Institute for Esports Leadership

Learn, Play, Lead

Events

Hearthstone Team League – Winter Season Registration Open

Tired of losing against pay-to-win decks? Want to break up the loneliness of solo play? Well you’ve come to the right post! If you have ever thought about playing on a Hearthstone team, here is your opportunity. The Institute for Esports Leadership (IEL) is starting a developmental team league.

Hearthstone Team League

Matches are approximately 1 hour long on Wednesday evenings, and teams pick 3 players from their roster to compete each week, while other players spectate and coach. Each team has a GM (who may also be a player) who organizes the team and manages the roster.

The emphasis is on developing player skills and the league accommodates players from beginner to expert, with any level of time commitment.

Find out more information, or register now: http://www.esportsleaders.com/programs/hearthstone-team-league/

Esports Professional Network Panel – OCT 11, 6PM EST

The Esports Professional Network is hosting another panel discussion this time with the topic gender leagues. EPN is a networking tool on Slack which connects professionals and amateurs in esports. Today, you will hear from IEL’s very own Carleigh Morgan, legal and business analyst Isabel Davies as well as experienced leader and strategic planner Shane Boulware.

After a quick introduction of today’s hosts the discussion will delve right into the main topics:

  1. What are gender leagues?
  2. What do we mean by choice league integration?
  3. What do we mean by complete league integration?
  4. What is the point of both gender segmented leagues and gender integrated leagues?
  5. What would choice integration look like?
  6. What would complete integration look like?

Join us 6PM EST over at Twitch.tv/EsportsProfessionals and bring with you any questions that you have for the EPN panel. 

We will also take questions from Twitch chat.

See you there!

Esports Professional Network Panel – Aug 23, 7 PM EST

The Esports Professional Network, a networking tool on Slack is used to connect professionals and amateurs in eSports, is hosting a panel discussion on professionalism. IEL’s Teague Hopkins and Carleigh Morgan will join Shane Boulware and Patrick Ryan for a discussion on how professionalism can be applied to eSports in their respective areas of expertise. Conversation topics will include:

  1. What does professionalism mean to your area of expertise?
  2. How does your form of professionalism apply to esports?
  3. How far should esports go in embracing your form of professionalism?
  4. Can esports afford to let your form of professionalism fall to the wayside?

Please join us on Twitch on August 23 at 7 p.m. EST for the panel and be sure to leave questions in Twitch chat for additional conversation topics!

IEL Hearthstone Commons League Finals

hearthstonefinals

Watch Now

Join us Wed, July 20 starting at 5pm PT / 8pm ET on Twitch for the 3rd Place and Grand Final matches of our Hearthstone Commons League.

Third Place Match

First up, Zyzzyva takes on Talerion with the Bronze on the line. Zyzzyva led Group B through the regular season with a record of 5-1 and a tiebreaker thanks to a 3-0 victory over Chisgule. He was atop the Power Rankings until their postseason rematch last week, when Chisgule reversed the previous results, taking his own 3-0 victory to secure a spot in the final, and sending Zyzzyva to third place match and 3rd in the Power Rankings.

Talerion managed a narrow 3-2 upset in the quarterfinals to keep his playoff run alive. After a 3-2 loss in the semis, he enters the third place game 5th in the Power Rankings. However, Talerion beat Zyzzyva 3-0 in the regular season, so he’ll be trying for a repeat performance here.

Grand Final

The title match between Xachariah and Chisgule promises to be a close one. The two are practically tied at the top of the Power Rankings, with Chisgule barely edging Xachariah out for the top spot. Both made it through the regular season with 5-1 records, and while they have played practice matches on numerous occasions, they have never faced each other during League play. Xachariah dispatched his quarterfinal opponent easily with a 3-0 victory, and won a close semifinal match against Talerion 3-2. Chisgule’s road to the final included a 3-1 win in the quarters and the aforementioned 3-0 upset over then-top-ranked Zyzzyva to secure his spot.

With strong performances all season from both players, this one is anyone’s game.

Schedule

Pre-game show starts at 5pm PT / 8pm ET, followed by the Third Place Match at 5:10/8:10, and then the Grand Final immediately following.

IEL Hearthstone Mixed Triples Tournament

Hearthstone-logo

A beginner-friendly team tournament with new formats.

Register Here

August 3, 2016, 6pm PT/9pm ET

Join us for a Mixed Triples Exhibition tournament, exploring several community formats for Hearthstone. This is a chance for both league players and new entrants to experiment with our new format. We encourage you to bring your friends.

Hang out in our Discord group while you play.

Teams

  • Teams are 3 people. Each person on your team will play 1 game per match. Winning 2 out of 3 games wins the match.
  • For this tournament, players will register individually and we will assign teams balanced by experience level.
  • You can spectate your teammates and coach them during the games, but obviously, you may not spectate opponents.
  • Teams may not use a hero class more than once per match. (i.e. Each of your three players must use a deck from a different class during the best of 3 match.)
  • Winning teams should take screenshots of their victories to validate in the case of a dispute.

Formats

The formats for the 3 games in each match are chosen from 5 possible formats:

  1. Tavern Brawl,
  2. Commons,
  3. C4,
  4. Standard, and
  5. Wild.

Each team will veto one format, with the higher seeded team announcing first, leaving 3 formats for the match. Each format will be played by 1 of your 3 players for their single game against an opponent. Your team may decide which player plays which format.

Simultaneous Announcement of Player Assignments
Once the 3 formats have been determined, each team posts a message to the dropbox channel in Discord with their lineup: {format, player, hero} x 3. Once both teams have submitted, they share their choices with the other team. Admins can check the dropbox submissions upon request. Deviation from submission will result in a forfeit.

Example Match

Click to Expand
Team Alpha is seeded higher so they will ban first. They choose to veto Wild, because no one on their team has a strong Wild deck. Team Bravo then decides to veto Tavern Brawl, because they don’t like the randomness. That means this match will be best of 3 games: one Commons, one C4, and one Standard.

Team Alpha decides that their most experienced players will have the best shot at winning the more open formats so they decide that A1 will play Standard, A2 will play C4, and A3 will play Commons. Unbeknownst to them, Team Bravo has another plan. They decide to punt on the Standard game and have their least experienced player, B3, play that one. They put their top player B1 in C4, and B2 in Commons.

A3 has a pretty good Warlock Zoo deck for Common, so A1 and A2 have to pick something other than Warlock to play for their respective games. They decide on Druid and Hunter. Meanwhile B1 picks Warlock for C4, B2 picks Priest for Common, and B3 picks Mage for Standard even though it’s not a very good Mage deck.

Both teams announce their matchups. The 3 games to be played are:

  • A1’s Druid vs B3’s Mage in Standard
  • A2’s Hunter vs B1’s Warlock in C4
  • A3’s Warlock vs B2’s Priest in Commons

A1 predictably beats B3 in Standard, B1‘s Zoo beats A2‘s Hunter in C4, and A3‘s Warlock is too much for B2‘s priest deck, so A3 pulls off that upset win, giving Team Alpha a 2-1 victory in the match.

Decks

  • Decks may be modified throughout the tournament, and deck lists do not need to be submitted for this event.

Schedule & Forfeits

  • Tournament play will begin at 9pm ET, after check-in is complete.
  • Brackets are not finalized until notified.
  • If you are not available to play a match within a 15 minute grace period, your opponent may request a forfeit from the tournament admins.
  • Double forfeits (neither player online) in deadlocked matches will result in elimination for both teams.