The soft snows of Winter Veil are misting over the tavern once again, so get cozy by the hearth and sip some hot apple cider while you join us for festive Hearthstone fun! Exchange seasonal greetings with worthy opponents as you battle under snowy rooftops in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. Then, grab your favorite ornaments for some decorating in Dalaran!

Beginning 10 a.m. PT on December 11, until 10 a.m. PT on December 31, this year’s Winter Veil celebration calls upon you to decorate the magical spires of Dalaran – rewarding your gingerly-bred mayhem with the Winter Veil Treat Card Back!

If you’re feeling in the spirit of gift-giving, bolster a friend’s collection (or your own!) with the Winter Veil Wonder Bundle featuring the new Druid Hero, Dame Hazelbark!

This wondrous bundle will be available from December 19 – January 7, for $24.99, and includes:

• 6 The Witchwood Card Packs
• 6 The Boomsday Project Card Packs
• 6 Rastakhan’s Rumble Card Packs
• 6 Rise of Shadows Card Packs
• 6 ...

Greetings! I’m Tian, a Senior Data Scientist on the Hearthstone team, and I’m here to talk about some science behind your rating in Hearthstone Battlegrounds!

After your first round of strategic tavern purchases, methodical minion placements, and triples upon triples, you’ll note that you’ve either earned or lost rating points based on your finishing place. After seeing this number change, you may ask yourself: what does this rating actually mean? And how did my rating get decided alongside my opponents?

I’m here to answer those questions - and more! – to help demystify the inner workings of your Battlegrounds rating.

What does this rating number mean?

Your rating in Hearthstone Battlegrounds is more than just a number. The value of your rating represents your skill level in Hearthstone Battlegrounds (with a higher value meaning you are more skilled). But it also helps us match you with seven other players of similar skill, helping make each game you play to feel as fair as pos...

The Year of the Dragon may be rapidly flying toward its conclusion, but the dragons themselves have only just begun to descend upon the tavern. Beginning at this year’s BlizzCon, we’ve parted the clouds on the Descent of Dragons set, unearthing three of the five Legendary Galakrond cards that players will receive for free once Descent of Dragons touches down. We’ve also begun to explore some of the other sidequests, shiny sky mechs, and scaly sky serpents that will be available to collect after the expansion launches in a few weeks.

But, of course, BlizzCon was only the beginning, and even more cards have been unleashed across the frozen wastes of Northrend. We’ve gathered some of the high-flying highlights below, and you can always track the newly revealed and upcoming cards here.

Stellar Sidequests

Building a strategy around subterfuge and avoidance? Sanctuary is the perfect Sidequest to stave off your adversary’s aggressions. Give yourself a break and bolster your defenses with...

The final clash between our heroic Explorers and E.V.I.L Villains is almost here – but before we officially take to the skies with Descent of Dragons, Pre-Release Fireside Gatherings will give you the chance to bust open your packs early and get a first taste of the aerial mayhem!

Attend a Pre-Release Fireside Gathering

Pre-Release events will take place the weekend before Descent of Dragons goes live, December 6 – December 9. Gather your crew and find a nearby tavern to join the fun, or come solo to make some new friends! Fireside Gatherings with the Pre-Release badge will also have unique items you can obtain from giveaways or activities – limited edition Galakrond Hearthstone pins, a Descent of Dragons poster, and various other Hearthstone goodies!
 

Once you’ve opened your packs at the gathering, you’ll be able to use your newly acquired cards to challenge fellow patrons in Pre-Release Brawls!

• Descent of Dragons No Cards Barred: Make a deck with any Descent of Dragons ...

Bob the Bartender has been hard at work keeping the tavern tidy for Hearthstone’s heroes, and it appears that the news has started to spread. Hearthstone Battlegrounds is about to add some extra chaos—and a few Explorers—with a new update coming to the mode today.

Sindragosa, Elise Starseeker, Brann Bronzebeard, and Sir Finley Mrrgglton are the latest heroes to enter the Battlegrounds. Each one comes with a new hero power to give you more options to push toward a first-place finish. Read on for details on these new heroes, as well as some additional updates coming to Hearthstone Battlegrounds.

Please note that these updates do not require an additional download.

Heroes Entering the Battlegrounds

The following Heroes have been added:

• New Hero: Sindragosa

• New Hero: Elise Starseeker

NOTE: The "Recruitment Map" recruits a minion from your current tavern tier after upgrading Bob's Tavern.

