With Spring behind us, Blizzard is looking forward to the Hearthstone Summer Championships.
After the recent Spring Championship was won by Frederik 'Hoej' Nielsen, Hearthstone’s Championship Tour is hotting up for the Summer season. As usual, the top 64 points earners from every region will be invited to the regional qualifiers. Joining them will be the top eight players from the Tavern Hero circuit in each region. From that pool, four players will emerge and move onto the Summer Champions, details of which are yet to be announced. $25,000 USD are also on the line at the qualifier stage.
The entire process will make use of the conquest format, with each player receiving a single ban during best of five series. Deck lists must be submitted before a certain time, depending on a player’s region:
- Europe deck list deadline: Tuesday, August 29 at 9:00 a.m. CEST
- Asia-Pacific deck list deadline: Tuesday, September 5 at 9:00 a.m. KST
- Americas deck list deadline: Tuesday, September 12 at 9:00 a.m. PDT
- Summer Championship deck list deadline: Tuesday, October 3 at 9:00 a.m. PDT
Regional playoffs will be swiss format, just as the Spring playoffs did. A player is automatically eliminated upon losing three matches. The swiss portion will be used to seed a top eight in each region, from which four players will qualify for the Summer Championship. Follow the link for more details about Tavern Hero events in your region.
Although specific details of the championship are still unknown, we do know that it will take place between October 13 and 15. Dates and times for the regionals (and stream times) can be seen below:
Europe
Saturday, September 2 – 1:00 a.m. PDT
Sunday, September 3 – 1:00 a.m. PDT
Asia-Pacific
Friday, September 8 – 7:00 p.m. PDT
Saturday, September 9 – 7:00 p.m. PDT
Americas
Saturday, September 16 – 8:00 a.m. PDT
Sunday, September 17 – 9:00 a.m. PDT
Speaking of streaming, Blizzard also confirmed that the “usual suspects” will be returning to cast HCT Summer. Full details below:
Dan ‘Frodan’ Chou
Brian Kibler*
Simon ‘Sottle’ Welch
Alexander ‘Raven’ Baguley
TJ ‘Azumo’ Sanders
Nathan ‘ThatsAdmirable’ Zamora
?* Kibler is unavailable for the Asia-Pacific Playoffs, and Robert Wing will be filling in.
Ironically, the summer tournament will be taking place well after the release of Knights of the Frozen Throne. In case the prospect of seeing the world’s best players facing off isn’t enough by itself, we will get to see them do it in a fresh, unsolved meta game.
