Hold on to your decks: Dramatic ‘Hearthstone’ competitive changes still to come

Last fall, Blizzard Entertainment announced the beginning of open qualification tournaments for its popular digital card game. No longer is grinding up to Legend rank and beyond the only way to get into Hearthstone esports; now anyone can compete in online Masters Qualifiers from anywhere, and if they do well, advance to three major in-person Masters Tour events. The first was in Las Vegas this June; the second is August 16 to August 18 in Seoul (local time).

Grandmasters, the best 16 players in the world in each region, got automatic invites to those events and other online-only competitions with each other, requiring less travel and giving them more opportunities to focus on their own streaming and brands. (Francisco “PNC” Leimontas, Kim “Surrender” Jung-soo, and Chris “Fenomeno” Tsakopoulos took home the top prizes in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and European regions this past Sunday for Grandmasters Season 1.)