This year at BlizzCon, the Hearthstone Grandmasters Global Finals are set to begin tomorrow at 3:15 p.m. EDT. Reigning from Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas, 48 players duked it out against each other in the Grandmasters Finals. From those players, six of them won a spot to showcase their skills at the BlizzCon stage. These players are Kim “Surrender” Jung-soo, Chen “tom60229” Wei Lin, Francisco “PNC” Leimontas, Brian “bloodyface” Eason, Chris “Fenomeno” Tsakopoulos, and Kevin “Casie” Eberlein.
As for China, two players from the best of the best will also be dueling in the Hearthstone Grandmasters Global Finals. After hard-fought battles against a pool of 1,024 players and a pool of 64 veterans, Xiaomeng “VKLiooon” Li and Gao “Leaoh” Yang earned their spots.
Hearthstone Grandmasters Global Finals groups
The eight Hearthstone competitors will first be competing in dual tournament groups in the Shield-Phase Conquest format.
What this means is that the four players of each group will split into pairs to play each other in the initial matches. Each player must win two games in order to advance into the next bracket. Afterwards, the Hearthstone players will duel each other in a single-elimination bracket. While most of the matches will be best-of-three, the semifinals and finals will be best-of-five.
Group A consists of Casie, PNC, RNGLeaoh, and Surrender. Meanwhile, Group B has bloodyface, Fenomeno, tom60229, and VKLiooon.
Group A battles
The Nov. 1 matches will begin with PNC facing off against RNGLeaoh and Surrender going against Casie.
The decks that PNC will be bringing to BlizzCon 2019 include Combo Priest, Quest Druid, OTK Paladin, and Quest Shaman. RNGLeaoh will also be bringing a Combo Priest deck to the tournament, as well as Highlander Paladin, Quest Shaman, and Tempo Rogue.
Surrender is bringing Combo Priest, Quest Shaman, Secret Paladin, and Tempo Rogue decks. Casie will have Combo Priest, Control Warrior, Quest Druid, and Quest Shaman.
Group B battles
For Group B’s initial matches, VKLiooon will bring Combo Priest, Evolve Shaman, Highlander Hunter, and Quest Druid into battle against tom60229’s Combo Priest, Quest Druid, Tempo Rogue, and Token Shaman.
Meanwhile, Fenomeno will go against bloodyface using Combo Priest, Control Warrior, Evolve Shaman, and Tempo Rogue. Bloodyface will have Combo Priest, N’zoth Warrior, Quest Druid, and Quest Shaman.
A prize pool of $500,000 and the Hearthstone Grandmasters Global champion title will be on the line for these showdowns.
Hearthstone fans can tune in to the action on the esport’s official Twitch channel. Over on Twitch, viewers can earn two Saviors of Uldum card packs after watching three hours of the livestream. After watching a total of six hours, viewers can get three more card packs. Every hour, viewers will also be rewarded at random with Classic card packs.
While waiting for BlizzCon 2019 to official begin, Hearthstone fans can read up on Daily Esports’ exclusive interviews with competitors like Mark “Ike” Eichner, Torben “Viper” Wahl, Kacper “A83650” Kwieciński, David “Justsaiyan” Shan, and Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam.
