Blizzard Announces Hearthstone Invitational Tournament at BlizzCon

[MarlaDesat]

Blizzard Announces Hearthstone Invitational Tournament at BlizzCon

The exhibition tournament will see eight well-known players compete in best-of-five matches.

Blizzard is putting its new online CCG Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft through its paces with an invitational tournament at BlizzCon in November. The tournament, dubbed The Innkeeper's Invitational, will have eight players compete for the title of "Grandmaster of the Hearth" and a "fitting trophy for their impressive efforts," says Blizzard. Each match will be a best-of-five playoff, and each player must bring three decks to the competition, each a different class. If a deck is defeated, it is removed from play. If a player runs out of decks, they are out of the tournament. This format could encourage some interesting strategies for the tournament overall, influencing whether players choose to reserve their strongest deck or put it out first. The tournament will be played live at BlizzCon [http://us.battle.net/blizzcon/en/] and a live stream of the event will be available.

Here are the tournament brackets:

Top Bracket
Day[9] Vs. Reckful
Hafu Vs. Kripparrian

Bottom Bracket
Trump Vs. Husky
Noxious Vs. Artosis

The eight players invited to the tournament are all heavily involved in streaming games. Husky [http://day9.tv/] are professional StarCraft II commentators who have both produced content related to Hearthstone.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is currently in closed beta. Decks in the CCG are built around one of nine classes from World of Warcraft. Players duel 1v1 with premade decks, or compete in the Arena by building 30-card decks from a restricted selection and then dueling with that deck until losing three games or winning nine. The amount of mana you have to cast spells and summon creatures increments each turn, removing the need for land cards. You can apply for the beta test by streams of The Escapist staff playing Hearthstone [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/].

Source: Blizzard [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/11218298]

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[AldUK]

I really don't understand this obsession with Hearthstone, it's a blatant rip off of MTG but dumbed down into oblivion. It's like a flash game in terms of mechanics, at best. And yet, everyone and their mother is watching it being played on Twitch.

I have to think it's simply because it's a Blizzard game and the masses will buy gold-plated crap as long as it's gold-plated Blizzard crap. (Limited Edition.)

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I really don't understand this obsession with Hearthstone, it's a blatant rip off of MTG but dumbed down into oblivion. It's like a flash game in terms of mechanics, at best. And yet, everyone and their mother is watching it being played on Twitch.

I have to think it's simply because it's a Blizzard game and the masses will buy gold-plated crap as long as it's gold-plated Blizzard crap. (Limited Edition.)

That about sums it up, basically.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Is it a very light CCG? Absolutely. Is it something that appeals to me given that I'm not at all interested in standard CCGs? Absolutely. And no, I'm not even really a Blizzard fan at all.

I'm still waiting and hoping for a beta key, but this should be well worth watching either way.

 

[Baldr]

I really don't understand this obsession with Hearthstone, it's a blatant rip off of MTG but dumbed down into oblivion. It's like a flash game in terms of mechanics, at best. And yet, everyone and their mother is watching it being played on Twitch.

I have to think it's simply because it's a Blizzard game and the masses will buy gold-plated crap as long as it's gold-plated Blizzard crap. (Limited Edition.)

You just spewing hate because you dislike Blizzard or something??? Nothing you said is true. (Except sorta the Twitch part, there is some truth to that)

 

[MisterColeman]

So they invite a bunch of personalities but they leave out the channel with over 20 videos on their game that each have over 200k views each? I guess maybe they thought having the lord of the arena would be unfair to the others or something...

I saw TotalBiscuit say on twitter he hadn't been invited. I wonder what they based these 8 choices on, it isn't who has brought the most attention to their game.

Edit: Oh they did it based on twitch stream views. I guess that makes sense... Still seems like an oversight to me.

 

[ron1n]

Man I know it's just a bit of fun and for promotional purposes, but competition wise it's kind of dull.

Kripp and Trump should win most of their matches pretty comfortably barring some horrid starting hands or opponents top decking them.

Look forward to watching them duke it out in the final though.

 

[Charli]

So they invite a bunch of personalities but they leave out the channel with over 20 videos on their game that each have over 200k views each? I guess maybe they thought having the lord of the arena would be unfair to the others or something...

I saw TotalBiscuit say on twitter he hadn't been invited. I wonder what they based these 8 choices on, it isn't who has brought the most attention to their game.

Edit: Oh they did it based on twitch stream views. I guess that makes sense... Still seems like an oversight to me.

