Following on from the great success of last year’s Hearthstone World Championship, Blizzard have announced through their community forums that 2015 will be no different with the event taking place in the Fall again! Prior to this, Blizzard have announced the means as to which players can get there and this time round access is more open to everyone – meaning even you reading this now could be headed to the Hearthstone Worlds Championships!
So how can players make it to the finals? Blizzard has moved towards a point-based system where points can be earned towards making it into Regional Qualifier tournaments. Points can be attained through competing in Ranked Play Seasons, Invitational Tournaments, Community Tournaments and Blizzard’s very own Fireside Gatherings where players can meet at developer hosted community events. Regional Qualifier Tournaments will consist of 40 players seeded by their points total with the top 8 players earning a spot at Blizzard’s Regional Championships. Four players from each region will then go on to represent their region at the finale in the Fall, presumably if it is to follow previous years at Blizzcon itself!
Ranked Play is just one of the ways in which players can make it to Blizzard's Regional Qualifiers.
Points attained throughout the various means will mean either automatic qualification into the Regional Qualifiers if you are in the top 23 players per region – or entry into Blizzard’s Last Call Tournament where players will compete to make up the final 17 spots. On the Fireside Gathering side of things, select events will host developer sanctioned tournaments which will lead to a Fireside Gathering Championship – the winner of which will receive a seed directly into their corresponding Regional Qualifier. This is definitely a move by Blizzard to encourage the community participation – many major tournaments are invite-only based on previous player experience but players being able to enter through Fireside Gathering’s gives them a chance to make it another way!
Blizzard are set to release another update containing the rules and point structure that will be used for qualification which will give us more insight into how you guys can reach the Hearthstone 2015 World Championship! For now though, continue grinding Ranked Play in the January season to reach Legend and enter Gfinity’s Hearthstone Cups, Premium held on Tuesday’s and Free to Play on Saturday’s!
Last year's Hearthstone World Champion, James 'Firebat' Kostedich