The first week of the new HGC league format is nearly upon us! Here we’ll give a preview of the first Team Dignitas match of the week, which also happens to be the very first match of the season! Team Dignitas will be taking on their EU rival, Misfits. Both are considered top contenders in the region and with this matchup being the very first of the season it will surely bring the hype!

Team Dignitas vs. Misfits - Friday, January 20th @ 9am PST / 6pm CET

This first series of the league will be a best-of-five between two of EU’s top teams. This is the only game Team Dignitas will play this week.

Team Dignitas has a hefty reputation within the EU region, having won 4 HGC 2016 regional events, as well as having decent placements in the world championships. With recent roster changes welcoming on Kenn ‘Zaelia’ Rasmussen, it will be interesting to see how Dignitas will keep their regional dominance and prove the roster change has improved their team synergy and gameplay.

Their opponent, Misfits, formerly mYinsanity, has been a stable roster for the past year. They’ve always been a top team within the EU scene, but after a very difficult and hard fought day at the EU Gamescon 2016, they lost a tie-breaking qualification match against Team Fnatic for their chance to go to Blizzcon. Having missed out on the experience of global competitions such as Blizzcon and Gold Club World Championships, Misfits may have a bit of a disadvantage coming up against Team Dignitas.

With Zaelia filling the melee assassin role, there is a bit of mystery surrounding his hero preferences until this first match up. Likely to be seen within these games will be heroes such as Thrall, Zeratul, Illidan, and Kerrigan. This first week of games will showcase the evolution of the meta, so there may be changes as to who on the team plays the off-tank bruiser role. Thomas ‘Mene’ Cailleux has shown his dominance playing ranged heroes such as Guldan, Kael’Thas, and Li-Ming, but he has also recently played quite a bit of Zarya. Joshua ‘Snitch’ Bennett will be the flex of the team, often playing the second support role with heroes such as Tassadar and Medivh, but perhaps we will also see him playing the off-tank bruiser role as well. Snitch has an amazing Falstad and is known for busting out heroes such as Abathur and The Lost Vikings. Expect to see Jérôme ‘JayPL’ Trinh mastering the main warrior/tank role with exceptional his Tyreal, Muradin, and Stitches plays. The captain of the team, James ‘Bakery’ Baker, is the support main, and with the support meta being so small at the moment, we will likely see him playing a lot of Malfurion, Rehgar, and Auriel. One of the best parts of a new season is seeing how the pro players have changed and evolved the meta.

Tune into the games starting up this Friday!

Twitch: BlizzHeroes