After one of the most unusual prizes in all of esports went unclaimed last year, Chinese Hearthstone players will have another shot at winning a Ferrari in 2016.
The prize, put up by NetEase CEO William Ding, was meant to spur the Chinese contingent to glory in the CN vs EU tournament last March. The Ferrari was only on the line for the Chinese players, while the Europeans had to settle for a share of €52,000 ($58,950).
The Chinese players ultimately lost out to their European counterparts, with Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh defeating Apostolos “Hawkeye” Karaiskos in the final. Ma “SleepyShaman” Mingyang and Wang “TiddlerCelestial” Xieyu were the best performing Chinese players, reaching the semi final stage.
The prize will be up for grabs once again, as part of a bumper Chinese Hearthstone circuit in 2016. The cash prizepool has not been revealed.
The eight best players from the Spring Super League—equivalent to the regional championships in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas—will make up the Chinese team for the event. How the European side will be decided has not been announced, but sources suggest that ESL will likely organize and run qualifying tournaments as they did last year.
The event will be one of several international challenge events, headlining a circuit of more than 400 official LAN events.
Photo via Axion23/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Published: Mar 1, 2016 11:04 am