What is Hearthstone Esports? Playing Warcraft with Cards or Something More?

Hearthstone is a card game that was created and published by Blizzard. The developer is best known for his Warcraft series. By the way, HS is also associated with the universe of this game. All cards are dedicated to the world of Warcraft.

How to Play Hearthstone?

At first glance, the essence of the game is very simple, but if you do not go into details. Each Hearthstone player must collect his own deck of cards, with which he will then play matches against other gamers. First you need to choose your hero. After that, the players receive the starting cards in their hands. The first player takes 3, and the second player takes 4. Cards are laid out on the table, this costs mana. The players’ task is to destroy the enemy hero. It initially has 30 health points.

Luck and some randomness play a big role in Hearthstone. The player can have a good deck, but first the weakest cards will fall to him, or those that he cannot use at the initial stage. His opponent, on the contrary, will be more fortunate with the initial set, and he will be able to consolidate the advantage. But, nevertheless, a lot also depends on the players. They should have a balanced deck of cards that will allow them to play well at all stages of the match. They must also skillfully throw cards on the table, predict how the opponent can respond. All this comes with experience.

Donate also plays an important role in the game. To get top cards, you need to either play long and hard, or just donate money. This makes the threshold for entering the professional league higher. At the same time, Hearthstone eSports turns out to be more entertaining, since only high-level players with powerful cards get into it.

Hearthstone is Probably the Most Unconventional Esports!

Despite the randomness factor and high entry threshold, Hearthstone has a fairly well-developed esports component. Thousands of players participate in tournaments on a regular basis. The first championships began to be held back in 2014 — the World Cyber Arena 2014 event took place in China. The first Hearthstone esports players fought for almost 200 thousand dollars in prize money. The tournament was attended by players from all over the world, but the best results were shown by gamers from China.

Hearthstone World Championship 2014 kicked off literally a month later. It is one of the most prestigious competitions in Hearthstone esports. The strongest players on the planet gather once a year and find out who is the best. In addition to the prestigious status, cyber gamers claim an impressive prize. At the very beginning, 250 thousand US dollars were allocated for this tournament, then the prize fund was increased to one million. In 2017, this tournament was won by a player from Russia — Pavel Beltyukov, nicknamed “Pavel”.

In recent years, the esports discipline has been actively developing, new regular Hearthstone championships appear. Events such as Masters Tour and Grandmasters have become significant fresh events. The matches of these tournaments are played almost all year round. The finals culminate with hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money.

Hearthstone esports matches are played almost every day. They are actively followed by fans via the live streaming service Twitch. Also, fans regularly read the latest news, stay tuned. There are many thematic sites that are dedicated exclusively to this game and esports in it.