ESL is proud to present to you another season of the Open Challenger Cup and Legendary Series. The admin team has grown and is ready to provide the premier open cup experience in competitive Hearthstone for the community!



Rather than postpone the event, the following structure has been provided to conduct a "psuedo" 1024 DE, effectively splitting it in two; Challenger #1A and Challenger #1B, to start on the same day. We will merge the top ends of both brackets on Sunday to a Finals (Challenger #1C) to award points and determine qualifiers for the ESL Legendary Series. Below are the details;







CHALLENGER CUP #1





Challenger #1A starts Saturday, 3pm EDT. For Saturday, contestants on the top bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro128. Contestants on the lower bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro64a. On Sunday, the bracket will resume on Sunday, 3pm EDT. Contestants on the top bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro16. Contestants on the lower bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro8. Please finish those mentioned rounds before going offline for the day. Those qualified will be placed in your respective ends of the bracket in our Challenger #1 Finals (Phase C).





Challenger #1B starts Saturday, 5pm EDT. For Saturday, contestants on the top bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro128. Contestants on the lower bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro64a. On Sunday, the bracket will resume on Sunday, 3pm EDT. Contestants on the top bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro16. Contestants on the lower bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro8. Please finish those mentioned rounds before going offline for the day. Those qualified will be placed in your respective ends of the bracket in our Challenger #1 Finals (Phase C).











Challenger #1C starts at Monday, 9pm EDT, which is a joint bracket of the Top 8 UB and Top 4a LB from both A and B. Only players eligible in Challenger #1C (a Top 16 UB and Top 8 LB), will determine the Top 6 for the next weekend's ESL Legendary Series and Top 4 for WC Points distribution. We estimate the finals will take 4-5 hours to conduct to completion.







CHECKING IN





Both A and B will be capped to 512 contestants. To guarantee your spot in either, sign up and check-in IMMEDIATELY when check-in begins (2:30pm EDT for A, 4:30pm EDT for B). Again, those who successfully checked-in to A will be unable to compete in B. Be online and ready to play so that you avoid getting a no-show called against you. We will be unable to place you in B should that occur. If you were unable to check-in to Cup A, or don't see yourself on the bracket of Cup A, sign up for Cup B.







THE UPDATED FORMAT





The format was updated to better conform to the competitive environment, as followed below and on the info section of Challenger Cup #1A/B/C.





Bo5 Conquest Format; Winner must change their class. Loser can keep OR change their class.



512 Double Elimination.



WC Points will be awarded (10/5/1/1 to 1st/2nd/3rd/4th) at the conclusion of Challenger #1C (read below).



Blind pick.



ONLY 1 DECK PER 3 DIFFERENT CLASSES WILL BE USED THROUGHOUT CHALLENGER #1



Classes must be declared before each challenge.



Screenshots of the declarations must be submitted in Ro512 Match media by both players OR, if having issues uploading, a Match comment on the Ro512 stating what classes you selected for that Round (this should not be edited at any time. We will know). Only declared classes can be used throughout Challenger #1.



Winning decks cannot be replayed during a match.





SUPPORT





You can ask any questions about the above or the Challenger Series in general via our support channel here; http://play.eslgaming.com/hearthstone/support/. Use this link for;



Asking questions to clarify rules and structure before the tournament



Concerns, rule breaches or inquiries during the tournament



Feedback after the tournament



Requesting to plug your twitch stream in our "Morning Of" Reddit post and News announcement IF you intend to stream your run on Challenger. @ESLHearthstone will plug some channels throughout the weekend



Other messages directed to the ESL America Hearthstone Admin team



Finally, we've updated our FAQ for first-timers and returners to the ESL Open Challenger Cup Series, for procedures and new information regarding the Legendary Series view the







Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow and here's to a thrilling launch of the ESL Open Challenger Cup Series Season 2!







Yours in community,





Glen "Galokot" Tokola

ESL America Hearthstone Game Head It is to this point that I want to provide a personal update regarding the structure of this weekend's first cup of the program. Arrangements were made over the past months to provide a regular, 1024-contestant Double Elimination (DE) bracket for this series. After testing our servers, we discovered that unfortunately at this time we are unable are to support a bracket of that size and scale for this series in a Double Elimination format.Rather than postpone the event, the following structure has been provided to conduct a "psuedo" 1024 DE, effectively splitting it in two; Challenger #1A and Challenger #1B, to start on the same day. We will merge the top ends of both brackets on Sunday to a Finals (Challenger #1C) to award points and determine qualifiers for the ESL Legendary Series. Below are the details;Challenger #1A starts Saturday, 3pm EDT. For Saturday, contestants on the top bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro128. Contestants on the lower bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro64a. On Sunday, the bracket will resume on Sunday, 3pm EDT. Contestants on the top bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro16. Contestants on the lower bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro8. Please finish those mentioned rounds before going offline for the day. Those qualified will be placed in your respective ends of the bracket in our Challenger #1 Finals (Phase C).Challenger #1B starts Saturday, 5pm EDT. For Saturday, contestants on the top bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro128. Contestants on the lower bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro64a. On Sunday, the bracket will resume on Sunday, 3pm EDT. Contestants on the top bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro16. Contestants on the lower bracket stop at the conclusion of Ro8. Please finish those mentioned rounds before going offline for the day. Those qualified will be placed in your respective ends of the bracket in our Challenger #1 Finals (Phase C). Challenger#1B can be found here. Again, the structure is set to conduct a pseudo-1024 DE Bracket. Thus, contestants who successfully checked-in to Challenger #1A are ineligible to compete in Challenger #1B.Challenger #1C starts at Monday, 9pm EDT, which is a joint bracket of the Top 8 UB and Top 4a LB from both A and B. Only players eligible in Challenger #1C (a Top 16 UB and Top 8 LB), will determine the Top 6 for the next weekend's ESL Legendary Series and Top 4 for WC Points distribution. We estimate the finals will take 4-5 hours to conduct to completion.Both A and B will be capped to 512 contestants. To guarantee your spot in either, sign up and check-in IMMEDIATELY when check-in begins (2:30pm EDT for A, 4:30pm EDT for B). Again, those who successfully checked-in to A will be unable to compete in B. Be online and ready to play so that you avoid getting a no-show called against you. We will be unable to place you in B should that occur. If you were unable to check-in to Cup A, or don't see yourself on the bracket of Cup A, sign up for Cup B.The format was updated to better conform to the competitive environment, as followed below and on the info section of Challenger Cup #1A/B/C.You can ask any questions about the above or the Challenger Series in general via our support channel here; http://play.eslgaming.com/hearthstone/support/. Use this link for;Finally, we've updated our FAQ for first-timers and returners to the ESL Open Challenger Cup Series, for procedures and new information regarding the Legendary Series view the FAQ guide page here. Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow and here's to a thrilling launch of the ESL Open Challenger Cup Series Season 2!Yours in community,Glen "Galokot" TokolaESL America Hearthstone Game Head 8618564 , Saturday, 21/03/15 00:56