In a few days, we'll wave 2016 goodbye as we welcome another year of Hearthstone. Today, we look back at the events that shaped this year, the good and the bad, the storylines and the drama; from the mad comebacks at the World Championship to the championships that led to it; from the release of dreaded new cards to the nerfs of even more dreaded old cards.

January: China wins first international LAN in seven months

In January, the Hearthstone scene was still waking up from the New Year’s festivities for the most part but one tournament was ready to have its finals. Having gone on for some time, StarSeries Season 1 was looking forward to crowning a champion in a China vs. the west battle.

It had been a long time since China had success on international soil with TiddlerCelestial winning DreamHack Summer in 2015, and hopes weren’t high for their line-up in this particular tournament. Yet, against all odds, it was Robin who hoisted the trophy, giving a much needed uplifting start to his countrymen for the new year.  

February: The Amaz / Firebat drama is kindled  

It all started innocently. On February 2, Firebat ended his long tenure with Archon in a seemingly amicable manner. Later the same day, details surfaced, alleging the world champion is still owed multiple salaries and that his contracts had been amended to include a pay cut not formally approved by the player.

That wasn’t even the end of it. The next day, Archon co-owners uploaded the epitome of PR suicide on YouTube, a 11-minute long attack against one of Hearthstone’s most prolific names in what made for arguably the ugliest esports drama in the game to date.

March: HCT Winter brings captivating storylines, China’s win-trading exposed

Though February left us with a sour taste in the mouth around Firebat’s departure, March came to save the day, as the first championships for HCT were about to start. Eyes were set on the western regions, as big names lined up to contest the title.

Both EU and AM gave us reasons to love competitive Hearthstone. On the old continent, formerly banned Naiman walked the path to redemption and hoisted the EU trophy. Across the pond, Archon’s Amnesiac became the youngest major LAN champion of the game, and would later become one of the favorites to contest the world cup. And if that wasn’t enough, the Whispers of the Old Gods announcement gave fans something big and macabre to look forward to in April.

Still, not all was good. A much more dramatic event was the exposing of the win-trading practices in China. A GosuGamers report from March 17 listed more than a dozen names, including high-profile streamers and competitive players, manipulating both ladder and offline tournaments, a practice that’s been corrupting the scene’s integrity for a long, long time.  

April: Old Gods launches, Standard is introduced, Combo Druid nerfed  

In April, C’Thun, N’Zoth, Yogg-Saron and Y’Shaarj entered Hearthstone with the game’s darkest expansion. The launch was a landmark event. For casual fans, it was a set that eased the deckbuilding process with the C’Thun cultists theme and gifted them a legendary finisher, a costly investment otherwise. The new expansion also came with the death of Combo Druid, as Force of Nature, Keeper of the Grove and Ancient of Lore were collectively nerfed in a patch that affected a dozen cards.

For progamers, it marked the introduction of Standard, a system borrowed from TCG titans like Magic: The Gathering and aimed at diversifying the competitive scene at regular periods. Though major flaws in the system are yet to be fixed – such as addressing the permanence of Classic – Standard was a much needed move, one that opened up the design space for future sets.  

May: DreamHack goes to NA  

The DreamHack circuit is highly respected in Europe for its long traditions in esports and in May 2016, it finally made the trip to North America.

For American Hearthstone, that meant the world. The scene there lagged far behind Europe’s in terms of infrastructure, which hindered the development of new talent and in turn put NA in a catch-up position. The arrival of DreamHack not only allowed for an NA player to win the HS circuit for the first time, but was also one of the few LANs on NA soil for the entire year.

Photo: Carlton Beener / Blizzard  

June: G2’s unstoppable march and Hearthlytics’ shutdown  

June was a fantastic month for G2 Esports as the team conquered key championships. Early in the month, ThijsNL became the first player in history to win two HCT Europe titles. Later, Rdu joined the club of repeat franchise winners, taking down his second DreamHack championship. The long-waged battle for supremacy between NaVi and G2 was finally tipped in the latter’s favor.

As with many months this year, the sweet went hand in hand with the sour. On June 2, Hearthlytics owner j1n announced the team – a home to many promising NA players – is to shut down, which triggered a conversation Hearthstone never expected to have: Is the competitive scene in trouble? Multiple opinion pieces were written on the matter and as we’ll see later on, this discussion was bound to resurface.  

