S1 of the Hearthstone Grandmasters 2020 series is here!

Lay out your cards, for S1 of the Hearthstone Grandmasters 2020 is here! Season 1 will be kicking off globally on 17 April, running every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through 7 June. The best Hearthstone players will be battling it out every weekend on YouTube Gaming. Stay tuned to see competitive play of the new Demon Hunter class too!

This season of the Grandmasters sees seven new competitors as well as format changes. Find details below:

• Venue: ONLINE
• Dates: Friday, Saturday, Sunday – April 17 – June 7, 2020
• Broadcast Start Time: Broadcast days kick off with the Asia-Pacific region playing at 2am PDT / 11am CEST / 6pm KST on Friday, April 17
• Casters:
  • AMERICAS: Dan “Frodan” Chou and TJ “Azumo” Sanders
  • ASIA-PACIFIC: Jia “Jia” Dee and Darroch “Darroch” Brown
  • EUROPE: Simon “Sottle” Welch and Alex “Raven” Baguley
• Prize Pool: USD $500,000 in prizing globally for Grandmasters Season 1
• Language Streams on YouTube:
  • English
  • Mandarin
  • Korean
  • Japanese
  • Portuguese
  • Spanish (Latin America)
  • Arabic
  • Russian
  • French

As mentioned, there will be changes in the format, with a different gameplay format each week. Details as follows:

Weeks 1-3: Swiss into Group Stage 

During weeks 1-3, players will compete in matches in a Swiss format on each Wednesday and Thursday to earn placement in the weekend Group Stage. Points from these weekend rounds will be used to determine two Divisions in each region for round-robin weeks. Different gameplay format each week.

 The 16 players in each region will compete against each other off broadcast in 7 Swiss rounds during the week.

• On Thursday, after Swiss play has completed, the field is cut in half based on standings and the Top 8 per region will play in a dual tournament format live on YouTube across Friday and Saturday, with the top-4 finals played out on Sunday.
• Gameplay format changes every week:
  • Week 1: Conquest with 1 Ban
  • Week 2: Four Deck Last Hero Standing with 1 Ban
  • Week 3: Ten Deck Conquest with 6 Bans

Weeks 4 – 7: Round Robin

 Weeks 4 –7 will consist of round-robin group play within the two divisions in each region—much like the previous seasons of Grandmasters.

 Following weeks 1-3, players will be sorted into two divisions based on their points standings. Division A is comprised of the top-8 point-earning players, and Division B will be point total ranks 9-16.

• The two divisions compete in round-robin group play over four weeks. The standings at the of conclusion of these weeks will determine who will go on to compete in Playoffs, and who will be relegated from Season 1.
• The format will stay consistent during round-robin weeks:
  • Bo5 Conquest (4 decks, 1 ban)

Week 8: Season 1 Playoffs

Round-robin weeks lead into Week 8 Playoffs, which will qualify one player per region to the World Championship at the end of the year, while three players from each region will be relegated.

• Top 6 from Division A automatically make it into Playoffs.
• Top 4 from Division B compete in a play-in round to determine who will join the top 6 from Division A in a dual tournament bracket for Playoffs.
• The7th- and 8th-placed players in Division B at the close of round robin are automatically relegated from Season 1 of Grandmasters.
• Final relegation will be determined via a 3-match Play-In involving the 7th- and 8th-placed from Division A, and 5th- and 6th-placed from Division B.
• The winner of Playoffs from each region will qualify to the Hearthstone World Championships later this year.

Last but not least, the players competing:

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