Hearthstone is getting in-game tournaments … just don’t call it ‘tournament mode’

Going on nigh four years, Hearthstone players have asked for a tournament mode. We’ve read about it on Reddit. We’ve listened to community podcasts such as The Angry Chicken and Well, Met! clamor for it. We’ve even seen Blizzard Entertainment’s esports team encounter problems in its own Hearthstone Championship Tour events because this game lacks a dedicated tournament mode. In a press briefing Monday, we learned that the market-leading digital card game is getting tournaments.

“We’re being careful not to call it tournament mode because this is a specific implementation of tournaments,” Hearthstone game director Ben Brode said during Monday’s briefing. “I don’t think it’ll be the last implementation of a competitive format inside the game client. But I think it’s one that’s really exciting.”