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After a very smooth GosuCup this past Sunday - featuring a new system for match resulting that sped up the process tangibly - we give the crown to German player E3k. After several early knock-outs in previous cup, E3k finally walked the distances and defeated notable players like Kunzi, Haypro, Excepo and, finally, Kyztheone in the grand finals.
You can E3k's decklists and read our interview with him just a scroll below.
GosuCup #12 standings
1. 
E3k
2. 
Kyztheone
3. Honestyy
4. 
Excepo
5-8. 
Birdy
5-8. DerZerfetzer
5-8. 
Nevilleco11
5-8. 
Karlis
For the first time in many weeks, the Netherlands didn't score a single point as they failed to get a representative of theirs in the top 8. Their points debit of 30, however, allowed them to maintain their top 1 position, leading with 2 points before the runner-ups from Sweden.
Almost nothing changed in the standings table as 9 out of 10 nations scored just a handful of points, not enough to climb up. The only exception is France, who made it into the top 10 after Kyztheone's and Honestyy's success this week, which earned France a total of 7 points.
Nation standings (Top 10)
1. 
Netherlands - 30 points
2. Sweden - 28 points
3. Germany - 22 points
4. 
Russia - 16 points
4. Denmark - 16 points
6. 
Poland - 13 points
7. 
Portugal - 12 points
8. 
Italy - 11 points
8. 
United Kingdom - 11 points
8. France - 11 points
#1: E3k
#2: Kyztheon
#3: Honestyy
#4: Deathfollower
#5-8 (at random): Birdy, DerZerfetzer, 
Nevilleco11, Karlis
#9: Legendaren
#10: WhtPwdr
#11: Saeb
#12: WybityBark
#13: Gradefor
#14: Daxt
#15: Lalah
#16: BreizhPunisher
Saeb brought a total of give decks this Sunday. Although he mostly relied on his Handlock, he also had Ramp Druid as another stable control deck, a Zoo, a tempo Rogue against Hunters and Shaman for Shaman mirrors.
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"The GosuCup victory is giving me the confidence that I can be a part of the competitive scene"
As we do at the start of every interview - accept our congratulations for winning GosuCup #12. How was the experience overall for you?
Since it was the first tournament that I won, it was pretty awesome, obviously. I also felt relieved because I had been knocked out right in the first round in the two GosuCups I participated in before.
That's some big step! How did you manage to go all the way this time and not face early elimination? Was it preparing better, being less nervous or simply getting lucky?
I think most of it comes down to actually having a plan. I prepared 5 decks in total and thought about which decks would counter which. Also I thought that opening a series up with Zoo would be a good idea, and it seems like that turned out right since I've only lost one first game of a series with it. People probably just didn't expect it because Handlock, at least in my experience, is more common in tournament play these days.
In addition to that I didn't play Hearthstone at all the day before and I think that plays a big part in it as well. Sometimes you just have to take a break in order to get better. You shouldn't force yourself to play the game even when you're sick of it and I didn't pay enough attention to that in the past.
Before we move on, tells us a bit about yourself: How did you get into competitive Hearthstone and what does winning at GosuCup #12 mean for you in terms of the future?
When I first started playing the game about half a year ago, I thought this game was way too easy to become an e-sport so I just played for fun, not so much for the competitiveness. But the more I played the game the more I saw its real depth. It's like almost every Blizzard game: easy to learn, hard to master.
When they announced the current rank system, I made myself the goal to get into the legend ranks, but got demotivated once I saw that only a couple hundred players, instead of the 10000 that were initially announced, were making it. I didn't think I'd ever make it since I never reached the top 200 in Starcraft 2 even though I played that game for years. But I tried anyway and eventually made it in the very first test season and reached higher legend ranks every season afterwards.
Winning GosuCup #12 means a lot to me. It shows me that I can be a top player, not just on the ladder, but also in tournaments. Just like I thought about reaching legend rank, I didn't think I'd ever win a tournament. It's certainly no Dreamhack or BlizzCon but it's still another big step in the right direction and it's giving me a lot of confidence that I can be part of Hearthstones e-sport scene.
I think the scene is still very split on is Hearthstone a real eSports or not, though. Do you think it'll ever be put next to games like StarCraft 2 or Dota 2 in that regard (obviously not talking about prize pools or big stages but how the people see it)?
Well there will always be a few people who disregard Hearthstone as an esport, since the game is so casual on the surface. It is actually really similar to League of Legends in that regard, which was and still is laughed at as an esport by many as well. And I don't think it'll ever be put next to Starcraft 2 or Dota 2. I think Hearthstone will become more respected the more tournaments are won by the same players time and time again, but it'll never be the same. The luck factor is too big in comparison.
