?This month, we brought GosuCup out of its holiday for two BlizzCon Worlds eligible tournaments. The first one was held on August 10th and saw Portuguese newcomer Pedro "FlaxH" Silva snatching the $100 after beating seven opponents in a row, including the #10 in the world ranking Thijs "ThijsNL" Molendijk. FlaxH used an class rarely used in such weekly tournaments - a control Paladin - but was also prepared to bring out cookie cutter builds like Zoo, Handlock and Midrange Hunter should Uther fail him (see below for decklists).
GosuCup #18 standings
1. 
Flaxh
2. 
jac0b0
3. 
Hit-Girl
4. 
Pozmywam
5-8. 
imt
5-8. 
Zarotan
5-8. 
ThijsNL
5-8. 
CookMySock
In the 19th edition, it was Mariusz "NotForBan" Rakoczy who walked out with the prizes. Another newcomer to competitive play, NotForBan had a stunning 19-2 record, mostly trusting in his midrange Hunter but falling back to Warlock Zoo in the two series he wasn't quite perfect.
A special tip of the hat should also go to Nick "Hit-Girl" Kruse. A GosuCup regular, Hit-Girl managed to pin back-to-back top 3 finishes, placing third in GosuCup 18 and second in GosuCup 19. In GosuCups alone, Kruse is now at 75% win-rate!
GosuCup #19 standings
1. NotForBan
2. Hit-Girl
3. 
Via
4. 
Drako
5-8. Sovatop
5-8. 
kambras14
5-8. Vilgeforz
5-8. Ncrlv
The updated nation standings after August see Germany back on top, leading with good 10 points before the Swedes. The Germans were dethroned by Netherlands two montsh ago but managed to climb back due to Hit-Girl's outstanding performance and Faramir's victory in GosuCup #17.
Third are the Dutchmen who surredendered the top of the standings after ruling it for many weeks. Netherlands' representatives haven't had the best of time in recent GosuCup and ThijsNL was the only Dutch player who managed to make the top 8 grid.
Final nation standings (Top 10)
1. Germany - 50 points
2. 
Sweden - 40 points
3. Netherlands - 38 points
4. Russia - 34 points
5. 
Denmark - 26 points
6. Poland - 22 points
7. Czech Republic - 16 points
8. United Kingdom - 13 points
9. 
France - 12 points
9. 
Greece - 12 points
Note: These decks were constructed before week 3 of Curse of Naxxramas
FlaxH
Jac0b0
Hit-Girl
NotForBan
Hit-Girl
Via
"I was really happy I got the chance to play Thijs"
Well first of all congratulations on your Gosucup win! How do you feel about your win?
Thanks! I wasn’t really expecting this win at all but I guess luck was on my side. I’m an unknown to everybody and I just signed up because I saw a post on reddit and decided to have some fun.
How did you feel when you got set against ThisjNL during the cup?
Well first of all I was really glad when I noticed that I might had the chance to face him. He is a really good player and an established one between the pros out there. The matches between us where indeed very good. I think that we improve a lot when we get to play with the best and I was really happy to get my first take on a pro player.
What kind of research did you go through before you entered this tournament?
Well I was mostly an arena player. I decided to play that mode until I got most of the cards needed for constructed and only recently did I start laddering. However, I didn’t enjoy it that much but I really like Constructed nonetheless, so I started searching for some tournaments to play in and got into some tournaments with friends and some Portuguese events as well.
As an arena player, any tips to starting players to help them improve at their arena picks?
Well first of all I tend to pick Paladin above all but it is based mostly on my play style mostly. Secondly I just thrust my picks now. I can make whatever the call I want and still be pretty confident that the card I chose was the best. I guess experience is above statistics and card ratings in my opinion of course with a stable mana curve.
So Paladin is your favorite class even in competitive play from what I’ve heard since you won the GosuCup with your control Paladin Deck.
I made my Pala deck a couple of days before GosuCup so it was the deck with more recent play test that I had (two Portuguese online tournaments at HsPortugal) but talking about the best decks out there I’ll probably go for Hunter and Warrior since they can counter or just stay above most decks in the current meta.
What about you future aspirations? Now that you won 100$ what do you expect for yourself from now on?
Well first of all with the prize pool I get to be more competitive in terms of card pool range, then my goals are to be even more tight playing the best decks and play them good! Hoping of course to be part of a Hearthstone pro team is the major goal. There’s a limit to what an individual can achieve by himself!
How did Naxx influence your deckbuilding for GosuCup 18 and what are the best cards so far for you? (week 2 of 5)
Well probably Loatheb was the obvious answer still I might pick Haunted Creeper as one of the best cards till week 2. As far as meta changes, besides the Creeper and the Egg, maybe Sludge Belcher has some serious impact too. Loatheb can easily see some serious play from now on vs sweepers and mechanics like Fon + Savage Roar or even control decks.
I think we have it! Any final words to our community?
