NAME: Tao "Wensushi" Yaozhong
COUNTRY: 
Singapore
TEAM: ManaSurge
ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 2nd eHL Season 1 Cycle 1, 1st eHL Season 1 Finale
Hello Wensushi, thanks a lot for taking the time out of your busy schedule to have this post-tournament chat real quick. First of, obviously - congratulations on becoming the first ever eHL champion. How do you feel just a couple of days after that moment?
It's a pleasure to be part of this interview. To answer your question, the adrenaline felt from winning the tournament has faded off, or rather has been replaced by the motivation to perform better in the near future, especially in a tournament which I will be participating in just next week. In short, I am essentially really looking forward to future events.
Before we dip into those future plans of yours, let's take a look back at your most recent accomplishment in the eHL. You came into the Season Finals event as the runner-up of Cycle 1, losing to Crea in the most important match. This time you beat him twice, pretty decisively at that. You have an explanation for that swing?
Yes of course. One of the biggest issues I had going into the EHL cycle 1 finals was that my decks, by that time, were all pretty outdated. I was running with decks such as Artosis's control Paladin which he used back in October last year as well as a miracle Rogue that ran a lot of cards that were only good in the meta 2-3 months before the finals. Coming into the season 1 finale however, I made sure that all my decks would perform well towards the other recent decks out there through running a multitude of trial runs in ranked play and I must say, that really paid off.
You can definitely say it paid off! So you put a lot of thoughts into the preparation of the eHL Season 1 Finals. Was it like a championship or bust situation for you, or what where your expectations for the tournament?
I have to say I did put in quite a bit of effort fine-tuning my decks and also watching replays of my opponents to get a better idea of their playstyle and what decks they are likely to run. For me, I was expecting nothing less than a first place finish because this is a tournament which I had time to prepare for and preparation is something I personally feel that I excel at (pun intended). Anyway I was expecting hard matchups against Crea who had a convincing victory against me in the cycle 1 finals and well, I did.
Especially in the Upper Bracket Finals you did, which brings us a bit more into that match and your decks. You already touched on your Miracle Rogue, we have data that show the Rogue win-rate being on top of the game in the cycle you were a part of. What is it with you and the heavy card-draw deck, that seems to work so outstanding?
The Miracle Rogue deck, by itself, is one which is considered non-interactive. This basically means that regardless of what my opponent plays, the miracle rogue playstyle isn't very much affected, rendering little or no counterplays. This, coupled with a bit of luck on my side (and of course cards like [card]Coldlight Oracle[/card] which kind of reduces the luck factor slightly through making card draws more reliable), makes the miracle deck really hard to deal with as it is hard to come up with concrete and effective counter plays.
Crea had difficulties with it in Cycle 1 and also throughout the Season Finals. You always chose it against him as the starter deck, but you didn't do so against Celedor. Is there a reason for that approach?
One of the main reasons for this is that I am rather certain of the decks Crea was going to play. Being a very control heavy player and considering how well his control decks did in the cycle playoffs, it is unlikely that Crea would drop his staple decks such as the Handlock and Shaman. Given that Rogue is a great counter against those classes with cards such as Sap and Blade Flurry, it was an obvious choice for me to play my Miracle Rogue against Crea. Against Celedor however, he is a player who has attained a very good track record with his Druid in the cycle 2 playoffs. I predicted that he would go with his Druid in the first round and being very afraid of Innervate-Coin-Yeti, I decided to go with the safer option being the Druid mirror match.
Good points and glad you are bringing up the Druid, 
because it's pretty much the second most interesting deck you brought to the virtual table last weekend. The Ramp Druid is something that came up and was widely publicized at the end of the last season, but was called a bit unreliable due to lots of high cost cards and the need for the Wild Growth or Nourish early on. Why did you decide to go with the deck?