• New Hero: Brann Bronzebeard

• New Hero: Sir Finley Mrrgglton

Heroes L...

The realm of Azeroth ties many of us together, across languages, continents, and across Hearthstone, Warcraft, and World of Warcraft. For the past 25 years, we’ve experienced countless stories and victories brought to us by these games, and now Hearthstone would like to join in on the anniversary celebration.

Beginning 10 a.m. PT November 13, and lasting through 10 a.m. PT November 27, players who log into Hearthstone will be able to claim two free Golden cards inspired by the epic struggle between Horde and Alliance.

Be sure to log in before November 27^th! We’ll see you in the tavern!

Prepare your minions, coins, and heroic bravado – early access to Hearthstone’s newest game mode, Battlegrounds, is now live! Starting 10 a.m. PT November 5, and continuing until 12 a.m. PT November 12, BlizzCon attendees, BlizzCon Virtual Ticket holders, and players who have pre-purchased a Descent of Dragons bundle can jump right into the fray!

Battlegrounds Brawl:

We’re also celebrating the upcoming launch of Battlegrounds with a special event that starts today – welcome to the Battlegrounds Brawl! Join up with your favorite streamers in a quest for tavern glory while earning Card Packs along the way. The event will conclude on Thursday, November 21 with an epic finale—a $200,000 Battlegrounds tournament live on the Inn-vitational stage! We’re splitting this event into three phases:
 

Choose Your Team
 

First things first, you’ll need to pick a team! Our sixteen fearsome competitors are split across four teams: Rust Buckets, Mega Fins, Rabid Rangers, and Doom Bringers. Onl...

Hearthstone’s newest expansion, Descent of Dragons, launches on December 10! Read on to find out what changes were just added to the game. 

• Descent of Dragons Mega Bundle - Get 100 Descent of Dragons card packs, the Deathwing Warrior Hero, The Shattering card back, a golden Legendary card from Descent of Dragons, and early access to Hearthstone: Battlegrounds.

• Descent of Dragons Bundle - Get 60 Descent of Dragons card packs, The Shattering card back, a golden Legendary card from Descent of Dragons, and early access to Hearthstone Battlegrounds.

Pre-purchase Now!

New Game Mode: Battlegrounds

Hearthstone: Battlegrounds is a brand-new auto-battling game mode that introduces a fresh, strategic, 8-player experience to Hearthstone. In Battlegrounds, you’ll take on the role of a familiar Hero straight out of Hearthstone history, craft a powerful board of recruited Minions, and face-off in an action-packed series of duels until a single winner is crowned!

Battlegroun...

Xiaomeng “VKLiooon” Li started off her Global Finals run with a statement, sending 2017 World Champion Chen "tom60229" Wei Lin to the lower bracket with a 2-0 win. The 23 year old then bested European veteran Chris "Fenomeno" Tsakopoulos 2-0 to earn her spot in the semifinals. There she went blow for blow with Kevin "Casie" Eberlein, edging out a 3-2 win to earn her spot in the Finals.

In what seemed like fate, VKLiooon defeated Brian "bloodyface" Eason in a clean sweep to become the fir...

The saloon doors swing shut on day two of BlizzCon 2019. Check out what went down on stage, in the tavern, and across the BlizzCon floor.

Card-slinging Cosplay:

Costumes of all shapes, sizes, colors, and kinds were strutting and posing across every hall and in every corner of the convention floor. We’ve pulled a few familiar faces that you may recognize from your collection:

Pull up a Chair:

BlizzCon 2019 housed a fully functional Hearthstone Tavern in the center of the convention floor featuring live music, libations, a Hearthstone art print station, and a Duel-a-Dev table. Bob the Bartender even took a break from firing minions and buffing boards to speak to some of our BlizzCon attendees and offer a few helpful deck-building tips.

A Global Finals Winner is Crowned 

Your #HearthstoneGlobalFinals Champion!!

— Hearthstone Esports (@HSesports)

We witnessed Hearthstone history in the making with VKLiooon, the first female Global Finals Champion, sweeping...

BlizzCon 2019’s opening ceremony has concluded, the demo floor is open, and the Hearthstone team   gave us a dragon’s eye view of what’s on the horizon for seasoned tavern-dwellers and Hearthstone newcomers, alike. Read on for an overview of what went down on day 1 of BlizzCon for Hearthstone:

Here Come the Dragons:

The Year of the Dragon takes flight in Descent of Dragons, Hearthstone’s newly announced expansion hitting the tavern on December 10.

