Hearthstone

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a card game created by Blizzard to condense their characters into a quick to play game. Hearthstone, as it’s more commonly known, was released in 2014 on a variety of devices – making it one of the most accessible eSports. A large number of eSports require a PC with optimal hardware to run and this light version of Warcraft fills a niche in the market.

The game is played on the dedicated Blizzard server, Battle.net, and this can be accessed from all over the world. Hearthstone was originally designed to be played in mere minutes and be an alternative to the longer game but the eSports leagues that have sprung up tend to disregard this intention. Instead, they sport long matches with deliberation time and multiple rounds included – though this game is anything but boring.

Everything within the game is free, with the exception of optional add ons, and this has granted it an almost excessive fan base. There are millions of Hearthstone players and they each have their own playing style and favoured cards.

Aim of the Game

Hearthstone is always played as a 1v1 match to expedite the amount of time playing in each round. Each player takes turns to take actions or plan their next moves as the game progresses. They both have one hero on the board that represents them and both start with 30 health each.

There are two decks of 30 cards, one for each player, and the first player selects three from theirs. The second player is then invited to draw four of their own and then the players decide to keep or discard these cards. When this phase is over the second player is rewarded with a mana card, though the first player reportedly always has a slight advantage.

Mana is the basic energy of the game, which is needed to complete actions – each of which come at a cost. Players can use their cards to summon minions to fight for them, power up or send their hero out to fight.

Both players do as much damage as they can to the opposing hero and once their health reaches zero the game is over. The strategy of many players is to keep the hero guarded, though this can mean that they deal less damage to their opponent. This is a game of skill but there is a bit of luck involved when it comes to the order and selection of cards.

By winning these matches the player earns gold to put towards the purchase of higher value cards to improve their deck.

Console Availability

Hearthstone can be played on PC, OSX, iOS and Android devices, though some modes and options may vary in these releases.

League Information

The first league for this game was hosted by Blizzard at their annual BlizzCon in 2014, which was very close to the release of the game. This led to players spending hundreds of hours in the game in its first few months to get to the top of their regional league.

The Battle.net World Championship Series is the official league for this game and is hosted each by Blizzard. Any player is free to play in this tournament, simply by playing as they usually would on their local league. The top 128 players within the region are then invited to attend the preliminaries for their region and of them 8 will go on to the next stage. These are then reduced again to just three that will be invited to the global finals.

In these leagues the players are split into groups of four and will play against each other until just one is successful. This player will then battle the other successful champions from other teams and this continues until there is an outright champion.

How to Bet

With a league of this size it’s possible to bet on individual matches, though these odds are not as lucrative as selecting the outright winner. If you’re following a particular player then you can also bet on how far they will make it through the process so you don’t need to bet that they will be the outright winner. This allows gamblers to cherry pick the best odds on their favourite players for this game, so the more you know about them the better.

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