If you're ever wanted to test out how good of a player you truly are, a good and easy way to do that is to take part of Blizzard’s Masters Qualifier tournaments. Most of us have heard about them but how could one even participate? Let’s figure it out together.
Masters Qualifiers in a Nutshell
- Online tournaments which are free to participate, hosted on battlefy.com.
- During qualifying seasons, there will be 10+ weekly tournaments divided between EU, NA and APAC regions, from Friday to Sunday.
- You only need to have a collection to play in that region, no requirements about actually living in that region.
- Reaching the Top 2 in a qualifier makes you eligible to participate in a Masters Tour event, each with a prize pool of $250,000 $500.000 thanks to Masters Bundle.
- Three events this year: in Las Vegas (June 14-16), in Seoul (August 16-18), and in Bucharest (October 18-20).
Tournament Structure
- Each qualifier will have maximum of 224 players.
- Waitlist system to allow more players to register for each tournament.
- Tournaments will begin with 8 rounds of Swiss, followed by Single Elimination bracket for top 8 players.
- From June 7 also some purely Single Elimination qualifiers.
- Matches are Best-of-3 using the new Specialist Format.
How to Participate (in short)
- Check your eligibility for the tournament from the eligible countries list. (PDF with full list here - page 3)
- You also need to be over the age of majority (or have the acceptance from your parent or legal guardian, if over 13 years but under majority).
- Register/sign up for a qualifier of your choice on https://battlefy.com/hsesports.
- Registration for each qualifier will open 14 days before the tournament start time. The spots may get filled fast, so be early!
- You can register to multiple tournaments but only play in one at a time.
- Submit your decklists at latest 30 minutes before the tournament starts. Also decks already submitted can be changed up to that time.
- Check-in for the tournament starts 30 minutes before the tournament start time.
- Failing to show up on time will lose your spot to those on the waitlist.
- Follow the rules of each qualifier (given in Battlefy) and contact tournament admins on Discord if further advice is needed.
- Remember to take screenshots about your victories/losses/disconnects/other in-game issues!
Reward Structure
What's in it for me, you might ask. Here's the answer: packs (from the latest expansion)!
| Placement | Rewards |
| 1st | 20 packs + Masters Tour invite |
| 2nd | 20 packs |
| 3rd-4th | 15 packs |
| 5th-8th | 10 packs |
| 9th-16th | 5 packs |
| 17th-32th | 3 packs |
| 33th-64th | 2 packs |
| 65th-128th | 1 pack |
To Participate or Not?
Still wondering whether or not to try out a qualifier? Maybe considering these points will help you with that.
Positives
- A potentially fun experience. If you're at all competitive, these tournaments give you a chance to test your skills against other competitive people.
- Multiple tournaments in a day/week means that you can pick the one most suitable for your own schedule.
- Specialist Format basically requires only one deck, so the in-depth knowledge about your line-up's matchups and whatnots is easier to achieve.
- FREE PACKS!
- Dropping out of the tournament is possible at any point, so don’t be afraid to try!
Negatives
- The tournaments can be really time-consuming, especially if you manage to go far. The winner of each tournament ends up spending up to 9-10 hours of his/her day for that purpose.
- Having to wait each Swiss round to be completed can also get boring quite fast.
- If you're in for the win, it might not get cheap. Blizz won't pay for travels/accommodation for the Masters Tour events so participating those can end up costing you even if prize money is included.
- In a settled meta, you'll face "the same old decks" again. If you dislike repetitiveness of matchups or like to swap decks yourself when playing the game, this format may not suit you.
More information about the tournaments and FAQ can be found from battlefy.com. For full rules and player eligibility, visit playhearthstone.com.
Comments
You may want to update this guide a bit with the new changes they introduced about a month ago. Especially as some tournaments will become single elimination and some swiss.
For this tournament, will it be focused on standard year of the dragon (with WW, TBP, RR & RoS) only? or will it be year of the raven cards?
So great i will participate for sure
I am confused, can I participate in these tournaments from home? or would I have to travel places?
You can participate in the qualifier tournaments from home, but the major tournaments all require travel