Introduction
Hello, all with Winter HCT Season coming to a close I decided to put an article on how to actually qualify for HCT Playoffs in Spring Season. First let’s explain what Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT) is: “The Hearthstone World Championship is the largest Hearthstone tournament in the world, where 16 exceptional players from around the globe come together to duel for glory, a share of the $1 million prize pool, and the esteemed title of World Champion.” HCT is a year-long format which will conclude with a final round of 16 players fighting in January 2018 for a prize pool of $1 million. My goal in this article is to give you information on how you could be one of this 16 players.
Format of the Hearthstone Championship Tour
The Hearthstone Championship Tour is divided into 3 competitive seasons, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Each season is a 3 months competition in which players try to accumulate HCT points. Points are given for Legend ladder finishes, Open Cups wins, and Major tournaments (open tournaments with more than 10 000$ price pool) wins, a small number of points is also given to players taking part in HCT Playoffs and HCT Season Championships. At a season end the top 64 HCT points owners as well as top 8 Tavern Hero qualifiers players from a Region take part in HCT Playoffs. Top 4 players from each Region HCT Playoffs take part in 16 players Season Championship.Top 4 players from Season Championship get a spot at the Hearthstone World Championship finals.
Earning HCT points
The first part of each player qualification for HCT Playoffs is Earning HCT points. There is a multitude of options for Earning HCT Points.
Reaching legend in Hearthstone is not only a great achievement for the player but also grants a number of HCT points depending on the player finish here is how these points are earned:
Placement Points 1st - 12 2nd - 10th - 10 11th - 25th - 8 26th - 50th - 6 51st - 100th - 4 101st - 200th - 2 Legend - 1
Every day a number of Open cups are hosted. Each season the top player finish in an Open cups grants HCT points. You could have points from a number of cups, for example, 1st place finish, 3rd place finish, 8th place finish you will only get points for the 1st place finish, though.
You could find a full schedule of Open cups that grant points here:
eu.battle.net/hearthstone/en/esports/schedule/?context=compete&only-participate=true
You could filter by region and season.
Monthly Cup points:
Placement Points 1st - 5 2nd - 3 3rd - 4th - 2 5th - 8th - 1
A Hearthstone Major tournament is an open tournament with a prize pool of more than 10 000$ or equivalent currency. These events are often offline. An example of such events is Dreamhack, Insomnia and such.
You could find a full schedule of Major Tournaments that grant points here:
eu.battle.net/hearthstone/en/esports/schedule/?context=compete&only-participate=true&type=major
Major Tournament points:
Placement Points 1st - 15 2nd - 12 3rd - 4th - 8 5th - 8th - 4 9th - 16th - 2
Qualifying for Season playoffs grants some HCT points toward the next season rankings. For example, if you qualify for Winter Season playoffs you will earn HCT points for the Spring Season.
Here is how much points you will earn based on your finish in HCT Season playoffs.
Playoffs Placement Points 1st - 4th - Qualification 5th - 8th - 4 9th and Below - 2
If you are lucky enough to reach the HCT Season Championship and be one of the top 16 players in the world in the current season you will earn some HCT points toward next season rankings.
Season Championship Placement Points 1st - 20 2nd - 15 3rd - 4th - 10 5th - 8th - 8 9th - 16th - 6
How many points are enough to qualify for Playoffs
I suppose that after all this information you are asking yourself ok now I know how to earn points but how much I actually need. A rule of thumb that I use to calculate HCT points is that I calculate 3 open cup wins per season as well as 3 top 200 Ladder finishes which mean that for Spring you will need at least 21 HCT points to qualify but if you want to be on the safe side I suggest to aim for at least 23 HCT points.
You could find current standings here:
eu.battle.net/hearthstone/en/esports/standings/winter/search?prefix=#standings-header
Qualification to Playoffs trough Tavern Hero Tournament
Another way to qualify for Playoffs is tough Tavern Hero Tournament. Blizzard will designate certain Fireside Gatherings as Tavern Hero tournaments. These tournaments are events that take place near you and the winner from such tournament will play in the Season Tavern Hero Tournament which takes place 1 day before the actual Season Playoffs. The top 8 players from Season Tavern Hero Tournament will play alongside the 64 HCT points players in the Season Playoff. Tavern Hero qualification is probably the easiest way to qualify for the Season Playoffs. List of Fireside gatherings and Tavern Hero Qualifiers near you could be found here: eu.battle.net/hearthstone/en/fireside-gatherings
Last Call
The HCT points reset between seasons. However, the total number of points from all seasons determine the number 1 player from each region. This means that the player in a region which has the most HCT Points overall (through all seasons) will qualify directly to HCT World Championship finals.
Season Playoff Tournament Format
The Season Playoff tournament format is as following:
First Part: 7 rounds of Swiss to determine the top 8 finishers
Second Part:
8 players single elimination tournament bracket.
Season Championship Tournament Format
First part:
4 groups dual-elimination group stage Each group will have 1 player from each region.
Second Part:
8 players single elimination tournament bracket to determine the top 4 finishers who will earn a place on the HCT World Championship Finals.
How a player should prepare for the Hearthstone Championship tour
So after we discussed what it takes to actually make it to the HCT World Championship Finals let’s see what you need to be doing. First, the HCT tour is a long format and you should be mentally prepared for it. A player should aim each season to reach top 200 finish depending on win rate this could take hundreds of games per month reaching legend should take you between 200-300 games and a top 200 finish will probably take another 100 or so games depending on win rate. So a player should calculate at least 400 ladder games per month. Besides ladder playing in open cups and winning them is important 3-4 open cups a week is a reasonable number. An open cup takes between 1 and 8 hours to complete so you have to calculate this time in your schedule. Good thing is that once you win an open cup you don’t have to play more open cups in the season so taking the open cup win early is actually important. I hope that you will find all this information important and I wish you luck in the process of qualifying for HCT World Championship.
Read more: http://next-level-hs.proboards.com/thread/169/qualify-hct-world-championship#ixzz4nsQM9AZl