The third Masters Tour event this year takes place online this weekend. Over 300 players from all regions will compete for their share of the glory, prize money, and a spot at Hearthstone Grandmasters. You can find everything you need to know below.
Tournament Format
The usual Masters Tour format continues for the third iteration as well.
- All games are played as Best-of-5 Conquest.
- 4 decks with 1 ban.
- A total of 9 Swiss rounds, with Top 8 advancing.
- Day 1: 5 rounds of Swiss, players with 3 or more wins advancing to day 2.
- Day 2: The remaining 4 rounds of Swiss.
- Day 3: Top 8 single elimination bracket.
The Frontrunners
As this is the third and final Masters Tour that counts towards Grandmasters' Season 1 promotion, we will know the names of the nine brand new Grandmasters after this tournament (barring any unforeseen issues). Based on their previous success, these players are on the brink of making it.
Further information about the current promotion situation can be found in the spoiler below.
Disclaimer: Since Blizzard doesn't have a list like this anywhere (of course they don't), all figures below have been calculated by me, so there's a solid chance for mistakes.
Here's the current prize money situation in all three regions after the first two Masters Tour events. These numbers do not take into account the extra prize money obtained from the esports bundle; while the absolute numbers are therefore incorrect, the relative differences between players should stay the same. Only players with more than $7.000 in winnings have been considered.
| Asia-Pacific | Winnings | Europe | Winnings | Americas | Winnings |
| Alan870806* | $15.850 | xBlyzes | $65.000 | bloodyface** | $14.500 |
| Bankyugi | $15.000 | AyRoK | $23.500 | brimful | $13.250 |
| TIZS | $13.250 | Felkeine** | $15.850 | NoHandsGamer | $13.250 |
| Casie** | $15.850 | Nalguidan** | $11.850 | ||
| totosh | $12.000 | Impact | $7.000 | ||
| Thijs** | $11.000 | killinallday | $7.000 |
*Alan has represented both USA and Taiwan in the past; as the latter was his most recent choice (if I remember correctly), I'm assuming he would be an APAC GM.
**Already a Grandmaster.
The APAC trio has managed to take some distance to their closest rivals, as even top 8 placement (without previous prize money) would not be enough to dethrone any of the three. All of them should still try their hardest to perform well in this tournament as none of them are yet to guarantee their spot.
In Europe, France dominates. xBlyzes has more than earned his spot in GM already with his back-to-back victories so the pressure will be off for him. As it stands, he would be taking two compatriots with him to Grandmasters, taking the total number of French GMs to six (as Felkeine and Zhym managed to escape the relegation). While AyRoK can feel relatively safe, totosh will have to fight for his spot as a top 8 finish is enough for a plenty of Europeans to overtake him.
In Americas, the situation is still very much open. NoHandsGamer and brimful have the advantage but are not allowed to feel safe just yet. The third spot is completely up for grabs as reaching top 8 would guarantee $11.000 in prize money; a sum which would skyrocket the player straight to a (non-GM) top 3 earner spot regardless of their previous performances. If more than one Americas players does that, the game is truly on.
Other Notable Attendees
Here are some other invited players that you might recognize. All Grandmasters, recently relegated players included, have been invited but we've had their images up on our weekly posts already, it's time for others to have the limelight! The full list of invited players can be found here.
Cydonia
Faeli
Feno
HotMEOWTH
Impact
Liooon
Neirea
OmegaZero
Orange
Ostkaka
Rase
Sintolol
Tansoku
Trunks
XHope
killinallday
Stream Schedule
In case your timezone isn't listed below, check out the sidebar on the official tournament site. It should display the schedule in your local time.
West Coast PDT (UTC-7) | East Coast EDT (UTC-4) | Europe CEST (UTC+2) | Korea KST (UTC+9) | |
| June 12 | 5:45 | 8:45 | 14:45 | 21:45 |
| June 13 | 5:45 | 8:45 | 14:45 | 21:45 |
| June 14 | 5:45 | 8:45 | 14:45 | 21:45 |
Stream
This tournament will be streamed in Hearthstone Esports Youtube channel, as accustomed.
Comments
Update on Grandmasters situation based on the top 8:
If you already want to see the decklists, I've added them on the site. They will be included in the result post later as well.
and again no ‚choose your champion and win some packs‘ - why blizz?
There was never a "choose your champion" for Masters tours, only when there were seasonal championships.
Stream Schedule is much appreciated for some of us...lazy enough to find it elsewhere :P
Firebat, Zalae, NHG, and Languagehacker are all 2-0. Impact is 0-2, so looks like he won't be a GM this season.
I'm glad to see a woman in the ranks. It took years upon years for MTG tournaments to have women not only show up, but place in top tiers. I know that this level of nerdiness typically gets handed over to men, but I hopeful that more women will start making the brackets.
VKLiooon is the current world champion, and lost only a handful of games (not matches) in the championship.
Would like to see some more, but the fact she has a good chance to get to the World Championship again and maybe, just maybe, be the single player ever to win 2 championships in the game's history is quite exciting.
It's cool that the coronavirus has allowed people like NoHandsGamer legitimately compete for a GM spot where they probably wouldn't have been able to do so otherwise.
Even after things return to normal, I think Blizzard should continue to hold a large portion of their tournaments online.
I'll have a look, but I won't stay for long if it's the same matchup composition as the last GM few days ago...
Goooo NoHands! Prove to the world that your lack of hands is merely a setback!
*I know he has hands. I watch his stream sometimes. What most people don't know is that he doesn't actually have feet. He has some Mecha-Jaraxxus mechanical augments. It's rumored that he's augmented his brain as well.
Ostkaka?
I thought he retired ages ago?
I guess some people can just never let go of hearthstone
The brackets should appear here once the tournament kicks off.