Brace yourself for the biggest Hearthstone tournament of the year
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It has been a good year of Hearthstone thanks to the Hearthstone Championship Tour, but just like most good things, it must also come to an end.
Enter: the most important Hearthstone tournament of the year—the HCT World Championship 2019. Starting on April 25 to April 29, 16 of the world’s best competitive Hearthstone players will gather at the Taipei Heping Basketball Stadium in Taipei, Taiwan for the grand culmination of Hearthstone’s competitive season.
READ: The Biggest Hearthstone Tournament Will Commence This April
Although the HCT World Championship 2019 is already undeniably significant as is, the tournament that was meant to be a farewell for a wonderful Year of the Raven was made more exciting with the announcement of Year of the Dragon, as well as Hearthstone’s new expansion, Rise of Shadows.
“It’s a much more interesting thing now to see players of this level solving the meta that is two weeks old… seeing the kind of decks they’re putting makes me want to try some of those things,” Ben Thompson, Hearthstone Developer, stated when asked about his thoughts regarding the upcoming HCT 2019 World Championship.
So, Who’s Joining the Fray?
Like I mentioned earlier, the HCT World Championship 2019 will be graced by none other than 16 of the world’s best Hearthstone players. And by best, I mean the podium finishers of the HCT Summer, HCT Fall, HCT Winter, as well as the Top Ladder players from EMEA, Asia-Pacific, China, and North America.
HCT Summer
- Raphael ”BunnyHoppor” Peltzer
- Kacper “A83650” Kwieciński
- David “killinallday” Acosta
- Torben ”Viper” Wahl
HCT Fall
- Mihai “languagehacker” Dragalin
- Brian “bloodyface” Eason
- Wu “BloodTrail” Zong-Chang
- David “Justsaiyan” Shan
HCT Winter
- Guan ”SNJing” Zhendong
- Xu ”LFYueying” Kai
- Luo ”Roger” Shengyuan
- Mark ”Ike” Eichner
Top Ladder Players
- Casper ”Hunterace” Notto (EMEA)
- Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam (North America)
- Tyler ”Tylerootd” Hoang Nguyen (Asia-Pacific)
- Wu “XiaoT” Juwei (China)
These guys will be divided into four factions for the tournament’s group stages. The top two players from each group will advance to the single-elimination playoff, all matches of which will be played in a best-of-five, where the lion’s share of the staggering $1,000,000 prize pool awaits the rightful World Champion. The group stage will be played during the first three days of the event, April 25-28, while the playoffs will be held on Sunday, April 29.
As Hearthstone Esports embarks on a new competitive scene with Hearthstone Masters, the HCT World Championship 2019 will serve as the last tournament that will be played using the Conquest format.
What’s in it for Me?
As if bearing witness to world-class Hearthstone players in-action isn’t enough, fans and followers who will tune in to the Hearthstone’s official Twitch channel for the HCT World Championship 2019 will also have a chance to get themselves a Rise of Shadows card pack.
On top of that, Hearthstone’s Choose Your Champion is also back! Cheer on one of the 16 participants and be rewarded with a card pack as they progress on the tournament. By the way, a free Rastakhan’s Rumble card pack will be yours just for participating.
The HCT World Championship 2019 will kick off tomorrow with a best-of-five match between Bunnyhoppor and BloodTrail at 10:00 SGT. Check out our event page for more information and updates about the HCT World Championship 2019.
