Friday, January 20

Team Dignitas [0-3] Misfits

Misfits made Ragnaros look broken on Day 1. Dignitas sported some solid rotations during the first game of the series on Towers of Doom and gained an early lead, but with Heroics hitting the field, Misfits turned things around with their wombo combo composition featuring Void Prison, Sulfuras Smash, and Ring of Frost. The first game was only a forecast of things to come. Dignitas continually refused to ban Ragnaros and allowed Misfits to play the maps the way they wanted, resulting in a quick 3-0.

Team expert [3-0] Playing Ducks (Diamond Skin)

In our Power Rankings, we pegged Team expert and Diamond Skin to be the contenders for the top spots, but the coordination and trust displayed by Team expert far surpassed that of Diamond Skin and took even the most hardcore of fans by surprise.

Medivh and the plays adrd enabled for his team defined the series. The most notable play came in the second game on Towers of Doom. Escorting a Sapper camp through bottom lane, BadBenny went for a fearless Mosh Pit inside the death zone and still made it out alive. Diamond Skin finally wised up and banned Medivh in the third game, but it didn’t matter; expert took the series without a single loss.

Tempo Storm [3-2] Team Naventic

The first two games of the series were not close. Naventic looked disorganized, giving up picks to Tempo Storm left and right and quickly falling behind in the series, but they stepped up their game and came out swinging on Battlefield of Eternity. Showing their continued confidence in Varian as a solo tank, Naventic played a well-coordinated game and capitalized on overcommitments from Tempo Storm by intelligently playing the map and securing the win. In Game Four, Tempo Storm drafted the old school Kerrigan/Uther combination on Infernal Shrines, but their risky draft didn't have the intended impact. Naventic consistently won teamfights on the Shrines and held a dominant lead throughout the game to tie up the series.

Game Five on Braxis Holdout was the peak of the series. Naventic did a wonderful job of using the durable trio of Rexxar, Johanna, and Lt. Morales to sit on the Beacon, stall the objective, and force Tempo Storm’s unorthodox Zarya/Leoric/E.T.C. composition to engage into them. Despite a clever late game boss call from Naventic, Tempo Storm was able to wrap up the series with a 3-2 victory.

Team 8 [3-0] No Tomorrow

Glaurung and Justing set the pace of this series for Team 8 with their exceptional play; Justing’s Diablo looked unkillable in all three games, and Glaurung worked miracles with Medivh on the first two maps, forcing a target ban in Game Three.

The climax of the series was Game Two on Infernal Shrines. No Tomorrow secured a convincing lead for much of the game, but Justing capitalized on every misstep from his opponents and set up kill after kill with his Diablo stun combo while Glaurung facilitated incredible escapes with perfectly timed shields and portals. Despite the close game, Team 8 convincingly closed out the series without dropping a map.

Saturday, January 21

beGenius [1-3] Synergy

The difference in skill between the two teams was clear by the first game. Synergy opted for an old school Illidan composition while beGenius focused more on meta picks with a pocket pick Li Li to counter Illidan, but Synergy quickly overpowered beGenius with superior play.

From there, Synergy went for a classic Void Prison/Apocalypse/Ring of Frost wombo combo in their second game, but beGenius positioned themselves beautifully and never got caught in the combo. It looked like beGenius was back in the series, but Synergy vanquished their hopes by preventing any opportunity for a comeback in the last two games and took the series in convincing fashion.

Fnatic [3-1] Tricked eSport

Fnatic was undeniably one of the best teams this weekend and used a wide variety of strategies and compositions in their games. From insane global styles to pocket pick Chromie to laser build Azmodan, Fnatic was all over their opponents with new and unexpected strategies.

Tricked nonetheless put up a surprisingly good fight despite their underdog status. Fnatic ran circles around them in the first two games with superior drafts, but Tricked fought back in the third game on Dragon Shire. Fnatic's peculiar Xul/Azmodan combo wasn't able to pick up enough steam in the early game, and Tricked was able to handily win teamfights throughout the game. Unfortunately, the comeback didn't last for long. Returning to a more standard composition, Fnatic wrecked Tricked in the final game and took the series 3-1.

Superstars [3-1] Team Freedom

Overall, Team Freedom did little to punish Srey for his over-aggressive positioning and gave up camps and objectives without any meaningful resistance, giving Superstars the first two games of the series almost uncontested.

