GosuGamers arrive at Take's place on the afternoon of March 7th, ready to cover SeatStory Cup. Hearthstone is our main focus as we come into this and the first results are up!
It's a sunny day in Krefeld as SeatStory Cup begins. $15,000 are on the line for each of the two disciplines so stake, especially for Hearthstone, are high. Blizzard's card game sees some of its best players fly to Take's appartment - including a name from the WC3 past in Lucifer - and we're there to catch every second of it.
The day starts with a grudge match between arena archivals Ek0p and Trump. The American has a favor to return to DogeHouse's player after suffering a 1-3 loss to him at ESGN Fight Night. With neither player considered the favorite to win the tournament with so many constructed specialists attending, a loss in round 1 can be lethal.
Trump pulls out StrifeCro's Druid against Ek0p's Wurlocs and prepares for the Bo7. Only four games later, he emerges as winner. Resisting the early aggression of Ek0p's murlocs allows Trump to stabilize and build a wall of taunters too impregnable for the Warlock's miniatures.
Going into control match-ups helps Ek0p not one bit. Combining the all-around stability of the Druid class with some lucky top decks, Trump doubles his lead and shortly therafter pushes it to 4-0. "I was pretty worried," Trumps confesses to GosuGamers minutes after the opening victory (interview coming soon) which made him the first WB semifinalist of SeatStory Cup.
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As evening approaches, everyone's eyes (and noses) turn towards the kitchen: Take's catering is preparing chilli con carne and the entire apartment smells of meat, beans and fresh bread. Dinner is still a good half to an hour away, however, so our eyes turn to the next match on stream. The seven-game thriller between Gnimsh and Artosis takes our minds away from the still-not-ready-food (yes, eSports journalists are always hungry, especially for free meals).
Having learned from his [card]Execute[/card] mistake from Fight Night, Artosis is determined to give the Polish a run for his money. He takes the first game but Gnimsh's Warlock Zoo (almost an exact copy of Reynad's build) bites back. Artosis' murloc, Warrior control and Druid fall, Gnimsh is one game away from WB semis.
No stranger to epic comebacks, Artosis summons his Shaman control and I stand by the casting couch, watching him march towards a turn-around. A [card]Lightning Storm[/card] top deck helps Artosis stabilize and a win against Gnimsh's own Shaman ties it but a Warrior control is there to halt BlizzCon's champion advancement.
I approach Gnimsh after the battle and kidnap him to the press area for what I assume will be a calm and in-depth interview (having talked to him on previous occassions, I know him as a great interviewee). I have balance questions, tournament questions, match questions...
Then Ek0p happens.
Chilli is ready and we stuff ourselves, sitting in the press room, while watching the ESGN guys trying to find 100 chicken wings for an eating contest. It takes them some time to find a nearby place that sells those in industrial quantities (surprisingly, it takes them way less time to find people that would eat said wings) but they do arrive.
It also becomes harder to find people for interviews. Lucifer leaves after his 0-4 loss to Savjz. Everyone else is either getting ready to cast a game or scrapes the last bits of chilli from the bowl. I see Hot_Bid sound asleep and StrifeCro having heavy eyes too. The few people that still have some energy left gather around the big scree to watch Grubby against Stephano in a WarCraft 3 match.
The casting trio of Take, Rotterdam and DeMuslim is absolutely electric and I find myself glued to the broadcast. I haven't watched WarCraft 3 for some years and I never really followed the scene but these twenty minutes between the eSports legend and the curly Frenchman are too gripping to avert my eyes. Every unit is controlled with utmost precision. The attention to details is uncanny. There's a five minute fight that ends with a game-ending Bladestorm. I am taken back years when eSports had a different face and I lament the passing of this era.
The series is over and I look around in last attempt to find someone to talk to before sleep takes me. Luck is with me: Gnimsh and StrifeCro are testing Wildstar in the press area and since I already talked to Marcin I abduct StrifeCro.
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We're both pretty tired so the interview takes a slower pace and to some extent lacks the energy that the Trump and Gnimsh interviews had. Still, I'm happy to talk to one of the best constructed players in Hearthstone and I'm a tiny bit surprised of his answers.
"I don't get motivated by money," says StrifeCro who's the favorite to take the $8,000 of SeatStory Cup, the highest paying tournament in Hearthstone's short professional history. And I believe him - he truly looks like the guy who'd rather play Path of Exile rather than practice for a tournament, just because he finds it more fun. His attitude might come out as careless at points but ultimately, I understand, StrifeCro is just a player trying to enjoy what he does. If he loses or wins or what he earns is of small matter to him.
I believe him because this is why I started doing eSports full time in the first place.
The nigth is finally over. We even miss the StrifeCro / Savjz stat match because we're dead tired. A half an hour walk through midnight Krefeld and we're back home asleep. Tomorrow, it's another day at Take's!
