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Hearthstone's Americas Championship deck builds
If you're a Hearthstone fan, you already know the game is partially strategy, and partially building the right deck of cards to play with. The top players at the recent Americas Championship certainly know all about deck building as well as strategic play, and the official Hearthstone site put together a comprehensive list of decks used in the Championship via Hearthhead. Every playable class has at least one entry, and all cards are laid out clearly so you can see what was used. Although constructing identical decks won't be an instant win in championship play, browsing through the various builds might help you identify which cards are particularly valuable when it comes to competitive play. Head over to Hearthstone's website for the full list -- even if you're an experienced Hearthstone player, it's worth checking out.
IeSF changes its mind, opens all tournaments to women
Following the enormous outcry of gamers angry that International eSports Federation had forbidden women from some of its tournaments, including Hearthstone, the organization decided to open up the playing field to both genders. "Upon hearing these concerns, the IeSF convoked an emergency session of the IeSF Board to respond," the Federation posted on the official site. "As a result, IeSF shall have two event categories: 'Open for All' events and events that are reserved for women. The events which were initially set aside as the male division will now be open to all genders, and the events which were initially set as the female division will remain as they were." The IeSF defended its former rationale for segregating men and women in the event, saying that it did so to encourage female players to engage in the tournaments: "The IeSF's female-only competitions aim to bring more diversity to competitive play by improving the representation of women at these events. Without efforts to improve representation, e-sports can't achieve true gender equality." [To clarify since there's some confusion in the comments: Men can now participate in all five games. Women can now participate in all five games on the same teams as the men. Women can additionally play in women-only brackets for SC2 and Tekken Tag. Those two games are included in the games men can play in the mixed gender lineup (Tekken Tag wasn't available to men originally, just as Hearthstone was blocked from women, but this has been rectified). Neither men nor women are now barred from any game in the tourney.]
Hearthstone tournament bans female competitors
No girls are allowed to compete in Finland's Assembly Summer 2014 Dota 2, Ultra Street Fighter IV, and Hearthstone tournaments, which are open to men only. According to the International e-Sports Federation's rules, the genders of competitors in e-sports are separated to help the competition be recognized as a "true sport." In response to complaints, the IeSF posted the following on their Facebook page: "The decision to divide male and female competitions was made in accordance with international sports authorities, as part of our effort to promote e-Sports as a legitimate sports." And while this means separate but equal style treatment for some events, for others -- like Hearthstone -- it means women simply can't compete at all. At Assembly Summer 2014, women aren't allowed into these tournaments because if they won, they wouldn't be allowed into the IeSF men-only world finals. Markus Koskivirta, head admin of the Assembly Summer 2014 Hearthstone IeSF Qualifier, speaking to PC Gamer, said that the Finnish eSports Federation is lobbying for equal rights for male and female gamers... but with the long and strange tradition of segregated e-sports (StarCraft competition often has such divisions), that could be a long time coming. Though the IeSF says it wants to promote female gamers by hosting women's only events, the end result of this is to keep women on the outskirts of pro gaming by relegating their participation to smaller events and smaller stages. All this goes towards suggesting that women aren't good enough to compete with the men -- something that in an all-digital "sport" is difficult, at best, to justify. We all love the same games, so why can't we play them together?
No girls allowed in IeSF-sanctioned Hearthstone tourney
If you're female and you're interested in competing in a Finnish Hearthstone tournament called the Assembly Summer 2014 Hearthstone IeSF Qualifier, you're currently out of luck. PCGamer reports that the IeSF, a global e-sports organization headquartered in South Korea, stipulates male-only participants "in accordance with international sports authorities, as part of our effort to promote e-sports as legitimate sports." Assembly Summer 2014 administrator Markus Koskivirta says that the event's other tourneys are open to all genders. "We would also like to point out that the Finnish eSports Federation is currently lobbying for the equal rights of male and female players in the IeSF tournaments," he said. [Commenters have pointed out that women are barred from four games in this tournament, including Hearthstone and Dota, while male players are barred from two, including Tekken Tag, in the IeSF's attempt to create gendered brackets for e-sports. Both genders can compete in StarCraft II, but only in gender-segregated divisions. Thanks to CrowingOne especially for the extra details.]
Hearthstone highlights Innkeeper's Invitational players
The Innkeeper's Invitational will be BlizzCon's inagural Hearthstone tournament, featuring eight Hearthstone players hand-picked by Blizzard. For those who may not be familiar with the competitors, Blizzard is releasing a set of small interviews to be published in two parts profiling each of the players taking a shot at the tournament title. The first four can be found here and are, as the header image implies, Noxious, Hafu, Husky, and Reckful. I really enjoyed reading these quick get-to-know-you style Q&As. Each player is given the same set of questions to answer and their responses are pretty interesting, especially their individual takes on who their most feared opponents are. In fact -- interestingly enough -- the most commonly mentioned "most feared an hated" were the four players who will be featured in the second interview: Trump, Kripparian, Day[9], and Artosis. No love/hate for each other, guys? Check out the interviews for more information from each of these competitors, including their own personal favorite Arena picks as well as why their personal tournament shield logos are what they are. The answers are not entirely what you might expect!
Innkeeper's Invitational announced for BlizzCon
For many BlizzCon attendees, one of the big draws is the chance to see some of the top players from Blizzard's franchises square off in matches and tournaments. We've come to expect competitions in WoW PvP and Starcraft in particular, and this year there will be another game added to the mix: Hearthstone. Blizzard has invited eight of the most dedicated Hearthstone players to compete live in a small tournament at BlizzCon this year called the Innkeeper's Invitational. Each player will bring three decks -- they must all be different classes -- and compete against each other in a series of matches. If your deck loses, it's out for good, and that player has to select a different deck. Once all three decks have been eliminated, that player is out of the competition and resigned to watching from the sidelines. If you're interested in seeing how hardcore card game players go about their games, this is a great opportunity to do so! And it might give us all some ideas for how to modify our own Hearthstone decks in the future. If you won't be attending BlizzCon you can tune in using a Virtual Ticket or check out the matches on the World of Warcraft Twitch channel.
