Image from us.battle.net
Hearthstone, Blizzard’s strategic online card playing game has been announced to be a part of the upcoming BlizzCon in November, with a whopping prize pool of $250,000 dollars to be doled out to the most skilled players, with first place taking home $100,000. Hearthstone, a game only recently released this year in January,has quickly gained huge popularity, already with a player base 10 million strong.
The game is as of now released for both iOS and PC with an Android release already planned. A 1v1 turn based game, players are pitted against each other from around the world, using 9 unique classes, or summoners, and each with it’s own unique set of cards.
Depending on location, players from different regions will have to participate in qualifying tournaments to even have a chance at any prizes, and a total of 16 players, 4 from each region will ultimately go to the Hearthstone Tournament to play. Second place wins $50,000, third and fourth get $15,000, fifth through eighth get $7,500 and ninth through sixteenth will leave with $5,000 more to their name. Blizzard will also accommodate flight and housing costs for the sixteen players.
The event itself also adds to the reputation of the growing e-sport world, the world of competitive gaming. Never traditionally viewed as a real ‘sport’ but merely as a hobby, gaming has in recent years entered a new era, with massively popular games like League of Legends, Dota 2 and Counter Strike approaching production levels like that of televised sports. Individual gamers, through mediums like Twitch Tv, are even make livings off of playing video games on a live stream.
BlizzCon 2014 is set to take place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California through November 7-8.
See also: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/
