ESL is teaming up with Newegg to bring you the brand new Hearthstone Legendary Series.
Our ESL studios in Burbank, California are set to host the grand finals of the 12-week season, which will feature two tournament cups each week. Some of the best Hearthstone players will be invited on merit in addition to the open signup competition in order to compete for the grand US$36,000 prize pool.
Trevor Schmidt, director of online operations for ESL America, said of the upcoming Hearthstone Legendary Series:
"Our goal is to give players a compelling and exciting series and provide the community with a high-quality weekly competition open to everyone. The ESL studios will play host to both the finals and weekly broadcasts hosted by Dan "Frodan" Chou that will feature some of the best Hearthstone players around."
Check out our Hearthstone Legendary Series portal!
Legendary Series Match Day
Every week, high-stakes action will unfold on the Legendary Series Match Day. This main event will feature eight of the world’s best Hearthstone players going at it each week to earn points for the seasonal rankings. The rankings will be used to decide the participants for the grand finals at the end of the season, with each week's Match Day contestants selected according to the following criteria:
Week one (November 22nd)
- Four players will be invited based on merit
- Two players who finished as top two during the preseason tournament will be invited
- Two players will come from the top two finishers in that week's Challenger Tournament (more details below)
Weeks two to eight (November 29th to January 10th)
- Four players will be invited based on merit
- Two players will come from the previous week's top four players
- Two players will come from the top two from the Challenger Tournament that week
Only the top three players of each Match Day will receive points for the overall standings, with the distribution of these shown below:
1st place | 80 points |
2nd place | 35 points |
3rd place | 15 points |
Challenger Tournament
The second of the two separate tournaments each week is the Challenger event, which will conclude before each week’s Legendary Series Match Day. Starting November the 16th, this open signup tournament will feature a US$500 prize pool for each of the 12 weeks, with the top two finishers advancing to the Match Day competition.
The rules for the Challenger Tournament are as follows:
- Best of three, single elimination brackets
- The winner must retain their deck, but the loser cannot use the same deck again
- No sideboarding
- A top two finish guarantees participation in that week’s Legendary Series Match Day
The grand finals
After the 12 week series draws to a close, eight players will advance to the LAN finals at our studios in Burbank, California, with the finalists getting the chance to secure their own share of the US$20,000 grand finals prize pool based on their respective performances. The participants for the playoffs are determined by their past performances as follows:
- Via one of four invites given to the first place winners of weeks five, six, seven or eight
- Via one of four invites given to those with the top four point totals at the end of week eight
If you ever wanted to show off your Hearthstone skills to the rest of the world, now’s your chance! Take part in our open Challenger tournament and seize your opportunity to win cash prizes and potentially be part of the ESL Legendary Series yourself - sign up here!