The Americas win Hearthstone Global Innvitational. Dog, Slysssa, wtyBill, and Collins MVPs

The Hearthstone Global Innvitational finished this Sunday with the Americas team winning this Olympic-style competition. The Americas, European, Asia-Pacific, and Chinese regions clashed in three different game modes during the event. The Americas’ Battlegrounds team formed by Dog, Slysssa, wtyBill, and EducatedCollins went undefeated and was vital in the championship run.

The Hearthstone Global Innvitational started on November 10 and had four days of fierce competition. The event was held online, and the Chinese production was just incredible. However, there were many problems and complaints about the organization and promotion of the event. Players had to not only fight their opponents but also against delayed schedules, game bugs, and connections issues with Chinese servers. Let’s dive fully into everything that happened.

After a rough start, the Americas team was able to make an epic comeback and take it all. As we explained in an article last week, regions fought each other in a round-robin for the first stage of the competition. Each game mode -Constructed, Mercenaries, and Battlegrounds- awarded 2 points for the winning team, with chances splitting scores in ties.

The Americas roster for the Hearthstone Global Innvitational was the following:

In the first match, the Americas fell 2-4 against the Chinese team. On day 2, the Americas team was able to tie against Europe 3-3, which meant that they would need to win against APAC on day 3 not to be eliminated. In that decisive match, with all the pressure and after days of sleep deprivation, the Americas team managed to win 4-2 to get their ticket to the final day of the event.

China went directly to the finals after winning the Round-robin phase of the Hearthstone Global Innvitational. Americas and Europe had to play against each other for their spot in the final match. With the precedent tie in the round-robin stage, there were no clear favorites in the semifinals. After the two regions tied in Constructed and Mercenaries, it was time for a Battlegrounds definition.

Up to this point, the Americas Battlegrounds team was undefeated, but they were facing a tough EU line-up with Avelline, RDU, Sunglitters, and Simi. You might have guessed by the title, once again the Americas BG team stomped and carried the team to the finals against China.

China was waiting, well-rested, and with no time-zone jetlag. On the other hand, the Americas team players were vocal about how the tournament delays and connection issues were impacting their abilities to play properly.

The show must go on, people say, and with some hotfixes the finals took place. With an outstanding performance from Monsanto, Americas took the lead after the constructed Matches. China made scores even after dominating the Mercenaries encounter. Once again, as if it were a movie, it all came to Battlegrounds. The undefeated Americas team playing for the championship against the Chinese team at their home event.

As it was expected Slysssa, Dog, EducatedCollins, and wtyBill enforced their supremacy once again. Despite some disconnect issues in the second lobby, the finals were a smooth sail. The Battlegrounds team kept their 100% winrate and Americas took the Hearthstone Global Innvitational trophy and over $100.000 in prize money.

Despite the invitational being a world-class event with incredible production, little was done in promoting the event. Players took it on their own to promote the event as well as they could with the resources they had. Slysssa was vocal about the topic and complained about how little attention the Global Hearthstone team gave to the event.

The Hearthstone global communication team was recently renewed and it was difficult for them to keep up with an event organized on the other side of the world. Hearthstone Esports publisher, Eric Elliott, commented on the topic and apologized.

But this was not the only issue with the event. The organizers had to change the Hearthstone Global Innvitational original venue days before the event due to a Covid lockdown in China. This emergency forced the organization to condense a 10-day event into just 4 days. You can only imagine what this meant to players with a +10 hour time zone difference.

Broadcasts meant to last for approximately 12 hours, went more than 4 hours over every day, despite some games being moved off stream. One of the reasons for the delays was the connectivity issues with the Chinese servers for Mercenaries matches. As Luna mentioned in her Twitter thread, it was not what a player should go through when playing a world-class event.

Problems left aside, the Hearthstone Global Innvitational was an amazing event. It had it all, world-class players, top streamers, various game modes, inter-regional competition, and incredible broadcast quality. For anyone who enjoyed the Hearthstone Global Games in the past, this was as important as a tier 1 competitive event.

Moreover, after the success of the Americas team in Battlegrounds, Slysssa claimed for it to become an esport. The official Hearthstone Esport accounts and several HS Esports team members retweeted the petition. What is more, Abar (Product Manager for Hearthstone Esports) and Eric Elliott (Blizzard Esports Publisher), engaged in a completely innocent conversation about the topic:

What do you think, will we be seeing some more Hearthstone Battlegrounds next year? That is all for now, but stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Hearthstone news and updates. I’m running to the Alterac Valley, something is going on over there.