After opening the discussion on Twitter earlier, the G2 player took some time to write more extensively about it on Reddit.
The Hearthstone Championship Tour 2016 is in its last stages. This coming weekend, the Americas Summer Championships will be held, followed by the European and Asia-Pacific Summer Championships in the two weekends after. The winners of those tournaments will be granted a ticket to the World Championship in November. However, there is one more series of tournaments to be held in between. The Last Call Invitational invites, from each region, the eight player who have accumulated the most HCT points throughout the year. This can be achieved by either winning eligable tournaments or placing high on the Standard ladder in-game, which both grant points, albeit on different scales. The invited players will determine who will be the fourth and last representative of their respective regions.
However, many professionals have offered critique towards Blizzard for the way the Last Call Invitational is organized. With the tournament drawing closer and all invitees known, the discussion is coming alive. Dima "Rdu" Radu, the #1 HCT points gatherer in Europe, is one of the critical players. In a Reddit post he noted his biggest problems with the current format of the tournament. Below is a summary of the most important points Rdu makes in his post.
- The Last Call Invitational has no prize pool, as opposed to the Seasonal Championships. This is weird because for the LCI 93 HCT points were required to enter, but for the Seasonal Championships 6 to 15 HCT points was sufficient. This means players had to work a lot harder for the LCI.
- The current format looks rushed and isn't rewarding the players for all the time and effort they put into accumulating all the HCT points.
- All the players and casters should be in the same place for the tournament. Now players are split across two locations, whilst the casters are in a studio in Los Angeles.
- The competing players aren't going to be showcased well in the current set-up. A solutions could be found in renting a location in the region itself and hosting the tournament from there, in front of a live audience. Rdu gives last year's European Championship in Prague as an example.
- On a minor note, Rdu notices how the LCI players aren't awarded the Golden Celebration card back like the players who qualified for a Seasonal Championship, but with the Power Core card back, which all visitors of HCT tournaments get as well. This adds to the players not feeling rewarded about their achievement of making it to the Last Call Invitational.
- To conclude, Rdu says: "(...) with the current Last Call structure, the only outcome will be one super happy player that goes to Blizzcon and seven players that will feel like they wasted their time. This makes me wonder, is trying for Blizzcon even worth it?"
Rdu's already received feedback from many people in the community, as well as from colleagues in the Hearhstone pro scene.