Hearthstone’s World Championship is happening in Taipei right now (you can watch the stream here), with the 16 best players in the world competing for their share of a USD $1 million prize pool. It would be a gripping tournament for that reason alone, but it’s a notable event on a number of other levels too. This tournament is the swansong for the Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT), which has been replaced by Masters and Grandmasters, as well as for the Conquest format, which has been replaced by Specialist, where players bring a single class to tournaments. They’re seismic shifts, and the landscape for the rest of 2019 looks completely different to anything we’ve seen before.
Source: IGN.com Why Hearthstone Esports Was Overhauled for 2019