2015 Hearthstone World Championship Announced

[Steven Bogos]

2015 Hearthstone World Championship Announced

In late fall 2015, 16 of the best Hearthstone players from around the world will duke it out for cash and glory.

Blizzard has just announced its World Championship 2015 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/hearthstone] structure, letting aspiring card sharks know how they'll be able to work their way to Worlds. From tomorrow (January 31), players will be able to collect points from Ranked Play, Fireside Gatherings, tournaments, and more to earn themselves a spot in the 2015 Hearthstone World Championship.

The World Championship itself will take place in the Fall, where 16 of the best Hearthstone players from all across the world will duke it out for over $150,000 in cash prizes.

To get there, players will have to earn the aforementioned points through Ranked Play seasons as well as through Blizzard-sanctioned tournaments. Points received are based on performance, with better results awarding more points. Players who achieve a minimum of 2 points by August 31 will be eligible for their regional Last Call Tournament, which feeds into their corresponding Regional Qualifiers.

The 23 players per region with the highest point totals will receive advanced seeding in their Regional Qualifier and do not need to play in the Last Call Tournament in order to qualify.

If you've got any more questions, be sure to check out the F.A.Q [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/17776013/join-us-for-the-2015-hearthstone-world-championship-1-30-2015] on the championship series, which contains all of the "fine print" on eligible players, cards, and countries.

So get your best deck together and start earning those points, if you want to battle it out with the best of the best!

Source: Blizzard [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/17776013/join-us-for-the-2015-hearthstone-world-championship-1-30-2015]

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[shintakie10]

This comes right after the Undertaker nerf so it'll be interestin to see how quickly the meta will shift (if at all) away from Hunters.

 

[squid5580]

This comes right after the Undertaker nerf so it'll be interestin to see how quickly the meta will shift (if at all) away from Hunters.

I got money that says it will swing to mech mage. It is pricier than facehunter but it does extremely well on the ladder.

 

[VladG]

While I like playing the game, and even watching streamers from time to time, I find tournaments really really boring. Figuring out optimal plays isn't all that hard if you know what the opponent has.. and it kinda drains the fun out of the game.

Still, I hope it gets traction and they don't fuck it up like they fucked up the SC2 tournaments.

 

[Mezahmay]

This comes right after the Undertaker nerf so it'll be interestin to see how quickly the meta will shift (if at all) away from Hunters.

I got money that says it will swing to mech mage. It is pricier than facehunter but it does extremely well on the ladder.

My thoughts exactly. From here we just wait until Blizzard stops overbalancing Mechwarper and give Dr. Boom a tap with the nerf bat then GvG normalize out.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Couldn't they simulate this excitement just as well by throwing a bunch of dice against a wall and assigning the winners that way?

 

[The Wykydtron]

This comes right after the Undertaker nerf so it'll be interestin to see how quickly the meta will shift (if at all) away from Hunters.

I got money that says it will swing to mech mage. It is pricier than facehunter but it does extremely well on the ladder.

My thoughts exactly. From here we just wait until Blizzard stops overbalancing Mechwarper and give Dr. Boom a tap with the nerf bat then GvG normalize out.

Yeah I have no idea what they were thinking with Dr Boom. He's a straight upgrade from War Golem with both of them being 7/7s but Boom has the bombs. I dunno if they should nerf his numbers though since anything under 7/7 is out of BGH range which would make him even harder to deal with. Maybe make his battlecry "if you have a mech summon bombs" so he's not just thrown into every deck like he is now but he's good in mech decks instead of good in EVERY deck.

Also fuck face hunter. I thought Zoo was bad but this is on a whole 'nother level. It makes Zoo look like a board control deck, Trump has the last laugh after all. Forgive me if i'm wrong but I thought Hearthstone was a game about board control? How can a deck solely based around face be so relevant in the meta and so fucking frustrating to play against even when i'm playing a fuckin' Priest, the guy whose entire point is to survive to mid/late game?

