Playing Hearthstone (Free) alone in your room has its own charm, but if you’ve never played the game while facing your opponent, you’re missing out. Just imagine being able to see the frustration on their face when you drop Murloc after Murloc, or the panic when you play Nozdormu. Yes, face to face definitely adds to the game, which is why many players have been organizing Fireside Gatherings all over the world. Fireside Gatherings let you get together with Hearthstone buddies in a public place and compete to the death (not really, I think). When you participate in a Fireside Gathering, you can even get a special card back, always a plus in my book. I’ve never been to one (geographical difficulties), but I’m definitely planning to when given the opportunity.

Aware of how popular these Fireside Gatherings are, Blizzard has announced that starting Saturday, January 23rd, special Blizzard-sanctioned Hearthstone Tournaments will be taking place at Fireside Gatherings in select locations across the Americas. Players attending any of those tournaments will fight it out until a champion is crowned in each location. These “champions" will be named Tavern Heroes and will earn a slot in the Hearthstone 2016 Americas Winter Preliminaries.

There, they’ll get to play alongside the 128 players who have earned slots in the prelims via the standard point system. Now, isn’t that fun? The Tavern Hero Tournaments will take place in these locations from this Saturday up until February 7th. Measuring your Hearthstone skills against other players in an official tournament should be a lot of fun, so if you can make it to those locations, I suggest you give it a shot.