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Another two weeks have passed and we've crowned two more GosuCup winners. In the fifteenth edition, Slovakian player L0nga came on top of it all, beating notable players like Semijew and Hit-Girl on the way to his first tournament win ever.
Inheriting the throne from his just this weekend was ex-Wildcard player and current Balkan Bears member Airbrushed who had to fight through a tough five-game semi final against Kunzi before 3-0'ing PavelBeltukov in the grand final to bank the $100.
GosuCup #15 standings
1. 
L0nga
2. 
Materniek
3. 
Semijew
4. 
E3k
5-8. 
Blooder
5-8. Senx
5-8. MaxCapone
5-8. Dante90
GosuCup #16 standings
1. Airbrushed
2. 
PavelBeltukov
3. Kunzi
4. Olimp
5-8. 
IhaveLethal
5-8. 
Aiversons
5-8. Nazgul
5-8. 
Jarzeb1
Nation standings (Top 10)
1. Netherlands - 37 points
1. Sweden - 37 points
3. Germany - 36 points
4. Russia - 29 points
5. 
Denmark - 26 points
6. Poland - 14 points
7. 
Czech Republic - 13 points
8. 
Portugal - 12 points
8. United Kingdom - 12 points
8. 
France - 12 points
#1: Airbrushed
#2: PavelBeltukov
#3: Kunzi
#4: Olimp
#5-8 (at random): IhaveLethal, Aiversons, Nazgul, Jarzeb1
#9: L0nga
#10: Materniek
#11: Seeker
#12: AlKarr
#13: E3k
#14: Kyztheone
#15: Legendaren
#16: WhtPwdr
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"Zoo will get even stronger with Naxxramas"
So, to start it all up as usual - Gratz on winning GosuCup #15, your first tournament victory as far as I understood. I imagine it feels great!
Yes this is the first tournament I've ever won. I've played some League tournaments as well but we never got first place.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Do you have any previous TCG experience, how did you get into competitive Hearthstone, etc?
My name's Filip, I'm 24 and I'm from Slovakia. I've been playing games since I was like 6 so I grew up with them. Played a little of the Pokemon TCG but not competitively, just among friends and I've played like one game of MTG on Anime Con, so not much experience with TCG's. Hearthstone was really good opportunity to get a fresh start and try to start playing competitively. I've also tried streaming but it's hard to get many viewers when you're unknown.
Oh, I also mentioned League, I played it for quite a long time before switching to HS, I managed to get into Diamond V in solo que and also played some tournaments with my team, but we eventually disbanded.
What attracted you in Hearthstone that you decided to give it a proper chance as compared to the other TCGs you tried? Was it it being the next best thing or something gameplay-wise?
I saw my friends getting the beta keys and became interested. It was a nice change of pace from League and StarCraft because your mechanical skills dont matter so much and it's more about decision making, which has always been my thing.
I can't really draw comparison to other TCG's because my knowledge of them is pretty limited but I really like the simple concept of Hearthstone, it's easy to get into but you can also go more in-depth, which I think is smilar in League and in my opinion that's what makes it successful
On to your GosuCup victory. How did you prepare coming into the tournament? What decks did you choose and why?
I like to watch all the pro tournaments I can catch and keep up with what is popular at the moment. I prepared by playing ranked, maybe a few duels with friends but mostly ranked. I chose Shaman as my flagship deck cause I really became interested in this class lately and I enjoy playing it. Miracle Rogue was my second deck, because I have alot of experience with it and feel most comfortable with, and the third deck was an aggro rogue as a counter to the miracle rogues that almost everyone is playing right now.
Why Shaman as flagship? Do you feel this is the class with least hardcounters at the moment?
I feel that it has solid matchup against Druid, which is what people usually use as their first deck. The miracle Rogue matchup is a little worse but it is winnable. But mainly because I'm really fascinated by the class and I look up and try all the possible decks that I can find.
It's the overload, isnt it? Everyone likes the overload!
Yeah, I used to hate it but now I think it's a lot of fun to manage your turns accordingly so you don’t lock yourself out. Also, I really like the Fire Elemental. I also like to challenge myself and it's not the most popular class. Everyone is all about the Druid and miracle Rogue right now.
Are you liking what Shamans are getting in Naxxramas, that Reincarnate thing?
I haven’t really looked into it that much but I think it might have nice synergy with all the deathrattles that are going to be everywhere, and we also see more decks that use ancestral spirit. It could also be useful to get more value out of your big minions like fire elementals if you make good trades with them and then rebirth them.
They won't triggre the battlecry, though, but I guess it's still a big ass 6/5.
Yeah, it could act as a +4 heal. I'm really excited for Naxx I cant wait to see all the new decks that are gonna start popping up.
Did you see the new cards that leaked the other day?
Yeah I read that. Looks like there's gonna be a lot of new legendaries as well, let's hope it's gonna come out soon.
