Here's how Heroes of the Storm's global 2016 tournament is kicking off

Heroes of the Storm's worldwide 2016 esports tournament has already begun, and developer Blizzard Entertainment laid out the full schedule for the Global Championship Circuit's spring events in a blog post today.

Since 2016 is the first full year of release for Heroes of the Storm — the game launched in June 2015 — it will mark the first full year of serious esports competition for the game. Blizzard announced Heroes of the Storm's 2016 Global Championship Circuit back in November at BlizzCon. Under the format, teams compete to determine the best squads in various regions over the course of three seasons before a final global championship. A total of more than $4 million is at stake in the Global Championship Circuit this year.

Blizzard is partnering with esports organizations around the world for eight different spring events leading up to the Spring Global Championship, which will take place in Seoul, South Korea, from April 1-3 with a prize pool of $500,000. Partners include the Electronic Sports League (ESL), NetEase and OGN.

The spring season of Heroes of the Storm esports began Jan. 12 with the Super League event in the Korea region. Other qualifiers are also underway already. Two teams will advance from each of four regional tournaments: the Super League in Korea, the Gold League in China, and the Spring Regionals in both North America and Europe. One team will advance from each of the other four events: the Copa America in Latin America, and the Spring Regionals in Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand.

You can check out a diagram of the bracket below, and see the full Spring Global Championship on Battle.net. For more on Heroes of the Storm, read our review.