After a successful 2014, Hearthstone is going back to DreamHack grounds, the tournament circuit that awarded more than $70,000 in prizes to card slingers last year.
The partnership between the esports veterans from DreamHack and Blizzard's card game phenomenon started in June 2014, after the circuit welcomed 128 players to Bucharest in the first ever DreamHack Hearthstone events. With the Hearthstone esports scene still in its infancy, stories were about to be born. The long days of competition finally crowned one Petar "Gaara" Stevanovic who would later become two-times DreamHack grand finalist, Tempo Storm's most decorated player and one of the highest earners in western Hearthstone bar the world champion. The opening career chapter of Dima "Rdu" Radu - the young prodigy that would make multiple headlines in the summer of 2014 - also began there as the Romanian finished in the final four.
Following the success of their inaugural HS tournament, DreamHack opened their doors to more events. In July, Hearthstone visited the grounds of DreamHack Summer to give Rdu his first ever major title after a dramatic grand final against Jason "Amaz" Chan. A smaller tournament was held next month in Valencia where Javier "Thalai" Dominguez trumped Jason "Ekop" Palys for the championship.
After the Valencia event, DreamHack and Hearthstone went on a three-month break before returning to the city where it all started - Bucharest. In one of the tensest series of that weekend, Thijs "ThijsNL" Molendijk took his first offline trophy to add to his decorated shelf of online achievements. Finally, on DreamHack Winter soil, the Ukrainian juggernaut Aleksandr "Kolento" Malsh took the championship check, being crowned as the king of the 2014 DreamHack circuit.
Given the myriad of exciting moments that accompanied the DreamHack HS events, a 2015 circuit was expected. What we've learned, though, is that it is coming sooner than expected.
The opening event for the new year will happen in Bucharest, Romania at the end of April, the organizers from DreamHack Romania told GosuGamers. While the exact details are still being specified, we've been told that there will be open qualifiers into the main event. Although the exact ratio between qualified and seeded players is still unknown, one could assume that DreamHack will want this event to be eligible for World Championship points and thus will reserve at least 50% of its spots for open qualifiers.
Official statement from DreamHack should hopefully be coming this week.
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