The ESL Trinity Series is entering its second week of competition on Wednesday, January 25, carrying a lot of questions. Will there be another sweep by reanimated murlocs? Will Alliance get on the board (they should and likely will, otherwise it becomes embarrassing)? Will Tempo Storm and Virtus.pro stick to their off-meta deck choices?

Before we get into all that, a quick look at last week’s highlights:

Week one highlights

G2 sweeps Alliance with Anyfin Paladin, proving that, literally, Anyfin is Possible, including an all-kill against one of Hearthstone’s best teams in the very first match. Worth watching the whole series.

Cloud9 are not very good at Hearthstone. In their own words.

Highlight match 1: Tempo Storm vs. Luminosity Gaming Time: January 25, 19:00 CET

In theory, Tempo Storm shouldn’t have beaten Virtus.pro, at least looking strictly at individual achievements. The TS roster has been flying under the radar for the past few years, while VP took Hearthstone by storm, led by DrHippi and Naiman.

Then again, here the two teams are, Tempo Storm with a win on their back and Virtus.pro trying to not start with a 0-2 deficit facing G2 later this week. It wasn’t a very close series either, a 6-3 in favor of the boys in white and blue.

Thus far, Tempo Storm’s main asset looks to be VLPS. Part of the line-up which conquered China in CN vs. NA 2015, VLPS could be heard actively giving instructions and feedback and directing plays for Gaara and JustSaiyan during the win against VP. Even though he never touched the mouse himself, VLPS can easily be considered Tempo’s MVP in week one, bringing the much needed “main voice” in such team games.

Opposite them are Luminosity which took a rather hard-fought match against Liquid after eleven games on Wednesday last week, and which are going into an even tougher match now. LG’s players are still far apart, with Fr0zen still competing in China in the Titanar invitational. The amount of time LG have found between the tournaments to practice together is questionable, but it should certainly be less than Tempo Storm’s, who have only Trinity Series to think about.

If LG run with their second win, expect it to be another close one, and they should really stick to that Jade Druid deck – it did so much for them in week one.

Prediction: Tempo Storm > Luminosity Gaming  

Highlight match 2: G2 Esports vs. Virtus.pro Time: January 26, 19:00 CET

The 6-0 sweep by G2 Esports over Alliance was a highlight of week one, but this surely won’t be how every G2 match goes.

The big question with the ATLC champions is what other decks they’re considering. They only showed Anyfin Paladin in week one, which doesn’t give any insight as to how they build their line-ups, allowing for more in-depth analysis coming into their second match. One can argue that it was probably all very standard, with RenoLock and RenoMage expected to represent the control archetype and Pirates and Jades on the aggressive and midrange spectrum, respectively, but that’s not always the case with top teams, as we saw with Virtus.pro on opening day.

In their game against Tempo Storm, Virtus.pro banked hopes on Freeze Mage – a deck which hasn’t been in popularity since even before Gadgetzan – but couldn’t really get away with it. DrHippi was unfortunate enough to draw his deck backwards, lacking card draw up until he died. Even without the abysmal luck of the draw the Blizzcon champion had, however, one still has to question the validity of Freeze Mage in the current meta. The deck has been traditionally strong against Rogue, but modern Miracles are far more aggressive and can put on pressure from turn one, and on paper shouldn’t give Freeze Mage enough time to draw in peace.

Even if Rogue gets targeted by Virtus.pro this week (assuming they stick to the Freeze Mage gamble), there are still Jade Druids running rampant, not to mention how the Last Hero Standing format is naturally hostile towards Freeze Mage, a deck with notoriously polarized match-ups.

VP have a lot of thinking to do going against the uncontested best team of week one, not just about how they build their line-up, but how they communicate with each other as well. Much is yet to be desired on that front, especially compared to the crystal clear teamwork of G2.

Prediction: G2 > Virtus.pro

Nydra’s week two predictions

Even if those are my personal highlight matches, the other two are of importance and interest as well. Alliance will be a team closely watched, looking to pick their first game win after the massacre at G2’s hands but that might be easier said than done. SuperJJ showed fantastic games against Cloud9 and both him and Crane have been active and wise in team communication. Nevertheless, do not expect Alliance to be swept second week in a row, but I am still inclined to give this one to coL.

In the last match, Cloud9 will have to prove they’ve learned their [card]Equality[/card] / [card]wild pyromancer[/card] lesson and that amateur mistakes such as this can cost games. If one is to go off our pre-week one power rankings, C9 vs. Liquid is a battle on the bottom tiers, making it particularly close in its own way. Still, if they keep their cool, C9 should have the upper hand.

Tempo Storm > Luminosity Complexity > Alliance G2 > Virtus.pro Cloud9 > Liquid

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