Even if I hit late game (I do manage to hit lategame pretty consistently mind, MCTech can disrupt face Hunter pretty badly) and get my Alex out it's still far too close. My triple dragon late game of Ysera, Alex and The Wing struggles. Well maybe not Deathwing because they seem to lack Deadly Shots but he is always situational as hell.

At least Miracle is gone now. Is it just me or is Rogue dead as hell in Ranked? I see Hunters, Mages, Warlocks and the occasional Shammy and one Druid a day if i'm lucky.

 

[shintakie10]

This comes right after the Undertaker nerf so it'll be interestin to see how quickly the meta will shift (if at all) away from Hunters.

I got money that says it will swing to mech mage. It is pricier than facehunter but it does extremely well on the ladder.

My thoughts exactly. From here we just wait until Blizzard stops overbalancing Mechwarper and give Dr. Boom a tap with the nerf bat then GvG normalize out.

Yeah I have no idea what they were thinking with Dr Boom. He's a straight upgrade from War Golem with both of them being 7/7s but Boom has the bombs. I dunno if they should nerf his numbers though since anything under 7/7 is out of BGH range which would make him even harder to deal with. Maybe make his battlecry "if you have a mech summon bombs" so he's not just thrown into every deck like he is now but he's good in mech decks instead of good in EVERY deck.

Also fuck face hunter. I thought Zoo was bad but this is on a whole 'nother level. It makes Zoo look like a board control deck, Trump has the last laugh after all. Forgive me if i'm wrong but I thought Hearthstone was a game about board control? How can a deck solely based around face be so relevant in the meta and so fucking frustrating to play against even when i'm playing a fuckin' Priest, the guy whose entire point is to survive to mid/late game?

Even if I hit late game (I do manage to hit lategame pretty consistently mind, MCTech can disrupt face Hunter pretty badly) and get my Alex out it's still far too close. My triple dragon late game of Ysera, Alex and The Wing struggles. Well maybe not Deathwing because they seem to lack Deadly Shots but he is always situational as hell.

At least Miracle is gone now. Is it just me or is Rogue dead as hell in Ranked? I see Hunters, Mages, Warlocks and the occasional Shammy and one Druid a day if i'm lucky.

Reducing booms attack would be a bad idea, as you said, because it'd remove one of the viable counters to the card that everyone gets. Lowerin health seems somewhat pointless as well unless you reduce it to 5 which puts it in range of multiple combo abilites, but also hurts the card far more than a simple love tap. Mana cost up would make the card fairly impossible to use in any normal situation since you wouldn't be able to combo it with much of anythin.

Basically the cards just badly designed in the sense that you can't really change it without hurtin it far more than it needs to be hurt. Though your idea seems the closest I can think of to actually makin it fair.

I do miss Miracle though. Not in the sense of the ridiculous 1 hit ko garbage, but I do miss having a deck based off of board control that wasn't built around sticky cards. Then again I'm one of those weirdos who actually didn't mind freeze mages so take that as you will.

 

[The Wykydtron]

This comes right after the Undertaker nerf so it'll be interestin to see how quickly the meta will shift (if at all) away from Hunters.

I got money that says it will swing to mech mage. It is pricier than facehunter but it does extremely well on the ladder.

My thoughts exactly. From here we just wait until Blizzard stops overbalancing Mechwarper and give Dr. Boom a tap with the nerf bat then GvG normalize out.

Reducing booms attack would be a bad idea, as you said, because it'd remove one of the viable counters to the card that everyone gets. Lowerin health seems somewhat pointless as well unless you reduce it to 5 which puts it in range of multiple combo abilites, but also hurts the card far more than a simple love tap. Mana cost up would make the card fairly impossible to use in any normal situation since you wouldn't be able to combo it with much of anythin.

Basically the cards just badly designed in the sense that you can't really change it without hurtin it far more than it needs to be hurt. Though your idea seems the closest I can think of to actually makin it fair.