They're basing it on stats, they're keeping a very close eye on the matches, to the point that before the first wipe they had a list of the top players win ratios. Kripparrian and Reckful were definitely at the peak from what I remember, it also depends on availability, the fact that the game is still in beta, and limited slots, also their attendance at blizzcon. So if the competition was larger I'm sure there would be more invites.

They had no way of knowing if Hearthstone was going to take off so this is kind of a last minute thing to them too. Think of it as a trial run before this starts getting more intense. What better way to iron out the details on things than at your own convention with a small pool of professionals you've worked with before.

Also...those decrying it as 'lol rip offs' Are you utterly dense or something, or do you just need a reason to hate things?

All cardgames rip off each other. And have been doing so for years/decades. This game has started off very simple and is quite refreshing after wading through the vertible headaches that have twisted the current card games into impenetrable walls, unless you drop 100's of dollars on cards. This is a relaxing game, I kinda like it, and I had a very intense game the other night that actually had me quite into the whole thing.

I've switched this game on for 15 minute breaks and it's just...kinda nice to have something so chill but not one note brain-dead, like angry birds. Keeps me thinking, but isn't intensely stressful.

Also starting this off fresh rather than cramming all the old WoW TGC rules into this was a very good idea.

 

[shintakie10]

So they invite a bunch of personalities but they leave out the channel with over 20 videos on their game that each have over 200k views each? I guess maybe they thought having the lord of the arena would be unfair to the others or something...

I saw TotalBiscuit say on twitter he hadn't been invited. I wonder what they based these 8 choices on, it isn't who has brought the most attention to their game.

Edit: Oh they did it based on twitch stream views. I guess that makes sense... Still seems like an oversight to me.

They're basing it on stats, they're keeping a very close eye on the matches, to the point that before the first wipe they had a list of the top players win ratios. Kripparrian and Reckful were definitely at the peak from what I remember, it also depends on availability, the fact that the game is still in beta, and limited slots, also their attendance at blizzcon. So if the competition was larger I'm sure there would be more invites.

They had no way of knowing if Hearthstone was going to take off so this is kind of a last minute thing to them too. Think of it as a trial run before this starts getting more intense. What better way to iron out the details on things than at your own convention with a small pool of professionals you've worked with before.

Also...those decrying it as 'lol rip offs' Are you utterly dense or something, or do you just need a reason to hate things?

All cardgames rip off each other. And have been doing so for years/decades. This game has started off very simple and is quite refreshing after wading through the vertible headaches that have twisted the current card games into impenetrable walls, unless you drop 100's of dollars on cards. This is a relaxing game, I kinda like it, and I had a very intense game the other night that actually had me quite into the whole thing.

I've switched this game on for 15 minute breaks and it's just...kinda nice to have something so chill but not one note brain-dead, like angry birds. Keeps me thinking, but isn't intensely stressful.

Also starting this off fresh rather than cramming all the old WoW TGC rules into this was a very good idea.

I agree whole heartedly with this. On top of that I rather enjoy how fast the games go. The longest game I played was 10 minutes and that was because both me and my opponent spent way too much time decidin on moves. Usually they're over within 7 minutes. Once they get Hearthstone onto mobile devices I could see many a lunch break filled with 1 or 2 matches to kill time.

Even now when I'm just not doin anythin I have a tendency to load it up and play a game.

 

[ron1n]

The longest game I played was 10 minutes and that was because both me and my opponent spent way too much time deciding on moves. Usually they're over within 7 minutes. Once they get Hearthstone onto mobile devices I could see many a lunch break filled with 1 or 2 matches to kill time.

I think this is the biggest strength of hearthstone.

It's the same reason Scrolls has died in the ass. Love that game, but it's an out and out time vampire. Especially since they added the decay deck. I've had games go for as long as an hour more than once. And because one game drags on for so long, you then feel the need to play at least a second and third so you can earn some gold from your session.

Next thing you know, the whole day has passed.

And as far as complexity is concerned, the game will continue to add on mechanics and new cards and likely new characters (Death Knight, Monk decks surely still to come)

 

[Smooth Operator]

I really don't understand this obsession with Hearthstone

Simple math:
- it's CCG (which are very addictive)
- super casual
- WoW themed
- Blizzard brand
- also given before release to every major Youtuber to promote the hell out of it

It's hard to really think of a better hype plan then this, perhaps if Apple got involved in it...