It took a while, but Hearthstone finally has its in-game support for the esports scene. After an in-game bundle to support competitive Hearthstone was teased a few months ago, players can now purchase a $19,99 card bundle for a limited amount of time. Part of the money it brings to Blizzard's bank will be distributed across prize pools of the three Masters Tours held this year, increasing said prize pool by up to $250,000 per event.

The bundle is not a bad deal either. Twenty bucks will net you twenty card packs; a 1 pack/dollar ratio is far better than the standard bundles in the shop. It also uses Blizzard's loyal, completionist collector fan base by granting a brand new card back and an alternative Shaman skin: the Thunder King.

Access Hearthstone offline

The patch not only introduced a new bundle and activate the buffs announced a while ago, it also made some quality of life improvements. Players can now access Hearthstone offline and: View their collection, create/edit/delete decks and set favorite heroes/card backs. The patch also made some matchmaking improvements, reducing the chances of matching against the same player using the same class multiple times in a row.

Improvements and fixed bugs

• Fixed several issues encountered when making changes to windowed mode, fullscreen mode, and when resizing the game.
• Fixed a visual issue causing Flare to animate twice when drawing a Cast When Drawn card.
• Fixed an issue causing the animation times for Kalecgos and Rebuke to play at a different speed from other similar effects.
• The animation for Togwaggle's Scheme shuffling a high number of cards (5+) has been updated to shuffle in batches of 5 cards and at a higher speed.
• Hadronox's Deathrattle animation no longer appears larger than intended when it triggers an opponent's Duplicate secret.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Kabal Chemist to disconnect your opponent when played.
• Playing Soularium and Plot Twist quickly together will no longer cause a visual issue.
• Fixed an issue causing the game to freeze if Voidcaller is drawn at the start of your turn while Fel Lord Betrug and Spiritsinger Umbra are on your side of the board.
• Triggering a secret that was transformed from Shifting Scroll or Chameleos no longer causes the client to lock up for both players.
• Fixed an issue that could cause streaming data to stop downloading if the game's language was changed during the download process.
• Fixed issue where the Collection Manager’s filters would not work for newly created accounts.
• Fixed an issue where heroes would briefly display the banned banner in the collection manager.
• Fixed an issue which would occasionally leave the screen blurry after finishing a game under certain circumstances.
• [Monster Hunt] Fixed an issue where Monster Hunt bosses would sometimes incorrectly be displayed as Gobbles during the upcoming boss fight screen.
• [Dalaran Heist] Bartender Bob should no longer show an empty speech bubble upon exiting a friendly encounter.
• [Android] Changed how texture packs on Android devices are handled. This may cause some users to have to redownload these assets.
• [Mobile] Fixed an issue that could cause players to get duplicate season roll popups when relogging on a mobile device.