even fewer televised matches, Kranich is going to be next to impossible to metagame. The most recent match played by Kranich will be a month old by the time group play begins so he could be bringing anything to the table.

Overall, we tend to favor the players who we have already heard of and expectations are often biased in their favor. That said, Kranich could very well be a real threat despite our unfamiliarity with him in the Western scene. I would go so far as to say that his anonymity could help him in the group.

The list of BlizzCon qualified players has been public for a long while and you can be sure that these sixteen have been researching each other extensively. Kranich will have the opportunity to observe his opponents from the shadows and collect information while giving out none himself.

Kranich may not be a favorite at BlizzCon, but he can certainly be a threat.

Unlike some of the other qualifying events for Blizzcon, the Taiwanese qualifier actually played out the finals once both qualified players had been determined. The extra match did not end up extending the event time by much, however, since tom60229 swept the finals 3-0.

After winning the qualifier, tom60229 was interviewed by the Taiwanese website ironforum.com.tw. While a single interview can only cover so much, we did learn two important details about tom60229. Firstly, 60229 was the district number of his primary school. When asked if he would change it he simply replied that he would rather focus on playing the game and his handle isn't important. Secondly, tom60229 does not like Miracle Rogue (note: this interview took place before the Leeroy nerf). tom60229 believes that it takes three to four hundred games with Miracle Rogue to really get good at the deck. He would just rather ban Miracle Rogue than have to worry about learning it to that level.

FrozenIce is another player for whom Hearthstone combined two of his prefered game types. FrozenIce was a long time player of Blizzard games but he also devoted a large amount of time to Magic: the Gathering. FrozenIce believes that some TCG background is important to success in Hearthstone because it allows you to better understand and evaluate what is happening on the board.

To contrast with tom60229, FrozenIce is a big fan of the Miracle Rogue deck. Rogue was also FrozenIce's first Golden hero. FrozenIce claims that his goal is -- at time of interview -- was to become the best Miracle Rogue player in Asia. In order to achieve this goal, FrozenIce spent time practicing and working on the deck in a rather unconventional way. Instead of just playing against established decks, FrozenIce would test random cards both in and against the Miracle deck to see if anything stuck. This type of focused practicing he says gave him a much better ability to deduce what was occurring in the game and think on his feet.

WANG, “Tiddler Celestial” Xie Yu is the most mysterious and scary Hearthstone player in China. Everyone has heard of his legend: he has won BlizzCon China Qualifier with only one deck, Zoolock, and with a crushing 9-0 score. That was literally unbelievable. People said, if you are good enough, you might have a chance to see what other decks besides Zoo Tiddler Celestial has brought. After taking home nearly 50,000 USD from World Cyber Arena 2014, he is considered as the player who has the best chance to win World Championships for China. He just gets picked up by Vici Gaming and will attend Hearthstone NEL Fall 2014 Season 2. His fans would like to call him “the Zookeeper”.

Hearthstone was the game equivalent to a perfect storm for Tiddler Celestial. Not only did it feature the characters from the Warcraft universe, it also transported them to the Tiddler Celestial's prefered game genre. One of the main factors which keeps Tiddler Celestial playing long hours, however, is the large and supportive Hearthstone community.

Having the drive to test for long stretches is key for any progamer and Tiddler Celestial credits his work ethic as the reason for his success. Despite being considered one of the top players in China, Tiddler Celestial continues working to become better and refuses to bring a new deck to a tournament without first testing it extensively on ladder. Tiddler Celestial's quest for improvement is best explified by what he considers his most memorable game:
In terms of how the different regions compare heading into BlizzCon, Tiddler Celestial finds the different regions similar in power but different in style. When it comes to his home server, Tiddler Celestial believes that the Chinese metagame is more conservative than the others. Chinese players tend not to innovate as much and prefer to play decks already popularized by other pros. Whether or not this will hurt them in the top sixteen is a mystery.

