IEM Shenzhen announces first invited participants

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

The Intel Extreme Masters appear to have its first large-scale Hearthstone event at IEM Shenzhen, with the online card game boasting a modest prize pool of $10,000 as well as their announcement that a wide range of global talent has been invited to participate. Among these participants is Team SoloMid's Harry 'MaSsan' Cheong, taking part in his first LAN event as well as his first large constructed tournament since joining the organisation famous for their League of Legends team. Meet Your Makers' Radu 'Rdu' Dima, the Dreamhack Summer champion who is on a mission to prove his doubters wrong after the infamous message controversy at Dreamhack, is also invited. The tournament will also be home to the winners of the Asian qualifiers, of which many will be unknown to both the participants and spectators. You can find more details about the event, which will be casted by Dan 'Frodan' Chou, as well as the full participant list below.

A lot of big news has been coming out of Hearthstone over the last few weeks, with the biggest news in the competitive scene being that IEM Shenzhen will feature a $10,000 Hearthstone tournament.

IEM Shenzhen will be taking place from July 16-20, and this Hearthstone tournament will be held over the first 3 days, with 16 players from around the globe. These 16 players will be sorted into 4 groups of 4, with the top 2 players in each group continuing to the playoffs. Only five players have been confirmed so far - Gnimsh and StrifeCro from Cloud 9, Amaz from Team Liquid, MaSsan for TSM and Rdu for MYM - but a selection of Asia’s top invited and qualified players will also be attending.

This will be an exciting chance to see some of the best known names in Hearthstone competing against each other on a more global stage than we’ve seen in the past, and IEM Shenzhen is sure to be an great show altogether, so check out the stream at www.intelextrememasters.com when the event starts this Wednesday.

Credit - eslgaming.com