I do miss Miracle though. Not in the sense of the ridiculous 1 hit ko garbage, but I do miss having a deck based off of board control that wasn't built around sticky cards. Then again I'm one of those weirdos who actually didn't mind freeze mages so take that as you will.

I'll take Freeze Mage over Zoo, Handlock or any kind of Hunter deck any day. As someone who likes using decks that only get rolling from turn 3 to 5 depending on my draws, I hate rush decks with a passion. At least there's more heals in the meta now, my full Secret Mage has 2 Illuminators for the sick 8HP heal per turn. If you can get her duplicated it's crazy good. Though the real GG Duplicate card, discounting Legendaries would be Sludge Belcher. Good luck breaking down that wall.

Secret Mage actually takes some skill, you have to bait Counterspells and shit, AKA you never want to go first because you'll be sitting on a Counterspell not playing it because he has Coin. Hunters are all brainless creature spam who on the first turn go, tell me if this sounds familiar, Webspinner > Coin > Leper Gnome or Undertaker > Coin > Leper Gnome. Every fucking game... I like the Undertaker nerf but they all still run two, we might have to wait until the reality of the nerf has reached their limited knowledge and understanding of how the game works aside from "hit girl in face with rocks 'til ded"

Yes I hate Hunter, how could you tell?

 

[squid5580]

This comes right after the Undertaker nerf so it'll be interestin to see how quickly the meta will shift (if at all) away from Hunters.

I got money that says it will swing to mech mage. It is pricier than facehunter but it does extremely well on the ladder.

My thoughts exactly. From here we just wait until Blizzard stops overbalancing Mechwarper and give Dr. Boom a tap with the nerf bat then GvG normalize out.

Reducing booms attack would be a bad idea, as you said, because it'd remove one of the viable counters to the card that everyone gets. Lowerin health seems somewhat pointless as well unless you reduce it to 5 which puts it in range of multiple combo abilites, but also hurts the card far more than a simple love tap. Mana cost up would make the card fairly impossible to use in any normal situation since you wouldn't be able to combo it with much of anythin.

Basically the cards just badly designed in the sense that you can't really change it without hurtin it far more than it needs to be hurt. Though your idea seems the closest I can think of to actually makin it fair.

I do miss Miracle though. Not in the sense of the ridiculous 1 hit ko garbage, but I do miss having a deck based off of board control that wasn't built around sticky cards. Then again I'm one of those weirdos who actually didn't mind freeze mages so take that as you will.

I'll take Freeze Mage over Zoo, Handlock or any kind of Hunter deck any day. As someone who likes using decks that only get rolling from turn 3 to 5 depending on my draws, I hate rush decks with a passion. At least there's more heals in the meta now, my full Secret Mage has 2 Illuminators for the sick 8HP heal per turn. If you can get her duplicated it's crazy good. Though the real GG Duplicate card, discounting Legendaries would be Sludge Belcher. Good luck breaking down that wall.

Secret Mage actually takes some skill, you have to bait Counterspells and shit, AKA you never want to go first because you'll be sitting on a Counterspell not playing it because he has Coin. Hunters are all brainless creature spam who on the first turn go, tell me if this sounds familiar, Webspinner > Coin > Leper Gnome or Undertaker > Coin > Leper Gnome. Every fucking game... I like the Undertaker nerf but they all still run two, we might have to wait until the reality of the nerf has reached their limited knowledge and understanding of how the game works aside from "hit girl in face with rocks 'til ded"

Yes I hate Hunter, how could you tell?

Hey not all hunters are like that. I run a control hunter since I hate facehunter. It's a fun deck to play. Handlock sure got a boost from GVG and the healbots making them really difficult to play against. I am surprised that I haven't seen more run Malganis. There is a card that should be nerfed long before the good doctor. At least boom has given us a neutral decent 7 drop. I see no way of nerfing mechwarper other than removing the text or raising all mech cost by 1. Or they could give it the buzzard treatment and boost it's cost to 5. Although every class can pull off the mech mage opening shenanigans but don't have blastmage or Antodias for those spare parts so maybe looking at those cards would be the better option?

