The company will also start paying less prize money.
- Blizzard has announced on its website that it will hold fewer Hearthstone eSports tournaments in 2023 than in previous years.
- For the game’s standard mode, Blizzard will organize three seasonal Masters Tour tournaments with no prize pool. At these, participants will play for points to qualify for the Hearthstone World Championship, where $500 000 will be raffled off between them.
- Blizzard will also hold three Battlefield mode tournaments with a prize pool of $50 000 each.
- For comparison, in 2022, there were 11 tournaments on classic Hearthstone, where three million dollars were raffled off.
- Blizzard attributed the reduction in the number of tournaments and prize money to the fact that the game’s audience has declined. Championships in 2023 will be shown not only on YouTube but also on Twitch, which should increase the interest of viewers, including through bonuses for viewing.
Earlier it was reported that the 2022 World Championship of Hearthstone was the worst viewing experience in the history of the tournament.