The long wait is over as the Hearthstone 2021 Grandmasters finally arrived. Season 1 starts April 9 with matches being held every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, for seven weeks. The global prize pool of the season is $486,000 and split between $64,500 for each weekly tournament. Playoffs, meanwhile, have a prize pool of $34,500.
The first part of the season takes a quick break after April 25. This is to give way to the Masters Tour Orgrimmar, which runs from April 30 to May 2. The matches resume May 7 and all the way to May 30. The eighth week of the season is about the Playoffs from June 4 to June 6.
In a post, Hearthstone revealed that 10 players have been promoted to Season 1 where they join the rest of the Grandmasters. There are two main objectives they must complete. The first is to earn enough points to get an invite to the World Championship and the second is to avoid Relegation.
Tournament Format
For the first seven weeks, players take part in a Weekly Dual Tournament and get points based on how many wins they get for each week. The points determine the final standings before the Playoffs begin. Here are the details:
- All 16 players in each region battle against each other off-broadcast in Dual Tournament Group play on Thursday.
- Group play is randomized each week.
- Since there are only 15 players in Americas, one player randomly receives a Bye in their first Thursday match.
- No player can receive the Bye more than once.
- On Friday, the 4 Decider Matches are played to determine which players joins the Top 8 per region.
- The matches are streamed live on YouTube.
- The Top 8 players compete in a single-elimination tournament on Saturday, with the Top 4 advancing to Sunday.
- Gameplay format changes every other week:
- Week 1: Conquest
- Week 2: Conquest
- Week 3: Specialist
- Week 4: Specialist
- Week 5: Last Hero Standing
- Week 6: Last Hero Standing
- Week 7: Conquest
- Playoffs: Conquest
Drops Return
Season 1 of the 2021 Grandmasters also sees the return of Drops, and fans can earn up to six packs. Fans who watch two total hours receive one pack and then a second pack for two more hours of view time. The Drops are:
- Grandmasters Week 1: Year of the Phoenix (max 2 packs)
- Grandmasters Weeks 2 to 7: Year of the Phoenix (max 2 packs)
- Grandmasters Playoffs: Forged in the Barrens (max 2 packs)
To be eligible for Drops, fans must view in any of these official YouTube channels:
- English (Hearthstone)
- English (HearthstoneEsports)
- Japanese
- Korean
- Mandarin
- Portuguese (LATAM)
- Spanish (LATAM)
What do you think? Excited for the new season?
