ESL is proud to announce the Trinity Series, a brand new Hearthstone® team league kicking off in early 2017. This team competition, featuring Blizzard Entertainment’s internationally acclaimed digital card game, will begin in January 2017 with 7 weeks of online play, followed by a live final in March at the ESL America Studios in Burbank (CA). Eight teams will be invited to participate, each fielding a roster of 3 players; Tempo Storm, compLexity Gaming, and Virtus Pro are confirmed as the first three participating teams, with the remaining five teams to be announced soon.

The core goal of the Trinity Series is to showcase team collaboration in all aspects of competition. Most notably, all three team members will have open verbal communication with one another throughout their matches, allowing them to discuss and deliberate every in-game decision as a group. With this open communication in place, the strongest teams will ultimately be those who most effectively collaborate on their strategy and preparation, and the audience will get to listen in on each team’s discussion during key points in the games.

All matches will be played in a best-of-11 “Last Hero Standing” format, where players continue using a particular deck until they lose with it. Teams will submit 9 decks for each match (1 from each class), and then ban two of the opposing team’s decks from play. The teams will then pilot 6 of their remaining 7 classes for the duration of the match, until one team has earned 6 wins and is crowned the victor.

The Trinity Series will award $150,000 USD in prize money, along with full travel costs for teams that qualify for the live final. All games will be streamed exclusively on Twitch, and the competition will be brought to online audiences live by analysts and commentators from ESL’s Studio.

“We are incredibly excited to offer this competition to Blizzard’s Hearthstone community” said Doug "Gloudas" Wreden, Hearthstone product manager at ESL. “The vast majority of Hearthstone tournaments, even many team leagues, use a 1v1 gameplay format that ultimately focuses on each individual's performance. The Trinity Series is our opportunity to create an event where all team members play together as a unit, and their ability to work together in-game will end up being the key factor to their success or failure."

Further information on the event format and schedule will follow on our public channels in the coming weeks, so be sure to follow the ESL Hearthstone accounts on Twitter and Facebook!

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