Hearthstone is an esport like no other. Even with the official launch in 2014 and with tournaments growing bigger and richer and with the game ensconcing itself in the top five most watched on Twitch, the question whether or not Hearthstone will be one of the top esports persisted.

It was a valid concern, and it still is to this day. By nature, Hearthstone lacks the reactionary mechanic of traditional esports and is strictly a game of the mind akin to chess. The random effects of certain cards also add volatility to each match, making it somewhat similar to poker, and never are those two sports put in the same pool with the sports with dominant physical component.

With the explosion of Hearthstone’s popularity, however, Blizzard were faced with completely different problems than those of semantic nature. The game, by design, had a low entry point, a relatively low skill cap compared to traditional esports and a skyrocketing player population. Gamers had finally found a game where getting into the competitive scene did not require dozens of hours of practice each day. With tens of millions playing Hearthstone, even having a 1% competitive population meant catering to overwhelming numbers and those numbers demanded – directly or otherwise – a proper circuit to test their skills and earn a living.

In 2014, Blizzard presented the first HWC (Hearthstone World Championship) but that was more of a last minute solution to a growing demand and it lacked the very basic element of a World Championship circuit: Year-long storylines. In 2015, the company stepped up and planned the whole thing end to end and upgraded it even further this year, introducing seasonal championships for the established regions. 2016 HCT (Hearthstone Championship Tour) also introduced the fully-open requirements for HCT-related events and although the rise of unfamiliar names often cut into the tournament viewership numbers, it was realistically Blizzard’s best and only solution to such vast competitive population.

For all the improvements HCT introduced to Hearthstone, some aspects of the competition remained flawed regardless. The four regions feel isolated. China and APAC had very limited chances to compete against the west while also operating under completely different HCT rules. The only direct confrontations between the west and the east came in the form of NetEase’s Challenge Invitationals, which not only perpetuated the longest rivalry in Hearthstone but served as proof how fundamental such face-offs are for the scene. Even in the west where Europe and North America competed against each other fairly often competition was heavily skewed: Europe had more major events compared to the Americas and whatever clashes were had between the two regions included one playing guest to the other and fighting with a numbers disadvantage on foreign soil. Equal footing competition was strictly the domain of the World Championship.

Such phenomenon is, of course, not exclusive to Hearthstone and can be observed in other esports as well. In League of Legends, the exclusion of cross-regional competition was the intended design of developer Riot Games and has in turn been criticized by LoL’s pundits. The reasons of both parties are fairly clear. Riot Games wants to keep the regions separated for most of the year in order to build hype when they finally meet at Worlds. Pundits and fans, on the other hand, see this as missing opportunities to watch high-octane match-ups between players or teams as it’s never guaranteed that the best Korean team will get to play the best European team at Worlds, for example, and thus create international rivalries.

In that regard, HCT 2017 is a big step forward for Hearthstone, as its regional championships have been redesigned to be international. When each season features a mini Blizzcon of sorts where all four regions are equally represented, this not only promotes the birth of storylines across the globe but also creates more opportunities for regions to learn from each other and grow. Regional playstyles and results should never be a product of a vacuum metagame, but enriched through encounters with other playstyles and metagames.  

This simple move in turn eliminates the unfamiliar storylines at the World Championship (of which there were aplenty this year) and creates a ripple effect where third party tournaments are more willing to consider inviting foreign competitors without the risk of losing viewership through the dark horse factor.

Furthermore, the design of the 2017 circuit targets multiple layers of interest towards the game by introducing different formats of competition. On one end there’s the HCT, home of game’s best players, built for those who are interested in Hearthstone played on the highest level, catering to competitive elitists and purists. On the other end of the spectrum are the Inn-vitationals, made for the personalities and streamers, to whom the majority of the fans flock. In the middle are the Global Games, a mix of the two extremes with the added element of national competition, a first for Hearthstone.

Here, the ingenuity is not just the layered design but the streamlined progression it creates for getting new fans into Hearthstone esports. The Inn-vitationals are the natural entry point for the majority of viewers and once they are hooked to watching the popular names compete, they get to vote them into the Global Games teams and move on to watching that. As the Global Games teams are also a mix between personalities and top HCT competitors, the casual fan is now acquainted with the top level of the scene and potentially crosses that bridge over to becoming an esports enthusiast. He or she is now engaged with Hearthstone at multiple points. The HCT itself has also become more cut-throat and geared towards the most consistent players, having a higher cut for the seasonal preliminaries which are now played in swiss instead of double elimination - every pro player's dream.

The cherry on top of Blizzard’s fantastic design is putting everything under one roof, a move towards unifying the multi-faceted nature of the Hearthstone scene instead of having a product that is scattered all over the place.

It’s the best thing to happen to the game since launch and if what’s on paper seamlessly transitions to execution it will be the best weapon to combat Hearthstone’s original problem: The question whether or not it can be a “real” esport or not?

Nydra is the Hearthstone leader at GosuGamers. If you enjoyed this, give him a follow at @GGNydra on Twitter.