Bertrand Grospellier, better known as Elky, was a new face to the Hearthstone community when he first appeared on stage: during the Hearthstone World Championship 2015 he played a showmatch against Daniel Negreanu. After this it was announced that he would join Team Liquid, and play in tournaments under their banner. Having played StarCraft on a professional level, Elky certainly isn't unfamiliar with the eSports scene. He's currently mostly known for his poker life, and at the Insomnia Truesilver Championship Radoslav "Nydra" Kolev and Nick "Aquablad" Secker had a chat about Hearthstone, casting and of course poker as well.
Recently you were casting during ESL Katowice, how did you find that experience?
It was a lot of fun actually, and very interesting. When you’re casting, the games actually go pretty fast. I also enjoyed the casting with other casters such as Gnimsh, Sottle and Lothar, because that made the ride a bit easier for me. After ESL Katowice I went on to cast for Gamers Origin, to cast the second day of the European Championship.
Is casting something you’d consider doing more regularly?
Yeah definitely if the opportunity rises, like when I was at the SeatStory Cup, for example. I still focus on playing, but sometimes it’s very hard to qualify. So then if I can cast matches, that would be nice.
What did you learn from the other casters in Katowice? Did they teach you any tricks?
I was sitting close to Ekop, so I asked him questions about technical situations in the game. I think in general I learned to analyze the game more in-depth, especially for match-ups I’m not familiar with, like Rogue's.
"Casting helped me learn and analyze the game more in-depth, especially for unfamiliar match-ups."
Apparently there is a documentary being made about you, can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yes, DirecTV is recording it, but I think it’s for InsideTV, a new website. They’ve been following me for three months now, going with me to poker events mainly, as that is their focus. Unfortunately they couldn’t make it to Katowice, but because esports means a lot to me they are here now. They follow ten poker players in total, and I think every player will be focused on for around fifty minutes, so that’s a lot of content they’ll deliver.
Hearthstone has been catching the attention of other poker players as well. How interested are the others?
I think George Danzer is probably the most interested in Hearthstone. He’s playing here too, and played at Dreamhack, so he definitely puts effort in it. But more poker players really like the game, it’s a fun hobby.
Is that the same for you? Do you see yourself making a second career in Hearthstone, or is it just something fun to do?
I’ve always been really interested in esports. When I started playing poker I couldn’t play much StarCraft anymore, since it’s such an intense game. Hearthstone is a difficult game too, but it’s not as intense to play. So through Hearthstone I can actually return in esports. After all I think it’s still more of a hobby, because if you want to be on the highest level you have to practice insanely much to master the classes and match-ups.
Other pro players have stated that they find the current meta game stale, and somewhat easy to play because of streamlined decks like Midrange Druid and Secret Paladin. Do you feel they have a valid argument?
For sure. I think those decks kind of play themselves, as you generally just have little options of what you can play, but those options are very strong. What I like about the current meta is that almost every class has some deck they can play, but I agree that at the top it’s mostly easier decks to play. It’s something I don’t like very much, but there has to be some fun for new players as well. If only the very complicated decks are the ones that win, it might discourage new players. But I agree that the power level of decks should scale according to their complexity.
"Through Hearthstone, I can actually return in esports."
Blizzard has stated a few times that they are not planning on adding a tenth class, what is your opinion on this?
Nine classes is already a lot, many of the other games have less classes. I heard that initially they didn’t even want nine classes, but because of World of Warcraft they did it in the end. Nine classes is already hard to balance, and I don’t think an extra class is what’s needed in Hearthstone. Expansions are a great way to add content, and standard will have great impact as well.
Continuing on your statement that you still love esports, have you tried any other card games that are rising in popularity at the moment?
Faeria is a very nice game I like to play, but it’s very hard for me to balance poker and Hearthstone with other games. Sometimes I play some StarCraft II, just for fun. At one point I stopped playing StarCraft competitively though, because I couldn’t keep up with the Koreans.
In what way has your poker career influenced your Hearthstone performances? What abilities are of use?
It’s useful to remember how your opponent has played in previous turns, so you can predict what’s in their hand, and what they will do next. It’s harder to do that in Hearthstone, because they have more cards in hand, and they play cards every turn, but keeping track helps. Few players have a very specific style of playing. I think I also have an advantage when I play opponents, and sit face to face with them.
Thank you very much for the interview. Where can people find you on internet?
My Twitter account is @elkypoker, my Twitch stream is just on Elky and I also have Instagram and Facebook.
If you so prefer, you can also listen to the interview in audio form: