We've officially reached the mid-point of the Heroes of the Storm Fall Championship and, unfortunately, this means the end of the road for the teams representing Australia and New Zealand, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, as well as China's eStar Gaming. Denial eSports, Fnatic, Please Buff Arthas, Team Dignitas, Astral Authority, ZeroPanda, Ballistix, and MVP Black are the eight teams in contention for the $300,000 first place prize and the crown of HGC champions.

While the Korean teams Ballistix and MVP Black look dominant, Fnatic represent a beacon of hope for Europe. Over the course of Opening Week Fnatic put their skills on display, delivering 2-0 results over the Chinese teams eStar and ZeroPanda. 

However, the biggest upset of the tournament thus far has come courtesy of the Taiwanese team, Please Buff Arthas. PBA exhibited a feat of strength by dispatching the second seed Chinese team, eStar, in the group stage. While eStar was playing with a fairly new roster, having come to the tournament with only two of the original members that qualified from their former squad, Super Perfect Team, this result is still noteworthy. PBA made it to the top 8 at the Summer Global Championship in Sweden and have managed to repeat this result here at BlizzCon, holding onto their status as the only team from a non-major competitive Heroes region to reach the upper echelons of an international tournament.

Even after knocking out eStar and taking a game from Fnatic, there's no doubt that PBA are still here to prove themselves. On the final day of Opening Week, they proved that they were BlizzCon-stage worthy, defeating Astral Authority 2-0 and moving onto the winner’s finals before falling to MVP Black from Korea.

MVP Black is one of the longest standing rosters competing at BlizzCon and currently one of the favorites to bring home the trophy. MVP and Ballistix have guaranteed themselves spots on opposite sides of the semifinal bracket after both teams went undefeated during Opening Week. 

The theme of the tournament, and the atmosphere on the ground during Opening Week, was one of near-futility, as teams from regions other than Korea contemplate the raid bosses of MVP Black and Ballistix. Rightfully so. MVP Black sent their first round opponents, Burning Rage, home in a game that lasted only a little longer than seven minutes. It's worth noting, however, that Team Dignitas, the first seed from EU, gave MVP a run for their money in phase 2 of group A in a very close game on Tomb of the Spider Queen. 

With their tournament life on the line, Dignitas will face off against North America's Astral Authority in a best-of-three series when BlizzCon day 1 gets underway on Friday morning. The set will be the first NA vs. EU showing in the Heroes Global Circuit since the Summer Championship in June.

The other elimination match, between North America's Denial eSports and China's ZeroPanda, will follow shortly thereafter. Tracing the storylines of these teams back to the Spring Championship in Korea, the three members of Denial who formerly played for Cloud9, Kun "iDream" Fang, Keiwan "k1pro" Itakura, and John Paul “KingCaffeine” Lopez, have faced off against a similar iteration of ZeroPanda in the past. Pu "m" Hao, Guo "gemini" Jiayi, and Song "sk" Jize from ZP were a part of the EDG roster who took second at the Spring Championship. When Cloud9 and EDG met then, EDG came out on top, winning 2-1. We will see this Friday if KingCaffeine and friends have made the necessary changes to reverse that result. 

Meta Snapshot:
Following in last year’s footsteps, a tournament meta has developed during Opening Week. While most of the draft strategy has been centered around map synergy and countering opponents' comfort picks, a few trends continuously reared their head. Popular picks currently include Malfurion, Tychus, Chen, Valla, Muradin, Tyrael, and E.T.C., while some of the more unique drafts have featured Dehaka, Gul-Dan, Alarak, Tracer, and Leoric. Teams remain flexible, springing for double-tank, double-support, or adding a specialist, melee assassin, or bruiser when the situation calls for it. For the remainder of the tournament, expect to see Malfurion or Tychus as one of the most contested first picks.