The Hearthstone competitive recap: June 27 - July 3

It's been a quiet week, but nevertheless GosuGamers "Hearthstone competitive recap" must return for episode #4.

The "Hearthstone competitive recap" is issued every Monday and goes over the major events in - and often outside - competitive Hearthstone. Blizzard's card game is in the middle of of its HCT campaign but there are also lots of other third party tournaments running in parallel, and this post will summarize everything for your convenience.

Enjoy!

Tournament recap:



Maverick wins the €20,000 Hearthstone festival

The Belgian's return from retirement began with appearance at DreamHack Summer two weeks ago and culminated with an €8,000 cheque on Sunday. Maverick proved himself the best out of 131 players and secured his first ever major championship over Dutch player Mitsuhide.

The eight invites for Truesilver Championship 3 have been decided

Ostkaka

Naiman

Firebat

Gaara

Chakki

Xixo

Eloise...

...join reigning Truesilver Champion Ness straight into the playoffs phase of the third edition of the tournament, to be held in August. Eight more players will join them coming from the swiss stage. With the qualifier field stacked, many known names failed to survive day one, including G2 trio of Rdu, Thijs and Lifecoach, as well as GosuRankings leader SuperJJ and HCT Europe quarter finalist AKAWonder.

GosuCup EU gets its first hat-trick champion

Peter “Deathboose” Laihinen became the only player in GosuCup EU history to win three cup golds, including two back-to-back victories. Deathboose joins the exclusive club of GosuCup triple winners, thus far solely represented by Filipino star Dustin "WaningMoon" Mangulabnan.

Major news and content:



What is the scene lacking: The Innervated podcast #49

Episode #49 catches Nydra, Chiv and Sumadin talking about the gaps in the Hearthstone scene, in terms of tournaments, formats and content. What is the scene missing, they ask, and - expectedly - talk about. Where did team leagues go and do we need them back? What happened with Viagame's whacky format? Challengestone? Fight Night shows?

British Esports Association announced

The group claims to have been given authority by the UK Government, although the absence of any official quote from said elected officials is glaring in the press release. It remains to be seen as to what concrete moves the group can make, and judging by their pleas for ideas within the press release it may well be that the Association themselves are still working out what impact they can actually make.

The need for team leagues in Hearthstone

Guest author and The Innervated co-host TheChiv writes why team leagues need to return to Hearthstone if organizations are to see profit in Blizzard's card game. A must-read from one of industry's oldest insiders.

Frodan's Casting Call #2: The current state of HS casting and why it's sorely lacking

Premier Hearthstone caster Dan "Frodan" Chou addressed in a blog the good, the bad and the ugly in Hearthstone commentary nowadays. Frodan talks - at times harshly honestly - about casters' game knowledge, how player criticism is being communicated and the need for casters to affirm their authority.

To watch/play next:



$50,000 StarSeries grand finals

This weekend, tune in to the biggest invitational tournament of the year. StarLadder's and i-League's StarSeries 2 is ending its month-longe ode with the eight players who survived the gruelling qualification process. Representing Europe are:

StanCifka

Naiman

DrHippi

JAB

Xixo

Hoej

While these two will fight the westerners for China:

Izoro

XieShuai

GosuCup HCT EU July

GosuGamers' own circuit of open events expanded in July and all 13 cups are open for registration now. Grab one of the limited 128 spots now and compete for 7 HCT points each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Calendar of HCT events

Looking to compete in more events than our own? Check the link above for full list of open cups with HCT points available.

Decks and guides:



Deathboose's championship line-up from GosuCup EU

Chakki's top-legend Aggro Druid

Beginning Hearthstone - A deckbuilding primer



Top 10 GosuRanked players:

Here are the top 10 ranked players as of July 4th,

1. Jan "SuperJJ" Janssen | Complexity Gaming (-)

2. Sebastian "Xixo" Bentert | Natus Vincere (+2)

3. Frederik "Hoej" Nielsen | Natus Vincere (-1)

4. Pavel "Pavel" Beltukov | Team ANOX (-1)

5. Thijs "ThijsNL" Molendijk | G2 Esports (-)

6. Keaton "Chakki" Gil (N/A)

7. David "Dog" Caero | Team Liquid (-)

8. Frank "Fr0zen" Zhang (-)

9. Dima "Rdu" Radu (-3)

10. Aleksandr "Kolento" Malsh | Cloud9 (N/A)