Season 2 of the Hearthstone Grandmasters is all set to start this Friday, August 14. This new season is going to run every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all the way to September 6. After that there’s going to be a break to allow for the Masters Tour Online: Montreal. Season 2 then continues from September 18 through October 11.
The tournament has a prize pool of more than $500,000. It’s going to include 16 players for each of the three regions of Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. You can view the entire player roster here.
During weeks 1 to 3, all players are going to take part in a Swiss format each Wednesday and Thursday in order to earn a placement in the weekend Group Stage. The points earned from these weekend rounds are then used to determine the two divisions in each region for the round-robin weeks. Here’s more details of this round:
- The 16 players in each region compete against each other off broadcast in seven to nine Swiss Rounds during the week.
- On Thursday, after Swiss play has completed, the field is cut in half based on standings and the top eight per region play in a dual tournament format live on YouTube across Friday and Saturday, with the top four finals played on Sunday.
- Gameplay format changes every week:
- Week 1: Seven Rounds of Swiss, Conquest with one ban
- Week 2: Seven Rounds of Swiss, Four Deck Last Hero Standing with one ban
- Week 3: Nine Rounds of Swiss, best-of three Specialist
Weeks 4 to 7, meanwhile, are all about round robin group play. Details are:
- Following weeks 1-3, players are sorted into two divisions based on their points standings.
- Division A is comprised of the top eight point-earning players.
- Division B are for point total ranks nine to 16.
- The two divisions compete in round-robin group play over four weeks.
- The standings at the conclusion of these weeks determine who will move onto the Playoffs, and who is going to be relegated from Season 2.
- The format will stay consistent during round-robin weeks:
- Best-of five Conquest (four decks, one ban)
Week 8 is all about the Playoffs and what’s going to happen is:
- Top six from Division A automatically make it into playoffs.
- Top four from Division B compete in a play-in round to determine who joins the top six from Division A in a dual tournament bracket for playoffs.
- The seventh and eighth placed players in Division B at the close of Round Robin are automatically relegated from Season 2 of Grandmasters.
- The final relegation is going to be determined through a three-match Play-In involving the seventh and eighth place from Division A, and 5fifth and sixth place from Division B.
- The winner from each region in the Season 2 Grandmasters playoffs then advance to the Hearthstone World Championships later this year.
If you’re excited as we are, the matches are going to be streamed on the official Heathstone esports YouTube channel here. There are also going to be multiple different language streams.
So who are you rooting for in Season 2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
