I was so excited to be featured in a couple videos during Blizzconline, including presenting the award for Best Cosplay of a Blizzard Character, Innkeeper Impressions, and a few other random highlight videos.

The Battle Blitz is a collaboration from Esports Arena, Bytes Events, and Slysssa, sponsored by USMC (Marines). It’s a competitive HS Battlegrounds Tournament with 4 open qualifier rounds, and 1 championship round with a $10,000 prize pool.
Find the brackets here

For Rise of Shadows, we constructed a series of thematic Escape Room style puzzles that would end with the opening of a sealed chest, and a prize
Interactive puzzle design has been seen throughout Bytes Events, but this was the first directly inspired by thematic escape rooms.

The Lich Mountain created for Frostside Gathering and upgraded for Summer Playoffs featured a talking Arthas head, glowing runes, a shaking table, fog machine, and a devilishly difficult memory puzzle to solve.

Start with a fresh Hearthstone account and race for 12 hours, playing Battlegrounds against other players to see who can rank the highest, or finish difficult bounties!

Blizzard isn’t the only host for Hearthstone events. Bytes and team also operate as organizers, event hosts, contract employees, and admins for non-Blizzard sanctioned gaming events.

Some other events include:
UCI Esports Conference
PAX West- Geico Gaming
Rat Race 2018
WSOE 2 Hearthstone
WSOE 3 Fortnite
WSOE 4 Rocket League

If you mix Kobolds and Catacombs era Hearthstone with Dungeons & Dragons, you get Bytes’ Hearthstone Adventure Companion. A unique Player’s handbook teaches players how to make a hero of Hearthstone, who goes on a roleplaying tabletop adventure! Instead of a d20, players use Hearthstone puzzles and game modes to solve the encounters, gain XP, and unlock new skills and feats.

A second adventure module “Into the Witchwood” dove even deeper into the live RPG system and added an interactive presentation, live actors pulled onto stage from the crowd to read parts from the adventure, and an improved game system.

This is a truly unique experience.

Our interactive Witchwood tree centerpiece for the Hearthstone Innkeeper’s Quest charity event was transformed into Tree 2.0 for the interactive Soundwave Festival and ESA OC Tourstop. It features spherical eyeball monitors programmed with facial recognition, and audio software triggered by Leap Motion programming in an LED illuminated cauldron.

Blizzard knows how to get people excited. Cracking open your packs early with your friends before the set is released is a unique experience. Streaming games with the new cards with Pros vs Joes made it even more fun.

Bytes and team have been a host and/or admin for nine HCT Esports events including 8 Preliminaries and Playoffs, and 2016 Last Call Americas tournament.

Before Lich Mountain was the Un’Goro Spring Playoffs, Escape Room style Fireside puzzle. Unlocking Un’goro mountain required solving mini puzzles throughout the venue, including a Dino Footprint with embedded wifi receiver, which routed mobile devices to a Choose Your Own Adventure mini-game.

The quest to bring the Hearthstone Community together for a good cause. Raising money for Gamer’s Outreach, the Innkeeper’s Quest featured Invited Pro Players, teaming up with locals to play over a dozen mini games, including a table-flipping contest, Ragnaros fireball launch, and Knife Juggler.  A new app created by Bytes and Marc Lundgren, called Draftstone, allows players a brand new way to play Hearthstone.

This professional cosplay takes 2.5 hours for each session of application and painting. Nothing livens up the Fireside like a real life Innkeeper!

Competitive doesn’t have to be the same boring format every time. Bytes Cracked Cup offered serious prizing, but threw away all the standard rules, for a twisted competition with a banned list, disadvantage cards, and strange new competitive formats.

Many Bytes Events over the years have featured interactive thematic Quest Logs, with puzzles, social interactions, mini-games, and humor. Having a physical item to hand to attendees adds value to the experience, and patrons enjoy solving these themed scavenger hunt logs.

Blizzard’s Frostside Gathering at San Diego Comic Con with Tempo Storm and interactive games like “Me Go Face” bean bag toss, Yogg Saron Plinko, Hearthstone Taboo, and Lich Mountain. Over 500 attendees enjoyed this social gaming experience.

Bytes team was host of AZ Tavern vs Tavern event, and creator of promotional video template used at 6 Taverns across North America.

All Hallows end is the perfect occasion to have a spooky cursed Fireside. This event featured free play, and hefty prizing for the players who could score the most wins. The twist? Every win gave you a curse that affected your deck in-game AND out of game. Good luck playing with Chicken Mittens on your hands, and Angry Chickens in your deck!

Handcrafted custom Magnetic Dartstone game board allows players to simulate a game of Hearthstone using blunted magnetic darts. Game Board created by Jean Carlo Salas.

Hosting a Fireside during a playoffs event or HCT Tour Stop has been a great opportunity to go BIG and offer a lot of variety! Quest Logs, fun twisted tournaments, watch parties, trivia, pictionary, arts and crafts.. Nothing is off limits when you have a 2 or 3 day Fireside.

Created by Bytes for PAX East Fireside Gathering, this Bean Bag Toss variant features bags with Hunter/Shaman spells being thrown at the opposing Heroes face! Finally, a true physically representation of aggro decks.

Casual events can also have a competitive edge. Fun deckbuilding rules can even the playing field. Hearthstone Party game variants of Taboo, Heads Up, or Pictionary get everyone involved!

A mentoring site for aspiring Hearthstone Innkeepers and event hosts was created by Bytes to share resources and knowledge. This community focused site hosts materials, resources, and tools from Bytes and other prominent community members.