The Hearthstone Global Games Begin!
The Hearthstone Global Games begin with 24 matches during Week 1. The participating countries are the same as last year but both the lineups and the format have had some big changes. Will Czech Republic be able to defend their title or will we see a new team be crowned as champions in Finals at BlizzCon later this year? Let's find out!
You can learn more about the Hearthstone Global Games, and watch games through an embedded stream, below.
The New Format for the Global Games
We are currently in Phase 1.
Format
- All phases will use a best-of-five, class vs. class format with nine unique classes per team.
- The teams will then ban and pick decks until both teams have five classes left.
- The decks are then assigned to players and the order of players is determined in secret.
Phase 1: Swiss Rounds
- The 48 participating teams will play six rounds of Swiss.
- The teams are paired together randomly based on match records.
- The top 16 teams from Swiss based on match records and tiebreakers advance to Phase 2.
- Phase 1 lasts six weeks and takes place from July 17th to September 7th.
Phase 2: Dual Tournament
- The 16 remaining teams will be seeded into four groups based on their match record from Phase 1.
- Each group of four teams will again compete against each other in a dual tournament format.
- The top two teams from each group will advance to Finals.
- Phase 2 lasts two weeks and takes place in September.
Finals
- The final eight teams will be seeded into a single elimination bracket.
- The finals will take place at BlizzCon in November.
Week 1 Schedule
Note that not all 24 matches taking place this week will be shown on stream!
July 17th - 10:00 CEST / 4am EDT | July 18th - 16:00 CEST / 10am EDT | July 20th - 3:00 CEST / 9pm EDT (19th) |
---|---|---|
Japan vs Sweden | China vs United States | Singapore vs Argentina |
South Korea vs Turkey | Germany vs Netherlands | Kazakhstan vs Taiwan |
Indonesia vs Norway | Brazil vs Russia | |
France vs Philippines | Canada vs Czech Republic | |
Belgium vs Poland | New Zealand vs Portugal | |
Croatia vs Ukraine |
Where to Watch
The tournament will be streamed live on the Hearthstone Twitch channel.
Let's hope they don't choke against France ;-)
Can't dive to the ground for free points in Hearthstone ;D
idemo! :)
Its coming home!
How to sign to get a pack?
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/hearthstone/21838421/hearthstone-global-games-voting-now-live
I'm representing England in the games by watching the games wearing a England shirt
It's coming home!?
Nothing says Blizzard like more
funRNG even in tournament matchmaking :D jkFinally! Given that the finals will take place in Blizzcon this year, I hope the event will be more immersive and interesting.
Let the games begin!
"Note that all 24 matches taking place this week won't be shown on stream!"
Fix your sentence Frosty.
Maybe it's because I'm not a native but I can't spot the issue in that sentence. I'm happy to fix it if there's something wrong though.
I am not native too, but what from these two you implied:
1) Note that all 24 matches taking place this week WILL be shown on stream!
OR
2) Note that NOT all 24 matches taking place this week will be shown on stream!
So you mean it is case 3) ?
3) Note that NO matches taking place this week WILL be shown on stream!
I'm not native as well, but my level is very close to one I'd say and to me this sentence means that there will be NO matches shown on stream.
Ok, I switched it now. English is a lot harder than I thought.
Case 3) of course is not the case since they are playing atm on stream.
Ok, I see Frosty corrected it, so it is understandable now.
Best of luck to all teams in the competition - let the most skilled one win!
No worries, it's ok now. Sad thing is we probably miss some interesting games. Maybe they should consider uploading recorded stuff without commentators, so we can see how the games went?
Overall the current structure with swiss is better than previous year (competition wise), so at least missing a few games is kind of justified.
Has Blizzard given out the free pack for voting for Global Games team members?!
Not for me they haven't! I kinda expected they would do that yesterday/today (at latest) and promote the games that way but didn't get it today either. I surely hope they haven't forgotten those packs. Although we might get even more packs as an apology if it takes super long (it kinda has already, hasn't it). One can hope, at least.