MANILA, Philippines – Hearthstone, Blizzard’s popular online card game, will be having its World Championship in the fall.

To find suitable players for the grandest stage of competitive Hearthstone play, however, the World Championship Southeast Asian (SEA) Finals will be hosted in the Philippines.

This past week, players voted to see who would bag the right to host the Hearthstone World Championship SEA finals. It was a toss-up between the Philippines and Malaysia, which enjoyed an early lead but lost in the end.

The Hearthstone World Championship is, according to Blizzard, “the largest professional Hearthstone tournament in the world, where 16 exceptional players from the around the globe come together to duel for glory, prizes, and the esteemed title of Hearthstone World Champion.

Qualifying to become one of the top 16 in the world of Hearthstone play is composed of two steps: Regional Qualifiers and Regional Championships.

First, regional qualifiers determine the top 40 who will join the regional championships. Blizzard explained: “The top 8 players who emerge from the tournaments victoriously will clinch a spot at their corresponding Regional Championships. Players will be seeded into the 40 player tournament based on their standing in the 2015 Hearthstone point structure.”

The Regional Championships, then, whittle the top 8 from each region to decide the top 4 from each major region: the Americas, Asia-Pacific, China, and Europe. These will then make up the 16 players in the final tournament.

More details on the SEA World Championship tournament will be announced in the coming weeks.

– Rappler.com