2016 has been a great year for Esteban "AKAWonder" Serrano. Whereas in 2015 he broke out as a player by making three consecutive Dreamhack playoffs, in March this year he took his first major tournament victory at ESL Katowice. The peak in AKAWonder's year - and probably in his career thus far - came when in May he qualified for the European Spring Championships. Even though his run at the highest stage ended quickly, no one will forget the moment on which AKAWonder delivered the final blow to his opponent "Turna" and burst out in excitement.
In January 2015 AKAWonder joined SK Gaming, and he has been a loyal team member ever since. Under mentorship of Hearthstone guru Jesper "Freakeh" Ericsson he polished his play, and accompanied by Powder, Spo, MartinCreek and Zetalot now aims for the highest targets possible.
For the Last Call EU several players were invited by Blizzard to attend the event, competing with local fans in side-events and handing out autographs. Tom "Matthieist" Matthiesen invited the ever-happy Spaniard for a chat about what it takes to keep your mind straight during matches, being on a team like SK Gaming and which decks still need to be mastered.
I'm joined by AKAWonder, who was flown over by Blizzard to join the players at the Last Call tournament. How are you enjoying yourself here?
"I'm so happy to be here because it's my second time being invited by Blizzard. Being a Blizzard influencer means a lot to me and it's a big responsibility. It's also my first time in The Netherlands and the weather is actually quite ok now. I'm from Spain so I'm used to sunny weather all the time, but this location is amazing and the people are as well. The event is really well planned and well done, I have nothing bad to say about it."
Many people still remember you for literally shaking with excitement when you qualified for the Spring Championship. Are you always that emotional when playing?
"When I made it to the Spring Championship the emotions I showed were genuine and true. I think at that moment it was ok to show the emotions because I was in Spain, everyone was cheering for me and it just all came together. To be honest however, even though I'm passionate about the game I don't usually show emotions like I did there, because I know how to keep a straight mind. I don't mind losing multiple games in a row, which happens a lot in Hearthstone. I've learned not to let my emotions affect my play, but sometimes emotions just go crazy. Perhaps it's because I'm a rational player, and at some point all the feelings I kept inside just have to get out."
The memorable moment when AKAWonder acquired a spot in the European Spring Championships.
As you said sometimes you just lose many games in a row. What is your strategy to keep a straight mind in those situations?
"Well the main thing to understand is that you can lose many games in a row, even if you play perfectly. Still your goal is, obviously, to play perfectly, to increase the odds. You will never see me sad because of a loss, but you will see me sad if I make a mistake. That's really my mindset: I don't care about winning, I care about playing perfectly. However, when you go on a win streak you also have to keep your mind straight. You might still not be playing perfectly, even if you're winning 20 games in a row. When that happens it is more difficult to realize you've made mistakes than if you lose a lot. Very few people think about possible mistakes they made if they won, because all they think is "Oh, I won". But no, in both situations, regardless if you win or lose, you need to think about your plays in a critical way.
I don't care about winning,
I care about playing perfectly.
It's harder to keep a straight mind if you make a mistake in-game, when for example you didn't know your opponent's deck list and misplayed. You tend to keep thinking about it, maybe for the whole game and the next game as well. What I advice you to do is to think of something completely different from the game, something that makes you happy, and then focus again. If you don't do this, if you keep thinking about the mistake, it will affect your next turns. And even though I'm saying this, I still find it really hard to do. Another thing I recommend is not immediately press the "play" button right after a game. Do something completely different to get your mind off the mistake."
You've been with SK Gaming for quite a while now. How are things with the team?
"Yeah so the first year I was quite a newbie in the organization and I was learning everything. I didn't know anything about eSports, the industry and the teams. My second year was to consolidate myself as a professional player, and I really enjoy my position now. I help the team, the team helps me, I know everyone in the organization and love travelling for and with them. The Hearthstone team is still the same, we still are like a family and love eachother. I don't know if in the future anything will change, take Na'Vi for example where everything was going well and still they disbanded. So those kind of things I cannot know, but at the moment everything is just good."
You and Powder are the two players from SK we see most in tournaments, but other than that we don't see too much of y'all. Take Thijs from G2 for example, he plays in many tournaments but also has around a 13k viewer base on Twitch. What's the philosophy of SK on streaming and content?
"Well I do stream, but in Spanish. I focus on the community in Spain which is not the largest one, but I'm a little below Zetalot, who's the biggest Hearhtstone streamer on SK Gaming. He has between 1k and 2k viewers, whereas I get between 500 and 700 viewers. Powder is starting to stream more right now, and I think it's really important for teams in Hearthstone to have your players stream. You're right though, maybe we must stream more to keep up with others. We have a big roster, and it's hard to maintain large rosters without any publicity from Twitch, for example. Fade2Karma has no competitive team anymore, but just focusses on streamers. SK's philosophy doesn't just want content creators - which they obviously do have - but perhaps to maintain and even grow as SK in the future we need to stream more."
Don't you think that streaming in Spanish limits your audience?
