LiBo (left) and TiddlerCelestial (right) after the grand finals of the WCA tournament
TiddlerCelestial is one of China's most impressive Hearthstone players. After going 9-0 in games at the Chinese Blizzcon qualifiers, he then toppled MaSsan making it to the quarter finals of the CR vs KN Masters and defeating Gaara and Monk during the WCA tournament where he made it all the way to the final before losing to LiBo - winning almost $50,000 in the process. With the Chinese and Asian scene still something of a mystery to fans in the West, GosuGamers wanted to give Tiddler a chance to formally introduce himself to fans before he does battle with fifteen of the best players in the world for the World Championship title.
GosuGamers would like to thank Monk for his assistance with translation during the interview.
Tiddler, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. First of all, what is your background in gaming and card games?
I've played a lot of fantasy games throughout my life, and I've also played hundreds of different card games!
How did you get started in Hearthstone, and what made Hearthstone a card game you wanted to sink time into?
I started last October because everyone was playing it and it was blowing up. It's a simple game that's also really fun, and there are lots of people for me to play with.
Most of us in the West don't have the first idea about the Hearthstone scene in China. Tell us a little about it, and how it works over there.
Normally there are smaller tournaments and channels online, but there's also an organisation called Golden Eagle that puts on many open 512 person tournaments. There are a lot of tournaments in China right now but it's very unfortunate that the foreign scene and the Chinese scene don't get to intermingle a lot right now.
The World Championships will be one of the first opportunities for Chinese players to play alongside foreign players. Are you excited about facing players from around the world, and showing them what you can do?
I'm very excited and in fact I was one of the first people to meet with the foreign scene, because I was at IEM Schenzen. I got to meet Amaz and all the other foreign players there. Pretty much out of all the Chinese players I'm one of the ones who interacts the most with the foreign scene. Of course I'm going to be very excited to meet all the new players that I'll get to meet at Blizzcon.
"Pretty much out of all the Chinese players I'm one of the ones who interacts the most with the foreign scene."
You got to the Blizzcon finals with Zoo, going 9-0 in games, and relied on it heavily at WCA. Why do you favour it so much? What other decks and classes do you like?
Actually I'm not as big of a Zoo player as I might seem - I actually like control decks a lot. There are particular reasons I played Zoo both at the Blizzcon qualifiers and at WCA. At the Blizzcon qualifiers it was because it was played right when the first wing of Naxxramus came out, and because of cards such as the Nerubian Egg and the Haunted Creeper it made Zoo really strong at the time. At WCA everyone else was playing Handlock, people thought Handlock was strong, so I had to play Zoo at WCA. I can play any deck, I like playing every deck. If I had to pick my favourite deck it would probably be Mage. I'm the type of player not to just play my favourite decks but to do research on my opponents and either pick decks or change cards in my decks to suit who I'm facing.
How are you preparing for Blizzcon?
I do watch a lot of foreign tournament VODs, and of course I practice a lot, but the most important thing is to know my opponents.
Do you think you have an advantage being able to watch a wealth of footage and streams of Western players, without there being that much out there for them to study on you?
I don't think I have that huge an advantage, as a lot of my opponents also don't have a lot of videos for me to see or VODs for me to watch. It's not like they are all Kolento or StrifeCro who have lots of video each for me to study.
Is there anyone you would really like the chance to face in the tournament, and is there anyone you would like to avoid?
I really want the opportunity to face Kolento in a best of three, five, seven or nine. There's not a particular player I want to avoid, I think everyone has pretty good chances.
What do you think your chances are of winning the World Championships and taking home the $100,000?
I have only slightly bigger than 1/16th of a chance of winning the tournament!
Tiddler, thank you so much for the time today. Is there anyone you would like to thank before we finish?
I want to thank my family for supporting me so much throughout everything. Also Neteze for also supporting me and helping me with so many things.
