After Team Dignitas’ remarkable win at the Western Clash, all eyes shift to the Eastern Clash in Shanghai where top HGC teams from China (CN), Korea (KR), Southeast Asia (SEA), and Taiwan (TW) will take center stage beginning March 16. The winners of a double-elimination tournament will take home a share of the $100,000 prize pool and enjoy bragging rights for the eastern half of the HGC system. These teams don’t have established 2017 tracked records like their counterparts who competed in Katowice, which should lead to plenty of surprises for players and fans alike.
The Facts
$100,000 USD Prize Pool
1st place – $30,000
2nd place – $20,000
3rd place – $15,000
4th place – $10,000
5th – 6th – $7,500
7th – 8th – $5,000
Schedule: All times Pacific Time
Thursday, March 16
11:00 p.m. Start Time
Round of Eight
L5 – KR (1) vs. Resurgence – SEA (8)
SPT – CN (4) vs. Tempest – KR (5)
Zero – CN (2) vs. TFC – TW (7)
MVP Black – KR (3) vs. eStar – CN (6)
Lower Bracket
Match 1
Match 2
Friday, March 17
7:00 p.m. Start Time
Winners Bracket Round 2
Match 1
Match 2
Lower Bracket Round 2
Match 1
Match 2
Saturday, March 18
7:00 p.m. Start Time
Winners Bracket Final
Lower Bracket Round 3
Lower Bracket Final
Grand Finals
The Casters
Jaycie “Gillyweed” Gluck
Wade “Dreadnaught” Penfold
Tim “Trikslyr” Frazier
Thomas “Khaldor” Kilian
It all starts with the top seed in the tournament and the 2016 Fall Champions, L5. They’ve changed names from Ballistix to L5 since their triumph at BlizzCon, but their roster and dominant style are still intact. L5 come into the Eastern Clash undefeated in HGC Korea, like Misfits were in Europe, but their 7-0 carries a bit more weight as they’ve won 21 out of 23 games so far. Opponents scouring VoDs will only have games against Tempest and a head-scratcher against MVP Miracle to see how L5 looks in a loss. The fact that HGC Korea’s schedule was more condensed than what we saw in North America and Europe gives us every reason to believe that L5 simply hasn’t had a chance to cool off coming into Shanghai. The Korean powerhouses haven’t lost since August and they’ve gotten even hotter over this most recent stretch. That spells trouble for the field.
Zero, Super Perfect Team (SPT) and eStar will use the Eastern Clash as the latest platform for their three-way rivalry that has gone from simmer to boil in recent times. While they’ll have to work to face each other in the tournament, if they get that chance, every side will be looking to avenge a bitter defeat from the Gold Series. It was eStar who knocked off Zero 3-0 in the finals to win the most recent Gold Series Grand Finals tournament. However, it was Zero who defeated SPT in the championship round of the Gold Series Summer tournament. With no championships over the other two to speak of, how satisfying would it be for SPT to up end either Zero or eStar at any point in the Eastern Clash?
Singapore’s Resurgence barely missed qualifying for the Fall Championship in 2016 and so come into the Eastern Clash hoping to reestablish themselves as the class of their region and a factor in the global HGC scene. If their competitive spirit is anything like their self-promotional efforts, the field at the Eastern Clash would do well to take Resurgence seriously.