July: One Night in Karazhan is announced  

After the dark Old Gods expansion, Hearthstone was ready to be merry once again. The long build up across multiple Blizzard games culminated for Hearthstone with the announcement of One Night in Karazhan, the game’s third adventure expansion, and the home of the only and only Purify, Hearthstone’s most hated card for reasons completely different than usual.  

August: Karazhan launches, Luminisoty Gaming is revamped  

Still, Karazhan turned out a great expansion for Hearthstone and though underwhelming at first glance, it brought many cards which remained staples for the next months. Barnes, Arcane Giant, Firelands Portal, Babbling Book, Spirit Claws, Silverware Golem, Netherspite Historian, Maelstrom Portal, Swashburgler, Cloaked Huntress, Cat Trick, Priest of the Feast, Ironforge Portal, Malchezaar’s Imp, Kindly Grandmother, Ivory Knight, Book Wyrm and The Curator are 18 of the 45 card that left a heavy impact on the meta. A successful expansion is putting it mildly.

Over in esports land, Luminosity Gaming made great strides towards revamping their Hearthstone roster. In the span of a few weeks, Chakki, Fr0zen, Muzzy and Zalae were signed, creating the first NA super-team.

Photo: StarLadder  

September: Disbandments galore  

Remember the Hearthlytics disbandment and how that was but the first chapter? In September, many more organizations – and big ones to that – followed suit. The most surprising of all was the dissolution of NaVi’s powerhouse roster of Xixo, Ostkaka, Hoej and Handsomeguy, considered to be if not the best, then at least top 2 team in Hearthstone. That same month, Amaz signed with NRG, officially completing Archon’s fading away, and Dignitas also said goodbye, releasing Greensheep, Blackout and Kranich into free agency.

While that reiterated the worrying trend of Hearthstone’s stagnation, we know it wasn’t by any means the death of the game as expansion plans were announced just next month.  

October: Nerfs and revisions  

October was by far the most stacked month in Hearthstone this year. It began with the nerf to Yogg-Saron and Tuskarr Totemic, two of Hearthstone’s most hated cards for that era and liberated the meta right before Last Call. That same month, Handsomeguy repeated his HCT APAC championship and became the first Hearthstone player to make three HCT finals in a row.

As the air around the World Championship was heating up, another celebrated event aspired to make a return, although in a somewhat controversial way. At the end of October, Amaz announced his crowdfunding campaign for ATLC, a decision met with polarized opinions and which was eventually canceled just two weeks later.

Photo: Carlton Beener / Blizzard  

November: Pavel crowned World Champion  

In one of the sickest comebacks in history, Pavel sprinted to the finish line of the 2016 World Championship, notably defeating Amnesiac in a dramatic quarter final with the help of a naughty Babbling Book, and DrHippi in a six-game final.

Overnight, the Russian became the winningest player in Hearthstone, banking a quarter million and giving the dust to the previous winnings leader Firebat. Not two weeks later, Pavel back-to-backed major LANs, winning GameGune in Spain and increasing his wealth even further, readying himself for a fiery 2017.  

December: Gadgetzan launches, Orange repeats SSC championship  

Finally, we come to the month of festivities – December. The month started strong, with Mean Streets of Gadgetzan hitting stores and welcoming the player base to a world where Pirates and Kabal mages rule everything and the Reddit outcry about Patches is sky high. Rogues joined Shaman on top of the food chain, experiencing their highest surge of power since the invention of Miracle, and the expansion spelled the (temporary?) death of Hunter, Paladin and Mage in competitive play.

On the competitive scene, a fourth player this year became a repeat champion of a franchise. After ThijsNL, Rdu and Handsomeguy, Orange, too, collected two of a kind, triumphing at SeatStory Cup VI this last weekend.

These were the events that shaped this last year of Hearthstone but even more are likely to come in 2017. HCT will be bigger than ever. Standard will rotate out some of our most favorite cards. A $150,000 team league will be run by ESL.

In short, here’s to not a single dull Hearthstone moment in 2017.