 

[Kyber]

This comes right after the Undertaker nerf so it'll be interestin to see how quickly the meta will shift (if at all) away from Hunters.

I got money that says it will swing to mech mage. It is pricier than facehunter but it does extremely well on the ladder.

My thoughts exactly. From here we just wait until Blizzard stops overbalancing Mechwarper and give Dr. Boom a tap with the nerf bat then GvG normalize out.

The meta is currently Paladin and pre-GvG Ramp Druid, and Control Warrior and Handlock are still the decks to go with to tournaments.

 

[Mezahmay]

The meta is currently Paladin and pre-GvG Ramp Druid, and Control Warrior and Handlock are still the decks to go with to tournaments.

I'm not at all surprised control Warrior is a thing now that Iron Juggernaut exists. Now excuse me as I disengage from this comment before I start going on and on about why I dislike Iron Juggernaut from a design perspective.

 

[Kyber]

The meta is currently Paladin and pre-GvG Ramp Druid, and Control Warrior and Handlock are still the decks to go with to tournaments.

I'm not at all surprised control Warrior is a thing now that Iron Juggernaut exists. Now excuse me as I disengage from this comment before I start going on and on about why I dislike Iron Juggernaut from a design perspective.

You'd be surprised to know, most control warriors don't run Iron Juggernaut, it doesn't fit the playstyle of waiting for alextraza, and then grommash+activator. It would be a great card in many other decks though, I love it when my enemy mech mage gets one from unstable portal.

 

[Mezahmay]

The meta is currently Paladin and pre-GvG Ramp Druid, and Control Warrior and Handlock are still the decks to go with to tournaments.

I'm not at all surprised control Warrior is a thing now that Iron Juggernaut exists. Now excuse me as I disengage from this comment before I start going on and on about why I dislike Iron Juggernaut from a design perspective.

You'd be surprised to know, most control warriors don't run Iron Juggernaut, it doesn't fit the playstyle of waiting for alextraza, and then grommash+activator. It would be a great card in many other decks though, I love it when my enemy mech mage gets one from unstable portal.

You're right, I would. Most of the "control" warriors I run into at my level run stuff like Shieldmaiden and Shield block and bolster their life with tons of armor, then throw up tons of taunt and remove my minions with weapons and spells using a couple legendary bombs as their win condition, Burrowing Mine included. I'm still waiting for the day when I go up against a warrior running brewmasters so they can bounce Iron Juggernaut and make multiple mines so I can be justly outraged instead of outraged by the only theoretical counterplay to this card being don't draw or win before it goes off and your life is reduced too low.

 

[Kyber]

The meta is currently Paladin and pre-GvG Ramp Druid, and Control Warrior and Handlock are still the decks to go with to tournaments.

I'm not at all surprised control Warrior is a thing now that Iron Juggernaut exists. Now excuse me as I disengage from this comment before I start going on and on about why I dislike Iron Juggernaut from a design perspective.

You'd be surprised to know, most control warriors don't run Iron Juggernaut, it doesn't fit the playstyle of waiting for alextraza, and then grommash+activator. It would be a great card in many other decks though, I love it when my enemy mech mage gets one from unstable portal.

You're right, I would. Most of the "control" warriors I run into at my level run stuff like Shieldmaiden and Shield block and bolster their life with tons of armor, then throw up tons of taunt and remove my minions with weapons and spells using a couple legendary bombs as their win condition, Burrowing Mine included. I'm still waiting for the day when I go up against a warrior running brewmasters so they can bounce Iron Juggernaut and make multiple mines so I can be justly outraged instead of outraged by the only theoretical counterplay to this card being don't draw or win before it goes off and your life is reduced too low.

