The plans for 2020's Masters and Grandmasters events have been revealed by Blizzard!
- Double the tour stops for Hearthstone Masters.
- Each Masters event has $250,000 in prizing.
- A round of crowdfunding will take place to increase the prize pool. (They did this in 2019 with Lei Shen)
- ESL & DreamHack will be putting on the events for Hearthstone Masters.
- Grandmasters has two seasons this year, starting in April and August.
- Read below for details on how Grandmasters is changing.
Are you looking forward to this year's events?
Quote From Blizzard In 2019, we had three incredible Masters Tour events in Las Vegas, Seoul, and Bucharest. Thousands of you participated in Masters Qualifiers for your chance to play in these events, and we’re excited to announce there will be even more Masters Tours to play for in the months to come…six to be precise!
Yes, we’re doubling the number of Masters Tour stops in 2020—with USD $250,000 in base prizing guaranteed for each! Like last year, a crowdfunding initiative will bolster the prize pool of the Masters Tours beyond that. These events have yielded some of the most exciting and fun moments in Hearthstone, mixing the top tier of players with the up and comers. We’ve seen consistency from relatively unknown competitors, and witnessed a few usurpers topple veteran Grandmasters on stream.
We’re excited to share that ESL/DreamHack will be the trusted vendor for Hearthstone Master Tour events next year. Here are the locations and dates for most of the Masters Tour events in 2020:
- Masters Tour #1 – Arlington, Texas – 1/31 – 2/2
- Qualifying Period: 10/3 – 11/24
- Masters Tour #2 – Bali, Indonesia – 3/20 – 3/22
- Qualifying Period: 12/12 – 1/26
- Masters Tour #3 – Jönköping, Sweden – 6/12 – 6/14
- Qualifying Period: 2/6 – 3/29
- Masters Tour #4 – TBD Asia-Pacific Location (July/August)
- Qualifying Period: 4/2– 5/24
- Masters Tour #5 – Montreal, Canada – 9/11 – 9/13
- Qualifying Period: 6/4 – 7/26
- Masters Tour #6 – Spain – (December)
- Qualifying Period: 8/6 – 9/27
Grandmasters & Relegation
Grandmasters will be back in 2020 for two more epic seasons, with the first starting in April and the second in August! It will still be eight weeks of play, but with a different structure. For the initial weeks the format will rotate and all 16 players in each of our three regions (Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific) will compete against each other, earning points based on their placements. These points will be used to determine two divisions in each region.
Subsequent weeks will consist of round-robin play within the divisions, much like the previous seasons of Grandmasters. This leads into the Week 8 Playoffs, which will qualify one player per region to the World Championship at the end of the year.
Regarding promotion and relegation—three players per region will be relegated at the end of Grandmasters 2020 Season 1, with the three top prize money earners from the first three Masters Tours of 2020 replacing them.
We hope these changes will make Hearthstone Grandmasters fun and engaging for viewers and our pros alike. We’re excited for the new year and hope to see you at an upcoming Masters Tour!
Comments
I having haven't been following hearthstone most of 2019 (hiatus from the game), how does the Crowd Funding work?
Is this the one you buy Packs and the earnings contribute to the prize pool?
EDIT: eh nevermind lol. I didn't notice "Lei Shen" was a link lol.
Having more spots for relegation is an awesome change! When there was only one spot at the bottom I felt like the GM players didnt really care very much cuz all they had to to was not get last.
Now, with the bottom 3 per region there is more on the line and they will have to put in a lot more effort, in-turn making it way more watchable!
Completely agree. Gives more incentive for Grandmasters to actually try.
If they don't want to be there (i.e. Seiko playing TFT during a match), they should be replaced by people who do. It's more fun to watch players who actually want to win than players phoning it in.
How does one qualify?
For Masters Tour? Win one of these online cups: https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/esports/programs/masters-qualifiers. Another way is to reach top 8 five times in the during the qualifying period. I also think top X ranked players will receive an invitation.
EDIT: X seems to be 16, after each ranked season.
I'm surprised there is no Grandmasters before the next expansion -- having one GM season per expansion made a lot of sense to me. Other than that, I really like the changes announced.
My guess is - they want to have some space, where they can change / reconsider how the current system works and whether (and how) they want to improve on it. It also conveniently lands with holidays, and it is a big holiday time for all employees... I don't know if 2 seasons is enough, but 1 season last year definitely seemed not enough.
All changes seem positive, so we can hope it's good.
There actually were 2 season's last year, though the first season was largely forgettable because there was little variance from week to week The first season was the Specialist format that ran in the early part of the summer and also no relegation took place. The second season was in the late summer/early fall leading up to Blizzcon and was in the Shield-Conquest format and was much more enjoyable to watch.
I wonder if blitzchung's suspension had anything to do with the decision as it happens to end (quite conveniently) in early April, before the GM season. This way they were able to give that big 6 month ban, yet it didn't have any real effect to his GM status (unless he chooses to not continue).
They've also changed the prize money distribution of the tour stops to be less top heavy, which should reward consistency better than last year. It's definitely the right direction.
It should also make qualifying for Grand Masters more reasonable.
Good changes, looking forward to the upcoming tournaments.
I like the changes. Interested to see what format they use after the "initial weeks" when it will be rotating?
Like bartender Bob would say in a Battleground setting : '' I like where (they)'re going with this '' ^^