Hello everyone! We here at SKL wanted to take a brief moment to talk about the Hearthstone Invitational occurring February 24^th at the Twisted Tartan.

First and foremost, we would like to congratulate the following people for their qualification of the Hearthstone Invitational: Alarid, VltCtrlDefeat, Inoshishi, Hitchens, MrJoeNorm, Woodstove, Serzeskimo and Edge. We would also like to congratulate Corvikk on his IQ win, but unfortunately he notified SKL last week he would not be able to attend the invitational. We hope to see him out next year! As for the 8 players participating, they have proven to be the best players in the province and we are looking forward to showcasing their talent within the NEW meta, due to the nerfs recently announced by Blizzard. We will be streaming the event live from the Twisted Tartan (2404 8^th St E in Saskatoon), and we encourage anyone that would like to watch to come check it out and use their SKL Player Cards for discounted drinks while they enjoy watching some Hearthstone on the big screen! The event will start at 11 am and will continue until the grand finals occur (approximately 7 pm).

After the Invitational, SKL will be having another SKL Beer Night. This will be the first to be held at the Twisted Tartan. Come hang out with the casters, fellow players (whether you play League, Hearthstone, Smash or any other game), and friends! SKL will be selling tickets for the beer night, where you can enjoy some great beer specials, that will run from 8 to 10 pm.

We would like to address a concern that was raised from an outside source about Edge’s qualification for this tournament. While he is a part of the SKL team, his qualification comes from the five points he received for finishing 2^nd at a tournament BEFORE he was an official part of the team. When he helped create the IQ circuit, the goal was for there to be enough point collectors that his slot would be phased out. Unfortunately, the November IQ did not occur due to lack of participants, which meant Edge still had enough points to qualify for this tournament. When the other player who received enough points to attempt to qualify for the Invitational was contacted to potentially take his place, he was unable to make the date work.

We at SKL believe in competitive integrity, and as such any and all prizes that Edge may receive for competing in this tournament will be distributed to the other participants. Also, decklists for this tournament will be submitted beforehand to a separate SKL Admin and distributed to all players at least a week before the tournament to ensure that Edge is not given any other information that other players do not receive. When the other players in the invitational were given this information, they agreed that this was more than fair and they also see no problem in Edge competing in the tournament. This also helps to ensure the full eight players are used for the bracket, rather than giving a random player in the tournament a bye due to only having seven people.