Starting January 18, the ESL Trinity Series (ETS) marks the return of a long-lost form of competition in the west: The team league format. Team competitions were largely abandoned – or shrunk down to a not impactful scale – with the conclusion of the Archon Team League in 2015. While in China the Hearthstone Team Story still offers a stage for teams to test their strength regularly, such tournament was sorely missing in Europe and North America up until now.

With a $150,000 prize pool and eight top esports brands confirmed, ESL Trinity Series will be the tournament to follow in the next seven weeks as the round robin commences. $75,000 will be signed off to the winners, meaning $25,000 a pop between each three players on a team.

With excitement brewing, what better way to preview the Trinity Series than an official power ranking?

8. Tempo Storm

Roster: Gaara, VLPS, JustSaiyan

Once a feared roster across Hearthstone and led into battle by Gaara and TidesofTime – then in top form – Tempo Storm has since suffered a decline in performance. The team switched focus away from tournaments and more towards content creation and while this has been instrumental to keeping the brands popular, on-stage successes were scarce, to say the least.

Tempo Storm’s ETS roster has a problem all bottom teams in this power ranking share: Players competing from different sides of the world, making practice inefficient, or at the very least difficult. Though VLPS has shown potential the past year, Gaara and JustSaiyan have yet to be convincing when it comes to tournament play. The ball is in TS’s court to prove naysayers wrong.

7. Team Liquid

Roster: Dog, Sjow, Neirea

For all their esports pedigree, Team Liquid somehow never conquered the Hearthstone peaks. What was a powerful two-man roster during the active days of Savjz and Amaz in 2014 has now become a mix of semi-active competitors and streamers such as Neirea and Sjow, which doesn’t really scream consistency.

How far Team Liquid will be able to go in ETS will depend on Dog. Liquid’s most experienced, marquee player has to channel the lessons he’s learned from playing in two CN vs. NA Championships and leads its team-mates to victory. Liquid would not want to repeat their ATLC record, which saw them second to last and having won just two out of their seven matches.

6. Cloud 9

Roster: Firebat, StrifeCro, TidesofTime

Cloud 9’s issues mimic those of Liquid and Tempo Storm in equal parts. The roster itself has a rich pedigree, possibly the second best overall behind G2’s trio, but neither of their three players is part of the current conversation of Hearthstone’s most dominant names. Firebat has been trying to get back into championship form but his attempts have thus far been unsuccessful; StrifeCro is a monster on the field but he’s been on-and-off Hearthstone for the majority of his career; and TidesofTime will be playing his first Hearthstone game since September.

Deckbuilding unpredictability will be Cloud 9’s biggest asset. Between the left-field machinations of Tides and the innovative look at the game of StrifeCro’s and Firebat’s, C9 could become a team which can never be scouted and predicted.

5. Alliance

Roster: Ostkaka, Orange, Powder

The power levels of this ranking’s #5 and #4 are incredibly close – maybe even equal – but the lower position will go to Alliance for the sake of keeping the numbering.

On paper, Alliance are potentially unbeatable, with Orange playing the best he has since 2015, and Ostkaka and Powder being veterans of many, many Hearthstone tournaments. That said, of the three only Ostkaka has experience in a major team league similar to ETS (being part of FORSENBOYS during ATLC 1), while Powder’s last fruitful month performance-wise was in July 2016.

An all-Swedish line-up of long-time friends, however, is certainly an advantage in a tournament such as ETS where constant team communication is not only allowed, but a key to victory as well.

4. CompLexity Gaming

Roster: SuperJJ, Crane, MrYagut

This will be CompLexity’s major team league christening, and the org has a lot to prove. CoL’s story has been a bridesmaid’s one, always coming just short of a top three team in Hearthstone, despite a deeply talented roster, among which GosuAwards winners SuperJJ and Crane.

While coL lacks the same team league experience as Alliance, the former is by far the superior managed and organized team. Manager Fantasy has built the best academy for Hearthstone talent over the years, essentially unlocking the true potential of Dog, Sjow and SuperJJ, and have set Crane on the same path to greatness already. CoL might lag behind Alliance in terms of how much money its players have won, but they certainly are ahead in the work-as-a-team department.

3. Virtus.pro

Roster: DrHippi, Naiman, BunnyHoppor

We step into the power three with Virtus.pro, a team which became a Hearthstone powerhouse overnight. If VP were already looking strong by the time they signed Naiman, DrHippi, BunnyHoppor and Faramir, they are even more so almost a year later, with both Naiman and DrHippi being Blizzcon finalists and the latter having brought the World Championship silver home.

Historically, Virtus.pro has been the one of very few teams to come close to challenging G2’s hegemony over Hearthstone, the other being the now-disbanded Natus Vincere (currently signed under CLG) and Luminosity Gaming. VP’s only concern is finding a rhythm for its three stars – which not only includes two Blizzcon finalists but also a WESG semi-finalist in BunnyHoppor – to tackle the team Conquest format together. The rest they have already figured out.

2. Luminosity Gaming

Roster: Chakki, Fr0zen, Zalae

If Europe has always had super teams in G2 Esports and Natus Vincere that has never been the case with North America. Most of NA brands, which invested in Hearthstone, featured a mix roster and only Cloud 9 came close to being an NA “super team”.

Enter Luminosity Gaming, which underwent a revamp midway through 2016 and took the title by storm. Picking up many of the free agents left with the disbandments of Hearthlytics and Archon, Luminosity created arguably the best Hearthstone roster in North America’s history.

LG’s approach to ETS is simple but brilliant. The team is sending only the most battle-ready players, all of which have either won a major LAN or have placed top four, and is keeping the expertise of Muzzy – an innovative deckbuilder infamous for crumbling under on-stage pressure – on the backline, where he can organize his team-mate’s strategy from his comfort zone.

Should LG miss the top four, it will be ETS’ biggest upset by far.

1. G2 Esports

Roster: Rdu, ThijsNL, Lifecoach

G2 has been synonymous with Hearthstone success since 2015 when the team was carrying the name of Nihilum. To this day, they are the game’s most accomplished, highest winning roster of all time, their combined winnings between Nihilum and G2 closing $400,000. They have the only two-times HCT Europe champion (ThijsNL), the only two-times DreamHack champion (Rdu) and a three-times major LAN champion (Lifecoach).

Everything possible has aligned to predict another G2 triumph. The trio, which has remained the same since 2015, is the reigning ATLC champion and are intimately familiar with how such team leagues are played and won. Their practice regimens are unmatched and they have two father/captain figures in Lifecoach and Lothar to push them to (more) greatness.

In spite of all the excellence gathered at the ESL Trinity Series, to not consider the G2 squad far and away the most favored of all is a travesty.