If you haven't heard yet, this might be a worthy addition to today's viewing (or even participating!) calendar: NoProsHere got together with HSReplay to run the biggest open tournament in our region for Mercenaries to date. The prize pool in this case is fairly considerable for a 3rd party event.

The game mode hasn't actually been given anything on this scale before, if we consider that the 'bombastic' Hearthstone Global Inn-vitational was only available for the chosen few regional teams, and various other efforts (like the F2P Friendly Pauper Open) were on the more modest side. There have also been a few Chinese tournaments meanwhile, but that's usually not something we get to hear about much around these parts. 

Some of you might recall that Pasca & NPH crew already organized the very first Mercenaries tournament back when the game mode just premiered. We had the results and interviews covered here back then. That one was mostly riding on the early hype and was all in good fun, as a way to test out the early theorycrafts in practice and earn the satisfaction of doing well. Pretty much nobody had a proper collection or full extensive knowledge of PvP Mercenaries at that point.

Now the stakes are higher, as HSReplay sponsors the event just as their own Mercenaries data and support pages rolled out for premium users a few days ago. 

Quote From HSReplay
Hey, mercenaries! We have a $1000 bounty up for grabs. A special Hearthstone Mercenaries tournament happening 22nd January. sign up here… https://battlefy.com/noproshere/nph-last-mercenaries-standing-powered-by-hsreplay/61cb5ab8e103f6211d906904/info?infoTab=details

Format, Schedule, and Prizes

Once again, this is all being hosted on the Americas server, which means that players without a good all-rounded Mercenaries collection over there are out of luck if they wished to participate. Everyone can still tune in to Twitch for a fine viewing experience. Otherwise the event is open to anyone willing to try their chances:

  • Battlefy page for the tournament contains all the necessary info and acts as the means to sign up.
  • Date & Time as follows: Saturday January 22 at 09:00 PT, 12:00 ET, 18:00 CET, 02:00 KST.
  • Unique format: players register with 6 starting Mercenaries, but after losing a game have to change 4 of them for any Mercenaries from their collection. After a victory, the next game must be played with the 6 Mercenaries that a player just won with.
  • The first player to win two games wins the match and advances to the next round. Tournament bracket is single elimination.
  • Players must be in the NPH Discord server. They must accept to be spectated in game by the stream staff.
  • The action will be covered on Twitch, as hosted by Mullahoo and Dragonrider. Individual players are also allowed to stream their own perspective. 

The starting Mercenaries teams will be known to both players (so it becomes less of a guessing game based just on color/type count at the start of a match), but any further changes between games during an ongoing round will remain as a complete surprise. If a game somehow ends in a draw, both players will take a loss. Then they both have to change 4 Mercenaries from the last composition played, and start a new game (as the match ends once any player has earned two wins).

The prize pool in total: 

  • 500 USD for the first place
  • 250 USD for the second place
  • 125 USD for the third and fourth places
  • In addition, top 8 players win a 6 month HSReplay premium bundle, and players who finish 9-16 win a 1 month HSReplay premium bundle.

That's certainly something to fight for. On top of that, the tournament stream should contain various sneak peeks at Mercenaries PvP stats and features being offered by HSReplay so far, as to help people decide whether such data might be worth their while.


(Source)

Current State of Mercenaries PvP 

If you aren't an avid Mercenaries player fighting for the leaderboards (or perhaps have never paid much attention to the PvP aspect of the mode in the first place), this might be a fine rare opportunity to check out how everything looks like and feels nowadays. Perhaps there is some newfound appeal to be found there. Whether through live viewing or catching relevant VODs later, such potential high level of competition is an uncommon sight.

If you still dabble with Mercs on a more or less casual basis, it could be helpful to learn which of the compositions and characters all these competitively minded players tend to put their faith in. Maybe somebody manages to surprise us with some unexpected PvP strategies. 

There is a handful of new Mercenaries on the way, of course, so the current status quo might be in for some upheavals before long. We'll be sure to find out.

Get ready for some quality Mercenaries PvP action!