Interview With Hearthstone Pro Matthew

Matthew is one of the 16 players we saw at the Hearthstone World Championship European Finals at Dreamhack and we took some time to sit down with him and talk about his game. Find out how a local Magic The Gathering player from Spain became one of the top Hearthstone players!

How did you get into playing video games and then finding yourself playing Hearthstone?

Matthew: Everything started a long time ago, playing Magic The Gathering at school and after months of casual playing I started to play more tournaments, but I did not like the competitive enviroment of Magic as there are some cheaters in the game so instead I played in a local league. So I started playing Hearthstone because it was similar in a way and I did not have to move from home, so I could play with a hangover and I don't lose the entire day if I played in a tournament like in Magic.

 

Sounds nice, do you think your experience from Magic gives you an edge against other players while playing Hearthstone?

Matthew: Yeah it does, although you have to change your mindset as comparing things can lead you to make mistakes, but yeah I feel it does give me an edge.

 

So how exactly did you qualify for the Blizzcon qualifier?

Matthew: I ended top 16 in a season, think it was top 10 not sure.

 

Was you aware of becoming top 16 legend that season you would of got a seed? Or did it all just come out of the blue?

Matthew: I was aware, thats why I tried so hard to end up between the top 16 players. It's not easy you must have a really high win percentage.

 

Yeah it seems really hard, so playing on stage at a huge gaming festival like Dreamhack is a dream come true for many players, how was the experience and could you tell us more about it?

Matthew: Yeah, I was really looking foward to it, it's a magic moment. You sitting there and that insane amount of people watching you, everyone supporting and even your friends who don't even play Hearthstone spamming the twitch chat to warm me up. At that moment I felt like it was just me and that was the moment to show what I could do. But there is a lot of other things going on, a lot of external factors that can actually decide if you win or lose, for example TheFallen the other Spanish player had to play at 4am, so you could imagine how tired you would be, but yeah it was a magic moment, it was amazing. 

 

It does sound amazing! And finally what is your future in eSports and how has becoming this pro hearthstone player affected you on a personal level?

Matthew: The near future is to start streaming really soon and see if I can combine that with my studies etc. And I will probably be joining a team in about a month or so and hopefully I can combine everything. I got a lot of offers and I am very interested in one.

 

Sounds great, hope everytning can work out for you and one last question, any shoutouts you want to make?

Matthew: Just thanks to everyone supporting me and all the opportunitys I have been given lately.

 

Sounds good, can't wait to see what the future brings and thanks for taking the time to do this Matthew !

Matthew: You're welcome!

You can follow Matthew on Twitter @MatthewBHS.