With Blizzard having disclosed the format of the Hearthstone World Championships to take place at BlizzCon later this year, May has been an exciting month for Hearthstone eSports.

Hearthstone World Championships

The Hearthstone competitive scene has come a long way since the eight person launch tournament, with the World Championships having a total prize pool of US$250,000, US$100,000 of that going to the first place winner. The 16 players that make it to the World Championships will comprise four players from each region: the Americas, Europe, China and two each from Taiwan and Korea. This isn't new information, but last month Blizzard announced how these players would be selected, and this is where it can get a little confusing.

Players will qualify for one of the 130 spaces in their region’s qualifier tournament, with these players then battling it out in order to find the four who will represent their region at the World Championships. Players who reach the lofty heights of rank 16 Legend or above in their region between April and August will automatically be eligible to participate. Furthermore, players can also qualify through community tournaments including ESL's very own Tt eSPORTS Summer Challenge. After these positions have been allocated, a last call tournament will be held to fill up any remaining positions.

How to qualify with ESL

ESL is proud to be hosting two of the ways you can get your hands on a spot in the regional qualifiers. First, for the Americas we have the $500 Pre Season Cup #33. This will take place on June the 1st, with details on how to sign up available here.

Next, for European Hearthstone players we have the Tt eSPORTS Summer Challenge, which will take place every Sunday in June starting on June the 1st. Along with a chance of a place in the regional qualifiers, Tt eSPORTS are giving away some of their great gaming merchandise including their BLACK Element gaming mouse, SHOCK headset and PYRRHUS mouse mat to the top three players each week. For full details on the prizes, as well as how you can compete, go here.

New card backs

Outside of eSports news, if you're into new card backs or new cards altogether, May has been a good month for you, too.

Ranked play has ended, and those of you who reached rank 20 or above will have received your Black Temple card back. June brings a new season of ranked play, and with it the confirmed new card back for this season, so get out there and start climbing the ladder!

For those of you who are less inclined to play ranked but still want to earn your own card back, don't fret! To celebrate the launch of Hearthstone on iPad, Blizzard announced ‘Fireside Gatherings’ to encourage people to get together with friends to play Hearthstone. If you go to a Fireside Gathering event, or even if you just play Hearthstone on the same subnet as your friends, you can earn the Fireside Friends card back. Full details on how to earn this card back can be found on Blizzard’s site.

Curse of Naxxramas

Finally, May was also an exciting month for Curse of Naxxramas information as the class cards for Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Shaman were revealed. Blizzard has been announcing new cards quite regularly, and with only three class cards left, we can expect that Curse of Naxxramas card details will continue to be released throughout June. For more information about the expansion as a whole, see our article dedicated to the single player campaign.

“My magic will tear you apart!” Into 2 pieces! Mage's Duplicate doubles the trouble for foes in Curse of Naxxramas! pic.twitter.com/HGWqtdv3bM

— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) May 29, 2014

That about wraps up the Hearthstone news for May, so head over to http://www.esl.eu/eu/hearthstone or http://www.nationalesl.com/us/hearthstone/ to sign up for your chance to go to the World Championships, and we’ll see you in July for the next roundup!