Ah, the bounce warrior, I thought of it as a complete joke until my opponent showed me that the last two cards in his deck were Iron Juggernaut and Brew.

 

[Vrach]

Yeah I have no idea what they were thinking with Dr Boom. He's a straight upgrade from War Golem with both of them being 7/7s but Boom has the bombs. I dunno if they should nerf his numbers though since anything under 7/7 is out of BGH range which would make him even harder to deal with. Maybe make his battlecry "if you have a mech summon bombs" so he's not just thrown into every deck like he is now but he's good in mech decks instead of good in EVERY deck.

Mech requirement isn't a bad idea, considering that right now, the automatic play if you have him in your hand is to drop him. Full board? Make it stronger. Empty board? Get instant board. However, with him bringing BGHs out into every deck, he's become quite meh to me. I'd honestly just make the bombs a little weaker, but also more consistent. When they hit for 1 damage, it makes Boom quite terrible, but when they hit for 4, he's pretty much OP. So just make them 2-3 damage instead, makes them both more consistent and less RNGish. Or just 2 damage if you want to straight up nerf him, which I however personally feel is not necessary.

Also fuck face hunter. I thought Zoo was bad but this is on a whole 'nother level. It makes Zoo look like a board control deck, Trump has the last laugh after all. Forgive me if i'm wrong but I thought Hearthstone was a game about board control? How can a deck solely based around face be so relevant in the meta and so fucking frustrating to play against even when i'm playing a fuckin' Priest, the guy whose entire point is to survive to mid/late game?

HS is a card game, as such, you'll have a lot of deck types. I'm not a fan of face Hunter and yes, it was way too strong, but it's a valid deck type. However, in reality, it owed that mostly to Undertaker (and to be specific, his health increasing) because so many of the cards that are already great for Hunter (Webspinner, Skittles, even Scar, Sludge and Boom, if you toss him out later) work with him. Now that the Undertaker dies in pretty much any minion combat (which was responsible for Hunter taking board early on if you were planning on keeping it with minions), you can stabilize much sooner. Also, he dies to AoE, making something like Hellfire make sense again. Oh and Priest sucks. Sorry. I feel for you, I love the class as well, but it's just terrible against so many decks because it's so reactive.

Personally I think Hunter needs a buff. Yep, I said it. I don't mean make it stronger, but the reason the class went to the "full retard face aggro" strategy is that they killed it when they pummeled Starving Buzzard into the ground. It lost its draw and with that, the only thing it had to turn to is killing the opponent fast enough (because that's what the Hero power compels you to do). I've had the idea of a card like the Steamwheedle Sniper way before GvG was released, but sadly it's not enough (and it should have been made into a stronger, more expensive minion like the Auchenai or into a spell like Shadowform). Personally, I'd give such an ability to a beast (a bloodhound of some sort? That'd kind of make sense), because the Hunter is already so focused on Beasts and throwing in a random 2/3 just to be able to use your Hero power for something other than face hitting sucks.

Give the Hunter good beasts and some reasonable draw and it can go back to making midrange decks. As it is, I think the class is pretty much dead.

Even if I hit late game (I do manage to hit lategame pretty consistently mind, MCTech can disrupt face Hunter pretty badly) and get my Alex out it's still far too close. My triple dragon late game of Ysera, Alex and The Wing struggles. Well maybe not Deathwing because they seem to lack Deadly Shots but he is always situational as hell.

That sounds like a strange deck and one that's way too expensive and greedy for it's own good. Deathwing in particular is a terrible card for most classes since he's gonna be sitting dead in your hand until you're desperate enough to throw him, at which point you're basically rolling a dice to win or lose on the spot.. and I find you're usually gonna lose at that point.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Even if I hit late game (I do manage to hit lategame pretty consistently mind, MCTech can disrupt face Hunter pretty badly) and get my Alex out it's still far too close. My triple dragon late game of Ysera, Alex and The Wing struggles. Well maybe not Deathwing because they seem to lack Deadly Shots but he is always situational as hell.

