2015 Hearthstone World Championship

The 2015 Hearthstone World Championship was the second year of the Hearthstone World Championship. It took place at the end of fall 2015, at.

On November 7, 2015, Ostkaka defeated Hotform to become the 2015 Hearthstone World Champion, claiming $100,000 in prize money.

The Championships saw 16 players from around the world competing for a substantial cash prize, as well as the glory of being crowned Hearthstone World Champion. The Championship itself was preceded by Regional Qualifiers and Regional Championships, in which the best 40 players from each region were wittled down to 4 from each, who then progressed to the World Championship. Players qualified for their Regional Qualifiers through earning qualification points, gained through Ranked Play and participation in selected tournaments.

For general information and a list of other years of the Championship, see Hearthstone World Championship.

For the final standings, see the official BlizzCon site.

Changes since last year

 * Eligibility for Regional Qualifiers is now through a new qualification points system.
 * Australia and New Zealand will now be included in the new Asia-Pacific region, rather than the Americas region. This does not affect live play, in which players from Australia and New Zealand are still by default assigned to the Americas region.
 * Additional sub-regions now have a set number of players to qualify for their Regional Championships: The Americas region is split between US/Canada (6) and Latin America (2); and the new Asia-Pacific region is split between Korea (2), Taiwan (2), Japan (1), Southeast Asia (1), and Australia/New Zealand (2).
 * Participation in a Regional Championship, Regional Qualifier, or Fireside Gathering is now dependent on proof of residency or citizenship within the given eligible region.

Structure
The 2015 Championship is a tournament between 16 players, 4 from each region: Americas (North America and Latin America), Europe, China and Asia-Pacific (Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan).

These 16 competitors will be selected through Regional Qualifiers and Regional Championships, before competing in the World Championship itself.

Full rules and eligibility requirements for the Championship can be found here.

Summary
From the official site:


 * ''Point Structure – January to August: Gain Hearthstone World Championship points through ranked play seasons as well as Blizzard-sanctioned tournaments and events.


 * ''Regional Qualifiers – September: Each region’s top players (based on their point standing) compete in a double-elimination tournament for entry into their regional championships.


 * ''Regional Championships – September to October: The eight players who emerged at the top from the crucible of the regional qualifiers duke it out to see which of them are worthy to proceed to the Hearthstone World Championship to represent their region.


 * ''Hearthstone World Championship – Late Fall: Sixteen players who have proven their skill and tenacity in the Regional Championships will move on to the World Championship and compete for the title of 2015 Hearthstone World Champion.

Rewards
The 2015 World Championship features a total of $250,000 USD in prize money, divided between all 16 qualifiers. In addition, each set of Regionals appears planned to offer around $25,000 USD in prize money, divided between the top 8 qualifiers.

The World Championship itself distributes its prize money in the following scheme:
 * World Championship


 * $100,000 for 1st place
 * $50,000 for 2nd place
 * $15,000 for 3rd and 4th places
 * $7,500 for 5th through 8th places
 * $5,000 for 9th through 16th places

The exact details for Regionals prize money may vary between regions. The below amounts and distribution appear to refer to the Americas region.
 * Regionals


 * $10,000 for 1st place
 * $5,000 for 2nd place
 * $2,500 for 3rd and 4th places
 * $1,250 for 5th through 8th places

World Championship
The World Championship itself will see the top 16 players from all 4 regions compete for the tournament. While details have not yet been announced, the 2014 Championships saw players compete in a Round of 16, before the victors progressed to the Round of 8. From there, players competed in a standard elimination format of quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, until a winner was found.


 * Tournament format


 * ''Deck lists are submitted to tournament administrators prior to the event and each player’s class compositions will be made public prior to the first round of play.
 * ''The First Round of tournament play will be structured as 4 dual-tournament groups of 4 players each. The top 2 players from each group advance to the Second Round of play in an 8-player single-elimination bracket.
 * ''Group seeding is prepared by randomly assigning the 1st ranked players from each Regional Championship to a unique group. Then all 2nd rank players from each Regional Championship will be randomly assigned to a group that is different from the 1st rank of their fellow regional player. Finally the 3rd/4th rank players will be randomly assigned to groups that don’t already contain any players from their region.
 * ''For additional details, please see the official rules.


