Tavern Hero Tournaments or Tavern Hero Qualifiers are special Blizzard-sanctioned Hearthstone tournaments at Fireside Gatherings, taking place in select locations across the Americas. Winners of Tavern Hero Tournaments are named Tavern Heroes and are invited to compete in the next upcoming Season Playoffs for the Hearthstone World Championship Tour.
History[]
2016[]
On January 23, 2016, an announcement was made by Blizzard to support the hosting of special Blizzard-sanctioned Hearthstone tournaments at Fireside Gatherings. Players competing at one of these Blizzard-sanctioned Hearthstone tournaments battled it out until a champion was crowned. These players were named Tavern Heroes and each earned a slot in the Hearthstone 2016 Americas Winter Preliminaries, where they were able to join the 128 players who had already earned slots in the Winter Preliminaries via the standard Hearthstone Competitive Points system.[1]
Since then, select Blizzard-sanctioned Hearthstone tournaments continued to take place at Fireside Gathering events.[2] The winners (Tavern Heroes) of these tournaments were invited into their region’s Season Preliminaries alongside the 128 players invited from the Hearthstone Competitive Point rankings. The Season Preliminaries were played in multiple onsite Fireside Gathering locations at the same time in double-elimination tournament format. Players could attend any location that was most convenient, but each player was matched against their opponent based on seeding, regardless of where in the world the players were participating.[3]
2017[]
The Tavern Heroes program reemerged for the 2017 Hearthstone Championship Tour. On Wednesday, November 30, 2016, approved Fireside Gatherings were able to host Tavern Hero Qualifiers. Winners of these competitions became eligible to participate in the Tavern Hero tournament for a chance to earn a spot at the 2017 Hearthstone Americas Winter Playoffs.[4]
Fireside Gatherings are now eligible to host Tavern Hero Qualifiers, where players can battle it out against their fellow patrons to determine who will be representing the local inn at one of the select Tavern Hero tournament locations across the Americas. The Tavern Hero tournament for the Winter Season took place the day before the Winter Playoffs began, and the top 8 players were crowned Tavern Heroes. These players then joined the top 64 competitors from the Hearthstone Competitive Point standings to do battle in the Americas Winter Playoffs.[4]
Tavern Hero Qualifier competition requirements:[5]
- Must create your event on [www.firesidegatherings.com FiresideGatherings.com]
- Must submit an e-mail to FiresideGatherings@blizzard.com and include a link to your event
- Must take place between two specified set dates, before the start of the next Season Playoffs
- Must sign up before the season deadline
- Must be open to the public, and held in a public venue
- Must have a minimum of 16 players
- Must be played using Standard decks in the Conquest format
- Must provide a completed event report and tournament bracket within 1 week of the end of the qualifier via email to FiresideGatherings@blizzard.com
- Organizers are not eligible to participate in their own Tavern Hero Qualifier
- Your Tavern Hero Qualifier must be free to enter. (Added in February 22, 2017 blog announcement)[5]
An organizer may run more than one qualifier during a Season, but all previous events' tournament results must be reported before new events are approved.[4]
References[]
- ↑ Become a Tavern Hero!. (2016-01-18). Retrieved on 2017-04-14.
- ↑ Host a Summer Tavern Hero Qualifier!. (2016-05-26).
- ↑ Avarius (2015-11-25). Join Us for the 2016 Hearthstone® Championship Tour!.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Host a Winter Tavern Hero Qualifier!. (2016-11-23).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Host a Spring Tavern Hero Qualifier!. (2017-02-22).
External links[]
- Initial January 2016 blog announcement on Tavern Hero Tournaments
- 2016 Hearthstone Championship Tour — Includes info on Tavern Hero Tournaments