Hearthstone 2016 Championship Announced

World of Warcraft makers Blizzard have announced the prize pool for the Hearthstone Championship tour this week, the million dollar figure has risen from last year’s $750,000 prize pool. The tournament players will be selected from ranked play, a game mode accessible to all players and online qualifiers.

Four players each will advance from qualifiers in Europe, the Americas, China and Asia-Pacific zones, each of which will have their own $100,000 prize pool. According to the Hearthstone blog the first event in the championship, a tour will be held at Dreamhack Winter 2015.

Changes in the format from last year’s Hearthstone championship include more local champions and invited pro players will have their spots reserved but will be thrown into the mix with players who have entered the championship through competition. The other big change that has been noted is the points rebalance, top placing players in events will receive fewer points, and lower placing players will be given relatively more points.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is an online CCG (collectable card game) based off the lore of Blizzard’s Warcraft universe. Hearthstone is available on PC, OS X, iPad, iPhone and Android platforms. The game has enjoyed huge success and has received unanimously good reviews from all games media outlets.

Nicholas Calderwood

From London in the United Kingdom.
Games and technology journalist.
PC / IOS / Xbox 360 / Nintendo 3DS