Out of the entire new card pool, do you see anything that'll be the OP flavor of the month?
It seems to me like zoo will get even stronger. I'm kind of interested in the Feugen/Stalagg combo.
Ha, lot's of people mentioned this about the Zoo. Why do you think so? The warlock card doesn't look particularly OP so it must be the neutral cards?
Yeah I think it's because Undertaker, Nerubian Egg and Dancing Swords look really good for zoo. The class card looks kinda fun cause it will enable you to play all those demons that have shitty battlecries. Also I'm glad to see 3-drops with 3/4 stats, like the warlock and priest class cards.
Demon tribal decks gonna be a thing now do you think?
I'm pretty sure people will try to make it work and things like Sense Demons might actually see some play. It's gonna be alot of fun experimenting with all these new cards and it's definitely gonna help the game.
So, competitive-wise, what's next for you? More tournaments, more wins? Aiming for a BlizzCon qualifier spot per chance?
I'm gonna keep joining tournaments every week like I did until now and give it my all to get first place again and hopefully get some recognition. And yes the ultimate goal would be to get into BlizzCon, but I'm not sure what are the chances of that, I guess we'll see.
Well, I think we can wrap this. Any final words?
Yeah I'd like to thank everyone who took time from their day to read my interview.I'm really happy about it. Also thank you guys for hosting this great tournament it's went really smoothly with no problems and I'd also like to thank you Nydra for being an awesome person. I'd also like to shamelessly plug my stream if possible twitch.tv/l0nga.
"Preparation is the card that breaks Miracle"
Gratz on winning GosuCup #16! Towards what are you putting the $100?
Thanks! Going to use them to pay my rent probably, or nicer food!
Having been to Sweden and seeing the prices there, I imagine you'll need several more GosuCup wins to afford nicer food. At least outside...
Haha yeah, food is expensive here. But our salaries are OK as well, but eating out is something that's too expensive for me.
Let's talk more about this week's GosuCup. The tournament is kind of known for taking the lives of the bigger names and having up and comers as champions. How did you prepare to overcome this curse?
I didn't really prepare especially for GosuCup. I play a few open tournaments every week, and some ladder. I try to bring the same mindset to every tournament, that all opponents are equals, no one is unbeatable and if I play mechanically perfect I have a high chance to do well.
What do you do in terms of classes and archetypes? I see heavy favoring of Rogue just looking at the GosuCup decks you used but is that your choice for every tournament?
At the moment, I bring Miracle Rogue to every tournament. I think it's easily the best deck since it has no "real" counters. Also the new Rogue Aggro deck made by the player "Backspace" is one of my favorites.
At previous tournaments I've played mostly token Druid for the past 3 months. It's just my go-to deck, and my most played deck. But other than that, I've played most of the archetypes and classes in tournaments and try to not be as predictable.
Looking at your GosuCup run, you dodged many of the big names that signed up... until you ran into MYM's Kunzi which ended a back-and-forth five-game series. Was he your hardest opponent? How did you get out alive of that one?
Yeah, I was lucky enough to dodge the hardest opponents early in the bracket. The hardest opponent was easily Kunzi. The series was starting off with a strong 2-0 lead for Kunzi, beating my Miracle Rogue twice in a row with his Token Druid. I figured Miracle is not going to work against Kunzi and decided to switch strategy, I took out my own Token Druid, beating his Token deck.
Then he switched to Zoo, and I got really lucky draw with early Innervate which he couldn’t come back from. In the 3rd game, I predicted him switching to handlock which he did, so I played another Druid deck designed to counter Handlock and came out with a 3-2 victory. The series was mostly decided due to that I drew Innervates early in all 3 games where I played Druid.
Oh, the bane of every Druid mirror...
Haha yeah, the one with Innervate wins.
You're actually the second Wildcard player to win a GosuCup after Gradefor ruled #9. This also means that together with Cplay Tt, you're the best GosuCup team! How do you feel about that funny trivia that you possibly had no idea about and neither did I until I checked GosuWiki...
Well, I was a part of Team Wildcard until just recently. After wanting to do different things I decided to split with the team. Me and Chacruna decided to join Balkan Bears which consists of Danielctin14 (most famous for 2nd place at DH Bucharest), VladGoku and Zetion. The team change happened around last week so this is brand new! I still love the guys in Wildcard, and wish them the best of luck. They are all friends to me and great players.
Alright, so let's talk Bearing. Why abandon Wildcard and go for this new team?
Well, I'm close friend with Danielctin14, having met him at Dreamhack Bucharest firstly, and playing a lot with him, I’ve wanted to team with him for a while. Also, Wildcard had become rather inactive due to IRL stuff. And when Daniel asked me to join the team, I felt like it was the best decision for me to join Balkan Bears together with Chacruna.