"It is definitely limiting. A lot of people are asking me to stream in English too, and I'm actually considering switching to it. The problem is that I now have a fanbase because I've always streamed in Spanish. So I think I will start streaming in English once a week, and see how that goes. Then I will decide what to do, based on how it's working out. If I get good viewership and I'm happy I will consider streaming in English more often. But just to let you guys know, I am thinking about it."
I will start streaming once a week, and see how that goes.
Some teams have their players write articles, guides etc. Is that something you'd consider doing?
"SK is not doing a lot of content right now, they mainly reveal some decks and explain them, but not that often. On my own website I do release quite some content, but again that's in Spanish. It ranges from tips for newbies to professional players. I like to share what I think about the game and about some particular decks."
What is an aspect of the game you'll never get tired of talking about?
"The thing I like most is to discuss with other pro players what their view is on certain match-ups. Especially if we both are very familiar with the decks. If two different players want to improve or talk about a match-up and they discuss, you will still see different opinions from them in pretty much every play. Ultimately there is always one play which is better than the other, so you need to understand why you both are thinking differently. That's what I love to think and write about. For example, I want to talk with Thijs about his thoughts on N'Zoth Warrior versus C'Thun Warrior and try step by step to determine which cards are key. Or why this and this is a good play, what card you should save and think many turns ahead. Explaining decks to people is another thing I like to do. People want to know which deck is broken and why, so they can play it themselves and win."
You said you like discussing certain match-ups with other pro's. Which deck do you still have to master?
"Actually, there's a few. I'm quite surprised almost no one brought Tempo Mage to the Last Call. I'm not a specialist, but I have played around 500 games with the deck. It's my fourth best deck at the moment, after Warrior, Druid and Shaman. I have to admit that Tempo Mage is surprising me every day. There are many different ways to build it: with Antonidas, more spell focused, more minion focused and even a Control style. I think it's one of the most underrated decks right now. I remember Rdu playing the deck at Dreamhack Summer and everyone thought: "Oh wow I want to play this, Tempo Mage is really good." But then everyone stopped playing it - the only deck that didn't get nerfed in the most recent balance changes. Asmodai took rank 1 Legend on ladder recently, so I think we will see more of it in the meta.
Tempo Mage is one of the most underrated decks at the moment.
Back to your question, I think right now Tempo Mage is the deck I want to focus on. I'm also a bit surprised about Rogue, since it's more powerful than most people think. The deck wasn't hit by the card changes, which obviously works in its favor. I don't like Hunter at the moment. As I said in another interview, the cost increase of Call of the Wild hurt the class, as it has nothing on turn 7 and 8 anymore. If you're playing against a Druid, for example, having one empty turn isn't too horrible, but then they start healing themselves, play Malygos just for tempo and you have no answers anymore."
Going on about deckbuilding, what archetype - in any class - would you love to see become strong?
"I want to see the Priest man! I love the Priest! Dragon Priest is not too horrible at the moment, actually. It's a shame Lightbomb and Shrinkmeister left, because those cards allowed for nice combos. I would love a 3 mana 2/4 that decreases the attack of the opponent's minions by 1 for one turn.
Shadowform Priest is also interesting, because having a good hero power is important for Priest as they tend to use it a lot. Some turns you just use your hero power. However, if Mages used Justicar Trueheart the same effect would be accomplished, and not a single Mage deck runs her right? There is better removal, and running two copies of Shadowform is just too inconsistent. So instead of Shadowform Priest you should just play Justicar Mage, you have better cards to put in the deck then."
To round up the interview, of all Hearthstone cards, which one is your favorite?
"Oh it's Jaraxxus by far."
It's one of Ben Brode's favorite cards as well by the way.
"Oh really? I didn't know that. My entire stream is based on Jaraxxus sounds. When you follow me on Twitch, for example, the "Thanks" emote of Jaraxxus plays. I like the card because it just changes your hero into this insanely stronger hero, and automatically wins the game against Control Decks. I would love to see more cards that do the same, but not the way Majordomo Executus did, that is too risky. But 15 or 20 health on the minion that becomes your hero, with something like "summon a 3/3" as hero power and a Deathrattle weapon equipped that decreases your life total to 5 if it is destroyed. I need some new cards that interact with heroes and hero powers.
I need new cards that interact with heroes and hero powers.
Unfortunately the Inspire mechanic didn't really take off. The only card we play now is Thunder Bluff Valiant, sometimes Savage Combatant. The mechanic is good, but it has bad cards. Nexus Champion Saraad is too slow, so perhaps we need better Control decks to make it work? Blizzard tried to push them a bit, but we really need strong minions. Warrior is the only class that can make a consistent Control deck at the moment. Paladins and Warlocks are too inconsistent. Renolock comes close, but the biggest problem for them is the Shaman. You can have all the removal you want, but the Shaman will just summon totems again, or play Thing from Below and immediately threaten with Bloodlust again. And you can't only play removal, because you still need to play minions yourself."