Hearthstone Global Games Group Stage Has Started!

Hearthstone Global Games were announced to come back ~1.5 months ago. And yes, today’s November 15 – the first day of group stage. But I’ll have to be honest that I completely forgot about it. For some reason, it went under the radar – I only learned about it when I launched Twitch. There’s no official announcement, no reminder (other than on social media if you follow HS Esports account). Because of that, tournament has very little viewers despite approaching prime streaming time.

If you were a fan of HGG in the past, here’s how the new season (which is mostly a filler between Grandmasters seasons) compares:

First of all – teams will now only consist of 2 players and not 4 like last time. First player will be picked based on his performance in the 2019 Masters Tour (highest earner from each country/region gets the first invite). Second player will be invited by Blizzard based on a few different criteria such as lifetime earning and contributions to community (similarly to how the initial Grandmasters were picked). Other differences include the number of teams (32 now, 48 before) and length. 2019 Global Games will be played over the span of four weekends (Group Stage will be played for three weekends from now, and then Playoffs + Finals on the weekend of December 20) – 2017 and 2018 seasons were significantly longer.

Matches will be played in Bo5 Conquest with Shield Phase (which I honestly thought was rotating in favor of regular Conquest). Total rewards are $75.000, with $20.000 for the first and $10.000 for the second place.

You can watch the entire event streamed on the official PlayHearthstone Twitch channel.