The Hearthstone Masters Tour will have its first event in Las Vegas from June 14-16. Following this, the Tour will head to Asia and Europe for additional events in 2020, although dates haven't been announced for them yet.
Players can qualify for Masters Tour events by accomplishing one of the following feats:
- Winning an online Masters Tour Qualifier
- Placing in the top four of a Ranked Ladder Qualifier
- Securing an invitation through licensed third-party-tournaments
- Finishing as a top-performer at a previous Masters Tour event
- Qualifying through the China Gold Series
- Finishing out Year of the Raven with at least 120 Hearthstone Competitive Points
Then there's the format changes for the event, which will see the conquest format (the standard for Hearthstone events) taken out and replaced with the new format called "Specialist". Specialist works as follows:
- Players submit three decks from the same class
- Players designate one deck as a primary deck, then the other two as secondary and tertiary
- Secondary and tertiary decks may have up to five cards different from the primary deck (for the purposes of this modification, two duplicate cards in the primary deck list count as two cards)
- Players must play game one of each match with their primary deck
- At the beginning of game two and onward, players may decide to keep playing their primary deck or switch to their secondary or tertiary decks
- Deck decisions for games two and three, if necessary, are performed at the start of each game simultaneously and in secret from the opposing player
All Masters Qualifier and Ranked Ladder Qualifier matches will be best-of-three; all matches at Masters Tour events will be best-of-three as well, with the exception of a best-of-five finals
Finally, Hearthstone Grandmasters was confirmed. There are very few actual details, with the only information revealed is that to be invited you need to consistently place well in Hearthstone Masters Tour events.
Are you excited for this new Hearthstone esports event?