Statistics suggest that Wild format has been getting more popular for a while now. In China, the number of Legend players in Wild is often already higher than in Standard. While it’s still far from the case on NA & EU, it’s hard to deny that more and more players are interested in it.
At the same time, every official tournament, including the Masters Tour & Grandmasters circuits, are Standard-only. Ever since the split between Standard and Wild, the latter didn’t have any official competitive scene. It’s been a very long time since the last Wild Open tournament, the only beacon of hope for Wild players who want to challenge themselves.
But why are we talking about this? Well, because not all hope is lost.
What is HCTS?
Sparkz, who has been a long-time user and a moderator on our Discord channel, partnered with Solem to host two (NA & EU) $1k USD Wild tournaments back in May of this year. It had a combined 700+ participants and was rather successful. HCTS had to wind down due to Sparkz, having to take on other matters.
Right now, there’s still a lot of experimentation going on, such as trying to find a good format. But in general, the idea is to have a competitive format (structured similarly to official Blizzard Masters Tour, with Swiss followed by play-offs) with some extra rules and twists. The most important one will be a ban list. As you all know, it’s common for Wild format to have some cards that, let’s just say, ruin the experience. And sometimes it takes a long time for Blizzard to do anything about them (and even then, they only touch the most broken ones). With a ban list curated for the current meta, the tournament should be fresh and devoid of completely degenerate decks. Of course, it’s still a Wild format, so crazy things will happen – but in a more “controlled” manner. And the best thing is that the ban list will cycle from season to season, making much bigger swings in the slowly changing Wild meta, possibly making room for decks that would never see play in a format without any bans.
On top of that, Sparkz is currently hosting eight custom formats with varying deckbuilding restrictions, such as a budget format (where you can only submit decks that cost up to 3200 Dust) or a Whizbang tournament (where you can only play Whizbang the Wonderful or Zayle, Shadow Cloak) aimed mostly at more casual players (but everyone is free to join).
How to Enter
If you want to participate, here’s how you can enter:
- Join HCTS Discord server. Accept the rules by reacting with a thumbs up, and then select your region role from the #rules-and-info channel.
- Follow this guide to setup your Battlefy account and get started with HCTS.
- Registration is already open! You can find the links to register for the tournaments in the check-in channels of Discord server or on Battlefly.
Yep, it’s that simple. There are no entry fees or anything like that, so if you want to try yourself, you can enter today!
Upcoming Tournaments
You can find all of the upcoming tournaments on Battlefly. And here’s a quick roundup of what’s coming next and the list of custom rules:
Whizbang Warfare
- Whizbang Warfare is a repeating & casual HCTS tournament that takes place briefly over the course of an evening.
- Matches will be a simple Bo3 that involves no ban-phase or conquest style deck usage.
- Whizbang the Wonderful and Zayle, Shadow Cloak are the only valid cards in this format.
Dustry Drought
- Dusty Drought is HCTS’ official budget format. Popularity will determine if this becomes a featured format during the Major.
- This edition of Dusty Drought has a 4000 Dust cap. Individual decks may not exceed 4000 in dust value
- Dust value is based solely on rarity. (which means cards obtained for free, such as Kael'thas Sunstrider, still count for its full cost.)
- If certain decks overwhelm the format with power levels that shut out all other decks, Dusty Drought may adopt a ban list going forward.
- So far there has been no need for such Ban lists!
- Use our Deck builder to keep track of decks’ dust costs!
Pauper’s Riot
- Pauper’s Riot is HCTS’ casual budget format.
- This edition of Pauper’s Riot will only allow Basics, Commons, and Rares. Future versions of Pauper’s Riot may allow even fewer card rarities.
Yogg’s Arena
- Yogg’s Arena is an experimental casual format for HCTS, and is the first in a series of 4 Old God themed tournaments!
- Every deck must contain Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End or Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate
- Players who bring decks that do not benefit/utilize the specified old god (i.e. Pirate Warrior) may find they are not awarded their placement title.
N’Zoth’s Army
- N’zoth’s Army is an experimental casual format for HCTS, and is the first in a series of 4 Old God themed tournaments!
- Every deck must contain N’zoth, the Corruptor or N’zoth, God of the Deep
- Players who bring decks that do not benefit/utilize the specified old god (i.e. Pirate Warrior) may find they are not awarded their placement title.
C’Thun’s Cult
- C’Thun’s Cult is an experimental casual format for HCTS, and is the first in a series of 4 Old God themed tournaments!
- Every deck must contain C’Thun or C’Thun, the Shattered.
- Players who bring decks that do not benefit/utilize the specified old god (i.e. Pirate Warrior) may find they are not awarded their placement title.
The Old Ones
- The Old Ones is the season finale and expansion hype event to the Old God themed week of tournaments!
- Decks must follow the following rules:
- One deck must contain: C’Thun and/or C’Thun, the Shattered
- One deck must contain: N’zoth, the Corruptor and/or N’zoth, God of the Deep
- One deck must contain: Yogg-Saron, Hopes End and/or Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate
- One deck must contain: Y’Shaarj, Rage Unbound and/or Y’Shaarj, the Defiler
- An old god used in one deck cannot be used in another deck.
Gruul’s Duel
- Gruul’s Duel is the format designed for players who have lost one to many times to “Created By” or “Random”. This format has 3 varying levels of banned “RNG”, each level bans a different range of cards.
- As usual, if certain decks overwhelm the format with power levels that shut out all other decks, Gruul’s Duel may adopt a ban list going forward.
Conquest Clash
- Conquest Clash will be a way for HCTS to test ban lists, format changes, and flow and using the feedback to conduct our end of season Major.
- This iteration of Conquest Clash will feature no ban list (will be monitored closely with the release of Darkmoon Faire)
- Run Bo5 Shieldless Conquest (same as the previous tournament)
- This two-day event will run Swiss brackets followed by a top 32 playoffs
- It has yet to be determined whether it will be the top 2 from 16 groups, top 4 from 8 groups, or top 3 from 11 (33 total instead of 32)
- The Prize Pool will follow Sparkz’ new “Opt-in” system that was created to curate for all audiences.
Future Tournaments
Sparkz’ has already planned out 5 completely unique formats for future tournaments, and HCTS has yet to experiment with any tournaments following a specialist format. Those planned tournaments include.
- Medivh’s List (Casual)
- Heavily restrictive ban-lists target whole archetypes.
- Toki’s Table (Competitive)
- Only cards from x expansions are allowed
- Best in Class (Competitive)
- Conquest Clash but Specialist Format
- Skirmish on Mainstreet (Casual)
- Bo3 Each deck must belong to a different Gadgetzan Gang
- Bob’s Brawl (Casual)
- [Redacted]
Prizes & Prize Pools
Prize Pools will operate as follows:
- No Entry-fee with optional USD$2+ opt into prize pool
- Users will only be able to claim prize money if they entered prize money.
- Users who donate over USD$10 amount will be automatically eligible for the next tourney’s prize pool.
- HCTS’ founder, Sparkz, will personally handle all prize pool interactions and display them with full transparency. (He will show who donated and the amount donated unless asked not to disclose.)
- Prize money that is not claimed in a tourney will always be directed to the following tourney.
- Prize money that HCTS wishes to use to support aspects of HCTS that aren’t prize-pools, HCTS will first ask the user who donated it if the purpose is okay, and then submit the funds for a community vote.
- Prize money provided by a tournament sponsor will be left to the sponsor to decide who can claim the prize money.