Druid is one of my favourite classes and no doubt one which I would consider myself relatively more familiar with. As such, Druid was pretty much one of the "must play" classes for me going into this tournament. As for the specific deck archetype, it was pretty much a decision made to balance out the kind of decks I'm bringing onto the table. I thought I needed a more late game deck given that I already have an early Zoolock and mid-game miracle rogue and ramp druid had all the powerful minions to fulfill this criteria. (I do have a warrior but I didn't have high hopes for it since I'm not a good warrior player) Another reason would of course be the fact that I trust my luck in getting the draws I need and well, that has no doubt worked out in my favour.
I sense a pattern in terms of "trusting the draws" with you. Anyways about the Ramp Druid once more. Were you influenced by a certain player to build that deck, or did you create it yourself?
I wasn't inspired by any players per se. I was browsing decklists on Hearthpwn trying to get an idea of what I should play for my druid and I found the ramp druid a pretty interesting variation so I decided to go with it. I played with it for a bit, really liked it a lot given how well it worked against most decks and basically just changed up a few of the legendary cards played in the original deck.
Alright, nice to also have a little insight into the deck creation process of the champ! Anyways, final question towards the eHL, since it was the first ever edition of it. What did you think about the league and how it was handled overall?
The idea of hosting a Hearthstone tournament locally was pretty daring I must say and to be able to pull it off is no easy feat. Overall, the tournament is great especially with the live stream coverage and all the support from the local communities as well as GosuGamers. There has been issues along the way such as lag issues on the players' side concerning the stream, Blizzard server maintenance as well as no-shows. However, due to good management on Epic Gaming Television's side, these problems were more or less mitigated through some rescheduling as well as choose the player with better latency for the bottom board (editor's note - Wensushi is referring to the process of broadcasting the eHL matches, which is done through TeamViewer). Generally, I would say that the league was a great success.
So in case there would be a second season, the champ would definitely come back to defend his title?
No doubt about that. In fact if I am not mistaken, I am guaranteed a spot into the playoffs so since I am somewhat already in the tournament, I have no reason to back out but instead have to go along with the flow.
Good argument! Anyways, we are still at least some weeks away from a second season and you have already hinted at some tournaments you will attend in the future. Can you tell us something about those?
Basically there is going to be an online tournament called Battlestone which is going to take place over a period of 8 weeks. There is cash prizes to be won each week and weekly wins go towards accumulating circuit points which if I understood correctly, qualifies you for a grand finals consisting of the top 32 players - this all hosted by Hearthstone Alley.
Hearthstone Alley rings a bell, you won a tournament of them back some weeks ago, so you sticking to your roots there. Do you also have plans to attend leagues like GosuCups, MLG tournaments or NESL events like some other SEA talents like your teammate bj0rn does?
I have always considered participating in some of those tournaments you mentioned but due to circumstances such as timezone differences and school, I have been unable to. I believe playing on the international scene would definitely be a good experience for me and I look forward to having a convenient timing such as during the weekends or the holidays when I am actually able to wake up early in the morning for them and do not have to worry about it clashing with school hours.
Photo: EGTV
What do you think about the SEA scene in terms of strength though, saying that the international competition might be a good experience. How do you think the local scene compares to the international standard?
I think the SEA scene is pretty strong and we do have a significant number of players who have attained the legend rank here. I'm not the best candidate to comment about the international competitive scene since I have not really played in the US/EU tournaments (as opposed to my teammates Bjorn and Allura) but I believe top players in the SEA region are close to those in NA/EU. The only reason why I am reluctant to say that we have surpassed them is that I actually watch a lot of the international tournaments such as ESGN Fight Night and I must say, the top players there really make no mistakes in their plays.
Man you are giving me the smoothest transitions in the world here in the interview, following up the comment about a team league like ESGN with a question about your own team. Reports have been out, that ManaSurge has lost some players most notable Kero and Unistar. What happened?
We are very well aware of the fact that most Hearthstone team tournaments, or at least the larger ones that have been hosted so far, involves mainly 3 to 4 team members at any point in time. As such, having like a huge team with 7 members as Manasurge previously had did not give all the members equal opportunities to play in such tournaments and we usually end up splitting the team into 2 anyway. As such, we decided to do an official split and this is also in view of introducing a greater degree of competition in the scene.
