by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm
DreamHack is not the only big event on the horizon for the Hearthstone scene. The North American ESL branch is also increasing their commitment towards the game and are launching the Legendary Series this weekend. For the next 12 Saturdays, top competition will square off for valuable points to lead them straight to the studio in Burbank, California for the Grand Finals event.
The players were determined by a mix of invites, qualifiers, and returning stars, so the field of competition will be fresh week in and week out. For the first event two big qualifiers were launched, one open for the public and the other one only open for the best players from the Preseason Cups. Before the Legendary Series was even announced, ESL ran weekly cups and a King of the Hill event to get used to the new virtual card game of Blizzard. To award the players that showed up every week to play, a special Preseason Cup Final.
compLexity’s own Alchemixt was invited to participate in it due to his good ladder seeding, and he was unstoppable. With a clean 3-0 sweep over Luffy and a 3-1 win over zRusher, Alchemixt had already secured himself the top 2 position in the Preseason Cup Finals and therefore a berth in the first week of the Legendary Series.
Joining him from the Preseason event is gcttirth. These two and the two qualifying players from the open tournament, pinpingho and Supernova, will square off with the four invited players battle for supremacy.
These invites are designed to go out to popular players and known streaming personalities with competitive experience. For the opening week none other than TempoStorm captain Reynad, DreamHack Summer 2014 Champion Rdu, former NESL King of the Hill Champ Chakki and Hosty as one of the best NESL ladder players in recent history. They will all try to get the majority of the ladder points to come to a great start into the newly implemented ESL Legendary Series.
For Alchemixt it will be the first major tournament representing the compLexity brand. His strong record online, his experience against the best players in the world and his recent domination of the Preseason Cup make him one of the front-runners to not only be a major factor in the opening week, but also be one of the returning players for next week.