We recently announced our lineup for BlizzCon Opening Week, and we’d like to share additional details regarding the tournament format, schedule, and prize pool for the Hearthstone World Championship.

Format

The Hearthstone World Championship will begin with a group stage throughout Opening Week. Each group will consist of four competitors, one from each of our regions: Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and China. These competitors have qualified through Seasonal Championships from their respective regions, and the groups will be seeded based on the HCT Points total for each participant.

Matches will be played out using the following format:

Each match will be best-of-seven using the Conquest format with one ban. Each player will bring five decks to play with for each match, and they and their opponent will be able to ban one of each other’s decks. Players will then compete with the remaining decks.

The group stage will be double-elimination with two competitors advancing from each group to play in the bracket stage.

The bracket stage will be single-elimination and will be played out at BlizzCon.

Schedule

As previously announced, BlizzCon Opening Week will take place between October 26–30, starting at 9 a.m. PDT each day and encompassing the group stage. Each day will feature four matches, with one match from each group.

Day 1 (October 26) – Match 1

Day 2 (October 27) – Match 2

Day 3 (October 28) – Winners’ Match

Day 4 (October 29) – Elimination Match

Day 5 (October 30) – Decider Match

The bracket stage will take place at BlizzCon on November 4–5 according to the following schedule (the full schedule will be released at a later time):

Day 1 (November 4) – Quarterfinals

Day 2 (November 5) – Semifinals and Grand Finals

Prize Pool

The $1 million Hearthstone World Championship will be divided as follows:

Championship Prize Pool



1st: $250,000

2nd: $150,000

3rd/4th: $100,000

5th-8th: $50,000

9th-16th: $25,000

Tune in to all of the action on our official Hearthstone Twitch channel, and discuss the tournament using the #HCT hashtag on Twitter and Facebook.