Barça creates Hearthstone team

FC Barcelona has added Hearthstone to the list of video games in which it competes, following on from eFootball PES2020 and Rocket League. The iconic card game is one of the most popular card games of our era, with millions of players around the world.

Zhym, the chosen one

20-year-old Frenchman Martin Prete (AKA Zhym) will be representing Barça in all official Blizzard competitions in 2020. He already made his season debut in the Hearthstone Grandmasters, which brings together the 16 best players in the world in a regional format.

Zhym will be appearing as a ‘blaugrana’ for the first time this week as he plays in Group B in the hope of earning a berth in the play-offs and a shot at winning the European title.

The top two players from each region (EMEA, America, Asia-Pacific and China) will be going to the Grandmasters Global Finals.

Further development of eSports section

The eSports section is part of FC Barcelona’s new digital strategy, which is all about connecting with new global audiences by featuring in new competitive video games.

Since joining eFootball PES2020 and Rocket League, the club has decided to take things further by entering a one-person team in the Hearthstone tournament. It is a way for Barça to connect with millions of players and the global audiences who follow the official competitions, and is also a way to generate attractive content to show on the club’s official media channels.

All of the competitions in which Barça competes can be followed on the specific @FCBeSports channel on Twitter and at @fcbesports on Instagram.

The game: Hearthstone

Hearthstone is a free strategy game using collectable cards based on the Warcraft universe, created by one of the leading video game developers in the world, Blizzard Entertainment, in 2014.

It can be played on different mobile devices, tablets and computers, which has helped expand the game to over 100 million players worldwide. Hearthstone might be global, but its highest concentrations of players are based in Europe and Asia, and especially China.