For a game that took off in 2014, Hearthstone has made great strides. This year, the biggest Hearthstone tournament, the World Championships, boasts of a prize pool of a million dollars with the victor taking home a whopping $250,000! The tournament is played every year between the top 16 players of the year.
The four regions – Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia and China – have four qualifiers and the winners get to battle it out on the big stage. The group stages were played last week and ended on Oct. 30. Of the 16 that had made it, only eight would go on to the main event on Nov. 4 and 5.
All eyes were on ThijsNL, the Dutch Hearthstone prodigy who dropped his education to pursue a professional eSports career. Thijs made the semifinals last year and was expected to go all the way this year.
The others on the high-expectations-shelf were Handsomeguy from Korea, who dominated the scene there throughout the year and Amnesiac from the Americas region. But the group stages had more than a few surprises in store. Thijs and Handsomeguy were eliminated from the tournament in the group stages and viewers all over the world were in shock. It seems these two couldn’t shoulder the burden of expectations put on them. The eight that made it to the main event are Cydonia, Amnesiac and HotMEOWTH from the Americas, Jasonzhou and Hamster from China, Pavel and DrHippi from Europe and Che0nsu from Southeast Asia.
Of all the players to have made it through, the real standout is Hamster. Here’s how the game is played: Hearthstone has nine characters. Every player selects five of these characters that they might play at the tournament. In the current state of the game, the characters Priest and Paladin are in a world of hurt and no one even dreamed of bringing a deck centered on them. No one except Hamster. Not only did he bring a couple of unconventional decks to the biggest competition of the year, but also made it through the group stages! It’s been a long time since the community has been as excited as they are now and a lot of people are hoping he wins the whole thing. It’s going to be a crazy couple of days at the Anaheim Convention Center in California when the final eight battle for supremacy. My heart says Hamster, but the smart money would be on Amnesiac. Make sure not to miss it!
