Now that the 2016 Winter Tavern Hero Tournaments have come to a close, it’s time to set our sights on the 2016 European Winter Preliminaries. All the winners of the recent Tavern Hero Tournaments will return to the locations of their victories, where they’ll be joined by some of the top competitors in Europe. They’ll then compete online for one of eight slots in the 2016 European Hearthstone Winter Championship and a share of its $100,000 USD prize pool!
Let the Winter Preliminaries Begin
The 2016 European Winter Preliminaries will be live-streamed in a variety of languages across Europe on Saturday and Sunday, February 13 and 14, starting at 14:00 CET on both days. We will update the list below with further language streams over the next few days - click on any of the stream links to watch once the event is live.
| Stream | Language |
| Twitch - PlayHearthstone | English |
| Twitch - MilleniumTVHS | French |
| Twitch - HearthstoneFR | French |
| Twitch - BlackFIreIce | Polish |
| Twitch - Starladder_HS_ru | Russian |
| Twitch - OGSeries | Spanish |
| Twitch - HearthBulgaria | Bulgarian |
| Twitch - firesidegatherings | Dutch |
| Twitch - Like_a_bawse | Greek |
Fireside Gatherings near you may be streaming the event live, so join some fellow gamers and watch together! If you’re hosting a Fireside Gathering, why not organize a viewing party at your venue?
The Participants
All 20 winners of the Tavern Hero Tournaments, along with the top 128 ranked European players*, will battle it out in select locations across Europe. Check out the list of venues below, as well as the Tavern Hero winner for each location.
| Venue | Location | Tavern Hero |
| Loading Online Bar | London, UK | osha |
| Pixel Bar | Madrid, Spain | jac0b0 |
| Fireplace | Moscow, Russia | mylife294 |
| Meltdown Paris | Paris, France | Wylrie |
| Meltdown Berlin | Berlin, Germany | Phenry |
| Meltdown Valencia | Valencia, Spain | Keponer |
| Meltdown Lisbon | Lisbon, Portugal | Florindo |
| O'Learys Gamla Stan | Stockholm, Sweden | Spo |
| O'Deer | St. Petersburg, RU | Evseychuk |
| Meltdown Bordeaux | Bordeaux, France | life |
| Löwen | Zurich, Switzerland | Luskmo |
| ESL Arena | Katowice, Poland | Sachi |
| Kiev CyberSport Arena | Kiev, Ukraine | Zerxam |
| The Quill | Sofia, Bulgaria | Ievski1991 |
| Malom Bisztro | Budapest, Hungary | Aero |
| House of Nerds | Oslo, Norway | ProfiX |
| The Cave | Utrecht, Netherlands | Xaos |
| Baze Esports Café | Istanbul, Turkey | FastJunkie |
| Nexus Gamers Pub | Bucharest, Romania | itsmedavidc |
| InSpot Panormou | Athens, Greece | RST |
For more information on the top 128 ranked players*, check out the European Standings page.
Future Tavern Hero Tournaments
We’ve listened to your feedback on the locations of the Tavern Hero Tournaments and Winter Preliminaries in Europe, and we plan to expand to further locations in the coming seasons. We’ll be sharing more details next season to help out anyone hoping to become a venue sponsor for future events.
*Players who qualify for the Winter Preliminaries will receive details confirming their spot at the email address attached to their Battle.net account. All players tied in points with the 128th slot in the rankings as of February 5, 2016 will also qualify.