by hsdecktech - 5 years ago     show comments

Over the holiday weekend, Blizzard confirmed what has been suspected since the Hearthstone Grandmasters schedule was first announced: the Grandmasters Global Finals will be taking place at Blizzcon!

The event will include the top Grandmaster from each region, for each season, plus two more from the China Gold series (for a total of 8 players). The winner of those grand finals will be crowned this year’s Hearthstone World Champion!

The community reception to the announcement has, thus far, been mixed. Whereas many players are excited to have a big event back at Blizzcon, others are upset that the term “World Champion” is being used when 6 of the 8 participants came from the hand-selected Grandmasters pool of players. It hardly feels like a “world champion,” they argue, if only a few players have a chance to compete.

Then, there is the separate issue that the final expansion of the Year of the Dragon will not be part of the competition or, from the calendar above, any major esports event this year. This has always been a challenge with the release schedule being what it is, and Blizzcon being when it is, but it is now being highlighted again. Perhaps whatever esports is planned for next year will make up for the final set having no apparent role in this year’s schedule. Perhaps there will be an announcement at Blizzcon about how that set is supposed to fit into the puzzle.

For now, we don’t know. What we do know is that there’s lots of great stuff going on now. Grandmasters Playoffs start this upcoming weekend (on Friday, on the official PlayHearthstone Twitch channel) and, we suspect, Saviors of Uldum card reveal season will kick off in earnest right after that as well! So I suggest you tune in now and let the hype take you, instead of dwelling on the aspects that don’t appeal to you. I, for one, am very excited to see top players competing at Blizzcon, regardless of what we want to call them after they win.