So no personal differences, just a calculated effort looking at equal chances for everyone in team leagues?
Yes that is pretty much the reason behind the decision in splitting the team.
Okay, that is cleared up now as well and we can all look forward to interesting team tournaments with plenty of good SEA players and teams involved. Heading to the home stretch of the interview, let's discuss some miscellaneous things for a bit, starting with the announcement of the Naxxramas patch coming to a Hearthstone client near you in Summer. What are your general thoughts about this expansion idea?
At first glance, the cards definitely looks overpowered especially looking at Baron Rivendare which has the potential to make deathrattle abilities of Harvest Golems and Cairne Bloodhoof go insane. Shade of Naxxramas is another card that is simply too good to be true thanks to the stealth ability and its low mana cost.
Factoring these in, I believe the meta will swing heavily in favour of playing these cards and it will take some time before a counter-play is developed. Aside from new cards, the all new adventure mode is another feature that is worth mentioning in this coming update. While it is not the feature I am hoping for such as spectator or team mode, the adventure mode no doubt brings a good variety of features along with it and some of the newer and less hardcore players will definitely enjoy it.
That being said, I don't really like how Blizzard is "selling" this expansion and aiming to profit from it through forcing players to pay their way into unlocking deeper regions of the adventure dungeon.
Well, valid criticism I guess, but the business aspect of a Free To Play game is always something to look out for. You have already talked about some of the cards, but another feature you have left out. Additionally to the cards that are coming as neutrals, class specifics will be added. What would you hope for in that department?
I am personally not aware of the addition of class specific cards so it came to me as a surprise when you mentioned it. Generally I don't really have a preference for what kind of cards Blizzard should be adding into the game but if it's going to be class specific, then I suppose some good Rogue cards would do me justice. *laughs*
I somewhat expected that answer! And after that, I am not really going to ask for your favorite class, but more for the opposite. What's your most hated class to play and play against?
I hate playing Shamans the most because I find it really hard to grasp due to the versatility of the class. It is what I would 
classify as a jack of all trades but master of none. There's essentially so many ways in which you can deal with a situation that you have to be constantly calculating the opportunity cost of making a play so as to maximise the value of your cards.
As for the class I hate to play against the most, it is pretty much the Zoo Warlock. This variation of Warlock has pretty much gone viral on the rank ladder thanks to its cheap construct cost. It is frustrating to play against given its effectiveness in making favourable trades and swarming the board. Furthermore, the sheer number of games you have to play against the same deck and cards over and over again is enough to get on anyone's nerves.
I am totally with you on the issue of Zoolock, although I love Shaman. Going back to you preferences for the final questions here - what's your favorite Legendary?
Without a doubt, it is [card]Leeroy Jenkins[/card]. It is one of those cards that has never failed me, always appearing when I need it the most to pull off a combo or two. It is probably also the one individual card that I have dealt the most final blows with and it has secured me countless games.
What about the most underrated Legendary currently?
Well most of the legendaries that are more frequently played right now really deserve their positions and it is hard to elaborate on any that is underrated off the top of my head. However if I have to name a card, it would be [card]King Mukla[/card].
Actually a good choice and the progress currently is going more and more towards him as well. It's getting late though and this has gone on for a while already, so do you have anything left to say to get off your chest? Any shoutouts or anything?
Well first and foremost definitely a huge thanks to you and Gosugamers for doing this really long interview with me. Shoutouts Epic Gaming Television for hosting and casting the EHL which gave me the opportunity to play Hearthstone competitively. Shoutouts to ManaSurge for helping me throughout the tournament since the early cycle playoffs. Last but not least shoutouts to my girlfriend who first introduced me to the game and has been coming down to support all my offline tournament matches so far.
Thanks a lot for your time, for the great and extensive answers, looking forward to seeing you in Season 2 and other tournaments. Take care.
