The Hearthstone Grandmasters 2020 league has officially begun its first season of the year. The first season will feature a total of 48 competitors across three regions, a USD 500,000 prize pool, as well as several changes to the event’s format.
The league will be streamed live every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, starting April 17, 2020, via the HearthstoneEsports channel on YouTube Gaming featuring casters from all three of the competing regions including Dan “Frodan” Chou and TJ “Azumo” Sanders from the Americas region; the Asia-Pacific region’s Jia “Jia” Dee and Darroch “Darroch” Brown; as well as Europe’s Simon “Sottle” Welch and Alex “Raven” Baguley.
Here’s a list of all the competitors for the first season of the Hearthstone Grandmasters 2020:
Americas
- Brian “bloodyface” Eason
- Eddie “Eddie” Lui
- Guillermo “Empanizado” Tolosa
- Fei “ETC” Liang
- James “Firebat” Kostesich
- Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang
- Edward “Gallon” Goodwin
- David “justsaiyan” Shan
- Mihai “Lnguagehackr” Dragalin
- Jerome “Monsanto” Faucher
- Muzahidul “muzzy” Islam
- Facundo “Nalguidan” Pruzzo
- Jason “PapaJason” Meler
- Francisco “PNC” Leimontas
- Ryan “Purple” Murphy-Root
- Paul “Zalae” Nemeth
Asia-Pacific
- Yashina “Alutemu” Nozomi
- Ng “blitzchung” Wai Chung
- Cheonsu “che0nsu” Kim
- Hyun Jae “Dawn” Jang
- Hyun-Soo “Flurry” Cho
- Dylan “FroStee” O’Mallon
- Sato “glory” Kenta
- Tsz Kin “Kin0531” Lo
- Wataru “posesi” Ishibashi
- Dasol “Ryvius” Sim
- Tsu-Lin “SamuelTsao” Tsao
- Wei-Chieh “Shaxy” Liu
- Euneil “Staz” Javiñas
- Jung-Soo “Surrender” Kim
- Wei-Lin “Tom60229” Chen
- Tyler “Tyler” Hoang Nguyen
Europe
- George “BoarControl” Webb
- Elias “Bozzzton” Sibelius
- Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer
- Kevin “Casie” Eberlein
- Theo “Felkeine” Dumont
- Casper “hunterace” Notto
- Jaromir “Jarla” Vysko?il
- Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh
- Pavel “Pavel” Beltukov
- Dima “Rdu” Radu
- Linh “Seiko” Nguyen
- Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov
- Joffrey “Swidz” Cunat
- Thijs “Thijs” Molendijk
- Torben “Viper” Wahl
- Martin “Zhym” Prête
Lastly, here are the all the details on the new Hearthstone Grandmasters format:
Weeks 1-3: Swiss into Group Stage
During weeks 1-3, players will compete in matches in a Swiss format on each Wednesday and Thursday to earn placement in the weekend Group Stage. Points from these weekend rounds will be used to determine two Divisions in each region for round-robin weeks. Different gameplay format each week.
- The 16 players in each region will compete against each other off broadcast in 7 Swiss rounds during the week.
- On Thursday, after Swiss play has completed, the field is cut in half based on standings and the Top 8 per region will play in a dual tournament format live on YouTube across Friday and Saturday, with the top-4 finals played out on Sunday.
- Gameplay format changes every week:
- Week 1: Conquest with 1 Ban
- Week 2: Four Deck Last Hero Standing with 1 Ban
- Week 3: Ten Deck Conquest with 6 Bans
Weeks 4 – 7: Round Robin
Weeks 4 –7 will consist of round-robin group play within the two divisions in each region—much like the previous seasons of Grandmasters.
- Following weeks 1-3, players will be sorted into two divisions based on their points standings. Division A is comprised of the top-8 point-earning players, and Division B will be point total ranks 9-16.
- The two divisions compete in round-robin group play over four weeks. The standings at the of conclusion of these weeks will determine who will go on to compete in Playoffs, and who will be relegated from Season 1.
- The format will stay consistent during round-robin weeks:
- Bo5 Conquest (4 decks, 1 ban)
Week 8: Season 1 Playoffs
Round-robin weeks lead into Week 8 Playoffs, which will qualify one player per region to the World Championship at the end of the year, while three players from each region will be relegated.
- Top 6 from Division A automatically make it into Playoffs.
- Top 4 from Division B compete in a play-in round to determine who will join the top 6 from Division A in a dual tournament bracket for Playoffs.
- The 7th- and 8th-placed players in Division B at the close of round robin are automatically relegated from Season 1 of Grandmasters.
- 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 winner of Playoffs from each region will qualify to the Hearthstone World Championships later this year.
The broadcast of the Hearthstone Grandmasters 2020 will begin at 2 a.m. PDT / 5 p.m. GMT+8 each day of the weekend (Friday to Sunday) from April 17 to June, 2020, on the HearthstoneEsports channel on YouTube Gaming.