That sounds like a strange deck and one that's way too expensive and greedy for it's own good. Deathwing in particular is a terrible card for most classes since he's gonna be sitting dead in your hand until you're desperate enough to throw him, at which point you're basically rolling a dice to win or lose on the spot.. and I find you're usually gonna lose at that point.

Dead card is such a dirty way of putting it, a real dead card is SW or SW let's be real. He's more of an insurance policy and/or ultimate BM tool. Maybe it's just me but when I decide to play Deathwing he usually wins the game. He takes patience, not hitting turn 10 against a Mage who has 7 cards in her hand and going DEATHWING LOL and actually being surprised when he's instantly removed.

All three of my decks are strange and i'm happy about it. I hate how so many people just copy/paste the latest meta decks from Hearthpwn and put zero originality into anything. The triple dragon lategame is non-negotiable, it's far too fun. One brings dreams, one brings life and the last brings death. Sylvanas is also mandatory. I just see a card I like and use it, Ysera was the first Legendary I found in a pack and I wanted her the second I saw her when some Pally destroyed me with her. I craft decks with my feelings on cards not how good the stats are.

My decks got me down to as low as Rank 13 and 500 wins on both Priest and Mage so it can't be that bad. I run double Lightwardens, Light of Narru, Injured Blademaster, Shattered Sun Clerics, Dark Cultists, MCTech so I don't exactly go full turtle for lategame.

I play Priest and full Secret Mage which includes Etherial Arcanists, Illuminators and even a Kezan Mystic just to fuck over Hunters so it's safe to say I like playing reactionary.

"The Light does not discriminate"

*steals Freezing Trap*

"Thank you"

BM every time.

 

[Vrach]

Dead card is such a dirty way of putting it, a real dead card is SW or SW let's be real. He's more of an insurance policy and/or ultimate BM tool. Maybe it's just me but when I decide to play Deathwing he usually wins the game. He takes patience, not hitting turn 10 against a Mage who has 7 cards in her hand and going DEATHWING LOL and actually being surprised when he's instantly removed.

Yeah, I'm aware of how he's played, I've used him in the Arena a few times, but when I got him, I disenchanted him immediately for the dust because I felt like there were far better Legendaries out there. I just dislike the mechanic of throwing my whole hand away, though I do know his strength when the opponent doesn't have an answer and you just wiped his board clean

All three of my decks are strange and i'm happy about it. I hate how so many people just copy/paste the latest meta decks from Hearthpwn and put zero originality into anything. The triple dragon lategame is non-negotiable, it's far too fun. One brings dreams, one brings life and the last brings death. Sylvanas is also mandatory. I just see a card I like and use it, Ysera was the first Legendary I found in a pack and I wanted her the second I saw her when some Pally destroyed me with her. I craft decks with my feelings on cards not how good the stats are.

That's fair. I am honest about being one of the copy/paste people, kind of always been the min/maxer, especially in multiplayer games, so I like playing what I think is best. And for that, I do (to a point) defer to the judgement and skills of others - I know the high rank players put a lot of time into designing those decks, so I start from there. It's also not easy making a good deck yourself when you don't buy cards... it's one thing to have all the cards, think of a deck and then try it out and see how it works. Quite another to spend hours upon hours of play time to earn a single card only to realize it does fuck-all when you actually play it.

I do respect the playing for fun and with your own decks though. I have for a long time when I started, it just got stale for me after a while, because it was hard to concentrate on what I was working on (card progress wise, which cards to get next and such) and I didn't have that feeling of progress from having a decent win rate and progressing through the ladder (I ran mostly Mage decks, from full on control to a burn mage with just spells and draw minions... they were silly decks, but it's all I could come up with just having started playing the game at the time )