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Hearthstone is a lot of things. For example, it’s a place to spend money, to experiment with wacky combos and to complain about randomness. But that’s not all! It’s also an esport, and the 2016 competitive season is about to come to an end.
Today Blizzard announced a special way fans can celebrate the upcoming 2016 Hearthstone World Championship and win some prizes of their own. Titled “Choose Your Champion,” the new promotion has its own page on the Hearthstone website, where players can log in and pick who they think will win the Championship this year.
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By simply taking part in this promotion, players will win a free card pack from The Grand Tournament expansion. From there, they’ll win another The Grand Tournament pack for each win their player of choice earns in the tournament, up to a total of six free packs.
If you’re interested in free cards, you should go to the “Choose Your Champion” site and make your choices between today and Oct. 25. A second selection window will be available from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3, but a smaller number of possible packs will be available at this point.
If you’d like to follow along during the 2016 Hearthstone World Championship and see how your player of choice performs, the group stages will run from Oct. 26 through Oct. 30. The group stages will feature 16 players who have won their spots over the past year of tournaments. They’ll be whittled down to eight players for the quarterfinals, which will take place during the first day of BlizzCon, Nov. 4. The semifinals and grand finals will run on Nov. 5. All of these match-ups will be streamed on Blizzard’s official Hearthstone Twitch channel.
Polygon will be reporting on the 2016 Hearthstone World Championship and whatever other Hearthstone news might hit live from BlizzCon, so stay tuned. In the mean time, you can see how the pros play on our full Hearthstone playlist on YouTube.