With a new Masters Tour event on the horizon, players complain again about Hearthstone Esports’ lack of communication.
Much like it happened with the Spring Masters Tour Championship, Hearthstone Esports has failed to meet the expectations regarding their promotion to the Summer Championship. 2023 has been a terrible year for the competitive community, starting with a 70% budget cut and what now seems to be a dismantled HS Esports department.
Let's go over what happened and why this happened.
Hearthstone Esports downfall
With the YouTube deal ending by the end of 2022, many saw this as a comeback opportunity. Hearthstone Esports lived its years of glory on Twitch, and it was time for a comeback. However, things didn't go that well.
The 2023 Hearthstone Esports announcement was delayed several times until finally was published in January, revealing massive cuts of up to 70% of the annual prize pool. The situation became even worse with Abar, HS Esports Product Manager leaving in March.
"I’m not about to go flaming anyone as I walk out the door. Honestly, no one deserves that. But I do think it’s fair of me to say that what I got wasn’t exactly what I signed up for. And that’s fine. I’m disappointed, sure, but no one owes me anything."
With one of the most passionate persons in the scene leaving Blizzard things were looking grim.
Players' complaints about MT promotion
PocketTrain and Meati were once again two of the most vocal players complaining about the lack of Hearthstone Esports' communication and promotion. While there will be Drops to incentivize viewership, it will have a very small effect if no one knows that the Hearthstone Summer Masters Tour Championship is happening.
On top of that, other community members complained about the lack of answers to the co-streaming applications.
While it's understandable that this is not just anybody's fault in particular, and much rather an issue related to Blizzard's restructuring of the HS Esports department and their lack of bandwidth, it still creates frustration.
Feno went beyond complaining: "If they give me all the details I will for free make a poster with all the details and type a tweet for them.", he tweeted. Hours later he published a nice promo asset with all the info viewers needed to know, ahead of Hearthstone Esports delayed blog post.
It seems like the Hearthstone esports scene is pending on a thread, with the department almost dismantled after budget cuts. Please support the players participating, even if it's just a like on social media, a positive comment or even a lurk view during the Hearthstone Summer Championship Masters Tour to get drops.
Things might not change even if we show we care, but the players will at least know we care about them.
That's all for now, but stay tuned for more Hearthstone news and guides. Be sure to visit esports.gg for all the latest esports news as well. See you next time in the Hearthstone Summer Championship collecting Twitch Drops.