Gamescom is underway and the Hearthstone information is pretty impressive. They unveiled several new cards as well as a new mechanic, Joust. But wait, there’s more!

In order to appease fans, it seems that Hearthstone is adding a bit of a safety net as well as some extra rewards to Ranked mode. They are updating the ranked system so that it recognizes your highest rank achieved during the season, then gives you rewards according to that rank, as long as it’s above rank 20 (I’m assuming if you end the season with 20 as your highest rank your reward chest will simply contain the card back, which you currently get by reaching rank 20). It doesn’t say anything about keeping your stars however, so your placement at the beginning of a new season still seems to depend on the actual final rank you received.

The rewards from that chest include the new card back for that season, some enchanting dust, and golden cards. The golden cards are a very nice addition to the reward system as they can be turned into even more dust through enchanting. They also look pretty too.

According to Whirthun on Twitter, the maximum rank for rewards is rank 5, so players that achieve rank 5 through Legend rank all receive the same level of reward. There is no confirmation yet about receiving golden legendary cards from the rewards, but it does seem possible if the cards rewarded are random. We’ll just have to see.

Jousting is the second new mechanic being introduced in this expansion. There are certain cards with text saying that each player shows a random minion card from their deck and the mana costs are compared. The player with the higher minion cost “wins” the joust and gets the bonuses listed on the card. The random minion cards are then returned to the decks. We don’t know yet if this affects the order in which they are later drawn from the deck though.

Usually winning the joust is a good thing, but some cards, like The Skeleton Knight, can only be summoned by losing a joust, so it’s important to pay attention to the card text. Whirthun also clarified on Twitter what happens if you have no minions left in your deck. If there are no minions in your opponent’s deck, your minion automatically wins. If there are no minions in your deck, your opponent automatically wins. He also explained that in the event of a tie, you did not actually WIN the joust, so you don’t get any bonuses.

Finally, here is Blizzard’s official post. It also contains all the new cards revealed.

Originally posted by Whirthun 8/5/2015 (Original post here)

It’s been quite the eventful day by the hearth! Earlier, executive producer Hamilton Chu and senior game designer Mike Donais took to the gamescom stage to dive in to more of the exciting features making their way to Hearthstone with the release of The Grand Tournament. Check out what was covered below!

Joust

No tournament (especially one as grand as The Grand Tournament) would be complete without the time-honored tradition of jousting! The Grand Tournament brings this exciting test of might to Hearthstone with the addition of a brand-new mechanic—Joust.

Minions Joust by emerging from their decks, creating a brief contest within a contest wherein players each reveal a minion from their deck. In order to win, the minion who initiated the Joust must reveal a minion with a higher mana cost. The rewards are varied based on the minion starting the Joust, but players will want to emerge victorious from the lists as often as possible!

Highest Rank Bonus

We love receiving feedback from the Hearthstone community. One thing that we’ve been hearing a fair bit of is that, when playing on the Ranked Play ladder, people often feel hesitant to continue playing after reaching a particularly good rank. It simply feels like too much of a step backwards if they lose a rank or two. Based on that feedback, we’re making a change that we think will help put players’ minds at ease so that they can continue enjoying Ranked Play and pursuing even greater heights.

Beginning this month, each player’s Quest Log will display the highest rank they have reached during the month and recognize their accomplishment. Additionally, we’ll be awarding players who progress past rank 20 with some minor rewards as a way of congratulating them for their achievements. Eligible players will receive a treasure chest at the end of each season containing the season’s Ranked Play card back, one or more golden cards, and some Arcane Dust. What’s in the chest is determined by your highest rank over the course of the season. For example, a player whose highest rank was 17 will receive a golden common card, 20 dust, and the season card back.

Below is an example of what a player who reaches rank 5 might receive.

New Card Reveals

We also unveiled a number of cards at gamescom, some of which can be found below!