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The 2016 Hearthstone Championship Tour doesnt crown the winner until Nov. 5 at BlizzCon, but that doesnt mean Blizzard isnt already thinking about the next years tour. Blizzard announced several changes to the esports side of Hearthstone on Wednesday morning, focusing on prize pool, new events, scheduling and more.Increased prize poolThe 2016 HCT featured a $1 million total prize pool. For 2017, Blizzard is doubling the pot to $2 million. This will be split into $250,000 pots for each season championship and $1 million total to be distributed at the World Championship.While every professional wants to be thought of as the best of the world, pride cannot be exchanged for goods and service the way money can, and the more Blizzard invests in the prize pool, the more incentives players have to try to get their seats.Hearthstone Global GamesOverwatch wont be the only Blizzard game to get a World Cup-type event. To create a Hearthstone version, Blizzard is putting together the Hearthstone Global Games, a weekly league featuring teams of players representing individual countries.We havent seen a lot of team events in Hearthstone, but one of the best tournaments in Hearthstones existence was the Archon Team League, run throughout the summer of 2015. Hearthstone itself isnt a team game, but the Archon Team League demonstrated that with the proper format -- all classes had to be played and teammates figured out their best matchups -- you can bring a team concept to what is an individual game.Change of seasonal formatBlizzard is doing away with the regional championships for each season and instead going with a regional season playoffs. Now, each of the four Hearthstone regions (Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, China) will hold its own tournament at the end of each season in Swiss format and send the top four to the overall seasonal championship.Im a fan of this idea, simply because by keeping the regions isolated in this way, you cause a bit of Balkanization of the Hearthstone community. Different regions tend to have slightly different metas, especially when the meta is an unstable period after a content release. One example of this was during the Goblins versus Gnomes/Blackrock Mountain era in which the Chinese server had a notably different flavor of Priest decks -- yes, those existed at one point at high ladder ranks -- with Lightbomb adopted before the NA/EU regions started including it.Championship to be aligned with StandardOne first is that the next championship wont take place at BlizzCon, but in early 2018 at the end of the upcoming, as-yet-untitled Standard year (we are currently in the Year of the Kraken). The main reason for this is Blizzard wishes to align its content releases with the seasonal championships and the overall Standard year with one full championship tour.Blizzard wants to match the HCT calendar with new content such that each season is based on the same card pool all the way through. Doing it this way eliminates a significant inconsistency in some of the tournaments. For example, this year, the summer preliminaries came the same month as the One Night in Karazhan adventure, resulting in a weird situation where the card pool was different each week as new cards were implemented.More even distribution of both points and prizesA significant reality of Hearthstone compared to other esports is that theres always going to be a great deal more RNG (random number generation) than in a MOBA like League of Legends or an FPS like Counter-Strike. Its a high-variance esport like poker, and as such, a more level distribution of awards seems to be necessary for a healthy competitive scene. Tournament formats in which the competitors play 1,000 games to get healthy sample sizes to differentiate ability are impractical, so the next-best thing is to even out these awards. This rewards consistent players and encourages pros to stick with Hearthstone rather than have to chase high-risk, high-reward payouts.The exact distribution of points and jackpots has not been released, but Blizzards plan is to distribute both Hearthstone Competitive Points earned from tournaments and ranked play more evenly, starting with the November Ranked Play season. The same deal goes for Blizzard-run tournament jackpots. This will help prevent a situation like this years in which many of the Hearthstone pros found themselves so far behind in points that they were simply throwing in the towel by late summer.Hearthstone Inn-vitationalsId like to complain about the pun, but Ive made some quite awful ones myself, so I probably shouldnt throw any stones here. Blizzard is again taking a page from a successful alternative kind of tournament, the best examples in this case being the SeatStory cups or the Challengestones. The idea of an Inn-vitational is to create a fun, looser type of tournament for people to watch, with popular streamers, tournament winners and celebrities.Top streamers and players like Octavian Kripparrian Morosan, Jeffrey Trump Shih, Kacem Noxious Khilaji and Brian Kibler are important to the Hearthstone viewing audience, and its not because they win tourney after tourney. The idea here is to play with tournament formats and introduce personalities as well, to bring some variety to a game that sometimes needs it. Wayne Gretzky Jersey . The quest