Vulcun launches Hearthstone league with $100K prize pool

Just one day after PVPLive announced its Hearthstone Pro League, a long-rumored Hearthstone competition has finally been officially unveiled.

Vulcun Deckmasters will get underway on June 22, confirming a Daily Dot report from May 7, with 20 players competing for a share of $50,000. But this league has a number of big differences.

Deckmasters will be the first Hearthstone league to have open qualifiers to fill 12 of the 20 spots with eight directly invited players—though the second season of Kinguin Pro League will also feature qualifiers. The seasons will also be just three weeks long, with a second season for another $50,000 later in the year already confirmed.

The eight invites went out to Cong “StrifeCro” Shu, Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh, Andrew “TidesofTime” Biessener of Cloud9, Jeffery “Trump” Shih, Sebastian “Forsen” Fors, Brian Kibler, Peter “Gaara” Stevanovic and Jeffrey “Sjow” Brusi.

With Cloud9 taking nearly half of the invites, there’s no room for players from Nihilum or Archon—though the latter may be because the Vulcun league is in direct competition with yet-to-be-announced Archon Team League.

Because of the open qualifiers, the Deckmasters league will also award 230 Hearthstone World Championship points to the top finishers.

The league will air on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, meaning that the first two days of the week will see Deckmasters compete with the Hearthstone Pro League.

Image via Blizzard