China prepares for Hearthstone World Championship with bootcamp against Asia’s best

China might have already decided its representatives for this year’s Hearthstone World Championship, but with the tournament still six weeks away the four players will train in a bootcamp tournament with some of the best players in Asia.

“LoveCX” of YOLO Miracle, Yu “NoTomorrow” Jian and the Team Celestial pair Guo “Zihao” Zihao and Hong “Zoro” Yijie will face off against some of the best players from China and Korea in a seven day event organized by Blizzard China and the Gold Series on Oct. 1-7.

Among the players lined up to test the championship competitors are DreamHack Summer champion Wang “TiddlerCelestial” Xieyu, Shen “MieGod” Yang of Newbee and 2014 Gold Series champion Zhang “Ruoji” Bohan. The four HWC qualifiers will face the invited Chinese players for the first five days, with Korean players waiting for them on the final two. The invited Korean players have yet to be announced.

Though the tournament is essentially a showmatch series to sharpen the Chinese squad’s skills, a small prize pool is available to the four players should they win their matches at the live event in Shanghai. 

The players have also been assigned coaches to assess their strengths and shore up their weaknesses during the event.

Last year, China sent Xieyu all the way to the final of the Hearthstone World Championship where he lost 0-3 to James “Firebat” Kostesich. It seems that China is intent on placing one better this year.

Image via Blizzard

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