Let's go back to GosuCup for a while before moving forward. You had a very rough slide through the tournament: You had to go through Kunzi, then ex-SC2 pro HayprO, then regular high finisher Excepo before meeting Kyztheone - an upcomer like yourself - in the grand final. What was the biggest challenge out of all the matches you played?
I believe i had the hardest time against Kunzi. I think he was one of the two people I played against who actually sideboarded, which can really mess with your mind. After I've won the first game with my Zoo deck, he managed to win with his control warrior against it. I then chose to play Strifecro’s watcher Druid. In this game he actually played 2 brawls which is pretty uncommon so I didn't choose to play around it and ran into the second one. The game came down to the very last card and I was several rounds into fatigue. The one thing that won me the game was that Grommash was his very last card. Had he drawn it any turn earlier, he would've certainly won. Thank you rngesus!
Sounds like a series that should've been televised!
Indeed! I actually jumped up when i won. It was really exciting.
You mentioned you prepared 5 decks and they are really diverse in styles, ranging from Face Hunter, to Zoo, to midrange builds and finally Handlock. Why did you go for such selection of decks?
I chose Zoo as my opening deck mainly because the current tournament meta is so control oriented, where players sometimes even go as far as to run two Big Game Hunters. In addition to that it's a solid deck that has a pretty consistent winrate against most decks.
The other decks are mostly just counters to as many common decks as possible. Face Hunter against Miracle Rogue, Shaman against Handlock and Warrior, Handlock against Druid. First I thought I'd switch from Zoo to Handlock after I've won the first game in a series but I found that people were playing shaman too often so I didn't go for that strategy.
The Druid and especially the Shaman deck were also solid options if my Zoo deck failed in the first game. I think it's wrong to go for a deck like Miracle Rogue like a few of my opponents did in such cases, because it's so easily countered by Face Hunter.
You speak a lot in the terms of decks countering each other which is the norm in every game basically. Still, there must be a deck that enjoys consistency in most of it match-ups. What deck is that in tournament play? What about ladder?
Gaara’s Ramp Druid is such a deck that has an okay win rate against pretty much every deck. It doesn't have any horrible but also no great matchups. But you won't have a lot of success with it on the ladder, at least not in the higher ranks where you need a 70%+ winrate to maintain your rank.
Another deck that's really consistent is Shaman I think. Ever since the Unleash the Hounds nerf Shaman has become more and more consistent in my eyes. Right off the top of my head I don't know any deck that really counters Shaman, at least not in the current meta.
I see a lot of people experimenting with out-of-the-box decks and getting some good results contrary to expectations. I've seen Shockadins, Miracle Locks, Mages and burn Priests high on the ladder and these are not really the metagame staples. Do you think there's a space for the meta to grow before Naxx comes out or those specs will remain gimmicky, inconsistent ones?
That's a tough question. Most of those decks have been around for months and have been experimented with a lot already. So I don't really see them becoming a solid part of the metagame like Druid or Zoo. Miracle Lock is the only new one but I feel like the surprise factor is the biggest strength of it. Once you've played it a couple times it feels relatively easy to beat.
Maybe someone finds something out no one considered yet, that's always a possibility. Although I don't think that is very likely to happen in the short time before Naxxramas comes out.
From the cards announced thus far, do you see a new deck archetype emerging?
Deathrattles will definitely be strong. It remains to be seen whether there will be decks that focus solely on Deathrattles though. My guess is that mostly aggro and midrange decks will just incorporate a few of the deathrattle cards.
What I think could be strong would be a Shaman revolving around Ancestral Spirit and the new Rebirth. Using both of these cards with a Cairne or a Sylvanas would create insanely much tempo. But that's all hypothetical and really hard to predict without actually playing the upcoming cards.
I just hope that Blizzard makes them strong enough for completely new decks to evolve.
Now that you mentioned Rebirth, although our crew liked it a lot, pro players seem to think it's too situational and that Leeroy/Windfury combos are still better and generally more useful. Where do you stand on that?
I'd argue that Leeroy and Windfury are just as situational, because you only really use them if you have lethal. Before that they are only clogging up your hand, which is why most Shaman decks nowadays run Doomhammer/Al'Akir instead.
Rebirth on the other hand, considering we build a deck around it, has a lot more situations where it's useful. Not only is it good on Cairne and Sylvanas but also on the upcoming Nerubian Egg. That's 4 cards in a deck it can be used on. If you run Bloodmage or Loot Hoarder you can just cycle it. And there are still 16 neutral cards to be revealed. I think it might get its place.
Alright, I think we can bring this to a wrap! Any final words from our podium?
I just want to thank you guys for hosting these cups and I will definitely give my best trying to defend the throne in the next GosuCup!
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