Hearthpwn

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!

Where to Watch

The tournament will be streamed live on the Hearthstone Twitch channel.