Heroes of the Storm Global Championship: Schedule, Format and Schedule

The new season of Heroes of the Storm Global Championship (HGC) will begin on January 26, 2018. Let’s take a look at the schedule of the league, its format and list of participants.

HGC is divided into four main regions: China, Korea, Europe, and North America, with each regional league consisting of 8 teams of the region. This year the additional regions, including Latin America, Australia/New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, will get their own competition and an opportunity to qualify for global events. The season consists of two phases, each of them starts with league play and ends with a global event – Mid-Season Brawl (for Phase 1) and HGC Finals (for Phase 2). Also, Blizzard promised to make some improvements for viewers, including increased quality of the broadcasts and support of additional languages.

Schedule and Format

LEAGUE PLAY WEEKS 1-5	Phase 1	Phase 2
	Jan - Feb	Mar - Aug

Each region will feature 8 teams competing in a double round-robin format – each team will play two best-of-five series with every other team in their region. The results of the league play determine the placements in Clashes and global tournaments (Mid-Season Brawl or HGC Finals). The matches are played in prime time on the following days:

• North America, Europe, Korea – Friday, Saturday, Sunday
• China – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

WESTERN CLASH & EASTERN CLASH	Phase 1	Phase 2
	Mar	Aug

The Eastern and Western Clashes will happen at the halfway point of each phase. The Western Clash will feature top four teams from both North America and Europe, while top four teams from Korea and China will participate in the Eastern Clash. The teams will compete for their share of a $100,000 prize pool in a double-elimination bracket. Regular matches are best-of-three, semifinals and finals are best-of-five. The region that wins a Clash will get an additional spot at the upcoming global event (Mid-Season Brawl or HGC Finals).

LEAGUE PLAY WEEKS 6-10	Phase 1	Phase 2
	Mar - Apr	Aug - Sep

During the final five weeks of league play the teams will continue their competition to advance to the Mid-Season Brawl or HGC Finals. The teams will continue with the score they had in the first five weeks.

Phase 1:

• Top-1 team advances to the Mid-Season Brawl.
• Teams placed 2nd-6th will compete in the HGC Playoffs for an additional spot in the Mid-Season Brawl.

Phase 2:

• Top-2 teams advance to the HGC Finals.
• Teams placed 3rd-6th will compete in the HGC Playoffs for an additional spot in the HGC Finals.

The teams that will take two last placed (7th and 8th) will participate in HGC Crucible.

HGC PLAYOFFS	Phase 1	Phase 2
	Apr	Sep - Oct

In the playoffs the teams placed 2nd-6th in their region will compete in a stepladder bracket format – first, the teams placed 6th and 5th will play with each other, then the winner of the match will face the team placed 4th, then the winner of this match will compete with the team placed 3rd, and so on. The team that will survive and win the last series will advance to either Mid-Season Brawl or HGC Finals. Please note, that the regions that will win in the Eastern and Western Chases will receive an additional slot at the global event.

HGC CRUCIBLE	Phase 1	Phase 2
	Apr	Oct

HGC Crucible will feature four teams: 7th and 8th-place HGC teams and top two finishers from Open Division Playoffs. The top team from Open Division will choose their opponent from HGC, the other two teams will be paired automatically. These two pairs will play one best-of-seven series to decide who will enter HCG and who will be eliminated.

MID-SEASON BRAWL	Phase 1
	Jun

Mid-Season Brawl is an international tournament for top 12 teams from all regions. The tournament’s line-up will look as follows:

• Teams that placed 1st in main regions: China, Europe, Korea, and North America
• Winners of HGC Playoffs in CN, EUR, KR and NA
• Teams that placed 2nd in playoffs in regions that won Western\Easter Clash
• Winner of the Intercontinental Clash from Latin America or Australia/New Zealand
• Winner of the Horizon Clash from Southeast Asia or Taiwan

The tournament will be split into two stages: group stage and playoffs. In the group stage the teams will be seeded into two groups of six, where they will play two-game series in a round-robin format. A win grants two points, a draw – one point, a lose – zero points. Top two teams from each group will qualify for Upper bracket, the 3rd and 4th-placed teams will make it to the lower bracket, while the other teams will get eliminated from the tournament. In the playoffs the teams will play best-of-five regular matches, the grand finals is best-of-seven with a one-game advantage for the finalist from the Upper Bracket.

HGC FINALS	Phase 2
	Oct - Nov

HGC Finals is the pinnacle of the competitive Heroes scene – 16 top international teams will compete for a massive $1,000,000 prize pool. The tournament’s line-up will look as follows:

• Teams placed 1st-2nd in main regions: China, Europe, Korea, and North America
• Winners of HGC Playoffs in CN, EUR, KR and NA
• Teams that placed 2nd in playoffs in regions that won Western\Easter Clash
• Winner of the Intercontinental Clash from Latin America or Australia/New Zealand
• Winner of the Horizon Clash from Southeast Asia or Taiwan

Just as Mid-Season Brawl, HGC Finals consists of two stages – double-elimination group stage and a single-elimination playoff stage. In the group stage the teams will be placed into four groups with round-robin format and best-of-three series. Top two teams from each group will advance to the single-elimination playoffs bracket with best-of-five semifinals and grand finals.

Teams

At the moment we know all the teams from North America, Korea and Europe, while the list of Chinese teams will be published later.

North America

• Tempo Storm (Glaurung, Fan, cattlepillar, Jun, psalm)
• Gale Force Esports (akaface, MichaelUdall, bkid, bigE, Fury)
• LFM Esports (Figgy, Aware, Swabs, Drated, Tea)
• HeroesHearth Esports (arthelon, Khroen, McIntyre, Ishb00, BBJ)
• SpaceStation Gaming (Casanova, Equinox, Jason, jschritte, Tomster)
• Team Freedom (KzN, zugrug, Nazmas, Lutano, YoDa)
• Roll20 Esports (Justing, buds, Goku, daneski, Kure)
• Old Gods (Zuna, KingCaffeine, k1pro, erho, Hosty)

Europe

• Fnatic (Breez, QuackNiix, SmX, Mene, BadBenny)
• Team Dignitas (Snitch, JayPL, POILK, Zaelia, Wubby)
• Team Expert (Athero, ScHwimpi, Cursen, Nic, Arcaner)
• Team Liquid (HasuObs, SportBilly, Splendour, ethernal, Nurok)
• Tricked Esports (Crozzby, Remmerballer, AlexProG, make, GranPkt)
• Zealots (adrd, Mopsio, Shad, Zarmony, Cris)
• Leftovers (Lauber, Linked, PotiBoss, bl3kitny, Deeaybe)
• Diamond Skin (darkmok, robadobah, nande, WolfJoe, Roskmeg)

Korea

• Ballistix (sCsC, Hooligan, Jeongha, SDE, Magi)
• Team Ace (Gaemi, Rush, Kcb, Witcher, HERO)
• Team Feliz (Ojae, Hanatan, Aimer, FrankWhite, Liu)
• KSV Black (Sake, Reset, Ttsst, KyoCha, RIch)
• Miracle (Judy, Sniper, Gunza, H82, Jaehyun)
• Good Luck (Relic, Tseron, Bluebeetle, Overlord, Milqyway)
• Team Blossom (Gondar, DDuDDu, NaSang, mora, Wiz)
• Tempest (Hide, Lockdown, dami, Sign, Good)