I want to thank my friends for motivating me into trying these tournaments and being the craziest buds I could have while playing HS, so I want to dedicate this win to them. Also a special thanks to GG.net for hosting these awesome tournaments!
"I want to face Gnimsh at the European Qualifiers"
To open it all - congratulations on becoming the 19th GosuCup champion. When we talked last night, you told me this is your first ever tournament win and you played Hearthstone only casually before. How did you make this transition?
A few weeks ago, I saw an ad on in Polish hearthstone group that How2Play is recruiting a Hearthstone Team. I thought “Hey I have nothing to lose so why I don’t I try”? And there we go, I was accepted for a trial and I started training more and tried myself in a couple of tournaments, and today I just won GosuCup with more than 400 players, awesome!
How much did you have to change your mindset during the transition? I know that playing on ladder in your pants at home is much different than preparing and winning an actual tournament.
I was watching a lot of tournaments where the best players were participating so I could learn what deck and playstyles are used in competitive play. I also played about three huge tournaments on Hearthcore where it was a swiss mode with about 7 rounds so I think I gained some experience about playing tournaments
Which players did you look up to? Who taught you the most about tournament play?
I didn’t watch specific players, ratherwhole tournaments like FightNight HS and similar ones.
You pinned an impressive 19-2 record in GosuCup 19, using mostly hunter and switching to Zoo when the Hunter failed. Did you choose Hunter because it's the best deck at the moment or you just feel comfortable playing the class?
Both. Currently, Hunter is a pretty strong class that can win almost in every matchup and when it fails I know that zoo can finish the work. I was playing hunter a lot before nerf ([R.I.P.] Unleash the Skill for 2 mana) but then I left it behind for a long time
What interests me in these kinds of tournament meta - when there's one deck to rule them all - is that very few players actually bring its hard counters. Decks like Backspace Rogues and control Paladins can outrace or outlast the midrange Hunter, I feel, yet they're not really seen that often. Why is that do you think?
In my opinion it is all about Naxx adventure. There is a lot of fresh cards that players want to use and play around with. I played with two players that ran control paladin and both of them lost to my Zoo. At the moment, people are doing experiments with new cards and combos so let’s see how it goes.
Speaking of Naxx, there are whole new archetypes popping up, not just updates to the old decks. There are demonlock, reincarnate shamans, secrets decks, etc. Have you tried any of those?
Of course! I love combos than can win in a single turn like Reincarnate Shaman or Priest with double Zombie Chow, Aucheani, Baron Rivendare and Circle. I even got a new secret mage that runs Deathrattle like Sylvanas, Feugen and Stalagg and which is made by my teammate and it is doing really well on ladder currently.
Do you anticipate more new decks appearing after some time passes? If you have to guess, what would you say would be some cool deck that people haven't yet tried or thought about?
I’m sure there will be a lot of new decks because Hearthstone is constantly expanding. And we still have to figure out how Kel'Thuzad works. T was playing against warrior that put him on a board and next turn he used faceless on him. A turn later, I had few big threats on a board so he used Brawl. I was thinking like: Damn he is going to have like a full board of huge minions but unfortunately for him they disappeared. I think that Kel'Thuzad could become useful in a handlock.
I’ve also always wanted to see some kind of "control Rouge" that would work really great, because currently there are a lot of rouge class cards that are kind of useless.
By the latter, do you mean that Rogue should get new cards or that there's potential to create something with the neutral cards we've been given?
In my opinion, Rogue cards like Betrayal, Master of Disguise or even Vanish can find use.
Following your win at GosuCup 19, you're now going to the European qualifiers for BlizzCon, which is one of the biggest tournaments for this year before the actual Worlds. How much pressuring is this?
I will face 130 of the best players in Europe that are more experienced than me so it will be a good if I can win at least few rounds. I will do my best.
Is there a player you specifically want to face?
It would be really good if I could face Gnimsh, he is an awesome players from my country.
Lastly, let's talk a bit about how Hearthstone is evolving. The first expanions - Curse of Naxxramas - was released on a per-week basis. In a recent interview, a HS dev said they really liked this concept, while some of our readers strongly disagreed, saying they would've preferred having all 30 cards in one go. Where do you stand on that?
I have to disagree with the readers, if you get all 30 in one go you wouldn't enjoy the expansion as much as you do right now. When something comes hard it gives a greater satisfaction right?
Well, it seems like the next expansion will come out in a more traditional TCG way, close to 100 cards in one go. Would you rather Blizzard go back to the Curse of Naxxramas approach then?
If all the 100 cards in one go you do not have time to get familiar with all the new cards. In Naxxramas we had a time to think about what we can exactly do with those cards.
Naxx also didn't offer any new mechanics, simply an expansion on the Deathrattle theme. Do you think the next expansion should feature a new one?
Well I don't know, deathrratle was a pretty fun. Let’s see what blizzard will invent next time.
I think we can bring this to a wrap, mate. Final words to our "camera"?
I’d like to invite everyone into my fanpage or stream and check out my team How2Play. And thanks for the great tournament.
