Heroes Global Championship

Take Me Down to Paradise City

Eastern Clash Preview

Written by: Koznarov

With the emotions of Western Clash still fresh in our hearts, we must head to the Eastern Clash, where the top four teams from both Korea and China go head to head. The clash will be intense, and the winners are not only fighting for the $100,000 prize pool, but for the “Buddy Pass” to the HGC Grand Finals at BlizzCon.

The event

For the first time in the last two years, an international Heroes tournament is hosted in South Korea. The venue for this mighty Clash will be the Paradise City resort in Incheon. The last tournament on Korean soil was the 2016 HGC Spring Finals, where MVP Black got the victory and their own in-game Nexagon.

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Former Eastern Clashes took place in Shanghai (2017 HGC Phase 1) and Taipei (2017 HGC Phase 2 and 2018 HGC Phase 1). As a curious fact, all the three previous Clashes were taken by the Korean second seed of the tournament: MVP Black and L5 last year and Ballistix this year in Phase 1.

The tournament format is a double elimination bracket, where all first round matches for both upper and lower brackets are a Bo3 series, and all the other matches are Bo5 except for the Grand Finals, which will be a Bo7 with a one-game advantage for the team coming from the winners bracket

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Also, this is the first Eastern Clash with only Korea and China. The last one included four Korean teams, three Chinese and one from Taiwan, Loli Meow, a vestige of last year format. Now Taiwan will be tackling its own fight next month at the Horizon Clash.

The teams

Gen.G

KR Standing: 1st Place
League Match Record: 6-1
League Game Record: 20-5

Gen.G is the team to beat for all the other clashers. They aren’t defending the title, but they are the current BlizzCon and Mid-Season Brawl champions as well as the first seed from Korea. They’ll definitely be longing for this trophy after losing the two last Clashes against L5/Ballistix, but it's more about the message than the win; the Clash is the only tournament missing on Rich’s decorated career. When MVP Black won the first Eastern Clash of 2017, he wasn’t in the team, and since then, he hasn't had a chance to pull through a win at the event.

Through the Korean league, they’ve lost only a series to Miracle and showed little weakness except on Towers of Doom. Despite a mostly dominant performance, Gen.G has lost this map three times. Luckily, a single map usually doesn't decide a whole series, but with Dignitas proving that Gen.G can bleed and Miracle proving that they can be taken down, their opponents will make it hard for them to get the desired trophy.

Tempest

KR Standing: 2nd Place
League Match Record: 6-1
League Game Record: 19-4

Statistically, as Korea's second seed, Tempest should win the tournament. But statistic alone wins nothing, so they will have to fight their way through the bracket to claim the Eastern throne. After ranking third at the Mid-Season Brawl, the Jin brothers—Lockdown and Hide—have been leading their team through Korean HGC in a very successful way, losing only four maps in these first five weeks. However, three out of those four maps were lost to Gen.G.

Corollary to the 2nd seed rule is that Tempest will always finish third. No matter how well they play, they have finished in third position in every Eastern Clash. Will the “Tempest curse” happen again?

Ballistix

KR Standing: 3rd Place
League Match Record: 5-2
League Game Record: 17-7

Ballistix seems like they're struggling to get back to their late-2016 and 2017 level. They won everything in a whole HGC cycle until MVP Black beat them at last BlizzCon and now they can't manage a win against Gen.G or Tempest despite defeating the lower teams easily. Tomb of the Spider Queen may be a problem for them, especially. They have lost the map against the top two teams as well as BlossoM.

However, Ballistix is a team that can’t be underestimated. They tend to perform well at international events. It’s true that now they’re a step behind Gen.G and Tempest, but they’re a veteran team that knows well how to play in front of a crowd.

BlossoM

KR Standing: 4th Place
League Match Record: 4-3
League Game Record: 13-11

BlossoM is the only one of the four Koreans clashers bringing roster changes. They have taken back to the scene a couple of well-known retired veterans: merryday and HongCono. Roster changes always take time to improve the team, and sometimes the roster changes don't even work. For an international event, BlossoM appear to have too many flaws, but if this new roster releases all its potential, they can be a huge surprise.

