Three regional events to take place throughout January.
Blizzard has just published the full schedule of play for the Winter Playoffs stage of the Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT).
The competition will consist of three different regional events scheduled to take place on the following dates:
- Europe: January 12th-13th
- Americas: January 19th-20th
- Asia-Pacific: January 26th-27th
The deadline for competitors to submit their decks is January 8th in Europe, January 15th in the Americas, and January 22nd in the Asia-Pacific region.
Full broadcasting details for the event series has yet to be confirmed, although it’s highly likely that at least some of the action will be broadcast on the official Hearthstone Twitch channel, embedded for you below:
Players can qualify for the Playoffs in a number of ways. Qualifying points are earned for the highest performers on the Ranked Ladder, for example, while various Tour Stop events also provide the means to pick up points during the qualifying period.
The Winter Playoffs will make use of the well established Swiss tournament format, and will see players compete across seven rounds in the hope of making it through to the dual tournament top eight playoff bracket. The two best players from each group will then progress to the Seasonal Championship.
As for the individual match-ups they’ll be best-of-five Conquest affairs, with one ban available to each player.