Tell me this - how does a new Hearthstone team is like when it's first created. I know the big established brands have their major goals lined up, they enjoy the public attention etc, but the new, smaller teams must be different.
Yeah, I guess it's different. We have goals we strive for, I think it all comes down to that we as players in the team having consistently good results in tournaments. That's all I'm concerned about. Since I don't know how the bigger teams work in terms of practice, scheme etc it's hard to say where the differences are.
Established brands in all games tend to pick up the players which also have a lot of public attention, and that have done well in big tournaments. But in Hearthstone I feel like there's so many good players which participate in the open tournaments (and not only in the invitational tournaments), and that place high in ladder, so I think it's impossible to place all those players under the biggest brands. That opens up opportunities to up and coming brands, to pick up the less known, but still, really good players. So in one way, that's an advantage.
I guess we need more big tournaments then, I guess, give more opportunities to the weekly cup players to break out? There can be only one DH winner and those are once a month...
Yeah I think giving more opportunities to those who consistently place high in weekly open tournaments is a good place to start.
Do you think an independent brand should be established that gives love to those winners? I mean, besides qualifying them for the BlizzCon qualifiers.
I have no idea how that would work out. Maybe having Online Qualifiers for the 12 Dreamhack seeded spots? I think something similar to BlizzCon Qualifiying tournaments would be great, since that makes more people play those tournaments, leading to higher competition.
Or, say, have a tournament that says: We have 32 spots, and we invite the winners of GosuCups, Zotacs, Soulfire Sundays, what have you, thus independently promoting these events.
That actually sounds great. That would really make a tournament with the best players. I vote for that to happen.
Let’s go back to actual Hearthstone and the metagame talk, i.e. picking up on your miracle rogue statement from a while ago. I actually spoke to your teammate Chacruna today and he actually laid out an interesting statement, saying that the actual best decks are, ironically, unpopular. He mentioned midrange Mage and tempo Rogue as having the ability to perform amazing despite their rare appearance on ladder and in tournaments. What do you think about that?
Chacruna has an ability to predict how the metagame shifts, he has done it before and he can be right again. I can see how that can work out. When the meta becomes focused on countering the best decks in the meta, some decks that are "sleepers" gets forgotten. Because their rare appearance in ladder and in tournaments, makes the meta not prepared for those decks, which can lead to that the "sleeper" decks can make the meta-wheel spin once again.
But when it comes to Miracle Rogue, even though other decks will become popular and good, Miracle will still be a deck to beat. The deck is designed to draw an absurd amount of cards very consistently while at the same time have a lot of flexible spots for changing cards. That means, you can design Miracle Rogue at any direction the meta heads. Even though new decks can become the "best", I think Miracle will always find a way back if Blizzard doesn't nerf a mechanic in the deck.
How do you fix that, then? Everyone would probably agree that having one deck to rule them all isn't exactly healthy?
I think the card Preparation is the biggest issue. I used to play Magic The Gathering before Hearthstone, that taught me that free mana is often, very good. Preparation basically gives you up to 3 mana. Druid has the same problem, and I've said it before, but Innervate is OP.
While Preparation was considered a bad card before Miracle appeared, the potential was still true to the card. It was just a matter of time before a deck broke the card. And that's exactly what Miracle does. How to fix that is hard to say. Instead of nerfing the actual card, game mechanics could possibly be fixed instead. Maybe limit the maximum cards you can draw every turn? Miracle's synergy is just so well opted so it's hard to start somewhere if you're going to nerf the deck without destroying it completely.
: I also have hard time believing that a meta can ever be healthy. If you nerf something, something else will take over. Then that becomes nerfed as well, and the decks that were sleepers, will become meta again. If the route to solve meta problems is with nerfs, the decks will end up fighting each other with wooden sticks.
The wooden sticks remark is actually quite interesting. Blizzard, actually, like any other game dev company have often been criticized in the past for being too quick to deliver the nerf bat. Do you like how they’ve been approaching HS balance so far?
So far I’ve liked the way they have balanced Hearthstone. For being a new game, the game is surprisingly balanced (aside from Miracle). I trust them to continue making good decision when it comes to balance issues.
Last question: Naxx is coming this month. What are you most excited to see/get?
The new cards! I can't wait to see all the new cards and building new decks. I don't really care much about the lore, but hopefully they will do something fun which resemble the Naxx raid from WoW, would give me some nostalgia!
Are you joining the "Zoo will be even more OP" crew?
Not quite yet. Sure, Nerubian Egg will protect you from AOE's etc. I will still be in the "Miracle will still be OP" crew.
Final words before we wrap?
Shoutout to my teammates of Balkan Bears, Danielctin14, Chacruna, VladGoku and Zetion. Also shoutout to the "Brainbenders" team, Schismatron, Spo, Danielctin14 (we do weekly shows covering the competitive meta with pros). And thanks to GosuGamers for having good tournaments!
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