Hearthstone Announces HCT Winter Championship Details, Teases Hearthstone 2019
by hsdecktech - 6 years ago show comments
Hearthstone has announced some details about the upcoming Winter Championships–the last seasonal Champs ever under the HCT system! As readers may remember: Blizzard announced back in November that this would be the last year for the current Hearthstone HCT system, and there will be big changes to structure and format for next year.
Speaking of which, Blizzard also teased us a date–February 19th–on which they will share all the details on the new system that will be replacing the HCT system in the upcoming competitive Hearthstone year. We will be eagerly awaiting that date and will, of course, report back on it when the time comes.
Check out all the details in the official blog post. You will notice that the details do not include ticket sales, because, unfortunately, logistical issues prevent this event from being live to the public. It will be interesting to see if that somehow changes the dynamic for the players.
Over the last several weeks the best Hearthstone players from North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and China have emerged from regional playoffs to claim their spots at the HCT Winter Championship
. The four qualified players from each region will duke it out to decide who will take home the title of HCT Winter Champion, the lion’s share of a $250,000 prize pool, and a sizable portion of the 251 Hearthstone Competitive Points (CP) up for grabs.
Here are the 16 competitors from all four regions:
| Americas | |
|---|---|
 Mark “Ike” Eichner |
 Matt “noblord” Koutsoutis |
 Bobby “bobbyex” Du |
 Brian “bloodyface” Eason |
| Europe | |
|---|---|
 Torben “Viper” Wahl |
Oldřich “Faeli” Mahdal |
 Fatih “ThunderUP” Akduman |
 Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer |
| Asia-Pacific | |
|---|---|
 Jiyong “Definition” Yoon |
 Luo “Roger” Shengyuan |
 Shuhei “Tansoku” Omura |
 Tyler ‘Tyler’ Hoang Nguyen |
| China | |
|---|---|
 Zhe “GoeLionKing” Wang |
 Xu “LFYueying” Kai |
 Guan “SNJing” Zhendong |
 Zhao “Caimiao” Haixiao |
The HCT Winter Championship will be broadcast live from Blizzard Arena Los Angeles. With the 2019 Overwatch League season occupying Studio 1, HCT Winter will be produced from Studio 5. While this section of Blizzard Arena is unable to accommodate a studio audience, we are excited for our players to compete in a live, face-to-face setting, and we can’t wait to put on a great show for viewers worldwide.
The HCT Winter Championship will begin with a double-elimination group stage, followed by a single-elimination playoff bracket. Each group will consist of four competitors, one from each region. Each match will be best-of-five using the Conquest format with one class ban, so each player must bring four decks. Groups will be seeded based on CP, with the top point earner from each region placed in his or her own group, and the remainder filled out based on the order of the players’ regional seeds.
Broadcast Dates and Times:
Feb. 28–March 3 from 8:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. PT daily
Broadcast Channel:
www.twitch.tv/playhearthstone
More information on our plans for the 2019 season, including the new competitive format, will be revealed on Feb. 19. After that, keep a lookout for another opportunity to win some Hearthstone packs with Choose Your Champion, which will go live on Feb. 20, a week before HCT Winter begins.
