Hearthstone in esports
The game is played as an esport, with high-level tournaments such as Blizzard's official World Championship featuring prize pool of up to $1 million,[1] and livestreamers can earn money streaming gameplay on Twitch.
The forced gender division was abolished a few days after it was announced for Assembly Summer when the IeSF switched to an "open for all" format.
Though AmazHS gave his support to Rdu afterward, he stated that DreamHack should have been better at organizing the tournament and implored Blizzard to implement game modes in which such forms of cheating are not possible.
[12] Hearthstone's inaugural World Championship concluded at BlizzCon 2014 and featured a total prize pool of US$250,000 and the Last Hero Standing format.
Technology company Nvidia held a professional Hearthstone tournament series that spanned eight weeks, from the end of March to the middle of May, with a total prize pool of US$25,000.
Players have to earn enough HCT points in order to qualify for major tournaments at the end of each season which are held in three of the game's regions.
[25] The fifth Hearthstone World Championship took place in April 2019 and was held in Taipei; the winner was Norwegian Casper "Hunterace" Notto that received $250,000.
[28] In October 2019, Blizzard announced it would ban a player for one year from competing and forfeited all of his winnings earned during Season 2 because he spoke in support of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests during a tournament interview, which violated the rule against promoting a political stance during a broadcast.
[33] This was also the first ever time that the defending champion qualified for the next World Championship tournament, but Kenta "Glory" Sato ended up just one series away from winning it back-to-back.
[12] In 2014, Kinguin project coordinator Giovanni Varriale stated that Hearthstone was one of the most popular games on Twitch, with "thousands of people spend[ing] hours watching the best players in action.
Nathan 'ThatsAdmirable' Zamora stated that the work is his main source of income, and that the service is useful for players that have plateaued and are unsure on how to change their play style.
[38][39] During a GrandMasters Season 2 match on October 6, 2019, player Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai made statements in support of the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.
During a post-match interview on the official Taiwanese broadcast, Blitzchung wore ski goggles and a respirator mask similarly to the protesters, and used the popular pro-democracy slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time".
As a result, Blizzard removed Blitzchung from the tournament, rescinded his Season 2 prize winnings, and banned him from Hearthstone competitions for one year.
[41] Blizzard stated that while it "[stands] by one's right to express individual thoughts and opinions", players were still subject to their official rules and regulations during competition.
As coverage of the protests have been subject to censorship in mainland China, critics considered the decision to be an act of self-censorship intended to appease Chinese investors and stakeholders.
[44][45] Comparisons were also drawn with a recent controversy involving Daryl Morey, owner of the Houston Rockets basketball team, over a Twitter posting that similarly pledged support for the protests.
[41][46] The developers of the similar game Gods Unchained invited Blitzchung to its own tournament, offering to also repay the winnings that Blizzard had rescinded.
