Hearthpwn

The Playoffs of the Hearthstone Grandmasters 2020 Tournament will be held this weekend. The tournament features the same format as last season, which we've recapped below. 48 players are competing -- including 10 brand new Grandmasters -- for a total of eight weeks. Prizing for the Season includes $500,000 and of course the right to compete at this year's Hearthstone World Championship!

• Venue: Online
• Broadcast: Hearthstone Esports YouTube Channel
• Stream Times: Broadcasts begin at 2AM PT/5AM ET/11AM CEST w/ the Asia-Pacific Region, followed by the EU Region and closed by the Americas Region
• Dates: Friday, Saturday, Sunday - August 14th - September 6 and September 18 – October 11, 2020. The break is for the Masters Tour Online: Montreal Tournament.
• Casters:
• Asia-Pacific: Jia “Jia” Dee and Darroch “Darroch” Brown
• Europe: Simon “Sottle” Welch and Alex “Raven” Baguley
• Americas: Dan "Frodan" Chou and TJ "Azumo" Sanders
• Prize Pool: $500,000 USD
• Format This Week: 4 Deck Conquest w/ 1 Ban

Featured Matches

No featured Matches this week, because every single match has a win-or-go-home factor attached to it and they should all be great viewing fun! We will have the results and decklists as usual after the action concludes on Sunday/Monday (depending on timezone).

Format Changes

As we previously mentioned, the 2020 Grandmasters features the same format as last season. The first three weeks will be made up of Swiss Rounds. The last 4 weeks will be Round Robin. We've broke down the entire Season below.

Weeks 1-3: Swiss/Group Stages

• Each Region will compete in several rounds of Swiss off stream earlier in the week.
• The Top 8 finishers from each Region will play in a dual tournament format Friday-Saturday, with the Top-4 being played Sunday.
• Format changes each week:
• Wk. 1: 7 Rounds of Swiss, Conquest w/ 1 Ban
• Wk. 2: 7 Rounds of Swiss, Four Deck Last Hero Standing w/ 1 Ban
• Wk. 3: 9 Rounds of Swiss, Bo3 Specialist

Week 4-7: Round Robin

• After the first three weeks, players will be split into two divisions per Region based on point accumulations. Division A will consist of the Top 8, while Division B will consist of 9-16.
• The two divisions will compete in Round Robin style play over the four weeks. Standings from this four week period will determine playoff participants, and who will be relegated from Season 2.
• Format for the Round Robin will be: Bo5 Conquest, Four Decks w/ 1 Ban.

Week 8: Season One Playoffs

• Top 6 from Division A automatically advance to the Playoff portion.
• Top 4 from Division B compete in a "play-in" Round with the winners joining the Division A winners.
• The 7th and 8th placed players in Division B at the close of Round Robin are automatically relegated from Season 2 of Grandmasters.
• The winner of each Region's Playoff advances to the World Championship.
• Final relegation will be determined via a 3-match Play-In involving the 7th and 8th placed from Division A, and 5th and 6th placed from Division B.
• The numbers 7 and 8 from Group A will play each other, and the loser will move on to play the no. 5 from Group B, the loser of that game will move on to play the no. 6 from Group B. The loser of that final match is relegated out of Grandmasters and the winner will stay in.
• This means the Group A players have up to three chances to save themselves while the no. 6 from Group B only has only one. Standings matter!

Standings

These are the standings after the first Round Robin rounds. The players are divided into Group A and Group B. The players below the black line are in danger of having to play for relegation at the end of the season in their respective regions.