Conflict is brewing in The Witchwood, but Gilneas will not be taken unawares. The city needs all the help it can get—and we’re bringing in the big guns to pitch in. Welcome to The Witchwood Inn-vitational, the first tournament wherein The Witchwood’s cards will see competitive play.

This eight-player tournament will pit players from North America and Europe against one another, to bring to light some of the finest decks and plays of the new meta.

Players & Talent

The eight players will be split into two teams of four. Competing in The Witchwood Inn-vitational are:

Americas Europe

Allie Macpherson

Alliestrasza

Tyler Hoang Nguyen

Tyler

James Kostesich

Firebat

Jon Westberg

Orange

David Caero

Dog

Radu Dima

RDU

Janne Mikkonen

Savjz

Jeffrey Brusi

Sjow

Casting for this thrilling display will be provided by Nathan “ThatsAdmirable” Zamora, TJ Sanders, and Jace “DrJikininki” Garthright.

The bracket will be determined before the tournament, so if you’re interested in finding out who plays who, stay tuned to @PlayHearthsone.

Format

True to its namesake forest, the tournament format has been. . . twisted, so we can see the new cards in all their macabre glory: to that end, each deck will contain at least eight cards from The Witchwood.

The first phase of the tournament will have four matches, with Player A from North America facing off against Player A from Europe, and so on. These best-of-five Conquest rounds will have no bans; instead, all players will bring three decks to play.

For each round won in the first phase, a class ban is earned. These class bans will be used in the next phase, the Grand Finals. If a team sweeps the first phase, they could earn as many as four class bans!

In the winner-take-all Grand Finals, both teams will nominate a representative to play on their behalf. Each player may use existing decks or entirely new ones, untested in battle, should all their preferred classes be banned.

We’ll be sharing all the inventive new decks the week after the tournament, so you can try them out for yourself!

Broadcast

The Witchwood Inn-vitational airs on Twitch on April 13 at 9.00 a.m. PDT. Watch the stream below, or head over to our Twitch channel to join the chat!

Check out our Fireside Gatherings celebration campaign if you’ve got a regular Fireside Gathering going or simply want to celebrate The Witchwood’s launch with some friends. Remember that this is also your last chance to pick up The Witchwood pack pre-purchase—don’t forget to do so!

Let us know what you expect from the tournament, using the hashtags #Witchwood and #WWInnvitational, as we ramp up to the spookiest expansion of the year.