 * Match format


 * ''All matches will be best-of-5. The first player to win 3 games within the match is considered the winner of the match and advances.
 * ''Each player must submit decklists from three unique classes prior to each stage of the event. Players may submit new decks prior to each stage of the event.
 * ''A player must win one game with each of his three decks to win the match.
 * ''When a player wins a game, the deck used by the winning player cannot be used for the remainder of the match.
 * ''The losing player can keep the same deck used or switch to a different one of their choice.
 * ''Players will be told what classes their opponent has available, but they won’t know which class is picked until both players have picked.

Regional Qualifiers and Championships
Each region will select its 4 representatives through a Regional Qualifier, followed by a Regional Championship. The former will comprise a "40 player double-elimination tournament", from which 8 players will emerge. These 8 players will then compete at their Regional Championship, with 4 of these progressing to the World Championship.

Regional Qualifiers will take place in September, followed by Regional Championships in September-October.

Regional Championships
The 8 players for each Regional Championship are drawn from that region's Regional Qualifiers (see below).


 * Format


 * ''Deck lists are submitted to tournament administrators prior to the event and each players’ class compositions will be made public prior to the first round of play.
 * ''The First Round of tournament play will be structured as 2 dual-tournament groups of 4 players each. The top 2 players from each group advance to the Second Round of play in an 8-player single-elimination bracket, and already qualify for the World Championship.
 * ''Group seeding will be randomized with consideration to keep equal regional representation in each group where possible.

Regional Qualifiers
Regional Qualifiers precede the Regional Tournaments, comprising 40-player double-elimination tournaments. Players will be seeded into the 40-player tournament based on their standing in the 2015 Hearthstone point structure.


 * Format
 * ''Deck lists are submitted to tournament administrators prior to the event and each player’s class compositions will be made public prior to the first round of play.
 * ''The full Regional Qualifier will be a double-elimination tournament.
 * ''All seeding will be based on each player’s Hearthstone World Championship points.
 * ''The top 8 point earners will be awarded two round byes (i.e., these players will begin the double-elimination tournament from the upper bracket round of 16).
 * ''The regional Fireside Gathering Champion will be seeded as the 24th seed, unless their points would provide them a better seed instead.
 * ''Each Regional Qualifier will have an associated Last Call Tournament open to any players from the region who have earned at least 2 points during the qualifying period. The top 16 players from the single-elimination Last Call Tournament will advance to the Regional Qualifier and be seeded in the 25th-40th spot based on their Hearthstone World Championship points.
 * ''The double-elimination bracket is played out until the regional representatives are determined.
 * ''United States & Canada: 6 players
 * ''Latin America: 2 players
 * ''Europe: 8 players
 * ''China: 8 players
 * ''Taiwan: 2 players
 * ''Korea: 2 players
 * ''Australia & New Zealand: 2 players
 * ''Southeast Asia: 1 player
 * ''Japan: 1 player
 * ''In regions with only 1 representative, the player entering the Grand Final from the lower bracket will be required to win two best-of-5 matches against the upper bracket player, while the upper bracket player will only be required to win one of the two matches to advance to the Regional Championship.

Qualification points

 * ''Players are able to obtain 2015 Hearthstone World Championship points through Ranked Play seasons as well as through Blizzard-sanctioned tournaments. Points received are based on performance, with better results awarding more points. Players who achieve a minimum of 2 points by August 31 will be eligible for their regional Last Call Tournament, which feeds into their corresponding Regional Qualifiers. The 23 players per region with the highest point totals will receive advanced seeding in their Regional Qualifier and do not need to play in the Last Call Tournament in order to qualify. Any event that will receive points must follow the below criteria and submit all information to the Blizzard eSports team for review and acceptance. Any event that will receive points will be posted on PlayHearthstone.com no later than 2 weeks prior to the first round of play.

Qualification points can be earned through ending a Ranked Play season in the top 100 Legend positions. It appears these points will be available for several months prior to the beginning of Regional Qualifiers.

For full details of the Championship's points structure, see the diagram on the right. For details regarding event requirements and eligibility, see the official announcement.

Last Call Tournaments
More information will be added to this section as it becomes available.

Fireside Gathering Championship
Certain Fireside Gatherings will be selected by Blizzard to host tournaments, with the winner of each entered into the Fireside Gathering Championship. The Grand Champion of the Fireside Gathering Championship will be seeded directly into their respective Regional Qualifier.