The fight between the League of E.V.I.L. and the League of Explorers has taken to the skies above Dragonblight. It seems that not all Plagues were contained in Uldum, and Rafaam plans to leverage his bounty of larceny to resurrect a great power thought long defeated – the progenitor of dragonkind, Galakrond. In addition to awakening this ancient terror, Descent of Dragons will introduce 135 new cards, the new Invoke keyword, Sidequests, and tons of awesome new gameplay moments!

For more details on Descent of Dragons, includi...

ANNOUNCING DESCENT OF DRAGONS – HEARTHSTONE'S NEWEST EXPANSION!

Early this year, we experienced the Rise of Shadows where the League of E.V.I.L. set a master plan into motion: a daring theft of the floating city of Dalaran. That plot thickened in swirling sands and dusty tombs when plagues were unleashed and the Saviors of Uldum stood up to the forces of evil. Now, it’s time for this epic story to reach its conclusion. And it’s time… for some dragons.

Descent of Dragons takes the fight between the League of E.V.I.L. and the League of Explorers to the skies above Dragonblight, where the final phase of Rafaam’s arch-villainous plot is underway. As Dalaran continues to streak across the skies of Azeroth, it now carries a sinister payload. It seems that not all Plagues were contained in Uldum, and Rafaam plans to leverage this bounty of larceny to resurrect a great power thought long defeated.

Galakrond, the progenitor of all dragonkind, may have perished in the w...

In Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas—48 players battled it out in weekly online play during Seasons 1 and 2 of Grandmasters. Six players were relegated from the competition, while six more ran the Playoff gauntlet to secure their place at the Hearthstone Global Finals.

In China, the field was wider, with a Playoff bracket determined by the victors from a pool of 64 veterans and an open pool of 1024 players represented at several live events over the course of the year. It’s all boiled down to two players from the region joining the best from the rest of the world at BlizzCon.

Here are the 8 players that will compete at the Hearthstone Global Finals:

Asia-Pacific – Kim "Surrender" Jung-soo

Asia-Pacific – Chen "tom60229" Wei Lin

Americas – Francisco "PNC" Leimontas

Americas – Brian "bloodyface" Eason

Europe – Chris "Fenomeno" Tsakopoulos

Europe – Kevin "Casie" Eberlein

China – Xiaomeng “VKLiooon” Li

China – Gao "Leaoh" Yang

Competitors will play the Shie...

The Hearthstone Global Finals are here! To celebrate the occasion, we’ll be activating Twitch Drops on the channels below. Watch for 3 hours (consecutive or non-consecutive) to earn 2 Saviors of Uldum Card Packs! Watch for 6 hours, and you’ll receive 3 more packs! On top of that, we’ll be dropping 1,500 packs distributed at random to viewers in the chat every hour.

Twitch Drops Time Frame 

• November 1 12:00 PM – 9:00 PM PT
• November 2 10:30 AM – 6:00 PM PT

Eligible Channels 

• English - PlayHearthstone  
• Russian - PlayHearthstoneRU  
• Mandarin - HearthstoneZHTW  
• Korean - PlayHearthstoneKR  
• Japanese - PlayHearthstoneJP  
• Portuguese - Copa America (PT) (Time Accrual Drops Only) 
• Latin American Spanish - Copa America (ES) (Time Accrual Drops Only) 

Link Your Accounts  

Before you can receive rewards, you’ll need to link your Twitch.tv and Blizzard Battle.net accounts. Here’s how:  

• Log in or create an account on Twitch.tv.  
• Navigate to the Settin...

287 players were whittled down to 8 at Masters Tour Bucharest, with several familiar faces comprising the final bracket.

It was Eddie versus kin0531 in the finals—an epic back-and-forth series that kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Both players traded blows in the final game--a complicated match-up where each competitor was made to navigate a deck full of [[Corrupted Blood]] generated by [[Hakkar, the Soulflayer]]. Eddie came out on top, earning over US $94,000 and the title of Masters Tour Bucharest champion!

We have the full list of over 300 invited players for Masters Tour Bucharest! Anyone can take home the trophy but it’s worth keeping an eye on the players who performed well at both Masters Tour Las Vegas and Seoul, as they are most likely to clench one of the spots up for grabs in Grandmasters at the end of the year.