WANG, “Qiruo” Jia Hui is a 20 year old Chinese player and the youngest one among all Chinese qualifiers. People may say that his lack of tournament experience is his biggest weakness: but we know that he is definitely one of the strongest Hearthstone players in China at the moment. His skills are undisputed and have already been proven against the most famous and competitive female Chinese pro ailv. He also once beat Island -- the leading player from NEL S1 Champion Team ZhanQi -- in a 3-2 tough match. He has been picked up by World Elite a few days ago and will be attending Hearthstone NEL Fall 2014 Season 2. We can’t wait to see how well he will perform at BlizzCon Hearthstone World Championships.

These four classes all have share some common elements which fit well into Qiruo's preferred playstyle. Qiruo's go to decks are usually those which can control the board and have large burst potential. Qiruo tends towards these types of decks because they allow him to attack on two axis. On the one hand, decks with a strong board control element allow him to battle for control early. If that plan A does not go well, however, a quick kill with burst damage allows some games to be stolen back. Qiruo also enjoys seeing burst decks in action:
In the top sixteen of BlizzCon, Qiruo believes that groups C and D are the most competetive out of the four. Group D is considered the hardest mainly because it is Kolento's group. Qiruo fears his own group -- Group C -- out of respect for both Firebat and Greensheep. As a Hearthstone fan, Qiruo is looking forward to Group A because he believes Tiddler Celestial to be one of the top Chinese players and expects to see him in the semifinals. Group B is intersting to the Chinese and Korean fans especially because it will feature a rematch of the OGN Hearthstone KR-CN Masters 2 semifinals in RenieHouR vs Nicolas.

ZHANG, “RunAndGun” Li Cheng is probably the best Hearthstone free agent in China. He is well known as the Champion of China Collegiate Hearthstone Open. He has been a consistent tournament player and always wins with a dominating score. In his last match at BlizzCon China Qualifier, he took out his opponent 3-0 with a Shaman deck and easily found himself a spot at World Championships. His fans would like to call him R-God.
While Hunter and Rogue are RunAndGun's favorite heroes, the control archetype is the one that best fits his playstyle. RunAndGun favors this archetype because he feels that longer games give him more opportunities to out play his opponents. The downside to playing control decks, however, is that the matchups take much longer to practice. As such, RunAndGun takes more time than most working outside the game itself to design the perfect control deck:
Keeping with in line with the other Chinese players, RunandGun is most concerned about having to play against Kolento "because I’ve never seen him making mistakes". The unfortunate truth, however, is that RunandGun finds himself in the same group as the most feared player at BlizzCon. While acknowledging that his is the Group of Death, RunandGun is confident in his abilities and has faith also in his countrymen. RunandGun shares the belief that Tiddler Celestial will make it out of Group A and that Nicolas will win his rematch in Group B. The player he worries most about is Qiruo who finds himself in what's considered the second hardest group.

YUAN, “Nicolas” Lin is one of the most experienced Hearthstone players in China. He is cool, calculating, and a master strategist. His fame has been growing drastically after he took out the OGN Hearthstone KR-CN Masters Season 1 Champion, MagicWind, and became the new champ bringing home $20'000 USD. The thing his fans love about him is his indomitable fighting spirit: we’ve seen plenty of times that he started a match with 0-1 or 0-2 behind, but ended up with a victory. His performance at BlizzCon China Qualifier was the perfect example. People joke that if there’s a losers bracket, Nicolas might be the first guy falls into it but we could still see him playing in the grand final. Nicolas is the king of the losers bracket and “battle back” is his signature means you should never let down your guard when playing against him. Nicolas will play for Team L in Hearthstone NEL Fall 2014 Season 2 and his best hero in last season is Rexxar (3-0)

Nicholas came to Hearthstonen in the same way I imagine most of us did: through a love for other Blizzard games. After receiving a beta key from a friend, he was hooked and never looked back. Nicolas' favorite deck up until now has been Miracle Rogue. This deck also fits Nicolas' style of being a comeback king: Coming into the BlizzCon top sixteen, Nicolas does not think that one region is especially favored and believes them all to be “worthy opponents”. That said, he acknowledges that Kolento is widely considered one of the top player and one that Nicolas would like to avoid. All in all, Nicolas believes the groups to be well balanced and wants to assure his fans that "I will keep fighting and try my best to show you guys my best performance!"