Blizzard has announced the Hearthstone Masters Tour will be expanding in 2020. Unlike the previous year, 2020 will see a total of 6 events hosted all across the world. In addition to this, it was also revealed that both ESL and Dreamhack will be joining forces with the Hearthstone Masters Tour.
The new locations of the Hearthstone Masters Tour 2020
The first two Hearthstone Masters Tour locations were announced back in 2019. The qualifying period for Masters Tour #1, Arlington, Texas, has already ended. For the second stop of the year, Bali, Indonesia, the qualifiers will run from Dec. 12, 2019, to Jan. 26, 2020. However, with today’s announcement, the dates and locations of other upcoming events have been revealed.
Masters Tour #3 and #5 will be hosted at two of the major Dreamhack events this year. Tour #3 is set to be held at Dreamhack Summer, during the weekend of Friday, June 12 to Sunday, June 14, in Jönköping, Sweden. The qualifying period for this event starts on Feb. 6, 2020, and is set to last until Mar. 29.
The other announced event will take place at Dreamhack Montreal, in Montreal, Canada. This event, stop #5 on the tour, is set to run from Nov. 9 to Nov. 11, 2020. Last year, Dreamhack Montreal was one most enjoyed events of the year, and this year, with a major Hearthstone event, it will be better than ever before.
Specific locations and dates for Masters Tours #4 and #6 have not yet been revealed, though Blizzard did provide some information. Masters Tour #4 will be hosted in the Asia-Pacific region sometime during July or August. The final tour stop of the year takes place in Spain, sometime in November or December.
The new prize pool structure
Each of the 6 Hearthstone Master Tour events will have a prize pool of at least $250,000 USD. This prize pool, however, will be raised by (unannounced) crowdfunding initiatives, one example of this could be, similar to last year, a bundle supporting the upcoming event.
In addition to the increased prize pools for the event, a new prize structure has appeared in the latest rules revision. The major change, compared to last year, is that (if the crowdfunding initiatives are met) each player attending the event would receive at least $850 USD. This change will severely reduce the overall cost of attendance for the competitors, making it much more viable for players to compete.
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