Lately, it seems like there’s been nothing but news about events being cancelled due to the Coronavirus. GDC 2020 has been postponed until summer, and the future looks unsure for everyone hoping to get to see their upcoming favorite events.
But now we have news of a tournament that seems like it could be far enough in the future that we won’t have to worry about cancellation or threats of pandemic viruses! Blizzard has announced the Hearthstone Masters Tour for Madrid to be held in mid-December, between December 11th and December 13th.
We're excited to announce that in December, the Masters Tour will take place in Madrid @DreamHackSpain!
🇪🇸 Event Page: https://t.co/8T4yQbJ8Vd pic.twitter.com/upRVbIpRW9
— Hearthstone Esports (@HSesports) March 2, 2020
“Hearthstone Masters Tour Madrid brings together the best Hearthstone players from around the world to compete for their share of more than $250,000, out of the $3,000,000 total prize purse for 2020, and the title of Masters Tour Champion,” Blizzard explains in their overview. “Fans can catch all of the action on Youtube.com/PlayHearthstone as we live stream the event on December 11-13.”
To compete, players must qualify for participation in the tournament. If accepted, players will take part in the three day tournament through a gauntlet of challenges.
The first day will hold five rounds of Swiss pairings, with players dropped after receiving their third match loss. Players with three or more match wins advance to day two, which features four more Swiss pairings rounds under the same rules.
After the conclusion of the Swiss rounds, the top eight players advance into a single-elimination playoff. The top eight players return on the third day to compete in the playoff via brackets.
All matches are played in-person at IFEMA using four-deck, best-of-five Conquest formats with a ban. The tournament does operate under a bring-your-own-device rule, so if you’re competing, make sure you don’t forget whatever you’re playing with!
It’s refreshing to see the tournament moving forward, to be sure. Earlier this year, Blizzard postponed the Hearthstone Masters Tournament that would be taking place in Indonesia before relocating it the Los Angeles, California instead.
Of course, there’s still more than nine months between now and the start of the Hearthstone Masters Madrid tournament. There’s no telling what’s going to happen between now and then, or what the status could be for Coronavirus’s many outbreaks at that point.
Hopefully the world will have managed to get it all under control and the tournament can go off without a hitch, but there won’t be any way to tell until we get there. As far off in the future as it is, one would only hope that there won’t be any issues still persisting that could get in the way.
