Hearthstone Grandmasters Relegations: So long, partners

Hearthstone Grandmasters’ regular season got to an end after 7 weeks of fierce competition, and it is time to look into a tough topic, Relegations. After a turbulent week, with players feeling the pressure of being on the fray, we finally get to know the names who will be leaving Grandmasters.

According to Hearthstone Grandmasters’ format, the bottom four players from each region face relegation. This means that they would not be invited for the following season. Their only way back is earning a promotion in the Masters Tour system. These are harsh moments for the audience that has to say goodbye to some of their favorite players. At the same time, they open a spot for many newcomers that want to make their esports dream come true.

On the other hand, the Top 8 of each region will be competing in the Playoffs for a World Championship spot. Let’s go over the three regions and check which players lost the privilege of being GrandMasters. 

The relegation battle in the Asia Pacific region started before Friday’s stream. Two of the relegation spots were decided in the group stage after the losses of Trahison and Blitzchung, who announced his retirement. Trahison, despite suffering relegation, has good chances of returning next season to Hearthstone Grandmasters since he leads APAC’s promotion list.

One of the remaining spots went to Cloud 9 player DawN who couldn’t pull the miracle final week, lost on Friday, and was relegated from Hearthstone Grandmasters. The definition of the final relegation spot from APAC Hearhtsone Grandmasters was literally a photo-finish. There was a three-way tie between Che0nsu, Bankyugi, and TIZS. Unfortunately for Che0nsu, his tiebreaker was the worst among the three, and ended up being relegated.

TIZS, despite saving himself from relegation by a narrow margin, was another APAC player the announced his retirement from Hearthstone Grandmasters. Earlier last week, the legendary Surrender, one of the best players in the region, also declared the end of his competitive career despite not being relegated.

This stomp of players leaving Hearthstone Grandmasters not because of relegation issues is alarming. We will be talking about the reasons later this week. As a consequence of these retirements, APAC will see 6 players being promoted to GM next season.  

In Europe, we saw a similar scene. Bozzzton lost his chances of maintaining his GM category off-stream. Floki, who lost on Friday, also got relegated but owns the lead in the European promotion race, so we might see him again next year. Warma took the third relegation spot in EU Hearthstone Grandmasters. He has already re-gained GM status once before, but this time he would need a more than solid performance in the next two Masters Tours to repeat the miracle.

The saddest news of the season was the relegation and retirement of Thijs, a Hearthstone competitive legend. After 8 years of battling in the tier 1 competitive scene, Thijs tweeted that he was thinking of retiring before his relegation. However, Thijs assured that he will continue his content creation career and that he does not discard competing in the future if the system changes.

Finally, in the Americas, the audience also had to say goodbye to more than the four relegated players. Eddie and Muzzy announced earlier this season that they would not continue competing in Hearthstone Grandmasters even if they avoided relegation. Muzzy will have a last run for the World Championship next week after his top 8 finish. On the other hand, Eddie, despite his amazing last week reaching the top 4, wasn’t able to avoid relegation.

Two of the remaining three relegation spots went for Eggowaffle and CaelesLuna, two newcomers in Hearthstone Grandmasters. Last but not least, the fourth relegation spot ended up being for Rami94. The Argentinean player -who was one match away from making it to Worlds last season- lost the tiebreaker battle with Lunaloveee and, despite his efforts in the last weeks, ended up losing his GM status.

Relegations are settled, but Hearthstone Grandmasters has one final showdown next weekend with the Playoffs. The top 8 players from each region will battle for a chance to go to the $500.000 Hearthstone World Championship in December. Tune in to the official broadcast and connect your Battlenet account to earn Drops during the stream.

For more Hearthstone news and updates follow Esports.gg. This is all for now, see you next time in the tavern.