Over the past three months, 1071 teams from 466 colleges have dueled in the Tespa tavern.

Today, after countless cards played and mana crystals expended, only four teams remain in the running for the $50,000 scholarship prize pool and the Collegiate Hearthstone Championship title. Let’s take a quick look at the tournament format, the teams, and the schedule for tomorrow’s games!

Format

Teams will be playing in an exciting new 9-class format, similar to Blizzcon’s Hearthstone Inn-vitational! Each team will come prepared with 9 Standard-format decks and play one best-of-11 series against the opposing team. Players will start a round with two “lives.” When one of a player's assigned decks loses, that player loses a life. Once a player has lost both lives, that player and their decks will be eliminated. The first team to eliminate all 6 “lives” of the opposing team will win the match. Team decklists won’t be made public, so viewers will be the first to see the strategies that our teams cook up using the latest expansion, Kobolds and Catacombs!

Teams

University of Colorado, Boulder — North

Colorado’s "Big Buff Boys" are a squad of classically-trained gamers. TinyFatSheep, the team’s captain and Xifos study computer science while Flame, a longtime actor, pursues a degree in film studies. The players met through their university’s gaming club and have been competing ever since. The Big Buff Boys were big fans of early esports like World of Warcraft and League of Legends, as well as card games. Gaming is a huge part of the team’s core identity — or each of its members, esports adds a real sense of validation and accomplishment to their lifelong passion for video games.

Texas Tech University — South

Captained by Cowboys, the Texas Tech "Raiders" have the strongest synergy of any team left in the tournament. All freshmen and friends since middle school, he Raiders are avid sports fans, enjoying basketball, soccer, football, and esports. Their first competitive year started off rough — he Raiders were floored by a tough week one loss, but returned even stronger than ever. Since their first loss, this southern squad hasn’t dropped a match, and hope to continue their incredible momentum to a championship title.

The College of New Jersey — East

The players of "The CONJ" are no strangers to esports. While Soflo and his long-time roomate KGdaCommish discovered Hearthstone and began dominating their local Hearthstone scene since freshman year Answer began his competitive journey playing League of Legends. Now fourth years, the members of The CONJ have yet to prove themselves on a national stage. Will they have what it takes to raise the cup?

University of California, Los Angeles — West

The "UCLA Blue" squad is a team of legend players, led by Triton, renowned in the collegiate Hearthstone competitive sene as the summer Red Bull Brawl champion. All three players enjoy playing music and studying the sciences — Kinix is already working to finish his doctorate in Aerospace Engineering. With a skilled, well-rounded roster, UCLA is a team to watch and a favorite to win.

Schedule

The final games will begin at 10:00am PDT on Saturday, December 16th, and will be broadcast on the PlayHearthstone Twitch!