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Tournament Watch: Dreamhack Summer 2014

by - 10 years ago

In our past reviews and previews of tournament offerings, we have levied excitement and precautions, lessons to be learned and advice to take forward. Over the course of 2014, we have seen certain groups and enterprises offer tournaments and then iterate on them in future offerings, tweaking things in their production or player management or even tournament format. All of this is a preamble for the next big Hearthstone tournament coming to us in a few short weeks. I’m speaking about Dreamhack Summer 2014.

Yesterday, official details were finally revealed on how Dreamhack would roll Hearthstone into its schedule for their summer rendition. Dreamhack Summer is often the pinnacle of the competitive eSports scene around this time of year, as I can recall watching some of the most epic Starcraft II games for hours on end via multiple Twitch streams. In short, it’s a big deal. After Dreamhack Bucharest and the positives and minuses taken away from there, we knew that Hearthstone had done well enough to be included in Dreamhack Summer’s line up, but we just didn’t know how big of a role it would play going forward. Now, we do.

Coming the weekend of June 14th to June 16th, Dreamhack Summer will present what could historically be remembered as the first truly MAJOR Hearthstone tournament:

  • The number of players will be massive. They are aiming for at least 128 in a completely open bracket, which will aim to qualify 4 players to go on to a new bracket of 16, where 12 officially seeded players await. The organizers have noted that they are not afraid to take this first initial bracket up to 256 if the demand is high enough.
  • The prize pool will be massive. $25,000 USD is up for grabs with money going out to 1st through 8th place finishers. The top take is $10,000 while placing 8th will still net you $1,250.
  • The tournament will be played on the iPad version of the game. You read that right.

The official page with all of these details and more, as well as the sign up form where you may also make your case for special seeding privileges, is located here.

I took some time in getting this tournament announcement to you because I wanted the details to sink in. Here is my early analysis of how this could play out.

  1. An open bracket. This is a good thing. I have always been a fan of moving from the invitational format where the rich get richer and Dreamhack has been good from the very beginning about leaving the door open for anyone to get on stage and make a name for themselves. Combining this format with keeping 12 seeded players guaranteed is a good way of avoiding what happened at Bucharest where some of the fan favorites got eliminated very early on, even off stream where no one could really know about it. The problem here? There are more than 12 very good Hearthstone players right now. This means that some will be denied the keys to the kingdom and have to go through the jungle that is the open bracket qualifying. I envy no one behind the desk for Dreamhack that has to decide who will get one of the 12 coveted seeds and who won’t, as it seems, based on the form, to be a mostly subjective process.

  2. The prize pool is amazing. This is the kind of money that can certainly start to change lives and maybe sit as a foundation for a player to take time away from a normal job and fully concentrate on traveling the developing Hearthstone competitive circuit to continue filling their coffer by simply playing the game at a top level. If other organizers see this level of support and take note going forward, this will only serve to bolster the health of Hearthstone as an eSport. This amount of money will also entice more players to travel because, at the very least, a top 8 finish serves to recoup your travel costs and maybe even leave you with a little bit extra. The extra beyond the monetary, of course, is the exposure and name recognition that will also be earned from doing well on what promises to be a big stage in front of thousands of spectators.

  3. There is always room for controversy. They’re going to play these games on the iPad? I’m concerned. I’m not exactly sure how this will benefit their production, but it will certainly sit in the annals of Hearthstone history, as brief as it may currently be, as a major innovative approach to casting a Hearthstone tournament. Someone with more iPad experience than me can chime in on whether this will be feasible or fail miserably as I wasn’t even aware that you could stream from an iPad. Perhaps they’ve created a workaround for that. Color me cautiously intrigued.

I’d love to hear from you guys and gals. Does a tournament of this proportion excite you or worry you? Who do you anticipate coming out for this besides Gaara, the reigning victor from Dreamhack Bucharest? Is there such a thing as too much of a good thing? Too many players involved? Sound off below and let’s discuss.


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


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