begins with what is supposed to be an easy one, although Germany has traditionally been a stubborn opponent to Canadian teams at international tournaments. Walt Tkaczuk Jersey . -- Stanford squashed Oregons national championship hopes again, schooling the Ducks in power football. http://www.rangershockeyonlineshop.com/jeff-beukeboom-hockey-jersey/ . Numbers Game examines the deal that sees Michael Del Zotto and Kevin Klein switch places. The Predators Get: D Michael Del Zotto. Mike Richter Jersey . -- Peyton Manning will have all of his wide receivers available for the first time in a month when the Denver Broncos begin their playoff run Jan. Marc Staal Jersey . There are some early surprises in the race for the Hart Trophy, but two of the contenders are the leagues biggest stars over the past decade. There are many more players in contention for the awards than just the three that Ive named, and a good or bad week can easily alter the landscape, but through the first 20 or so games of the NHL season, this is how the awards races look to me. THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- If Jared Goff can avoid an NFL pass rush as gracefully as he dodges questions about his playing time, the Los Angeles Rams quarterback of the future will be a star.The Rams (3-4) still have no idea whether Goff has true star potential because the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft hasnt played a snap as they hit their bye week.As the newness of the Rams homecoming wears off, Goffs holding pattern has become the most compelling theme of another .500 season for a franchise that hasnt made the playoffs since 2004.Im confident in myself, Goff said this week after running the Rams first-team offense in practice. Im confident in what I can do. I feel like if my numbers get called, Ill be ready, but its not up to me to decide what that time is.Case Keenum has played all seven games for the Rams, and he will be their starter next weekend against Carolina. Few people suggest the steady Keenum is the main reason for the Rams wins or losses. But not even coach Jeff Fisher believes Keenum will suddenly lead a transformation in the NFLs 30th-ranked offense, which has struggled for consistency from everyone -- even running back Todd Gurley, the 2015 Offense Rookie of the Year.Los Angeles has lost three straight after a 3-1 start, and Keenum threw four interceptions in last weeks loss to the Giants in London. But Fisher remains steadfast in his decision to take his time with his prize draft acquisition, even while his team hovers near mediocrity yet again after four straight losing seasons under his watch.You just kind of wonder at some point, this thing is going to get turned around, Fisher said this week, turning a question into an answer. Thats where we are right now, is holding on to hope that the health of this football team, and the experience, is going to get it turned around.While fellow rookie quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott are becoming stars, Goff still hasnt touched the field near the midway point of his first NFL season. He doesnt betray a trace of frustration publicly, instead focusing on his work with the scout team and spending his Sundays at Keenums shoulder.Its part of the process, part of whats going on, Goff said. IIm not going to sit here and complain or gripe.dddddddddddd Im going to support Case, and continue to get ready and be ready, and continue to be confident in myself and be ready when the time comes.With a chance to run the first-team offense in practice before the Rams split for their bye weekend, Goff looked confident and comfortable. He has been Keenums backup for the past six weeks on a team that only dresses two quarterbacks on game day, which proves Fishers contention he would be comfortable if Goff had to play.We wouldnt scale anything back, Fisher said. We wouldnt change a thing. Hes got that good of a feel for what were doing.So why isnt Goff playing already, if its inevitable? Fisher simply doesnt think its time yet.Goff played three college seasons in Californias spread offense, which bears scant resemblance to an NFL scheme, and he just turned 22 years old this month. He is adjusting to adulthood fairly well, but preparing for the pro game is even tougher.The time schedule is probably a little bit more (demanding) than college was, as far as time commitment, Goff said. But I talked to my friends, theyre in midterms right now, and I get to come out here and play football every day. So its good.Keenums inconsistencies pale in comparison to the running games struggles. Gurley is seventh in the NFC with 403 yards rushing, but hes managing just 3.0 yards per carry, the lowest average among the conferences top 24 ball carriers.Yet there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic heading toward the holidays: Los Angeles defense has been largely outstanding in a series of tough games, and its special teams have been nearly flawless.And though theyre back below .500, the Rams will have every opportunity to make a move. Their four November opponents are a combined 8-18, and they play five of their final nine regular-season games at the Coliseum after a year filled with difficult travel.We have a great opportunity, and it starts with the next opponent, Fisher said.---AP NFL websites: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '