14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Blizzard has managed to create a very successful game with Hearthstone and the company is announcing that the next edition of the World Championship for the card-driven title will take place at the end of the fall and will include 16 of the best players in the world, who will be selected over a series of major events that start in January.
The official forum announcement explains that Ranked Play sessions, special invitational tournaments, community-driven competitions and Fireside Gatherings are designed to allow all interested gamers to compete for points and get into one of the regional qualifying events, where they have a shot at securing a spot in the final.
Blizzard explains that “The Americas, Europe, China, and Asia-Pacific regions will each have Regional Tournaments where eight of the most talented players from their respective regions will compete for four representative spots at the Hearthstone World Championship.”
The studio says that qualifier points can be obtained from both ranked play in Hearthstone and tournaments that Blizzard has sanctioned.
Almost any Hearthstone player can take part
Only 2 points are needed by the end of July to get into the Last Call Tournament for their region, which can take them to the regional qualifiers.
The 23 best players in each will be able to avoid Last Call and will enjoy advanced seeding.
Blizzard adds, “Select Fireside Gathering events will host Blizzard-sanctioned Hearthstone tournaments. The winners of these tournaments will be entered into the Fireside Gathering Championship, and the Grand Champion will be awarded a seed directly into their corresponding Regional Qualifier.”
Blizzard will announce an official venue for the 2015 Hearthstone Championship later in the summer and it will probably also have a sizeable pool prize for the 16 top level players who take part.
Until then, the developers will continue to deliver updates that will tweak the balance of the card game and they might also make an official announcement for a new expansion.
Hearthstone is entirely free-to-play, and since it was launched, it managed to acquire a solid audience of both casual and highly competitive players, and Blizzard says that it sees the experience as one of the most interesting projects to work on during the coming years.
