The road to the 2020 Global Finals begins this weekend in Arlington, Texas! Approximately 360 players were invited to compete for their portion of the $250,000 prize pool*. The event runs Jan. 31-Feb. 2, kicking off each day at 7:00AM PT/10:00AM ET/3:00PM GMT/4:00PM CET and will be the first event aired on the PlayHearthstone YouTube channel.
The player base will consist of winners from official Masters Tour qualifying events, current Hearthstone Grandmasters, and previous top finishers in Masters Tour events. Below is a breakdown of Masters Tour stop invites.
Blizzard has doubled both the number of Masters Tour events and the number of Grandmasters being relegated -- making the stakes higher than ever. Top earners from the first 3 Masters Tour events earn the right to replace one of the 6 relegated Grandmasters at the end of Season 1. With two chapters of Galakrond's Awakening recently being released, the players are tasked with evaluating the significance of 19 newly added cards.
*Please note that while we list the prize pool at $250,000, it will actually increase due to the recent announcement of the Dragon Masters Bundle. Sales will continue through February 11th. If the community reaches the goal set forth by Blizzard, the prize pool could increase up to $500,000.
Quick Facts
- Venue: eSports Stadium in Arlington, TX
- Dates: January 31st - February 2nd
- Casters: Dan "Frodan" Chou, TJ "Azumo" Sanders, Simon "Sottle" Welch, Erik "DoA" Lonnquist
- Prize Pool: $250,000 base Prize Pool - Increases dependant on Dragon Masters Bundle.
- Format: 4 Decks, Best-of-5 Conquest w/ a Ban
Tournament Format
Each match will be played with a 4-deck, best-of-five Conquest Format with a ban. Any participants ending with a record of 7-2 or better are automatically qualified for Masters Tour: Indonesia and Masters Tour: Jönköping.
- Day 1: Five rounds of Swiss pairings. Any players collecting 3 losses will be removed from the field.
- Day 2: Players with at least 3 wins on the first day will advance to Day 2. This will feature four more rounds of Swiss.
- Day 3: The top 8 players head to Day 3 and compete in a single elimination tournament to crown a champion.
Notable Invites
tom60229 | Bunnyhoppor | Fenomeno |
hunterace | BoarControl | muzzy |
Rdu | Casie | Surrender |
SamuelTsao | Thijs | Firebat |
HotMEOWTH | Cydonia | killinalldayhs |
Hoej | Jia | Pizza |
What's Next?
The next Masters Tour event will be March 19-22 in Bali, Indonesia at The Mulia Resort and Villas. It will follow the same structure, format, and prizing as the Arlington event. From there, Grandmasters Season 1 will begin sometime in April. Official dates for the Grandmasters Seasons haven't been announced.
Yeah. I cant believe people would only watch a tournament for $1 worth of digital credit, if they don't seemingly enjoy it. Apparently they value their time at $0.25/h
Why is the time in CEST? So it's 16:00, if the GMT anouncement is correct...
Oops. Screw up on my part.
I changed it to CET and all should be good now. Thanks for the heads up!
finally some competitive HS
I wish they released the full roster of participants. It's not on the Blizzard site or here. If anyone has please post. Thanks!
Here ya go
https://liquipedia.net/hearthstone/Masters_Tour_2020_Arlington/Players_List
How is it a stupid comparison?
He literally complained about RNG and the "same players" in the same post. If it were all RNG, how are there not new people every time? And the sports comparison for "the same players" is completely valid. Very stupid statement because the best players are featured at top events as long as they remain the best.
Also, your argument about them being opposite is completely opinion based. I watch league of legends streams but haven't played in 5 years. Furthermore, LOTS of people watch the game they play, and continue to do both. This is just an idiotic statement. How would e sports even exist if people didn't like watching it? Clearly they do.
And as far as e sports and "real" sports being different. What is different about it other than one is more physical than the other? They both require training. They both have teams unless it's single player (Starcraft, tennis). You can argue all the money that's in real sports and what not, but that's just because they are much older. E sports still has contracts, players, prizes, championships, you name it.
So wait wait wait. This is like a basketball fan not watching the playoffs because they don't get a free basketball. Also, you don't like this game enough to watch the pro series, but you clearly like it enough to want the free packs?
Lol man the hearthstone community is funny.
Lol what a stupid comparison.
There is more people who enjoy watching sport than actually playing it. The opposite is true for video games.
Also esports is nothing like real professional sport, so stop with the stupid comparison.
Pointless response.
if you don't like it, don't watch/play
would you prefer a game you play (or care enough about to post?) not to have any events or anything at all?
the best players are clearly there and rng isn't everything because you clearly weren't invited
"same players" would indicate that they must be better than others. Every sports event in the world has the same players save for maybe a couple newcomers, like hs
no thanks, move along
How many people you think will watch on youtube? I actually cant wait to see the numbers
Imagine being so hurting for packs, you expect free ones just to enjoy watching the game you love to play! Get a job, work a few hours, buy thw whole set of cards, and quit being so entitled.
To sit for hours watching just to get 1 pack is a waste of time.
Why not watch out of the enjoyment for the game instead?
Or is 100 gold really worth 4 hours? 4 hpurs work @$25 hr is $100, which you could use to buy the set, get some food, and thenn play some HS with the tourney in the background!!
No packs? No watch.
No packs, no incentive to watch RNG fiesta.
So it won't be on Twitch after all!
So no packs anymore for watching? I will just skip this than