Heroes of the Storm Western Clash starts on Friday

Blizzard has released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm and kept players interested throughout the summer with festive events. However, the most enthusiastic players were anxiously waiting for a major tournament and their wishes will be fulfilled soon. That’s because the Western and Eastern Clashes are about to start and North Americans have only a couple of days to wait. Blizzard Arena will be the gracious host of the first Western Clash in North America, bringing the best players to California.

Western Clash prize pool and structure

The event starting on Friday is an exclusive affair, with only eight teams chasing a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000. This tournament takes place in Los Angeles, but only four of the eight participating teams are from North America. They will be joined by their European counterparts and once again the hosts are credited with the second chance. Even though they have home pitch advantage, the favorites are Team Dignitas who have strengthened their team and have a good shot at winning the tournament again.

The tournament will be played in a double elimination format, with the quarterfinals and the losers’ bracket matches requiring up to three games. After the initial stage of the Western Clash concludes, the players who advance to the decisive round will play in best-of-five series. The Grand Finals are the only ones that will be decided in seven games if necessary. The ones who qualified to the last stage of the competition will start the final with a one game advantage.

All the participating teams will be financially compensated for the performance of qualifying for the Western Clash. There are however significant differences between the prizes awarded, based on the final placement. The winners will walk away with $30,000, while the runners up will have to settle for $20,000. There will be a match played for the third place, as the winner will collect $15,000, while the team in the fourth place only $10,000. Consolation prizes of $7500 will be awarded to the teams in the fifth and sixth places, while the bottom placed teams will receive only $5000.

Team Dignitas and HeroesHearth are the top seeds

The top seed from each region will play against the fourth seed in the opening matches, while the second seed will take on the third from the opposing region. That’s why Team Dignitas and HeroesHearth, who have the best results in their regions will take on Team Octalysis, respectively Leftovers. Both are expected to qualify to the next stage, while the matches between Tempo Strom vs Method and Team Liquid vs Team Freedom will be more difficult to predict.

The stakes are high and the prizes are big enough to provide the needed motivation for participating teams. Furthermore, the team from the winning region will also unlock an extra spot for the upcoming 2018 HGC finals. The event will be streamed live and the casters will broadcast the games in Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, Polish and Turkish.