UPDATE: You can now vote for your regional competitors.
Blizzard has just announced a new competition for Hearthstone, titled the Hearthstone Global Games. It’s a brand-new event for the game, comes with a whopping $300,000 prize pool, and should hopefully give a few up-and-coming names the chance to make their mark on Hearthstone’s competitive scene.
We thought it would be useful to put together a Global Games guide that will get you right up to speed on everything that’s currently known about the new tournament. In time, we’ll be adding details of who’s been selected to participate, match results, as well as video-on-demand to this guide hub, once all that stuff’s actually available of course!
If there’s anything you’d like to see added to our coverage of the event, do let us know in the comments, and make sure you check back here once the competition’s underway. We’ll make sure everything you need to catch up on events can be easily found from this very page.
UPDATE
You can now vote for who you want to represent your region in the Global Games! You can find all of the information you need in the section of the guide just below this update.
Hearthstone Global Games Qualification Process
In order to take part, you’ll need to be a resident of one of the 48 countries participating in the event – oh, and be really, really good at the game too.
The way it works is quite simple. The top player from each country (as determined by the official Global Standings), will be invited to represent their national team. They will be accompanied by three other players from that same territory and chosen by the community.
You can vote for a shortlisted player from your region by heading to the Global Games page – you must do so before voting ends on March 13th though.
If you do participate in the voting process, you’ll receive a free Whispers of the Old Gods card pack once the tournament is actually underway.
Here are all of the qualifying countries that have been announced:
| Austria | Israel | Switzerland | Philippines |
| Belarus | Italy | Turkey | Singapore |
| Belgium | Kazakhstan | Ukraine | Taiwan |
| Bulgaria | Netherlands | United Kingdom | Thailand |
| Croatia | Norway | Australia | Vietnam |
| Czech Republic | Poland | China | Argentina |
| Denmark | Portugal | Hong Kong | Brazil |
| Finland | Romania | Indonesia | Canada |
| France | Russia | Japan | Chile |
| Germany | Spain | South Korea | Mexico |
| Greece | Slovakia | Malaysia | Peru |
| Hungary | Sweden | New Zealand | USA |
Hearthstone Global Games Format and Rules
There are several stages to the Global Games, although each one adheres to the following fundamental rules:
- A best-of-five, class vs class format with all nine classes represented on each team.
- Each player of any given team of four will be able to play two classes.
- The ninth deck will be designated an “Ace Deck” and can be used by a team’s designated “Ace Player”.
We hope to get a little more clarification on what exactly Ace Decks and Ace Players are in a future update.
Round 1
- The 48 teams will be seperated into 8 groups. Seeding will be determined by their country’s total Hearthstone Competitive Points from the Winter Season.
- Within these 8 groups, the six member teams will play each other once.
- From each of these six teams, the best three will advance to the next round.
Round 2
- With three teams emerging from all six groups, we’ll be left with a total of 24 teams.
- These 24 teams will then be seeded into pools (details TBC). From these pools, teams will be placed into one of six groups.
- The four teams in each group will again compete against each other once.
- The top two teams will advance to the final phase.
- They’ll be accompanied by a total of four of the third-place teams, based on a series of cros-group tie-breaker matches.
Round 3
- We’ll now be left with a total of 16 teams.
- These teams will be seeded into a single elimination bracket.
- The top four teams who emerge from this stage of the competition will go the Global Games Finals.
Global Games Finals
Once at the Global Games Finals, here’s how the matches will be played:
- The qualifying teams will be seeded into a single elimination bracket, similar to Stage 3.
- The finals will be based on a best-of-nine, class versus class format.
Hearthstone Global Games Prize Pool
There’s a total of $300,000 (USD) up for grabs in the Global Games. Here’s how the prize money will be broken down:
| Position | Per Player | Team Total |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 15,000 | 60,000 |
| 2nd | 10,000 | 40,000 |
| 3rd-4th | 5,000 | 20,000 |
| 5th-8th | 1,500 | 6,000 |
| 9th-16th | 1,250 | 5,000 |
| 17th-48th | 1,000 | 4,000 |
