The U.S. team has found itself in an unenviable position in the Hearthstone Global Games after a second loss.
The team is now 0-2 after the first two weeks of competition. With how the Swiss format works, the team now has no safety net—if they lose one more match, they will crash out at the first stage. The team’s only hope is going 4-0 in its next four matches and climbing up from the very bottom of the standings.
In the opening week the U.S. had an unlucky draw of opponent against China, going down 2-3 against strong opposition. This week they were victims of the format—their deck lineup was favored against the United Kingdom, but the random ordering of decks meant that the U.K. were able to run into the best matchups possible.
In the 2017 edition of the Global Games, the U.S. made it all the way to the offline finals and finished in the top four. The all-new 2018 lineup now risks being one of the first teams eliminated. Japan, Croatia, and Turkey also find themselves in the 0-2 bracket, with eight more teams joining them by the time the week is out.
Things are going distinctly better for Romania. Led by the country’s most famous player Dima “Rdu” Radu, Romania knocked off the highly-touted Germany team yesterday 3-2 to move to 2-0 on the season so far. Of all the undefeated teams New Zealand is perhaps the biggest surprise. After their win against Portugal last week, New Zealand defeated Sweden in week two.
The Global Games continues later today, with Norway, Russia, and Denmark among the countries looking to avoid the same fate as the U.S..
