Hearthstone Grandmasters Season One Coming in May

By Liz Lanier

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Hearthstone’s” Masters Program of esports competition will continue with the Grandmasters starting in May, Blizzard Entertainment announced Wednesday.

Season one of Hearthstone Grandmasters starts May 17 to three regions: Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Per region, 16 players will be selected, for a total of 48 players. At the conclusion of all matches, players will be ranked based on how many wins they garnered in their division. Each region has two divisions of eight players each.

While Blizzard gave some enticing details about its Hearthstone Masters esports competition (and the $250,000 prize pool) last month, we didn’t know much about the final part: Hearthstone Grandmasters.

The announcement also detailed how players can join in on the competition.

“Players will be invited to join Hearthstone Grandmasters in its inaugural year by based on criteria including lifetime earnings, points earned during HCT 2018, seasonal points leaders, contributions to the ‘Hearthstone’ community, and more,” according to the press release.

The top three players in each division will be able to move on to compete in the Grandmasters Seasonal Playoff. Further, the finalist from each region for that event will get a chance to compete in the Hearthstone Global Finals coming at the end of the year, which has a $500,000 prize pool.

If you’re more of a spectator than a competitor, matches will broadcast each weekend on the “Hearthstone” Twitch channel .