Super Perfect Team

CN Standing: 1st Place
League Match Record: 9-3-2
League Game Record: 21-7
Playoffs Record: Won against CE (3-2), won against TheOne (3-2)

China first seed, Super Perfect Team, is looking pretty solid. They overwhelm their opponents in teamfights and crush their rivals, but it wasn’t easy for SPT to win the Chinese league. After ending the group stage in second place, they had to face CE and TheOne in the playoffs, which they only barely took after two exhausting series taken all the way to the fifth map. That experience will have prepared them well for the Clash, but hopefully they don't need to run the gauntlet through the lower bracket.

The One

CN Standing: 2nd Place
League Match Record: 10-4-0
League Game Record: 24-4
Playoffs Record: Lost against SPT (2-3)

After a really good performance during the Group Stage, TheOne couldn’t close it out during the playoffs. After going undefeated since Mid-Season Brawl, they fell in the finals against SPT in a close series. During this 2018 HGC, TheOne has become an international regular, and we can see how they get more confident each tournament they play.

The last time they faced Fnatic, they took a map, and in the last Clash they also took a map from BlossoM. So they've proved they don’t fear the Koreans. But do they have what it takes to go far in this tournament?

Challenge Everything

CN Standing: 3rd Place
League Match Record: 8-2-4
League Game Record: 18-10
Playoffs Record: Won against BTG (3-0), lost against SPT (2-3)

Visa issues hover over China again. This time, the affected team is Challenge Everything. Its captain Alooffool and Kty will have to stay home while being replaced by Timeless—former TimeFlow and RPG player, now playing for KT—and KID, a veteran teamless player who back in the day played for big names such as OMG or eStar. It won’t be the first time CE needs to use stand-ins, but the timing is quite bad.

About a month ago Tseron, former player and coach for the Korean team GLuck, joined CE as a coach. It’s the first Chinese team to add a coach to its roster, and Eastern Clash was the perfect chance to show how this change of paradigm in the Chinese scene performs, besides adding a good connoisseur of Korean games so they could prepare better for their opponents. However, it’s going to be very difficult for CE to prove how this is working if they can’t play with their roster.

Beyond the Game

CN Standing: 4th Place
League Match Record: 5-7-2
League Game Record: 17-11
Playoffs Record: Won against A-Team (3-1), lost against CE (0-3)

Beyond the Game is a team that qualified for BlizzCon last yearin their very first Chinese league season. However, after having to replace four players, their 2018 HGC roster is a roster full of rookies. They got fifth place in HGC and missed out on the first Eastern Clash. In the second season, they improved and ranked third but missed out on the Mid-Season Brawl. This time they’ve finally made it. It won’t be easy for them, as this is the first international event for four of their players. But it will be a good chance to gain some experience and keep this team growing.

Predictions

Korean dominance over the other regions has been proven many times. They may have lost the 2017 Mid-Season Brawl and a nearly immortal Fnatic, but the odds are in their favor wherever they go. Amongst the Korean teams Gen.G stands out strongest of all, and there seems to be a clear step between every Korean team and the next one. Unless Tempest or Ballistix show something Gen.G is not prepared for, it’ll be very difficult for Noblesse’s team to miss this trophy.

On the other hand, BlossoM is the weakest of the Koreans. The big question looming over them is whether or not a Chinese team can beat them and start digging their way back into the limelight. The Chinese scene is trying to recover from the disappearance of eStar and ZeroPanda, but they still fail to perform at international tournaments. Who would be the Chinese contender? The top three Chinese teams are very close, so maybe one of them can.

Prediction:

1st: Gen.G
2nd: Tempest
3rd: Ballistix
4th: TheOne

5th: BlossoM
6th: CE
7th: SPT
8th: BTG

Be sure to tune in to the Eastern Clash this Friday, August 17th, starting at 21:00 EDT!

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[HGC] Take Me Down to Paradise City