Two players sit across from one another. They are dressed in casual clothes, jeans, t-shirts. Headphones shut out the world outside. They never look at one another; their eyes are focused entirely on the screens in front of them. Neither ever moves, save for the superhuman like twitching of their fingers across the keyboard. The tension is palpable. Even if you do not understand what is going on, you know that this is important; that something is about to happen.
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Today was the second day of the Hearthstone Blizzcon Qualifiers, where 16 players from across North America are competing for the chance to appear at the annual Blizzcon convention in Seattle next month. The tournament was organized by ESL, the premier eSports League.
The legendary Hammerstein Ballroom stands less than half full today. Rows and rows of empty seats. Voices chatter and echo all over the grand venue's high walls. Yet, if you close your eyes and listen, the sound can overwhelm you, and that near empty hall can sound like a full sized arena. Like watching Bobby Fischer, you can see the endless algorithms and calculations going on behind a firm countenance. Hearthstone may be a game to you and me; but to these players, it is a full time job.
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If you have never experienced a live eSports event, you are missing out. Though it lacks the fever pitch of a Korean event, where thousands gather to declare their love and allegiance to their favorite players, an eSports event done right is like a night at the casino: suddenly, the entire evening has vanished, and you're not entirely sure when that happened.
The hall may look vacant, but do not take the rows of empty seats to mean that nobody is watching. The official Twitch broadcast was favorited over 61,000 times and received more than 10 million views (including repeats). Sunday Night Football got over 18 million views, but football has been an institution for the last half century. Hearthstone was released back in March.
Sixteen players entered, but only four will get the chance to compete at Blizzcon. The tournament had been raging for two days now and you could feel the air of finality hanging over the proceedings. Today, it was all or nothing. Each game was a single elimination, best of five match. On the surface, each contender, who had fought long and hard to get here, looked calm and composed, but underneath, the nerves can get to even the most seasoned of eSports players.
"As soon as I lost the priest vs priest mirror," he later confessed, "I didn't think my warlock was going to be favored against his priest and warrior, so I felt pretty defeated after I lost that game." But he still soldiered on, and put up a great fight in the clincher. It was not to be, though.
JAB may have lost the Blizzcon tournament, but he refuses to let it get him down. He's already planning his Hearthstone future. "I'm planning to start streaming like 5 days a week or something, so I'll do that and weekly tournaments. Then, whenever something else big comes around I'll definitely go for it." You can watch him at twitch.tv/jablol
When the dust had settled, the four finalists left were Firebat, dTwo, StrifeCro and...Tarei. TidesOfTime missed the mark. This time, at least.
Hearthstone has just opened, but the Inn will be around for a long, long time. Tides and JAB and all the others will have more chances to succeed.
Blizzcon happens next month from November 8 thru 9. You can purchase Virtual Tickets to watch all of the action here, from Warcraft, Diablo and oh yes, Hearthstone. The official Twitch channel is replaying the event all day. Check it out below.
