Dreamhack Viagame Hearthstone Championship preview: Group A

The groups for the Dreamhack Viagame Hearthstone Championship were announced yesterday, and bringing with it was the group that already everybody is labeling the "group of death" - with a dazzling array of talent ranging from 2P EU vs CN winner and Team Curse member Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen to former World of Warcraft TCG Player of the Year Jan "Ekop" Palys, Group A is the group that everybody is getting hyped to watch. Today I'll be previewing the group - looking at possible matchups and the decks and playstyles each player like to run.

Savjz

Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen will, in my opinion, go into this group as the favourite to take 1st place. The Finn, despite being on a cold streak recently, is hot favourite to go out of the group in first place. Savjz's biggest strengths are that he learns his opponents and matchups inside out, and knowing his group before the tournament rather than being placed with BYOC attendees will suit him inside-out; there is a reason he has been on top of the scene for so long, dominating open tournaments as well as invite-only ones. Despite his current run of bad form, I am confident that he will be heading into the tournament with an extremely strong grasp on the current metagame as well as being clued-up about his opponents and he is a safe bet to get out of his group in my opinion.

Ekop

It was a tough task to decide between Jan "Ekop" Palys and Savjz who I think would be coming out of the group in pole position, but for me Savjz edged it. That being said, Palys is one of the world's leading players and certainly no stranger to the LAN environment showing a strong performance at Dreamhack Bucharest (albeit one he would have preferred to have been better) as well as years of LAN experience from the World of Warcraft TCG. We'll forget about your 0-8 score at Seatstory Cup for now, Ekop. Another player who in my opinion is very suited to the metagame currently, Ekop is known for his Shaman play which I feel we will almost certainly see out of him at Dreamhack. I think the huge amount of LAN experience here will swing the group in Ekop's favour, securing him at least a top two spot within the group.

Alchemixt

Dan "Alchemixt" Walton is somewhat of an enigma. Despite going on an incredible run on the IHEARTHU King of the Hill, he hasn't really made any standout performances since that. He performs solidly in weekly tournaments such as the North American version of the Zotac Cup as well as the NESL King of the Hill, but not enough so that I would place him above arguably two of the top five players in the world. The thing with Alchemixt that seperates him from the pack though is his ability to surprise. He runs crazy decks, such as his Zoo deck at the last Tavern Takeover containing cards such as Big Game Hunter which were never seen in that deck at the time. He is somewhat of a maverick and that can play into his favour massively - if the others in his group are not careful, we could see a surprise top two finish for the American.

NOTE: It was stated today that Alchemixt was unable to travel to Dreamhack. His replacement yet is unknown, however it is rumoured to be one of Kitkatz or Forsen.

Reynad

Andrey "Reynad" Yanyuk so far has been the talking point of most of the community regarding performances at Dreamhack. The controversy regarding his seeding (I won't diverge on the controversy, but you can find it on Reddit) has been the hottest topic surrounding the tournament so far. Reynad is known as a notoriously strong deckbuilder, and is heralded as the creator of "that annoying Warlock deck that we all hate to lose to". Despite that, with no major tournament results (I'm not counting an Arena tournament) bar an NESL King of the Hill victory over Trump, it's hard to place him above any of the other three within the group. Reynad certainly has the ability to surprise, and with his amazing deckbuilding prowess he can certainly throw off the competition with some crazy special tactics, but I feel that anything standard for the Tempo Storm captain may just lead to him being outclassed by players with more experience.

Final Standings prediction:

1. Savjz

2. Ekop

3. Alchemixt

4. Reynad

Closing Statements

Group A will certainly be the one to watch, and if there's only one group you can watch I would certainly recommend it to be this one. With the Curse teamkill opportunity as well as the epic Reynad vs Ekop grudge-match, this group in my opinion will definitely be the most hotly contested one of the tournament - any of the players in this group on their given day could storm the group and take 1st place. It will definitely be exciting to watch, and the LAN environment changes everything when it comes to tournaments - we will definitely see who is affected by it and who isn't on the day of the tournament.

The Dreamhack Viagame Hearthstone Championship Group A will be aired on the 14th at 18:00 CET on viagame.com - Don't miss it!