The fourth week of Hearthstone Grandmasters begins, and we're entering a new phase after the three-week Swiss period. All players in their respective regions have been divided into two Divisions, A and B, and will be playing against everyone in their Division in the coming weeks. You can find everything you need to know below.
This Week's Format
This week we'll enter a new phase - Round Robin matches. This phase is very similar to last year's Grandmasters format.
- The usual Best of 5 Conquest format has returned! Each player brings four decks with one of them getting banned before the match.
- The players have now been split into two Divisions, and they'll play against everyone in their Division once - a total of 7 matches.
After the four weeks of Round Robin, the players will move to the next stage based on the final standings as follows:
Division A
- Top 6 automatically enters the Playoff phase.
- The 7th- and 8th-placed players enter a relegation Play-In with two players from Division B - one of the four will get relegated.
Division B
- Top 4 will play a dual tournament bracket to determine two players to join the top 6 from Division A in Playoffs.
- The 5th- and 6th-placed players enter the relegation Play-In with the Bottom 2 players of Division A.
- The 7th- and 8th-placed players are automatically relegated from Season 1 of Grandmasters 2020.
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 on each Wednesday and Thursday to earn 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. Different gameplay format each week.
- The 16 players in each region will compete against each other off broadcast in 7 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: Conquest with 1 Ban
- Week 2: Four Deck Last Hero Standing with 1 Ban
- Week 3: Ten Deck Conquest with 6 Bans
Weeks 4 - 7: Round Robin
Weeks 4 –7 will consist of round-robin group play within the two divisions in each region—much like the previous seasons 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 of conclusion of these weeks will determine who will go on to compete in Playoffs, and who will be relegated from Season 1.
- The format will stay consistent during round-robin weeks:
- Bo5 Conquest (4 decks, 1 ban)
Week 8: Season 1 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 1 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 of Playoffs from each region will qualify to the Hearthstone World Championships later this year.
Stream Schedule
Please note that there might be some downtime between regions depending on how the matches progress. Approximate individual match schedule can be found here.
West Coast PDT (UTC-7) | East Coast EDT (UTC-4) | Europe CEST (UTC+2) | Korea KST (UTC+9) | |
| May 8 | 2:00 | 5:00 | 11:00 | 18:00 |
| May 9 | 2:00 | 5:00 | 11:00 | 18:00 |
| May 10 | 2:00 | 5:00 | 11:00 | 18:00 |
You can find all the matches, results, and decklists on the official tournament site.
Asia-Pacific Grandmasters
Division A
Division B
Europe Grandmasters
Division A
Division B
Americas Grandmasters
Division A
Division B
Watch Live
You can watch all the action on the official Hearthstone Esports Youtube channel. If you want more Grandmasters content, check out the shorter videos about last week's matches made by the casters.
Recap of the weekend with Raven.
Top 5 moments with Darroch.
Mulligan decisions with Jia.
Hot Takes with TJ and Sottle.
(This week's video not yet published.)
Comments
Games are good and I enjoyed watching the parts I could watch. Okay I miss the "SPAM THIS TO HELP XXX OUT" but well, it's not like I can't live without twitch chat anyway....
I wonder how many people actually watch these. I know that people would be bribed to watch before with pack via twitch... but unless they offer that I do not see people sitting and watching these. Is that just me?
The two English-language YT streams have a total of 50K and 80K views, respectively.
Blizzards official writing could be more clear. As it is structured I think top 8 is dual tournament followed by single elimination top 4?
Are the group B play-in games also a dual tournament or single elimination? For relegation it seems to be three games... winners of initial matches are safe... and winner of the "losers match" is safe... the only player who loses twice is relegated.
I hate single elimination in card games but it is sometimes a necessary evil. If it's strictly to top 4, that seems better to me.
Does this seem overly complex?
Just wondering why they shifted away from the Shield-Ban format.
No packs no "watch"