After a critically acclaimed first event a few weeks ago, many hailed Challengestone as a welcome departure from the established tournament format. Now Octavian “Kripparrian” Morosan and Tempo Storm have announced the tournament’s second installment.
The unorthodox competition saw some of the top pros in Hearthstone forced to build decks in a strict time limit and in accordance with a specific challenge. For the first event, for instance, players could include minions with odd attack values and spells with even mana costs. With cards like Big Game Hunter and Ironbeak Owl outlawed, cards which are usually too susceptible to hard counters could actually see the light of day, leading to very unpredictable play.
After the near-universal acclaim for the tournament, a second installment was inevitable. The event returns June 27 to 28, with a new as-yet unknown challenge. Previous winner Brian Kibler and runner-up Jeffery “Trump” Shih will return to compete for a share of $3,000.
Though the prize money is not massive in the grand scheme of things, the fact that a limited format tournament has been so popular and successful has given some hope that different tournament formats could become more commonplace.
The new Hearthstone Pro League (HPL) will also bring some innovation to the tournament scene. Pros will be allowed to make changes to decks in between games—effectively introducing sideboarding.
With the competitive schedule getting more and more crowded, more tournaments will need to do things differently if they want to stand out from the pack. And that’s only good for viewers.
Image via Tempo Storm
