Hearthstone Global Games

Hearthstone Global Games is an official Blizzard tournament in which teams of specially selected players from various nations compete against each other for outstanding prize money and renowned glory.

2019 Hearthstone Global Games
The 2019 Hearthstone Global Games is the third official Hearthstone Global Games tournament event.

Teams from 32 countries compete in a four-week dual tournament format, ending in a final Top 4 single elimination bracket.

Each team consists of two players. The first player will be that country or region's highest monetary earner from the 2019 Masters Tour (Las Vegas, Seoul and Bucharest). The second player on each team will be invited based on criteria including lifetime earnings, contributions to the Hearthstone community, and more.

The countries of Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Japan, and Denmark made it to the Top 4 brackets. In the grand finals, Denmark overcame the United Kingdom to win the 2019 Hearthstone Global Games.


 * Official site - PlayHearthstone.com

2018 Hearthstone Global Games
The 2018 Hearthstone Global Games was the second official Hearthstone Global Games tournament event.

The first phase of the tournament was a Swiss-format bracket that included all 48 teams. The Swiss rounds ran from mid-July to early September, wittling down the number of teams to 16. Afterwards, the 16 teams played in a dual tournament format lasting two weeks in September. Eight teams advanced to the HGG playoffs, which took place at BlizzCon 2018.

In the tournament, China, Norway, Brazil, and New Zealand made it to the top 4 playoffs. China won against Brazil in the grand finals.


 * Official site - PlayHearthstone.com

2017 Hearthstone Global Games
The inaugural 2017 Hearthstone Global Games featured teams from 48 different countries who duked it out online to determine who would make it to the live event finals at the end of the year. First announced on October 26, 2016, the top ranked player from each eligible country based on the Hearthstone Global Standings was invited to participate for their national team. The additional three players per team were voted into the team by the community to round out the teams. Players were nominated for voting based on their Hearthstone Competitive points, previous competitive results, and their standing in the community.

Games for the 2017 Global Games tournament start on April 11, 2017 and can be viewed on the official PlayHearthstone Twitch stream.


 * Official site - PlayHearthstone.com
 * 2017 Hearthstone Global Games official competition rules

Qualification Phase
The qualification phase is divided into three phases and uses a best-of-five, class vs. class format with nine unique classes per team. Each player on the team will have two classes they are able to play. The ninth class will be designated as the “Ace Deck” and may be used for game five instead of previously un-selected decks of the “Ace Player”.


 * Phase 1
 * The 48 participating teams will be seeded and placed into one of eight groups based on their country’s total Hearthstone Competitive Points for the Winter Season.
 * Each group of six teams will compete online against each other with each team playing each other once (Round Robin).
 * The top three teams from each group will advance to Phase 2.
 * Phase 2
 * The 24 remaining teams will be seeded and placed into one of six groups based on their country’s total Hearthstone Competitive Points for the Spring Season.
 * Each group of four teams will again compete against each other in a Round Robin.
 * The top two teams from each group, and the four highest 3rd place teams based on tie-breakers will advance to Phase 3.
 * Phase 3
 * The remaining 16 teams will then be seeded into a single elimination bracket.
 * The top four teams will advance to the live Global Games Finals.

Finals
The Global Games Finals used a best-of-nine, class vs. class format similar to the qualification period. The four finalist teams emerged from the countries of the USA, Czech Republic, Korea, and Ukraine. The final four teams were seeded into a single elimination bracket.

From August 25-26 at Gamescom 2017, these four finalist teams battled it out for the HGG championship. The Czech Republic emerged as the victor and was crowned the world's first HGG champions.

The entire event took place over 15 weeks, in 48 countries. In total, 48 countries competed for a share of $332,000 USD. The teams that made it to the group of 8 included the teams from the Czech Republic, China, New Zealand, USA, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Mexico, and South Korea.

A total prize pool of over $300,000 USD was awarded to the regional teams that qualified for the tournament.