Hearthstone Masters Bundle aims to support esports with a new deal
Hearthstone isn’t necessarily the most popular of esports – next to games like DOTA 2, CS:GO, and Overwatch, it doesn’t quite match up, but that doesn’t make it any less of an esport really, and it also doesn’t take away from its dedicated fanbase.
Now, being a Blizzard game, Hearthstone has some pretty powerful backing of course, and the company has been in the middle of overhauling its entire Hearthstone programme. With a Championship Tour having just ended, the new Hearthstone Grandmasters event series has started mid-may, and it pitted some of the best players in the world against one another in weekly match-ups.
In order to get into the Grandmasters circuit, players have to take part in the Masters event first – this June in Las Vegas, the last few spots for the otherwise almost filled circuit are up for grabs. Needless to say, the average Hearthstone player probably won’t last too long in that environment, and that’s okay – they can still be part of it all with the new Hearthstone Masters Bundle.
© Blizzard Entertainment
While some may criticise Blizzard’s attempt at a cash grab from players, others praise the amount of content you get with it. Ten Rise of Shadows card packs, ten Rastakhan’s Rumble card packs, a new Stolen Thunder Card Back and a new Thunder King Shaman hero are on offer for $19.99. For comparison – a regular pack for that much will only net you 15 packs instead of twenty plus extra content here.
For collectors, this is a particularly interesting bundle – it’s the second Shaman hero Blizzard has offered, and after King Rastakhan who was only available to pre-order’s of the bundle, it’s a great opportunity for players to snatch him up.
As for whether or not we’ll see him in the actual tournaments remains to be seen – with the prize pool currently sitting at $250.000 for the Masters tour, it’s unlikely that players will take overly big risks with their team setups, but you never know – maybe the new King Shaman is just what the Pro Hearthstone League needed to shake things up a bit!
Proceeds of the bundle ARE going towards that cash prize, and early forecasts are suggesting it may increase to nearly double – that would be close to half a million dollars. Hardly slim pickings for a tournament series of any kind, and guaranteed to draw more attention and fans to the Hearthstone circuit. If you are one of these fans, you can watch the event live between June 14th and 16th, or if you can’t make it to Las Vegas, you can, of course, watch various live streams of the event instead, on the official Blizzard and Hearthstone channels!
As for the bundle – it is available in the store for purchase both for your own account and as a gift. The bundle is only available for a limited amount of time, so don’t wait too long to grab it if that’s what you’re after!