It wasn’t until Game Three that Team Freedom started showing signs of life. Superstars committed to killing a single target but were repeatedly shut down by KilluZiioN’s Crystal Aegis, and Team Freedom finally started punishing overextensions. Freedom held their own in an exciting Game Four but still rarely punished Srey for engaging alone with Stage Dive. In the end, Superstars narrowly won with a shaky Core rush to close out a series that should have been much closer.

Gale Force eSports [3-2] B-Step

B-Step consistently came out on top in 5v5 fights throughout the series, but GFE demonstrated stronger decision making skills in each game, earning advantages outside of teamfights that would eventually win them the series. Although B-Step won fight after fight on Towers of Doom, GFE smartly used their global advantage to out rotate, out soak, and outplay B-Step in the macro game. However, back-to-back Artanis swaps into Mosh Pits (including one legendary full team Mosh Pit) on Infernal Shrines crushed GFE in game three.

It was the same story in game five. B-Step got a decisive pick on Khroen but then threw away their advantage with a hesitant boss call that gained nothing. Even after getting more kills in teamfights, B-Step executed a classic throw at the boss pit and gave the series to GFE.

Sunday, January 22

Tricked eSport [0-3] Team expert

The name of the game was rotations. Team expert was almost always ahead in rotations, which put an immense amount of pressure on their opponents and allowed them to win trades and early objectives. From there, it was easy for them to snowball the series.

Team expert punished Tricked repeatedly for even the smallest mistakes throughout. For instance, Tricked played several solid teamfights and secured level 20 first in the second game on Sky Temple, but an overextension was all it took for expert to take a good trade and end the game with boss. Simply put, Team expert played at the top of their game and dominated the series.

Misfits [3-2] Fnatic

Misfits and Fnatic played a memorable tiebreaker series at GamesCom last year to decide who would go to BlizzCon, so this series was sort of a revenge match for Misfits. Nonetheless, both teams were incredibly even throughout the entire series. This series was by far this weekend's finest, and it was an excellent way to cap off the successful launch of HGC.

Right off the bat on Tomb, Fnatic showed their prowess in Game One. Both teams played almost perfectly evenly, trading takedowns and objectives, but one mistake was all it took for Fnatic to secure boss and end the game. The next two games were back and forth as each team took turns dominating teamfights. Misfits surprised everyone by picking Nazeebo as their primary damage dealer in the fourth game on Dragon Shire, but the solid poke from the gingerbread man was enough to turn the tides in a long standoff around bottom Shrine and win the game. The intense series culminated in long stalemate on around the boss on Cursed Hollow, where both the skill and mental fortitude of each teams was tested. Despite having a Tribute on the map, both teams were forced into a late game staring match that ended in a fateful teamfight.

B-Step [1-3] Team 8

With the departure of Chu8, there were a lot of questions concerning the future of Team 8 in HGC. Surprisingly, B-Step wasn't much of challenge for them. B-Step's failure to adopt the Asian strategy of exploiting Glaurung’s supposedly small hero pool cost them. Instead, B-Step ended up drafting quite poorly and gave their opponents Ragnaros every game.

Team 8 won the series 3-1 though the games were fairly even. B-Step played passively and committed to questionable calls and odd engagements, but they never played downright horribly. The troubling aspect for B-Step is they weren't facing a top NA team and struggled much more than expected. After a positive weekend for Team 8, though, the only way to go is up.

Team Naventic [0-3] Gale Force eSports

Gale Force has struggled against Naventic in the past, and coupled with social media drama, this series sure wasn't going to disappoint—and for GFE fans, it didn't. Naventic simply didn't show up. GFE quickly ran up the takedown count to double digits against a seemingly powerless NVT. Equinox's Tracer single-handedly ravaged Naventic on Battlefield of Eternity, and Khroen ended up playing an excellent Muradin and silencing critics who called him a "Li-Ming one-trick".

But there are still cracks in GFE's armor. While leading 28-4 in core damage on Towers of Doom, GFE made some key misplays that spurred a miraculous comeback from Naventic. GFE managed to win a final teamfight to take the map with 3 hit points left on their Core, but Naventic's ability to take 25 core health uncontested with their backs against the wall was impressive. Unfortunately, it was too little too late for Naventic; the series went easily in their opponent's favor. As for GFE, tightening up their late game is a must if they expect to compete at the international level during the first Clash.