Trio format returns to Hearthstone this week in Grandmasters Last Call. How does the format work, and what are its “buckets”?

Trio will return once more to Hearthstone Esports this Grandmasters Last Call weekend. The new competitive format forces players to choose between predetermined sets of classes, allowing for some experimentation and forcing meta-read and deckbuilding skills to the extreme. What is Trio, and could this format spark the interest in Hearthstone Esports?

Trio was one of the changes Hearthstone Esports introduced last December. We only witness one week under this format in 2022 last Grandmasters season and players didn’t quite love it. What is Trio about, and how will it affect Hearthstone Grandmasters Last Call?

The new Trio competitive format brings a twist to the already known Conquest format. In Trio, players will have to select from sets or buckets of three different classes. Competitors will choose blindly without knowing what other players are picking, and will all have to submit one deck for each of the classes in their bucket.

Imagine you choose a bucket with Mage, Rogue, and Warrior classes. Then you will have to submit one deck for each class. In Trio format, matches will be best of five, with no bans, so Hearthstone pros will need to think well about their strategies.

During the match, normal Conquest format rules apply. Players can choose any deck they like during the series, but after each deck wins is no more eligible for selection. The first player to win with all three of their decks wins the series.

Hearthstone Esports has experimented with different formats way before Trio. Specialist was the first format in Hearthstone Grandmasters. Then Shield-Conquest became a thing, how to forget the Inner Fire Combo Priest during that time. What are Hearthstone Esports' intentions with Trio?

Being able to combine the popular and successful Conquest format with class restrictions is the key behind everything. Competitors and viewers enjoy when there are different strategies and risk-reward scenarios. Trio is here to bring more of that into Hearthstone.

In Conquest, the meta gets solved pretty quickly and watching the same 4 or 5 archetypes starts being less attractive. That unless you are watching Fled or Superfake with their completely anti-meta line-ups. With Trio, the Hearthstone Esports team has the agency of forcing players outside their comfort zone.

The Trio format is useful to create a variety in class selection and open the game for different competitive strategies. When creating the different class buckets in Trio, the Hearthstone Esports team can decide to push a low-represented class into every set or leave out the most dominant one.

As we have mentioned, Trio’s return will happen this same weekend in Hearthstone Grandmasters Last Call. The top-level players have already chosen their class buckets and submitted their lineups.

The Trio Class Sets were:

Players gave some direct feedback on how to make the buckets last season. No one wanted to play bad decks, and being forced to do that was not the best experience for them or the viewers, they said. With a settled metagame, the Hearthstone Esports team has the chance to make the format shine.

If you want to see the players' selections and decklists, you can check them on the Hearthstone Grandmasters official page.  Also, you can view lineups in Yaytears, a simple but useful third-party site.

Will Trio be able to spice things up in competitive Hearthstone and become a staple format, or will it die like Specialist? Don’t miss the action, Trio competitive format goes live this Friday with Grandmasters’ Last Call official broadcast.

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Hearthstone news and updates. See you next time in the tavern.