While there’s a lot of talk about Hearthstone‘s (Free) competitive scene right now and whether it’s on the right path, the fact remains that we are getting closer to BlizzCon and, therefore, the Hearthstone World Championship. Blizzard has now given us more details on the dates, times, and format of the World Championship. So, first the general information. There will be a prize pool of $1.000.000 this year, the biggest ever, and the group stages will take place between October 26th-30th, which is the Opening Week. Each group will consist of four competitors, one from each of the four regions (Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and China). They will be seeded according to their HCT Points that they’ve accumulated throughout the season.

The tournament will be using a best of seven Conquest format with one ban. Each player will bring five decks to the tournament, and I’m very curious to see which decks we’ll see this time. The group stage will be double-elimination with two players advancing from each group to play in the single-elimination stage during BlizzCon. The Quarterfinals will take place during Day 1 of Blizzcon (Nov. 4th) and the Semis and Grand Finals during Day 2 (Nov. 5th). The winner will get $250,000, the runner-up $150,000, and so on. Looking forward to this one despite all the grumblings.