Hearthstone of the highest caliber returns once more this weekend. After Li "Liooon" Xiaomeng won the Hearthstone Global final in November, Hearthstone Grandmasters commences coming Friday. Like last year, there are three regions to follow: Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. However, Blizzard is introducing some format changes to their all-star competition.
Hearthstone Grandmasters 2020 is split up in two seasons, and each season has three phases. During the first three weeks of the competition, all participants will play in a Swiss format on Wednesdays and Thursdays. After the Swiss rounds have all been played, the top eight point-earning players of their region are put in Division A, while places nine to sixteen form Division B. Each division then enters a four-week Round Robin, the conclusion of which will determine who fights for glory and who fights for their Grandmasters slot. During the eighth and final week of the Grandmasters season, the top players of each division fight for a ticket to BlizzCon's finals, whereas the bottom players fight to not be relegated out of Grandmasters.
The second year of Hearthstone Grandmasters sees more changes than the structural ones: players will have to adapt to several formats too. During the first week of Grandmasters, the good old "Conquest with a ban" will be used. This transitions into a Last Hero Standing, one ban format in tweek two. The third week has players bring out all ten classes for a Conquest match where they can each ban six of their opponents' decks. From there on, the remaining weeks will be played in a best of five setting using the standard Conquest format.
The following players will be competing in Hearthstone's Grandmasters first season:
| Americas | Asia-Pacific | Europe |
|---|---|---|
| Brian “bloodyface” Eason | Yashina “Alutemu” Nozomi | George “BoarControl” Webb |
| Eddie “Eddie” Lui | Ng “blitzchung” Wai Chung | Elias “Bozzzton” Sibelius |
| Guillermo “Empanizado” Tolosa | Cheonsu “che0nsu” Kim | Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer |
| Fei “ETC” Liang | Hyun Jae “Dawn” Jang | Kevin “Casie” Eberlein |
| James “Firebat” Kostesich | Hyun-Soo “Flurry” Cho | Theo “Felkeine” Dumont |
| Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang | Dylan “FroStee” O’Mallon | Casper “hunterace” Notto |
| Edward “Gallon” Goodwin | Sato “glory” Kenta | Jaromir “Jarla” Vyskočil |
| David “justsaiyan” Shan | Tsz Kin “Kin0531” Lo | Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh |
| Mihai “Lnguagehackr” Dragalin | Wataru “posesi” Ishibashi | Pavel “Pavel” Beltukov |
| Jerome “Monsanto” Faucher | Dasol “Ryvius” Sim | Dima “Rdu” Radu |
| Muzahidul “muzzy” Islam | Tsu-Lin “SamuelTsao” Tsao | Linh “Seiko” Nguyen |
| Facundo “Nalguidan” Pruzzo | Wei-Chieh “Shaxy” Liu | Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov |
| Jason “PapaJason” Meller | Euneil "Staz" Javiñas | Joffrey “Swidz” Cunat |
| Francisco “PNC” Leimontas | Jung-Soo “Surrender” Kim | Thijs “Thijs” Molendijk |
| Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root | Wei-Lin “Tom60229” Chen | Torben “Viper” Wahl |
| Paul “Zalae” Nemeth | Tyler “Tyler” Hoang Nguyen | Martin “Zhym” Prête |
The broadcast starts at 2 AM PDT / 11 AM CEST / 6 PM KST on Friday, April 17, and can be followed live on Hearthstone's YouTube channel. Dan "Frodan" Chou and TJ "Azumo" Sanders will be the casters for the Americas region, Jia Dee and Darroch Brown cast the Asia-Pacific region, and Europe's Grandmasters adventures will be narrated by Simon "Sottle" Welch and Alex "Raven" Baguley.
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Storyteller by heart. If something is competitive, I am interested in it.
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