Dylan Walker, Blizzard Entertainment

We were lucky enough to catch up with Jon "Orange" Westberg to discuss some of his feelings on the newest patch. If you remember correctly, he helped to popularize Tempo Rogue after the set rotation by hitting #1 Legend in Europe with the deck on R...

There is an old and impossibly beautiful coastal town in southern Italy by the name of Gallipoli that attracts tourists from far and wide in the summertime. This sleepy beach town is an endearingly well-preserved vestige of times long past. It also happens to be where Jolanda “Yocto94” Murra was born and raised before she moved to Rome to pursue a degree in medicine—and a professional career in esports.

She is getting close to wrapping up her university studies, but the esports success has been slow to roll in. However, the introduction of the Hearthstone Masters program has given Yocto94 a chance to stand out among the rest by qualifying for both ...

Bomb Warrior and Tempo Rogue were the two most popular deck archetypes in Week 1 of Hearthstone Grandmasters. Both decks made an appearance in some form across all three regions over the weekend with Bomb Warrior going 26–28 (48% win rate) and Tempo Rogue going 18–17 (51% win rate).

While not as popular, Cyclone Mage dominated in Asia-Pacific and Europe, claiming a 71% win rate over 28 games played and making it Week 1’s most successful archetype. In Week 2 it is the most popular archetype, making up exactly half of the decks in play. 

The X-0 Bracket

Congrats to the 12 players who went undefeated on the weekend!

When it was announced that Dylan "FroStee" O’Mallon was on the Asia-Pacific roster for Hearthstone Grandmasters, his phone exploded with love from the ANZ gaming community. “I had to turn off my notifications, my phone was buzzing every two seconds!” he said. “It's kind of crazy, to be honest. I had to keep this hidden for a month. I was so happy when the initial Masters announcement happened that I just wanted to tell everybody!”

When he was five years old, FroStee began taking lessons in taekwondo, a Korean martial art that would grow to become much more than just a hobby. “I just never stopped,” said FroStee. “I've been doing taekwondo for about 20 years at this point. About seven years down the track, I got offered to start instructing and took it up because I enjoy it that much.”

FroStee spent most of his youth practicing taekwondo and bouncing around Australia, from Victoria to Adelaide to Perth and back again. He grew up with console gaming before making the...

The stage is set! The full schedule for Hearthstone Grandmasters 2019 Season 1 has been published and our Grandmasters are currently practicing hard in anticipation of their first-round opponents. With the new Specialist format, the tried-and-true playstyles we’ve come to expect from some of these familiar faces has gone out the window. We are entering uncharted territory for most of these players, and while every matchup is worthy of a feature, these three stand out as “must-watch.”

Amnesiac vs. StrifeCro – Friday, May 17 at 3pm PDT / 11pm CET

The final series of the HCT 2019 World Championship between Casper "Hunterace" Notto and Torben "Viper" Wahl will go down as one of the most electrifying matches in Hearthstone history. From a 1-Health runback opener to game-defining aggressive Alexstrasza play to an absolutely nutty march of Legendary minions courtesy of Arch-Thief Rafaam that saw not one but two Azalina Soulthiefs played—we could not have asked for a better way to send off the Hearthstone Championship Tour.

The series was as close as could be, but it was Hunterace who lifted the trophy at the end of it all. “It was pretty insane,” said Hunterace, “My heart rate was very high. I haven't played any of those games in practice!”

I am the Hearthstone World Champion!! ...

...

David "killinallday" Acosta is in Asia for the first time in his life this week to compete at the HCT 2019 World Championship in Taipei. On day one of the tournament, he defeated Mihai "languagehacker" Dragalin in the first round, only to fall just short of cracking the top eight in a 5-game series against China’s Xu "LFYueying" Kai.

“I think I played pretty well,” said killinallday. “[but] I roped out a turn and didn't have time to complete the turn, so that was pretty bad. To be fair, I’d say that ...

When Kacper "A83650" Kwieciński tried Hearthstone on a whim he chose his handle by typing in a few random characters. As his professional career took off, the name stuck. Today, A83650 will be the first Polish player ever to compete at a Hearthstone World Championship.

“It just feels like a dream come true,” said A83650, who has been receiving encouraging messages from members of the Polish Hearthstone community ever since his plane touched down in Taipei. “The Polish community has been really supportive of me, it’s always a good feeling to know they are cheering for me.”

Right off the bat, A83650 has his work cut out for him, facing Americas point leader David "Justsaiyan" Shan. “Lineup-wise, the matchup against Justsaiyan should be the hardest one,” said A83650. “Justsaiyan just built his decks better, his decisions were smarter. I need to high-roll the series in order to win. I'm feeling much better against Hunterace and Ike.”

...

Who better than the reigning Hearthstone World Champion, Chen "tom60229" Wei Lin, to give predictions on what the meta will look like onstage at the HCT 2019 World Championship?

