Photo: Thanhnien.com
Leo "zGGLeoz" Dang is one of the veterans of the Hearthstone SEA scene and he came out of GosuCup SEA #2 with the crown and valuable World Championship points. We sat down with him to discuss a variety of topics, including the tournament formats, the change of power in the Hearthstone scene and why he doesn't want to continue into full-time progaming.
First of all - congratulations are in order! I know you've been trying to get a GosuCup win ever since the 2014 season and came really close once, so I assume this is a good break for you?
Hello to everyone! Yes I consistently made it to top 16 in several weeks last year but never actually won the whole thing once so this time is a good start for the new season.
How are you liking the changes to the cups in this season after we transitioned from "play whatever you want" towards Blizzcon's conquest with the small addition of a pick phase?
I have played many tournaments in the past since beta phase so I'm used to the old format. Conquest is nice and it offers a whole new way to plan out the match and most of the inexperienced players have not realized that yet. The most important highlight of this new season which I really like is the introduction of pick phase and the one deck per class rule. In the past, it is annoying to play against Warlock or Mage opponent. Nowadays, by knowing opponent’s three classes, it's possible to have a plan to have several favourable match-ups to win the series.
Give me a rundown on how GosuCup SEA #2 went for you? You had to face some tough opponnets, like gcttirth, zadkiel and nyik. Was there someone in particular that you had troubles facing?
Since the introduction of bigger prize pool and world championship points for gosucup, there are many more participants and most of them are tough. Recently, there were Pinnacle 4 Qualifier with similar format and rules to GosuCup hence it helped me tremendously to understand a good strategy to win in a conquest format. Throughout the whole tournament everything went according to plan, I have favourable match ups most of the game and I wasn't super unlucky at any point in time hence I managed to reach the crown this week. There was only one game vs Zadkiel in the quarter final that pushed me to the 5th deciding game with his [card]Grim Patron[/card] Warrior deck.
"A pick and ban phase adds more depth into the game as opposed to just blind pick like ladder."
You mention developing a good strategy for conquest, and there seem to be different schools of thought for that. How do you approach it, personally, in terms of line-up and class picking?
Yes, I have talked to many people to have their views on conquest format in general such as Amaz, JAB, Fibonacci or Waningmoon, etc. Everyone has different approach and tactic to it. Personally, I am confident in my Warlock deck to be able to take a win versus any deck so it is my staple. Most of the time in conquest, you have to avoid your one deck getting countered by three of their decks because even if you win 2-0 , that one deck that’s left can lose three games in a row. So for example, you could build three anti aggro decks and as long as opponent try to cheese via Face hunter, Mech Mage or Zoolock, they get demolished. Therefore the class pick phase is really important. I generally prefer to run my 3rd deck as Freeze Mage but if before that opponent has a Hunter, Warrior or Druid, it's much better to pick Paladin instead.
Do you think a pick/ban phase should be implemented in all conquest tournaments? Some players tend to think than just pre-building your line-up in advance just makes the tournament a lot like ladder.
A pick and ban phase adds more depth into the game ass opposed to just blind pick like ladder. However my preference is one extra deck so as it is not as easy to build counter deck. For example, Bo3’s require three decks, Bo5’s require four decks, etc.
So kind of what SeatStory Cup had this weekend? They had a ban system + deck revival system for longer series (Bo9's, Bo7's).
Yes that would be what I wanna see in major LAN tournament. For online one, let's keep it simple and similar to Viagame House Cup or the current GosuCup rule is suitable as well.
Let's talk about you for a second. You were until recently a member of ManaSurge, one of SEA's premier teams. How was your time with them and why did you split ways?
My time in Manasurge was fantastic. I have made many good friends while playing the game. We were more like a team to bond rather than competitive organisation like Archon or C9.
Recently, I decide to part way with them because of real life commitment and I won't be able to play HS as much as I want as before. However I will still meet them in LAN events and hang out sometimes for meal and have fun. That's the ultimate goal for me and not glory.
What do you mean when you say real life commitment? Job/university?
Yeah, I just graduated so I start to work soon.
What's your field of work?
I studied finance so I am going to start a job in a bank soon.
Oh, that must pay better than Hearthstone, I guess?
Oh, haha, I would have joined a bigger competitive team in the West if I was going make a living out of HS.
Photo: Thanhnien.com
Did you ever try/was offered to make this happen, or you didn't want to go into serious competitive HS in the first place?
Yes, to be honest I did receive several offers in the past and I chose to stay with ManaSurge because I like the local friends to hang out and meet up. Unfortunately, I don't think I can disclose any information regarding these offers.
That's interesting, to be honest. To your knowledge, is there a general interest from western teams in the SEA players or your case was a precedent?
I believe every case is confidential so if there is an offer somewhere for a veteran like Waningmoon, I would never know. In my case, as mentioned, I played at high level since beta hence I was able to make friend with many famous players and I know gossips/decks inside out. For instance, I helped Amaz to win KotH several weeks before he got famous and soon after 2nd place at DreamHack last year so until now I am still good friend with him.
"I received several offers from big teams in the past, but I chose to stay with ManaSurge."
And people say SEA don't have good enough players...
Being one of the veterans of the scene and looking at the "new generation" of SEA players, who do you think can reach the status of the likes of you, or WaningMoon.
HS is a game with quite a low skill cap to reach. For example, it is not that hard to hit top 100 legend each season once if you spend enough time at it. However what I think most players won't have access to is a big circle of pro friends who you can reach out for scrim/discussion/advice or just simply netdecking. I think anyone can be the face of SEA HS to represent at Blizzcon this year.
I have told many of people before but I would like to emphasize again here: "HS is an RNG game and sometimes the hands are dealt to lose. However over the course of thousands of games, the RNG will spread out and you will win one day be it top 10 server or a tournament. As long as you didn't misplay and play to your best ability, be satisfied with whatever the result is."
Is randomness partly the reason you're giving up on a full time career? Would it be different if it was a less volatile and more "predictable" game? Or was esports never in your plans for the future?
Randomness is characteristic of card games and I treasure it. At first, I had no intention of being a pro player in the scene but rather a helper to develop esports. Somehow, I spent long enough time on HS and I achieved certain results so suddenly I was at the top of the region. However, my main intention is just to help esports grow in general and HS scene in particular. I used to work for GosuGamers myself so I understand how hard it is to devote your free time and contribute to the growth of the scene. Kudos to you guys for such an awesome event.
"Randomness is characteristic of card games and I treasure it."
Speaking of younger generation, the western scene is currently being flipped upside down as players like Orange, Maverick, Hoej, Naiman, to name a few, are shaking up the established order of 2014. Is there a true change of power coming up for the scene?
Personally even though there are people with back to back tournament wins, I think there are 1000 people for example in the whole world, who are top of the ladder and are able to take a win at any event. Therefore, this pool of players will rotate around depending on who will win a tournament. However, better players will always be around and make it far into the bracket but might not be the eventually champion. Hence we have to look at consistency of player in the top 8 spots instead of just the champion only
Sounds reasonable! Anyways, final words before we wrap this up?
I would like to thanks GosuGamers and Blizzard HS SEA for making this GosuCup series possible. And shout out to any HS player out there in SEA, put effort into the game and time will reward you with what you desire.
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