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.
I'm pretty sure that in the past I have never received a pack for voting until after the event (even when the number of packs wasn't dependent on the outcome of the event, as in this case).
I just got my pack for voting so I guess they're distributing them currently. Hopefully you all get your packs soon.
Where can see which players are on each team?
You can find the teams from the official site: https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/esports/global-games/.
You'll also find the link to all this week's games from there: https://battlefy.com/hearthstone-global-games-2018/hearthstone-global-games-2018/5b3ccaa722962f03ce590019/stage/5b3ccb149a4af103b49c2aa6/bracket/1