by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

While attending the ESLtv hosted Intel Extreme Masters event in Cologne, Germany, Kim Phan, the Senior e-Sports Manager at Blizzard, sat down with Carmac to discuss her role with Blizzard and to provide some insight into the company’s vision for the future of Hearthstone e-Sports. Relatively new to her role, having previously been with the Risk Systems Teams (anti-cheat) at Blizzard, Phan reveals that a large part of her responsibility includes shaping the vision of the team, cultivating relationships with e-Sports partners, and working with the development teams focusing on the release of Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm.

After the success of the Hearthstone tournament at BlizzCon, perception of the e-Sports future of the game has shifted for many of the Blizzard team members. Though originally developed with the focus of being a friendly card game, Team 5 is keenly aware of the e-Sports potential for Hearthstone and they have regular weekly meetings with the e-Sports team to stay updated on what is happening within the community as well as the tournaments being run. They are actively listening to feedback from their partners and have developed a list of features that will be added to the game in time. Phan confirms that the highly requested spectator mode has been ranked highly on the ”To-do” list and, while it won’t be released with the official launch, it will be seen shortly after.