Hearthstone's elite competition, Grandmasters, has returned for the second Season of 2020! The players started the three-week Swiss phase already on Wednesday with the aim of gathering enough points to reach a spot in the coveted Division A. You can find everything you need to know below.
This Week's Format
The competition format stays largely the same than last Season with one tweak. The format for the third week of Swiss (which was 10-deck Conquest with 6 bans) has been replaced with everyone's favourite competitive format, Specialist.
This week the format is the same than in Season 1's opening weekend.
- Best-of-five Conquest.
- 7 Swiss rounds are played off-stream on Wednesday and Thursday with top 8 of each region advancing.
- Top 8 will be divided to two groups, which play through a double elimination bracket, top 2 from each group advances.
- Top 4 play through a single elimination bracket to decide the winner.
Players will be gaining points based on their performance, and at the end of the three weeks of Swiss, the Grandmasters will be divided to two Divisions based on these points. You can check point standings here after this weekend's matches.
For the entire competition format, check out the spoiler below.
Quote From Blizzard Weeks 1-3: Swiss into Group Stage
During weeks 1 – 3, players will compete in matches in a Swiss format each Wednesday and Thursday of the week to earn a placement in the weekend Group Stage. Points from these weekend rounds will be used to determine two Divisions in each region for round-robin weeks. There will be a different gameplay format each week.
- The 16 players in each region will compete against each other off broadcast in 7-9 Swiss Rounds during the week.
- On Thursday, after Swiss play has completed, the field is cut in half based on standings and the Top 8 per region will play in a dual tournament format live on YouTube across Friday and Saturday, with the Top-4 finals played out on Sunday.
- Gameplay format changes every week:
- Week 1: 7 Rounds of Swiss, Conquest with 1 Ban
- Week 2: 7 Rounds of Swiss, Four Deck Last Hero Standing with 1 Ban
- Week 3: 9 Rounds of Swiss, Bo3 Specialist
Weeks 4 – 7: Round Robin
Weeks 4 – 7 will consist of round-robin group play within the two divisions in each region – much like Season 1 of Grandmasters.
- Following weeks 1-3, players will be sorted into two divisions based on their points standings. Division A is comprised of the top-8-point-earning players, and Division B will be point total ranks 9-16.
- The two divisions compete in round-robin group play over four weeks. The standings at the conclusion of these weeks will determine who will move onto the Playoffs, and who will be relegated from Season 2.
- The format will stay consistent during round-robin weeks:
- Bo5 Conquest (4 decks, 1 ban)
Week 8: Season 2 Playoffs
Round Robin weeks lead into Week 8 Playoffs, which will qualify one player per region to the World Championship at the end of the year, while three players from each region will be relegated.
- Top 6 from Division A automatically make it into Playoffs.
- Top 4 from Division B compete in a play-in round to determine who will join the top 6 from Division A in a dual tournament bracket for Playoffs.
- The 7th and 8th placed players in Division B at the close of Round Robin are automatically relegated from Season 2 of Grandmasters.
- Final relegation will be determined via a 3-match Play-In involving the 7th and 8th placed from Division A, and 5th and 6th placed from Division B.
- The winner from each region in Season 2 Grandmasters Playoffs will advance to the Hearthstone World Championships later this year.
Stream Schedule
The schedule remains the same than during Season 1:
West Coast PDT (UTC-7) | East Coast EDT (UTC-4) | Europe CEST (UTC+2) | Korea KST (UTC+9) | |
| August 14 | 2:00 | 5:00 | 11:00 | 18:00 |
| August 15 | 2:00 | 5:00 | 11:00 | 18:00 |
| August 16 | 4:00 | 7:00 | 13:00 | 20:00 |
Please note that there might be some downtime between regions depending on how the matches progress.
You can find all the matches, results, and decklists (even for the Swiss portion) on the official tournament site.
Asia-Pacific Grandmasters
Alutemu
Bankyugi
Che0nsu
DawN
Flurry
Ryvius
Shaxy
Surrender
TIZS
Tom60229
Tyler
blitzchung
glory
kin0531
posesi
Europe Grandmasters
AyRoK
BoarControl
Bozzzton
Bunnyhoppor
Casie
Felkeine
Jarla
Rdu
Seiko
SilverName
Swidz
Viper
Warma
Zhym
xBlyzes
Americas Grandmasters
Briarthorn
ETC
Eddie
Empanizado
Firebat
Fr0zen
Justsaiyan
Monsanto
Muzzy
Nalguidan
NoHandsGamer
Rami94
Zalae
killinallday
languagehacker
Watch Live
You can watch all the action on the official Hearthstone Esports Youtube channel.
Comments
Day 1 breaks records for longest ever, finishing about a mere 3 hours before day 2 starts
As expected everyone is targeting druid, banning stuff like warrior or priest. Paladin nowhere to be seen, and tortollan mage confirmed as a meme deck.
What performs well here might determine balance changes, so take notes people
At the end of the day, besides Druid's spike turns, I've hardly seen anything OP so far.
Paladin's Powerful but doesn't really feel OP.
I have yet to see some games with Warrior and Priest tho.
really looking forward to what the pros come out swinging with this GM season.
EU GMs seem to favor Bomb Warrio
I know right! This early into a new expansion may create a very diverse tournament