“Bomb Warrior is the trendiest deck on the ladder now,” tom60229 said. “So, there will probably be two kinds of lineups in the tournament—control decks with an even slower curve to hunt the Warriors, and full aggro decks, likely in the form of Rogue and Druid, that ban out the Warriors.”

He's mostly right! Only Raphael "Bunnyhoppor" Peltzer, Mihai "languagehacker" Dragalin, and Torben "Viper" Wahl decided not to bring a Warrior deck to Taipei. Everyone but Luo "Roger" Shengyuan brought a Rogue deck, with most being the Tempo variant with Waggle Pick. Roger was also the only player to bring Control Paladin, featuring the High Priest Thekal and Nozari combo. The new Zoo Warlock with Sea Giant and Magic Carpet is present in many lists, as is Control Shaman, Midrange Hunter, and Khadgar Mage. D...

Casper "Hunterace" Notto is the only person that can say “I am the number one point-earner worldwide.” He is also the only player competing at the upcoming HCT 2019 World Championship that did not play on stage at HCT Summer, HCT Fall, or HCT Winter. You take these facts, and you add it to the major set change upheaval in the professional scene, and suddenly people start doubting the wunderkind.

This is foolish of course, as Hunterace is approximately the most consistent Hearthstone player to ever touch the game. His laundry list of merits is a parade of single-digit placements. Out of the 9 HCT Tour Stops Hunterace played in last year, he placed top 8 at seven of them, including wins in both Seoul and Italy, 2nd place in Toronto and Germany, and a semifinal finish in Tokyo. He was the first player to ever hit 3-Star Master—the highest points status tier a player could achieve in the previous system.

...

Before going pro in Hearthstone, Tyler “Tyler” Hoang Nguyen was a well-known fashion blogger and photographer. With over one million (!) followers on his companies Instagram, he was invited to cover New York Fashion Week in 2014 as an influencer.

“I was getting connections with other Instagram bloggers and fashion bloggers and I was d...

Jia “Jia” Dee’s hands were shaking as she sat onstage at the World Showdown of Esports (WSOE), an all-woman Hearthstone tournament that took place last month in Manhattan Beach, California. A tremor or two is common for competitors in the spotlight, but a little out-of-character for a Hearthstone caster like Jia, who possesses a natural talent for performing in front of crowds.

“As I won more, I started to fo...

Torben "Viper" Wahl was one of just four players who did not bring a Hunter or Paladin deck to the HCT Winter Playoffs–Europe. As it happens, he also was one of just four players who qualified for the HCT Winter Championship by the end of the tournament. 

This was thanks in part to a homebrew Shaman deck he cooked up with Felix "kolmari" Baum. “It's essentially control Shaman,” Viper said. “I think you can compare it the most to Odd Warrior. Odd Warrior doesn't die and just removes everything the other guy plays and at some point the Odd Warrior has cards and the other guy doesn't have cards anymore. This Shaman kind of comes down to the same thing.”

Qualified for Champs the 2nd time this year!
Can’t wait to have a great time hanging out with everyone in LA again.

Peanut-Shaman is literally the nuts ...

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive Hearthstone. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’re bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, we examine what the takeaways ...

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive Hearthstone. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’re bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, we learn how to deal ...

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive Hearthstone. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’re bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, explore the similarities and differences between...

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive Hearthstone. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’re bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, we’re diving...

Team China are your 2018 Hearthstone Global Games (HGG) victors! Comprised of anchor Gao “Leaoh” Yang, Zheng “OmegaZero” Lin, Zhang “YouLove” Lichen, and He “Trunks” Huan, the team completed their HGG journey with a clean 3-0 win over a surging Brazil in the Grand Finals.

“I am super pumped now,” said Trunks. “This is my first trophy at a global tournament ever, and this also proves how good Chinese Hearthstone is! So, I'm truly happy.”

China took a different approach to the tournament than many other teams, assigning each player a couple of different classes in which to specialize. “Everyone was assigned and had their classes that they excel at,” Trunks said. “The one advantage that we have compared to other teams I think is that we did a better job on picks, bans, and the class player order.”

There is a single team that stands out among the competition remaining in contention for the Hearthstone Global Games (HGG) crown, and that is the last remaining representative from the Americas region: Brazil.

There’s something unique about this team, and it’s not (just) that they were the only team to go undefeated in the Swiss rounds. It’s the fact that the four teammates, Lucas "LucasCrt" Claudio, Lucas "Neves" Figueredo, Rodrigo "Perna" Castro, and Lucas "Rase" Guerra are longtime friends who forged a common bond long before HGG began.

For Team Brazil, the motivation for winning extends beyond prize money or fame. It’s about national pride and breaking down barriers for esports in Latin America. “Brazil has a lot of passion for gaming,” said Rase. “Not just Hearthstone but every game. The problem is our structure for esports is not as good as s...