Today, Blizzard Entertainment announced the Hearthstone Collegiate Championship will return this Fall with $48,000 in scholarship prizing.

The regular season of the HCC will begin on October 1, 2018, and end on November 5, 2018. Each team of three competitors will play seven Swiss-format matches within one of four regional groups depending on the location of the school; those groups include North, South, East, and West. In order to move to the next round, teams must win five out of the seven games.

The next round, the Regional Swiss, will begin on November 17, 2018, and end on November 18, 2018. The teams that advance from the regular season will go against other teams within the same region. The top eight teams from each region will move on to the Regional Playoffs.

Regional Playoffs begin on December 1, 2018, and end the next day, December 2. The top eight teams from each region that advanced from the Regional Swiss be split into two Dual Elimination groups, each with four teams. The top two teams from each group will then head to the Championship Bracket on December 8, 2018, where one team from each region will be placed in one of four groups.

Finally, the top two teams from each group in the Championship Bracket will advance to the Finals on December 15, 2018. With eight teams in total, each will be seeded into one of two Dual Elimination groups. The winners will move on to a single elimination bracket with the last remaining team crowned as the champions.

Here is the breakdown of what each player will earn depending on what place they take at the Fall Hearthstone Collegiate Championship:

  • 1st Place: $3,500 per player
  • 2nd Place: $2,000 per player
  • 3rd and 4th Place: $1,250 per player
  • 5th through 8th Place: $1,000 per player
  • 9th through 16th Place: $500 per player
  • 17th through 32nd Place: $40 BattleNet balance per player

In the last Hearthstone Collegiate Championship, Penn State - Blue defeated UCLA Blue after six matches despite UCLA being the favorite between the two teams.