Blizzard is preparing for a Brawl at Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft’s The Grand Tournament.
On Wednesday, as normal, the publisher opens a new Tournament Brawl (a special mode that imposes weird rules on matches) in its popular free-to-play card battler. But this week’s is different because it involves new cards from the upcoming The Grand Tournament expansion. This is one of the best ways to get a taste of some of the capabilities and card powers you can expect from the new Hearthstone add-on.
This shows how Blizzard is using all of the tools at its disposal to continue coaxing cash out of players, and that is working. Research firm SuperData recently revealed that Hearthstone is making approximately $20 million every month. That’s actually more money than Dota 2 makes.
Blizzard is calling this Brawl “The Grand Tournament Match.” It has players taking control of either the magician Medivh or the hunter Alleria. Medivh specialize in Inspires cards, which is a new category that emboldens the player character’s hero power. Alleria relies on “jousters.” These are minions that have a chance to get bonuses if they win certain heads-up battles.
You can see an example of the Master Jouster in the video below:
Of course, The Grand Tournament Match is really a marketing tool for Blizzard and Hearthstone. It doesn’t cost anything to enter this match, and gamers can play it as many times as they want. And when they do, that might give them a taste for these new capabilities, and that in turn may get them to spend … oh, let’s say $50 to preorder 50 decks of Grand Tournament cards.