Know the 16 players who qualified for the upcoming Masters Tour and Battlegrounds Lobby Legends Hearthstone Esports events.

Another three months of Ladder grinding have passed and the final qualification season for Hearthstone Esports 2023 it's over. Only a handful of players are still aiming to qualify given the downsize the program faced.

Nevertheless, it's time to know who will be the top Standard and Battlegrounds players competing in the Hearthstone Esports Fall Championships. These will be the last Seasonal Championships for the year, and many speculate that this might be the end of Hearthstone Esports as we know it so save the date!

Hearthstone Esports qualification system

For 2023 Hearthstone Esports unified the qualification system and seasons for Stanard and Battlegrounds. In this new system, players would accumulate points each season depending on their monthly ladder finish.

The Seasonal Championships are exclusive 16-player events. Hearthstone Esports grants invites with the following criteria:

  • Top four Points earners in each region (Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific)
  • Top four Point earners globally that had not yet received an invite.

Initially in the Standard ecosystem, these events had no prize pool, with all the $500,000 allocated to the end-of-year Hearthstone Esports World Championship.

After the community outrage over this and the general 2023 announcement, Hearthstone Esports listened to the players and took $150,000 from Worlds to give each Seasonal Champ $50,000 in prizes. This matches what BGs events award.

Fall Season results

The end of this third season was tainted with a feeling of despair. The long year of grinding combined with the few big events has impacted greatly the competitive community. Only days before the season ended, PocketTrain shared his feelings and Bunnyhoppor, the current Hearthstone Esports World Champion responded with a supportive but uninspiring comment.

Hearthstone Esports hasn't yet made an official announcement on who the players invited. However, since ladder finishes are public information, D0nkey created a tracking page for players and fans to follow. Given D0nkey's history and reputation within the Hearthstone esports community, I'd say that everyone can trust his info.

These are the players who qualified for the upcoming Hearthstone Esports Fall Masters Tour Championship:

*Participated in the Masters Tour Spring or Summer Seasonal Championship

**Masters Tour Spring Champion and qualified for Worlds

Europe is undoubtedly the strongest Hearthstone esports region, taking the four wildcard spots. Moreover, the amount of returnees is proof of how much has the circuit shrunk this year, with only a few players keeping their competitive fire lit.

D0nkey's ranking for Hearthstone Esports Fall Season (Standard) - Image via D0nkey<br>
D0nkey's ranking for Hearthstone Esports Fall Season (Standard) - Image via D0nkey

You can check out the full ranking on D0nkey's webpage.

Battlegrounds

There is a slight difference between Standard and Battlegrounds in the Hearthstone Esports qualification system that we should point out before going into the results. In Standard, leaderboards get reset every start of the month. On Battlegrounds on the other way, ranking resets happen once every expansion.

Despite this difference in ranking resets, the finish taken into account for Hearthstone Esports purposes are the ones at the end of each calendar month except for the months the Season Reset happens in the final days of the season.

Having said that, these are the 16 players that will be competing in the first Battlegrounds Lobby Legends event.

  • Americas: jeef (US), BeterBabbit (US), Waterloooooo (US) and dog (US) 
  • Europe: Cytro (Belgium), Tume (Finland), XQN (Belarus), and Slyders (France) 
  • APAC: SeseiSei (Japan), 작은새 (Korea), Alutemu (Japan), and あれっくす -Arekkusu- (Japan)
  • Wildcards: The list is still unclear
D0nkey's ranking for Hearthstone Esports Fall Season (Battlegrounds) - Image via D0nkey
D0nkey's ranking for Hearthstone Esports Fall Season (Battlegrounds) - Image via D0nkey

We will need to wait for Hearthstone Esports's official list of the Wildcards since it's still unclear the nationalities of some players. Remember that players with Chinese residences -among others- are not eligible to participate in Hearthstone Esports.

The full Battlegrounds Point Ranking is also available on D0nkey's website, where you can filter by region and season.

What's next in Hearthstone Esports?

While the Fall qualification season is over, the main events are still ahead of us. Hearthstone Esports published the dates for the Lobby Legends and Masters Tour Fall Championships some weeks ago.

  • Lobby Legends Fall Championship: October 14-15
  • Masters Tour Fall Championship: October 28-29

There was a change of dates in the Constructed event from what was announced in the 2023 roadmap in January. Many players felt disappointed by yet another unannounced modification.

In the meantime, we need to wait for the official player lists. Those who actually qualify will be competing for a $50,000 prize pool in their respective modes. Standard players who make it to the Masters Tour Fall Championship will also be fighting for a Hearthstone World Championship invite.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for the official results and other Hearthstone news and updates. See you next time in the Tavern.