NVIDIA’s $25,000 tournament for Blizzard’s hit collectable card game kicks off with open qualifiers in March, end with a livestreamed 32-man Global Playoff at the end of May.
NVIDIA’s $25,000 tournament for Blizzard’s hit collectable card game kicks off with open qualifiers in March, end with a livestreamed 32-man Global Playoff at the end of May.
PRESS RELEASE
SANTA CLARA, California — February 24, 2015 — NVIDIA is proud to announce that free registration for the Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft Pro/Am international tournament, featuring Blizzard Entertainment’s critically acclaimed digital collectable card game, is now open at https://esports.geforce.com. Pro and amateur players will compete online for their share of the $25K prize pool and qualification points for the Hearthstone World Championship. In addition to the cash prize pool, all pro players and the 16 amateurs who make the brackets will receive NVIDIA Shield Android gaming tablets.
Amateur Division: Eight weeks of open group play – one match per week. Swiss style, meaning results-based scheduling (NOT round-robin – players do not play every other player) across six regional conferences. After a short Amateur playoff (format & schedule TBA), the top 16 players will advance to the Global Playoffs. During the group stage, players in the Amateur division will play only against opponents inside of their regional conference at a default match time of 9:00 PM set in the conference’s local time zone.
Professional Division: 16 invited players have eight weeks of group play in a single global conference – two matches per week. The Professional division will use a Round-robin group style, meaning every player plays every other player once. Group stage results will determine playoff seeding.
LIVE Broadcast Schedule: There will be a 4 hour LIVE broadcast on the twitch.tv/NVIDIA channel each Thursday (11 AM EST – 3:00 PM EST) throughout the Group Stage of the tournament covering the best matches of the week.
Global Playoffs: The top 16 players from the Amateur division will face off against the 16 players from the Professional division in a 32-team, single-elimination, best-of-five bracket. The Professional players will be seeded 1-16, while players from the Amateur division will be seeded 17-32. The Global Playoffs will take place on Saturday, May 30th & Sunday, May 31st, and the entire event will be streamed LIVE on the twitch.tv/NVIDIA channel.
Prize Pool ($25,000 USD + 230 qualification points for the Hearthstone World Championship):
1st: $10,000.00 + 100 qualification points for the Hearthstone World Championship
2nd: $5,000.00 + 50 qualification points for the Hearthstone World Championship
3rd/4th: $1,500.00 + qualification points for the Hearthstone World Championship
5th-8th: $750.00 + qualification points for the Hearthstone World Championship
9th-16th: $500.00
2nd: $5,000.00 + 50 qualification points for the Hearthstone World Championship
3rd/4th: $1,500.00 + qualification points for the Hearthstone World Championship
5th-8th: $750.00 + qualification points for the Hearthstone World Championship
9th-16th: $500.00
NOTE: In addition to the cash prize pool, all pro players and the 16 amateurs who make the brackets will receive NVIDIA Shield Android gaming tablets.
“I’m super excited to be working with NVIDIA to cast this tournament for the Hearthstone community,” said.” said Marcin “Gnimsh” Filipowicz, a well-known Hearthstone-tournament caster. “Hearthstone is one of those games that’s not only fun to play, but equally as fun (if not more) to watch. I can’t wait to see how this tournament plays out.”
Players can register for the tournament from Tuesday, February 24th at 9:00 AM EST until Thursday, March 19th at 12:00 PM EST. We’re looking forward to an amazing Hearthstone event and would love for you to join us.
As always, we’re open to feedback and would love to hear from you. Feel free to post your comments and questions below, in the GeForce eSports forums at http://esports.geforce.com/forums/, or contact Tournament Support directly on our public TeamSpeak3 server at cevots.gameservers.com:9366.
