The sixth and final Masters Tour event this year takes place online this weekend. Over 300 players from all regions will compete for their share of the glory, prize money, and a spot at Hearthstone Grandmasters. You can find everything you need to know below.
Tournament Format
The usual Masters Tour format continues.
- All games are played as Best-of-5 Conquest.
- 4 decks with 1 ban.
- A total of 9 Swiss rounds, with Top 8 advancing.
- Day 1: 5 rounds of Swiss, players with 3 or more wins advancing to day 2.
- Day 2: The remaining 4 rounds of Swiss.
- Day 3: Top 8 single elimination bracket.
The Promotion Frontrunners
As this is the final Masters Tour that counts towards Grandmasters' 2020 promotion, we will know the names of the ten* new Grandmasters after this tournament (barring any unforeseen issues). Based on their previous success, these players are on the brink of making it.
*ETC's retirement has opened up a fourth spot in Americas.
Further information about the current promotion situation can be found in the spoiler below.
Here's the current prize money situation in all three regions. These numbers do not take into account the extra prize money obtained from the esports bundle; while the absolute numbers are therefore incorrect, the relative differences between players should stay the same. Players that retained their Grandmaster status are not included.
Asia-Pacific | Winnings | Europe | Winnings | Americas | Winnings |
lambyseries | $16.850 | Leta | $40.100 | justsaiyan* | $15.950 |
GivePLZ | $12.350 | Warma* | $37.700 | DreadEye | $15.000 |
XiaoDai | $11.850 | Frenetic | $36.850 | Impact | $12.350 |
Flurry* | $10.100 | DeadDraw | $25.250 | Pavelingbook | $7.450 |
lojom | $9.700 | pignas | $24.200 | Fled | $7.450 |
trahison | $7.850 | cagnetta99 | $23.350 | 4 players | $7.050 |
*A relegated Grandmaster.
In APAC only lambyseries can breathe relatively freely. With any previous good finishes, anyone can still make their way to top 3 by reaching the last eight and getting that sweet $11.000.
Europe's numbers are absolutely ridiculous when compared to other regions. Even winning might not be enough for a GM spot if you had little or no previous results. The tournament was looking to become a tense race between DeadDraw and the close-by Italians before Warma got relegated and dropped right back on the list.
With four open spots in Americas, justsaiyan can feel quite confident about repromotion. DreadEye and Impact have also mustered a healthy lead, but the fourth spot is absolutely anyone's to take.
Other Notable Attendees
Here are some other invited players that you might recognize. All Grandmasters, recently relegated players included, have been invited but we've had their images up on our weekly posts already, it's time for others to have the limelight! The full list of invited players can be found here.
Stream Schedule
In case your timezone isn't listed below, check out the sidebar on the official tournament site. It should display the schedule in your local time.
West Coast PDT (UTC-7) | East Coast EDT (UTC-4) | Europe CEST (UTC+2) | Korea KST (UTC+9) | |
October 23 | 6:00 | 9:00 | 15:00 | 22:00 |
October 24 | 6:00 | 9:00 | 15:00 | 22:00 |
October 25 | 6:00 | 9:00 | 14:00 | 22:00 |
Stream
This tournament will be streamed in Hearthstone Esports Youtube channel, as accustomed.
Comments
Brackets for the Swiss portion can be found here.
Warma and saiyan getting right back is the epitome of how stupid the system is for gm relegation and promotions.
Also, how did european players get so much money compared to the asia and americas?
Europeans have won all five masters tour event this year. Additionally, every final has been EU vs EU or EU vs China.
I'm fine with saiyan's re-promotion, he actually had to get the result in order to stay, but I'm very salty about Warma's repromotion. What kind of justice is that if you get promoted twice with the same victory? That basically means that (almost) every GM promoted after Season 1 was immune to relegation due to still being high on the all-year earnings list. He already had his chance, they should've set his (and all other promoted players') earnings to zero mid-season. Not to mention that currently it's DeadDraw AGAIN who has to suffer from this bullshit...
Yeah, I saw some guys post on orange's twitter on the stats in the euro side, just to show how skewed europe is. Guess it will be a tall order to ever see hunterace or orange back in gm.