Reviewing GCWC's group stage meta, production, and results

Nov 28, 2016

After three intense days of round robin games, the group stage of Netease's Gold Club World Championship has concluded and the teams have been seeded accordingly. The past three days have been full of exciting clashes between the regions, as well as some not-so-exciting curb stomps. In any case, GCWC so far is looking like one of the best Heroes tournaments to date.

The Results

As expected, the top four teams managed to hold onto their spots with relative ease. MVP Miracle showed up strong on the final day to overtake ZeroPanda with a clean sweep over eStar and a hard-fought series against Dignitas. Likewise, Ballistix went into overdrive and struck down their rival MVP Black with impunity to take the number one seed.

As we move on to the playoffs, the stakes are even higher. The playoffs will be played in a double elimination bracket, with the top four seeded into the winners bracket and the bottom four seeded into the losers bracket. The teams in the upper bracket will have the luxury of dropping a series, while everyone in the lower bracket will be in constant danger of elimination.

Dignitas won a base race against SPT by the slimmest of margins;
tomorrow, this could mean elimination.

MVP Black and Ballistix seem destined to meet again in the Grand Finals, but with Miracle, ZeroPanda, and a revitalized Dignitas hanging around, it might be more difficult than expected. In fact, nothing is off the table. The Chinese underdogs SPT took a game off of Ballistix. The crippled eStar broke down MVP Black.

The Evolving Meta

We’ve seen some pretty wild talent choices so far at the Gold Club World Championship. Perhaps the most striking has been the re-emergence of autoattack Falstad after last week’s patch uncapped Seasoned Marksman, though players don’t seem to agree on a particular build. Double marksman compositions including Falstad were sighted a few times, but most teams reverted back to the trusty BOOMerang build on the final day.

Muradin also had a few unorthodox builds. After the recent changes to Heavy Impact and Skullcracker, the Dwarf King's builds have gone through a few interesting variations. Some teams have preferred a full tank build with a huge emphasis on survivability talents - usually meaning Iron-Forged Momentum over Skullcracker - while others went far out for damage, not only taking Skullcracker but also Burning Rage on 13. Surprisingly, Give 'Em The Axe has not been used at all. It appears Stoneform is the new go-to talent for these top tier teams.

*We haven’t seen full tank Muradin in a long time.*

Globals are highly prized at the moment, so Falstad, Brightwing, Dehaka, and E.T.C. have made it into almost every draft. Kharazim, Thrall, and Zeratul's latest power tweaks, however, have created some interesting dynamics in the otherwise predictable meta.

In terms of assassins, sustained damage seems to be the name of the game; burst Heroes like Li-Ming and Alarak have fallen considerably in priority, although Greymane has come out of hibernation for a few appearances. Malfurion's near perma-ban status reflects this.

The New Gold Standard

Hats off to the production crew. The Gold Club World Championship has lived up to the hype; perhaps this is sacriledge, but NetEase may have even outdone OGN’s outstanding Superleague production. The sets are beautiful and professional. The venue looks wonderfully spacious.

*Who doesn’t love MVP overlays? This is exactly the sort of thing we need in tournaments!*

Eight to ten Bo2 matches have been played every day during the group stage. Divided between two streams - one casted by the English crew and the other by the Chinese commentators - production has been able to knock all of the games out in under seven hours every day. Very few delays or technical issues have plagued the set, and the series have flowed easily from one game to another.

Admittedly, the interviews are a bit cringeworthy, but they did have the oddly endearing Asian mix of confidence and BM to keep them entertaining. The intro video was also straight up awesome.

When and Where to Watch

The playoffs begin on December 1st at 1:00am PST on GCWC’s stream: kicking off the action will be Ballistix vs ZeroPanda, alongside an MVP grudge match between Black and Miracle. Drop by and watch some of the best Heroes of the Storm games in the world!