NESL - $12,000 in 12 Weeks

 

Author: iNVader - Twitter | Twitch.TV | Facebook

We did it, Hearthstone! Our favorite game has taken its next big step towards being a top competitive eSport. National Electronic Sports League announced on Friday that it will start a new series of open Hearthstone tournaments called Beta Cups as well as a new King of the Hill series. Over the course of the next 12 weeks they will be rewarding a $12,000 worth of prize money to the top competitors.

• $500 will go to the winner of each King of the Hill, which will take place every Tuesday
• $500 be distributed to the top 4 players of each Beta Cup

For those of you who are wondering, that would be 9600 card packs or 48,000 cards! This announcement carries a lot of potential to launch Hearthstone into a top eSport and it will be up to us to help it reach that potential as the Beta Cups are free to enter and open for anyone in the NA region.

The Beta Cups will be best of three until the quarter finals and best of five after. Competitors will be able to create new decks in between games, but they can’t use the same hero after it has lost a game.

• First place will receive 250USD
• second place will receive 150USD
• Third and fourth place will receive 50USD.

With the Beta Cups being free and open, we could see a lot of unknown’s start to emerge as some of the top Hearthstone competitors. There are a lot of players who are really good and have a lot of potential, but until now the only way to get any kind of recognition was either to have a popular stream or to consistently place high in the MLG tournaments every Saturday, one of which costs 10 credits to enter. Even then there isn’t a lot of hype for the MLG winners because Hearthstone only has a small corner of MLG’s massive website. I encourage everyone to enter these tournaments because the more people who show interest, the more inclined ESL and other companies will be to include Hearthstone in their events.

Another great outcome that could come from this tournament is competitive Hearthstone teams. Currently there are a low number of teams for this game because it currently doesn’t bring in a lot of revenue. But for the next 12 weeks, there is a lot of opportunity to make money by competing in these tournaments. This could potentially motivate big name teams to develop a Hearthstone division. Imagine an Evil Genius’s Hearthstone team or CompLexity Hearthstone team! That would get the attention of some of the biggest sponsors and help boost the advertisement that Hearthstone gets.

One of the biggest things that Hearthstone needs right now is consistency when it comes to events and tournaments. Whether you are a fan of LoL, SC2, DotA2, or any other top eSport you can watch a new tournament almost every week and sometimes multiple tournaments at once. The Beta Cups and King of the Hill series are great starts to keeping the consistency with MLG’s tournaments and encouraging other companies to support the game. However, another important aspect that is needed is for the tournaments and events to be broadcast. That is currently a difficult task as Hearthstone doesn’t have an observer mode, but it still can be done. Luckily, the King of the Hill series will be broadcasted live every Tuesday so fans can keep up with their favorite players!

The NESL tournaments and King of the Hill series can be a very strong launch pad for Hearthstone to become a highly competitive eSport because ESL is a consistent and reliable organization that provides a lot of quality content. However the fuel for Hearthstone is us, the fans. We need to be loud and do our part to support the game by tuning and participating as much as possible. This way we can get the attention of other organizations and show them just how incredible this game is!