After Masters Tour Los Angeles was moved to online-only format at the last moment, players have more or less expected that the same thing will happen to the upcoming Standard tours. The closest one will start on June 12 and take place in Jönköping, Sweden. Next one was supposed to take place somewhere in Asia-Pacific (the exact place wasn’t announced yet), starting July 16. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, Blizzard has decided to make both of them online-only for the safety of players & staff. While the latter is still quite a long time away, it’s better to announce such things earlier, so players will know whether they want to go through qualifiers (which begin very soon, on April 2).
We expect that this time the tournament’s broadcast won’t be disturbed, as Blizzard will prepare for it in advance.
Read more in the official blog post below:
In light of the ongoing global COVID-19 situation, we have decided to hold both Masters Tour Jönköping and the next Masters Tour in Asia-Pacific online to ensure the health and safety of all players and staff. To maintain the global integrity and fairness for all competitors, Masters Tour Online: Jönköping will still take place June 12 – 14 during Central European Time, while Masters Tour Online: Asia-Pacific will take place July 16 – 19 during Korea Standard Time.
The Masters Tour is built around the principal of a global community of players coming together to compete, and the relationships forged at each event are core to Hearthstone esports. While combating the current health crisis has required these events to be held remotely this online structure is the exception. We will keep tracking the global situation and are excited to hopefully get back to coming together in-person for both Masters Tour Montreal and Masters Tour Madrid later in the year.
While the chance to qualify for Masters Tour Online: Jönköping has ended, here are some of the ways you can snag an invite to Masters Tour Online: Asia-Pacific:
- Win an online Masters Qualifier between April 2 and May 24 on Battlefy.
- Finish with at least a 7-2 record at Masters Tour Los Angeles or Jönköping.
- Place within the Top 8 of a Masters Qualifier for Masters Tour Online: Asia-Pacific 5 times.
- Place top 16 Legend on the in-game Ladder in the months of April and May (see official Masters Qualifiers rules for details).
- Be a Hearthstone Grandmaster.
Check out the Masters Tour Online: Jönköping and Masters Tour Online: Asia-Pacific event pages for the full day-by-day schedules. Hearthstone esports returns on April 17 with the start of Grandmasters Season 1, where Hearthstone’s first new class, the Demon Hunter, will be eligible for play live on YouTube.com/HearthstoneEsports. Good luck, have fun, and we hope to see you in the Tavern!
