All you need to know about the HCT World Championship

The Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT) sees the best Hearthstone players from around the world competing against one another for precious points and qualification to the top tournaments, and now the HCT 2017 has reached its conclusion, as from tomorrow the World Championship will be held in Amsterdam, seeing 16 players face off for the ultimate glory. We'll be in attendance at the event, but before it kicks off we've got all you need to know about the competition.

The tournament will be held in Amsterdam's Beurs van Berlage Conference Centre, which used to hold the Dutch Stock Exchange, and from tomorrow until Sunday we'll be seeing all the action unfold. For those on-site there are also open tournaments, opportunities to meet top players, and more to get involved with.

In terms of format, the World Championship will feature a dual tournament group stage followed by a single elimination playoff, where the top two players from each group will advance to the playoff bracket. Each group will have four players, one from each of the Seasonal Championships (Winter, Spring, and Summer) and also four who are the highest earners of points from each competitive region that aren't already qualified for the World Championship (these being the Last Call slots). These have been seeded based on results and Competitive Points, and each match will be best-of-five and in Conquest format, with one class ban, so all players will need four decks.

The action kicks off at 08.30 CET (07.30 GMT) from Thursday to Saturday, and on Sunday it all starts at 16:00 CET (15:00 GMT). The first two days will be Group Stages, while Saturday is Elimination Stage, while Sunday is solely dedicated to the playoffs, and you can watch all of this on Twitch.

The prize pool for this event stands at a whopping $1 million USD, and the first place winner will receive $250,000 of that, with second place getting $150,000, third and fourth getting $100,000, fifth to eighth getting $50,000, and the rest getting $25,000.

As to who'll be there, the casters are Brian Kibler and Dan 'Frodan' Chou; Simon 'Sottle' Welch and Alexander 'Raven' Baguley; and TJ Sanders and Nathan "Admirable" Zamora. In terms of players, though, here are how the groups are broken down:

Group A:

Hoej
DocPwn
Orange
Tom60229

Group B:

Muzzy
JasonZhou
Kolento
SamuelTsao

Group C:

ShtanUdachi
Ant
Sintolol
Purple

Group D:

Surrender
OmegaZero
Fr0zen
Neirea

We'll be providing interviews and video content throughout the event, so stay tuned to Gamereactor for more on this prestigious Championship. Who do you think will win?