The playoffs are finally here! With relegations already decided, the top 8 from each region will square off to determine who advances to the World Championship. The tournament features a continuation and further adaptation of the revamped format that we saw last season. We have recapped it below. 48 players will compete -- including some newly crowned Grandmasters for a total of eight weeks. Prizing for the Season includes $500,000 and of course the right to compete at the World Championship later this year. All the competition can be viewed over on the Hearthstone YouTube Channel.
- Venue: Online
- Stream: the Hearthstone YouTube Channel.
- Dates: Friday, October 8 - Sunday, October 10
- Prize Pool: $500,000 USD
- Format: Conquest
- Stream Times: Broadcasts begin at 2AM PT/5AM ET/11:00 CEST w/ the Asia-Pacific Region. Followed by the EU Region at 7AM PT/ 10AM ET/ 16:00 CEST. We close the day with the Americas Region starting at 12PM PT/ 3PM ET/ 21:00 CEST.
- Casters:
- TJ “Azumoqt” Sanders
- Darroch “Darroch” Brown
- Jia “Jia” Dee
- Neil “Lorinda” Bond
- Alex “RavenCasts” Baguley
- Simon “Sottle” Welch
Top 5 Moments - Week 7
Free Packs
Drops will be returning for Grandmasters Season 2. Viewers can earn up to six free packs just for watching the action live on YouTube. They will be awarded as follows for watching two hours of the stream. Viewers are required to link their Blizzard and YouTube accounts to claim packs -- directions can be found here.
- Week 1 - United in Stormwind (max 2 packs) **OFFER HAS EXPIRED**
- Weeks 2-7 - Year of the Phoenix (max 2 packs) **OFFER HAS EXPIRED**
- Playoffs - United in Stormwind (max 2 packs)
Format
As we mentioned earlier, the format for this year's competition has been revamped. The first seven weeks consist of a rotating format. Players will compete in a weekly Dual Tournament format, beginning each Thursday, to earn placement in the weekend's top-8 tournament. Points will be awarded based on number of wins. Points totals will determine the final standings before the playoffs in Week 8.
- Thursday - Each region competes in an off-broadcast group play tournament.
- Friday - The 4 decider matches are played to determine who makes the Top-8, per region.
- Saturday - Day 1 of the Top-8 single elimination tournament.
- Sunday - The final 4 advance to complete the tournament.
- Rotating Formats:
- Week 1 - Conquest
- Week 2 - Last Hero Standing
- Week 3 - Conquest
- Week 4 - Last Hero Standing
- Week 5 - Conquest
- Week 6 - Last Hero Standing
- Week 7 - Conquest
The Playoffs - Week 8
The first 7 weeks lead up to the playoffs -- which will qualify one player from each region to compete at the World Championship.
- The top 8 players advance to the playoffs.
- Players 9-12 are eliminated from tournament play, but safe from relegation.
- The bottom 4 players from each region are automatically relegated from the Grandmasters.
- The winner from each region is invited to the World Championship. If an invited player from Season 1 is relegated in Season 2, their invitation is rescinded and given to the next highest finisher.
Standings
Americas | Europe | Asia-Pacific | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Points | Player | Points | Player | Points |
1. Monsanto | 19 | 1. Gaby | 24 | 1. Posesi | 22 |
2. Nalguidan | 18 | 2. Frenetic | 20 | 2. Alutemu | 19 |
3. Dreadeye | 17 | 3. Seiko | 16 | 3. GivePLZ | 18 |
4. Fled | 14 | 4. xBlyzes | 14 | 4. AlanC86 | 16 |
5. lnguagehackr | 13 | 5. Bunnyhoppor | 14 | 5. Surrender | 15 |
6. muzzy | 13 | 6. Jarla | 14 | 6. glory | 12 |
7. DimitriKazov | 13 | 7. Felkeine | 12 | 7. grr | 12 |
8. McBanterFace | 13 | 8. Rdu | 11 | 8. Shaxy | 12 |
9. NoHandsGamer | 13 | 9. Casie | 11 | 9. okasinnsuke | 11 |
10. killinallday | 11 | 10. Viper | 10 | 10. lambyseries | 10 |
11. Fr0zen | 10 | 11. Leta | 9 | 11. TIZS | 9 |
12. lunaloveee | 9 | 12. J4YOU | 9 | 12. Bankyugi | 9 |
13. Rami94 | 9 | 13. Thijs | 9 | 13. che0nsu | 9 |
14. Eddie | 8 | 14. Floki | 8 | 14. trahison | 8 |
15. Eggowaffle | 7 | 15. Warma | 8 | 15. blitzchung | 6 |
16. CaelesLuna | 7 | 16. Bozzzton | 5 | 16. DawN | 6 |
Got the packs this morning, good to know for the future, it might take up to a week
Anyone still missing packs? It's now monday, I watched on friday for the required time.
Still no packs. I hope it's not just me :\
Same. Still no packs, watched on Friday.
Zero packs here, makes me wonder if i fucked up
As long as your battlenet account is linked to your youtube, it should be fine. Seems like other people are also experiencing the issue, so it must be delayed on their end.
I did everything the same as before the last time they did drops - hope they can resolve it.
i feel you brother, no packs here either
for me, the first youtube drops took over 4 days (way over 48 hours) to be delivered.
other weeks, I got the packs immediately after I completed the required watchtime.
and now it is taking longer than usual, again.
at least I got the packs everytime, sooner or later they got delivered. The worst part is, as far as I'm aware of, there is still no way of checking your watchtime to make sure you are eligible...
Yeah, was wondering if anyone else was having difficulties receiving the pack. I have over 6 hours watch time, and still not have received my first pack yet, with 4 hours of that watch time from yesterday, and 2+ today so far.
Yeah, youtube has no way of telling you that you have received a reward, or progress towards it. Twitch is far superior in its delivery system.
update: just got 1 pack, but I've been watching for 8+ hours..?
I'll update again if/when I get the 2nd pack
update2: I got the 2nd pack now
................ I never got my packs
never got mine either
it was stange... it was like the system didnt recognize my friday and saturday watchs (which was 144p, at background), but when I left my pc on the stream at sunday (auto quality, usually 1080p) it suddenly recognized my watchtime, and after 4-5 hours I got my packs.
I joined a few surveys on sunday too, such as selecting the player on the vs match, that might have something to do with it
hm.. I wonder if quality had something to do with it, or if something was broken Friday (and possibly Saturday)
I only watched on Friday because I had things to do over the weekend, and I manually selected quality because I wasn't able to see the text on cards with auto-quality.
Either way, youtube is just.. a horrible platform for drops, as there's no indication whatsoever of your progress.
On friday, I had it opened on a tab in the background. I had enough watch time to get both packs, but never received. So on Saturday, I left it open, on focus, and left my pc for a good 5+ hours, still no packs. (both at full quality)
I'm bugging support to see if they can just give me the packs because of a broken youtube system. I'll update/respond if they get back to me.
If i remember correctly, youtube drops usually get added to your account at midnight, when quests roll over.
Packs can take up to 48 hours to be delivered, at least that's what they used to say during GM broadcasts.
No packs yet. Watching since the start, i got the diamond icon of connected.
lol I would rather paint my house with a q-tip than watch this for 4 hours and 80 dust :) It's so silly
Putting it on mute in the background while at work... literally zero effort for that 80 dust :)
No packs for me yet :(
This is annoying as you have no idea whether you’ve done something wrong or if the system is just taking ages