Details:

• Venue: PGL Studios
• Dates: October 18-20
• Broadcast Start Time: 11:00 PM PDT each day, starting October 17.
• Casters: Simon “Sottle” Welch, Alex “Raven” Baguley, Daniel “Falcone” Falcone, Darroch “Darroch” Brown, Neil "L0rinda" Bond
• Prize Pool: US $500,000
• Format: 4 deck, best-of-5 Conquest with a ban.
• Language Streams:
  • English – Twitch.tv/PlayHearthstone
  • Mandarin – Twitch.tv/HearthstoneZHTW
  • Korean – Twitch.tv/PlayHearthstoneKR
  • Japanese – Twitch.tv/PlayHearthstoneJP
  • Russian – Twitch.tv/PlayHearthstoneRU
  • Portuguese - Twitch.tv/copaamerica_pt1
  • LatAm Spanish - Twitch.tv/copaamerica_es1

How it Works

We’ve made some major change...

Bárbara "TheTeacher" Coelho is a mathematics major at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, but she grew up just a few hours’ drive north in the small town of Pereiro, where everyone knows each other. As a well-behaved kid with good grades and a big family, she was one of just four students her age at school. This allowed for a close teacher-student relationship that would inspire her to pursue education as a career.

“I am becoming a middle and high school teacher,” said TheTeacher. “Kids never like math, but I think there is an opportunity to join games with teaching, especially in mathematics where there are so many possibilities to do so.”

When she was introduced to Hearthstone by her boyfriend and current ORO Esports teammate Miguel “Reliquary” Galante, the blend of art and arithmetic spoke to her soul. “He tried to make me play other games before but failed, until Hearthstone captivated me!”

After watching Masters Tour S...

Hearthstone is headed to Bucharest Romania for the final Masters Tour event of 2019! We know not everyone can join us in person, so we’ve got a gift for those watching from home.

Tune into the Masters Tour Bucharest steam on the eligible channels listed below for three hours (consecutive or non-consecutive) during the following time frames to earn a Saviors of Uldum Card Pack. Tune in for a total of six hours and we’ll grant you another one! Finally, we’ll drop 1,500 Classic Card packs every hour on the hour, distributed to viewers at random.

Twitch Drops Time Frame

• October 17 11:00 PM - October 18 10:00 AM PDT
• October 18 11:00 PM - October 19 10:00 AM PDT
• October 19 11:00 PM - October 20 10:00 AM PDT

Eligible Channels

• English - PlayHearthstone 
• Russian - PlayHearthstoneRU 
• Mandarin - HearthstoneZHTW 
• Korean - PlayHearthstoneKR 
• Japanese - PlayHearthstoneJP 
• Portuguese - Copa America (PT) (Time Accrual Drops Only)
• Latin American Spanish - Copa America (ES) (Tim...

Hello Blizzard Community . . .

I want to take a few minutes to talk to all of you about the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament this past weekend. On Monday, we made the decision to take action against a player named blitzchung and two shoutcasters after the player shared his views on what’s happening in Hong Kong on our official broadcast channel.

At Blizzard, our vision is “to bring the world together through epic entertainment.” And we have core values that apply here: Think Globally; Lead Responsibly; and importantly, Every Voice Matters, encouraging everybody to share their point of view. The actions that we took over the weekend are causing people to question if we are still committed to these values. We absolutely are and I will explain.

Our esports programs are an expression of our vision and our values. Esports exist to create opportunities for players from around the world, from different cultures, and from different backgrounds, to come together to compete and share the...

During the Asia-Pacific Grandmasters broadcast over the weekend there was a competition rule violation during a post-match interview, involving Blitzchung and two casters, which resulted in the removal of the match VOD replay.

Upon further review we have found the action has violated the 2019 Hearthstone Grandmasters Official Competition Rules section 6.1 (o) and is individual behavior which does not represent Blizzard or Hearthstone Esports. 6.1 (o) is found below.

2019 HEARTHSTONE® GRANDMASTERS OFFICIAL COMPETITION RULES v1.4   p.12, Section 6.1 (o)

Engaging in any act that, in Blizzard’s sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters and reduction of the player’s prize total to $0 USD, in addition to other remedies which may be provided for under the Handbook and Blizzard’s Website Terms. 

Grandmasters is the highest tier of Hearthstone Esports and we ta...