We've reached the final week of the second Season of Grandmasters 2020. For 24 players, this weekend's matches will be all about trying to get a spot in World Championship, but for twelve less fortunate it will be fighting for their survival in Grandmasters. You can find everything you need to know below.
Results from Thursday's Matches
Like during Season 1, the pre-Playoffs matches of Division B were already played on Thursday off-stream. The results and VoDs can be found within the spoiler below.
This Week's Format
This weekend's matches will be split between Relegation matches and Playoffs matches. Both will work with the same format:
- Best of 5 Conquest.
- Each player brings four decks, and one deck is banned before each match.
The relegation bracket will work as follows:
- Match 1 (Friday): Bottom two players of Division A go head-to-head, the winner is safe.
- Match 2 (Saturday): The loser of Match 1 faces the player who finished 5th in Division B, the winner is safe.
- Match 3 (Sunday): The loser of Match 2 faces the player who finished 6th in Division B, the winner is safe and the loser is relegated.
The Playoffs will have the usual format:
- Eight qualified players have been split in two groups.
- Both groups play through a Double-Elimination bracket, with top 2 of each group advancing.
- The top seed of each group (i.e. top 2 of Division A) starts with one win and the bottom seed (i.e. players from Division B) with one loss.
- Top 4 will play through a Single Elimination bracket to decide the champion.
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
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) | |
| October 9 | 2:00 | 5:00 | 11:00 | 18:00 |
| October 10 | 2:00 | 5:00 | 11:00 | 18:00 |
| October 11 | 4:00 | 7:00 | 13:00 | 20:00 |
You can find the current standings and more on the official tournament site.
Asia-Pacific Grandmasters
Playoffs
Relegations
Europe Grandmasters
Playoffs
Relegations
Americas Grandmasters
Playoffs
Relegations
Watch Live
You can watch all the action on the official Hearthstone Esports Youtube channel. If you want more Grandmasters content, check out the short videos about last week's matches made by the casters.
Recap of last weekend with Raven.
This week's video not yet published.
Top 5 Moments with Darroch.
Mull It Over with Jia.
Hot Takes with TJ and Sottle.
Comments
I want NoHandsGamer to win overall simply because I’d like to see what his tribute card will be. I’m thinking a mech pirate named Captain Nohannigan, with two hooks for hands and lasers shooting out of his eyes.
Thats a lot of big names out of GM.
Maybe I should've given better subtitles; only one of the four players under each "Relegations" will get relegated. That doesn't take away the fact that some big names are indeed in danger.
Wth are those relegations... System is broken somewhat