You're Invited to the Hearthstone Inn-vitational
Blizzard has announced details on the Blizzard Hearthstone Tournament, the Hearthstone Inn-vitational. See the 12 players, how it's going to work, and more below.
Did Blizzard Just Give us Clues for the Next Expansion?
Alright, hear us out for a second. We've got some really interesting stuff going on in this post.
Let's start off with the banner from the post. We've very clearly got a treasure map, an unknown landform that may or may not be present on Azeroth (we've checked!), and some cool skull in the water. All typical pirate stuff. This can only mean one thing. Sailing the seas! This turns out to actually be the art for Map to the Golden Monkey.
Things get more interesting though if you look closely at the four team names.
- Grimestreet Grifters - Refers to Gadgetzan Expansion
- Jungle Giants - Refers to Un'Goro Expansion
- Chillblade Crusaders - Refers to Frozen Throne Expansion
- Big-Time Buccaneers - ????
Yarr. Harr. Thar be Patches in thy future. Continuing onward, the post highlights lots of treasure which could mean we're going to get card reveals throughout the tournament, something that would truly test the deck-building skills of the players present, another mention.
If we go further back though to the recent patch which hit the servers, we did see a nice Pirate ship and some other pirate characters coming to us in the form of card avatars. It certainly wouldn't be the first time Blizzard has added in clues during a patch to hint toward the next expansion.
Keep in mind, this is all speculation but we don't think we're too crazy. It's also been rumored the next WoW expansion is going to be present in the South Seas, which would make for a very interesting cross between Hearthstone and WoW. We'll find out at BlizzCon on November 3rd for sure though, so stay tuned!
Announcement
Quote from BlizzardPull up a chair by the hearth, because you’re about to witness quite the event: Welcome to the Hearthstone Inn-vitational!
The Hearthstone Inn-vitational at BlizzCon 2017 will see 12 of the most intrepid adventurers set forth in search of treasures untold. The journey will be arduous, and they’ll need your fullest (moral) support.
Party Up!
Here are the brave souls who will compete in the Inn-vitational!
Jungle Giants Big-Time Buccaneers Grimestreet Grifters Chillblade Crusaders Kripparian Disguised Toast Reynad Dog Firebat Ant Thijs RDU J4CKIECHAN Alliestrasza Pathra NaviOOT
The Inn-vitational Adventure
You don’t go to the tavern to sit by yourself, do you? In true Hearthstone spirit, each team’s players will gather around the hearth (or the desk, in this case!) and make decisions together while they play. The Inn-vitational’s matches will be played in round robin format, with three games per match. Each player on a team will play one game per match.
Challenge #1 - Wild
Our adventurers take on the challenge of the Wild! Teams will square off with preconstructed decks built exclusively for the Wild format. Will they fall prey to the likes of Reno Jackson and Azure Drake?
- Jungle Giants vs. Big-Time Buccaneers
- Grimestreet Grifters vs. Chillblade Crusaders
Challenge #2 - Standard
Ah, the tried-and-tested Standard competition. Don’t let this quintessential challenge catch you off-guard, though. There’s a lot to be feared out there in those dark dungeons.
- Jungle Giants vs. Grimestreet Grifters
- Big-Time Buccaneers vs. Chillblade Crusaders
Challenge #3 - Excavated Treasures
Our adventurers have stumbled across something shiny in the darkness—a stash of valuable cards! A tinny, hissing voice in the darkness warns that they shouldn’t take the precious cards, but what good adventurer leaves treasure behind? For this challenge, the intrepid explorers will be doing battle with the cards they’ve just found. Watch some of the best deck-builders in Hearthstone try to outwit each other!
- Jungle Giants vs. Chillblade Crusaders
- Big-Time Buccaneers vs. Grimestreet Grifters
Whenever a team wins one of these challenges, they’ll be awarded a mysterious treasure. What type of treasure, you ask? We won’t spoil the surprise, but rest assured they’ll need them for the hazards lurking in the dark. The most valiant party of the Inn-vitational will also earn an extra treasure.
No one ever finishes a daring adventure in just a day, so if you want to find out what happens to our intrepid heroes, remember to catch their exploits at BlizzCon 2017 at the Hearthstone Inn-vitational!
The Inn-vitational starts at 1pm PDT on Friday, Nov. 3, and 9.30am PDT on Saturday, Nov. 4.
P.S. If the adventuring life is not one you can stomach, you might be more interested in a Tavern vs. Tavern showdown.
but it will be an Epic (rarity)
Pirates doing Pilates.
I wouldn't mind the pirate theme as long as it comes with the whole package. I want krakens, big sea monsters ,cursed treasures and ghost ships . I was expecting something like that would happen in the year of the kraken but it's never late.
Nooooo! Not those damn Pirates again! I'll throw a party the day Patches rotates so I don't want Blizzard to push that retarded tribe one last time.... One year and half was more than enough let's introduce some new mechanics instead....
I really hope they don't do pirates. We've seen enough of them in the meta for a while, and it would probably make Patches even MORE disgusting.
Why not create a new tribe? People have been wanting the "Undead" tag for a while now, and I think that could be interesting, especially since we are coming off the DeathKnight meta.
They said there would not be a new tribe until next year. They wanna flesh Elementals out more before they make another new tribe. They did say Undead minions are on the table.
As for Pirates, what if I was to tell you, that there is a way to make Pirates not cancer? I give you: Control Pirates!
We just did Elementals though. I don't disagree on making a new tribe but they may be thinking they want to wait a bit before doing it again.
Then hopefully they do a new tribe every year. They have kind of followed that philosophy already, if you consider C'thun is the tribe for Year of the Mammoth. This is what we've had...
2016 - C'thun
2017 - Elementals
2018 - Undead
As far as Elementals, if they really wanted to flesh that out, they should have included more than 3 elementals in KFT. I'm sure we will see a few more in the next expansion, but I don't think that this expansion will flesh that out, any more than any other tribe. I'm sure we will get a couple of Murloc, Dragon, Beast, Elementals with the new expansion.
No, Elementals didn't work becaus eof the slow pacedness and pasiveness of the mechanic where you always had to save elementals to have your next turn be swingy....instead of activating an elemental if you played an elemental last turn the emchanic should have been, if the last card you played was an elemental, so you could have multiple options for pacing elemental sinergy cards rather than always being slow and predictable
Noooo! No more god damn fucking pirates!!
What if it's Control Pirates, as in Pirates that aren't cancer?
Looks quite good. Will this be streamed at twitch or is it blizzcon-special?
Opening ceremony is always free along with esports content. It's always on Twitch and the BlizzCon site.
Expansion announcement panel (or rather discussion since announcement should be in opening ceremony) will take place only for Virtual Ticket holders though we'll have our usual real-time coverage of the event.
Subtle expansion teasing.