Gaming
Esports
This is how Blizzard is going to reinvent Hearthstone esports for 2019
Hearthstone esports lead Sam Braithwaite talks us through the big changes coming to the game's competitive scene in 2019 and why a new direction was needed for Blizzard's card slinger.
While many of Hearthstone’s top competitors were glued to watching a young Norweigan play the game of his life in the recent World Championship final, many were also considering just what the future of Hearthstone esports might look like after this tournament. Honestly, if there was a better way for the Hearthstone Championship Tour to go out, we couldn't name it.
Once the final cards had been drawn in the ludicrous match between Casper 'Hunterace' Notto and Torben 'Viper' Wahl, the long-running HCT format would be sent to the discard pile and a new direction for competitive Hearthstone would properly be underway. To learn all about it, we caught up with Hearthstone esports lead, Sam Braithwaite, to walk us through what's in store.
"We all believe that what we're doing is the right thing and we're excited about the direction that we're taking the esports program," Braithwaite said. "So, to see it off with a giant bang, the most beautiful stage in Hearthstone history, it's just going to be an epic conclusion to what we've been doing."
It's all a part of the main driving force for Hearthstone esports in 2019: more regularity, consistency and accessibility for both players and viewers. The Grandmasters is an attempt at that, with a known pool of players competing weekly to earn a spot in the Global Finals at the season's end. From there, the worst performing players face relegation, while up-and-comers from Masters Tour events stand a chance of earning a spot in Grandmasters.
Instead of having to track a player's journey through regional qualifiers, playoffs and seasonal championships, there's more straightforward league play to follow. It's an idea that shares a few elements with Braithwaite's previous involvement in StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm esports at Blizzard, the latter of which came to a rather abrupt and unceremonious end with the cancellation of the HGC in December 2018.
Communication with the game's players, staff and fans about that closure was poor, and it left many sad, angry, or bitter about the way they were treated, as they were suddenly without a job or career. Braithwaite accepts that mistakes were made.
"I think the way that it was handled left a lot to be desired for the people that were impacted with HGC," he commented. "At the end of the day, I think me and the team that worked specifically on HGC are very proud of what we accomplished. We put together a beautiful program that people loved and adored."
"The reality is that it wasn't just an announcement that we were shutting down HGC," he continued. "The announcement was that Blizzard are re-evaluating our investment in Heroes of the Storm as a whole, and that we're going to be reprioritising resources. So, it's understandable if you look at it at that end, but I do understand the frustrations people had with the communication and how it went down."
There's a chance that episode could leave players nervy about what to expect from the future of Hearthstone esports if the game ever finds itself in a similar spot. The player base and surrounding community for Hearthstone seems healthy, though, as do the viewer numbers for competitive events. This new Masters Tour and Grandmasters push also shows significant investment in the game's competitive future – at least for the year ahead.
That's echoed by perhaps the biggest change to come: a new tournament structure also comes with a new competition format. For a long time, a large majority of Hearthstone esports events had been played using Conquest – a mode where each player had to bring a number of decks from different classes and win a game with each one in order to be declared the match winner. That all changes with the new Specialist format in 2019.
In this mode, players only need to bring one class, but they can have three versions of that deck, with up to five cards different between each one. For competitors, the idea is that you can then tech in certain cards to improve your chances in different matches, and then switch to those more suitable decks when needed. However, this decision has also been made in order to make Hearthstone esports more appealing for general players.
"What we're finding is that the Conquest format is just very unrelatable to your casual viewer," Braithwaite explained. "You're not making decks on a regular basis, you're not putting together four different decks from four different classes. It's not what your ladder experience is like. So, watching esports doesn't make you better, or equip you to go and play the game."
A handy guide to understanding Specialist
© Blizzard
So, what the new Specialist format lacks in diversity, it's trying to make up for in replicating the actual gameplay experience of the average player. Braithwaite suggests that when you’re climbing the ranked ladder, you tend to be hammering games with just one class. Then, when you feel you may be coming up against a lot of aggro opponents, for example, you might swap in some tools to improve your chances against those decks.
At every turn, he points towards making Hearthstone esports as close to the ladder experience as possible. That also extends to their approach to any balance changes that hit the game, or expansion release dates too, where pros will always be playing on the live server so it matches what players see at home.
"We think that it's going to open the doors for lots of people to compete in Hearthstone esports that have never done it before," Braithwaite enthused. "The other advantage of Specialist is the barrier of entry to get into competitive esports for Hearthstone is now at an all-time low. If you wanted to compete in Hearthstone esports right now in Conquest format, you have to have four to five competitively viable decks from four to five different classes. That's a little bit expensive, to be frank. It was turn off for a lot of people that would want to compete."
But that doesn't mean that other tournaments, or formats, are going away completely. Instead, Blizzard will simply be diverting all of its own efforts into the Grandmasters and Masters Tour. They will however be looking to "support and empower" other organisations to maintain a diverse roster of events, such as female-only WSOE (World Showdown of Esports) tournaments, nation-based competitions with WESG (World Electronic Sports Games), the World Cyber Games, Asian Games and more.
"Blizzard are going to be taking a step back and really focus on the Hearthstone Masters ecosystem and putting our energy into that," Braithwaite said. "We definitely felt like we were spreading ourselves way too thin in the 2017–2018 year. We were juggling a lot of tournaments. Everything from Collegiate to Global Games to HCT.
"I guess what was important in Hearthstone esports was lost over the course of the year, because there was just something always going on and those types of things appeal to different people. What we would love to see is for third-party tournament organisers to embrace that."
Sam Braithwaite has previously worked on SCII and HOTS esports at Blizzard
© Blizzard
What this is all working towards is sustainability and for Braithwaite, he's hoping a lot of the changes they've made to the format and the structure will be able to maintain Hearthstone, because it inherently creates a cyclical loop that brings in players and keeps them entertained or supported, whether they're at the top tier, or fighting for a spot on the Masters Tour.
"The more people that are participating in Hearthstone esports, the more people are going to watch Hearthstone esports, because they're invested into it," he explained. "The more people that try to qualify for Vegas and do''t make it, the more are going to tune in and watch Vegas, because it's exciting and they want to see what they didn't have the opportunity to attend. The more people that are watching, the more sponsorships come in.
"It's this ecosystem that we're trying to create," he continued. "We want to create a self-sustaining, propped-up system that can last for years to come."
Whether these ambitious plans play out as hoped, we'll have to check back and see in the months and years ahead. Now, with the Masters Tour and Grandmasters, the entirety of Hearthstone esports is in an intense build phase. The aim is for this to establish a position for itself that keeps it stable so players can continue drawing from their decks far into the future.
