Blizzcon European Qualifier Player Interview - Mr.Yagut

If your exposure to the professional scene is merely Twitch then Mr.Yagut will have went un-noticed to you. Previously winning the Zotac cup and doing equally as well in the Decerto cup, both which do not gain the attention they deserve especially when you consider players capable of Blizzcon emerge from those brackets.

Reaching the Qualifiers of the Blizzcon world championships however should be a demonstration of this player's skill, deck building and at the very least his RNG. Today We're going to ask a few questions to get to know the him and what to expect from him after the Qualifiers.

 

MrYagut thanks for taking the time for this interview and commiserations to you for falling just short! The community as a whole doesn't know a great deal about you, perhaps you could elaborate about yourself a little and tell us how it feels to participate in such an epic event like the qualifiers?

Mr.Yagut: Hey and thanks for inviting me to this interview. I'm Tugay I'm from Germany and I'm 20 years old. It felt pretty nice to be in such a big tournament and I'd love to take part in others just like it. When it came to play my own games I won't deny, I was pretty nervous because I knew a lot of people would be watching me. Overall it was pretty good and it felt great to be involved in a tournament organised by Blizzard and even better for it to be held at Dreamhack.

At the qualifiers your decks were all really strange to the viewers and general hearthstone community. Your hunter for example having a cult master and azure drake is a really strange addition in comparison to the standard meta hunter, along with your warrior having two brawls. Whilst the double brawl does have the surprise factor what was the thought process behind your hunter deck?

Another aspect of your game play that everyone picked up on was your thought process and play making, it confused a lot of the viewers and even the other pro players...yet it came out trumps! Could you explain why you play so different to the cookie cutter play style that hearthstone has moulded the community into?

Mr.Yagut: I think it's better to bring surprising decks to the tournament since your opponent will have a hard time countering the unknown. For example I formatted my hunter to counter mostly classes like Miracle, Druid and Warrior. The double brawl is pretty good if you run a lot of late game legendary's and not too much early game. Most players don't expect the double brawl, sometimes you have to make weird decisions and plays if you're behind or have a bad hand. That's also one of the reasons why I executed for example the harvest golem, I felt really behind and my hand was not providing the efficient answers I needed so heavier removal had to suffice.

Let's talk past experience, was it your first intentions to become pro player at hearthstone or did you previously participate in other games at a professional level and do you plan to continue pursuing a career as a professional hearthstone player ?

Mr.Yagut: In the beginning my intention was just to have fun at this game. But I realised that I'm pretty good at this game and can build a lot of new good decks that are well structured that actually work well. That's why I would like to make a career as a professional hearthstone player. Also I've never participated in any other tournaments than Hearthstone.

At the moment you don't belong to a professional team how did you prepare for the qualifiers? Was it entirely ladder based practice or do you have high ranking friends to play with? Are you looking for a team at the moment?

Mr.Yagut: I played a lot of ladder and conceded to every hunter because I knew only a few players would play it in the tournament. I prepared the decks again with Dalok like in the qualifiers. He helped me a lot with it and thanks to him again. Yes, I'm also searching for a good team at the moment.

How do you think you performed at the qualifiers, do you think your or anyone else could have played any better or do you feel that your performance was adequate enough? Who are you all looking forward to seeing play at Blizzcon?

Mr.Yagut: I played ok in the qualifiers but sometimes I was just too nervous or played too fast and that was portrayed in my game play. My pace combined with my nerves at the time dictated my misplays. I could have played much better for sure. I'm looking forward to Kolento. He is most likely the only guy who makes minimal amounts of misplays.

Drifting away from the Qualifiers i'd like to focus a little more on ladder. I realised you're actually quite a high ranking player but unknown figure on the European ladder, of course the qualifiers would have changed that by now. Could you tell me what it takes to become not only a successful tournament player but a good ladder player?

Mr.Yagut: On ladder you almost always have to focus on just one race, which is your own race. That includes things like your class and deck choice, making them both the best possible for the meta right now understanding where your deck falls short and why it falls short. Making the correct additions to correct those short falls will have a positive effect on your laddering.

The most recent patch saw a big hit to two cards in particular, Leeroy and Starving buzzard. What effect do you think this had on today's meta, is the absence of burst in miracle and handlock a drawback now, and how does the absence of Leeroy affect the meta?

Mr.Yagut: Meta games fortunately can now survive longer than 8-9 turns because of the removal of low cost combos including Leeroy. Personally i feel you now need to construct miracle slightly more control orientated with things like Cairne, Black-Knight or ooze. That does not mean miracle is dead however, it's still efficient and strong because the main orientation of it is card draw, and it draws so-well enough  to label itself as still a competitive ladder deck.

The same reasoning can be applied to handlock, you just have to construct it a bit more control orientated with Lord jaraxxus and the like. The nerf in my opinion somewhat disabled hunter because of the lack of card draw it means that we won't see a lot of that in the ladder anymore. Generally the ladder will become a lot healthier now with the absence of hunter and a less populated miracle ladder.

In reflection on your thoughts about hunter as a competitive class now, how do you feel about Era taking a hunter to number one legend last season?

Mr.Yagut: Well hunter is still good but it is not nearly as good as it used to be. A miracle rogue should easily counter Era's hunter deck but I do think you need to get a bit lucky with the match ups and your opening as well.

Do you have any advice for players in trying to achieve legend, is it best to be versatile with an array of decks for different classes or do you feel it's best to hone your skills down to one particular class and perhaps only one or two decks?

Mr.Yagut: I think you need to learn almost every class to gain the important knowledge of perhaps what your opponents next turn could be, you should be thinking of what next not when he has made his turn but also in addition to your current turn. This will lead to stronger turns and place your opponents under more pressure instead of you becoming pressured. If you've just started Hearthstone I feel it would be best to focus upon one class and one particular deck.

If this is true for you I don't feel like that in this particular scenario it would be bad for you to net deck a pro players deck. Whilst this is acceptable if you're just a new starter to hearthstone it's probably best to observe that particular player and how he plays his own deck for you to gain any sort of advantage from net decking.

What do your friends and family think of your profession and do you have a backup plan in case E-sports doesn't work out? Are you recognised in public or school because of the qualifiers?

Mr.Yagut: My friends and family have been really good pillars of support for my aspiration of competitive gaming. Yeah a lot of people wrote on my Facebook about me participating in the Blizzcon qualifiers and that's why some people recognise me in school. If for some unfortunate reason E-Sports does not work out for me I will continue to study just as well as I play hearthstone.

So we're almost done and I'm just going to wind down a little with some "Fun-ish" questions. Do you have a troll deck, if you do what does it focus around?

Mr.Yagut: I played a sea giant shaman deck with a lot of board control and almost no spells. It did pretty good in the ladder but normally i just try to make good decks that really work consistently.

What is your favourite card, and your favourite class?

Mr.Yagut: Its Alexstraza because she looks so nice in golden :) And that would be rogue because I just love to play Miracle way too much. It's more skill based than any other classes.

Do you think skill plays a bigger factor in miracle rogue other than pure RNG and top decking?

Mr.Yagut: Of course it is still RNG based but you can still make a lot of mistakes with it. That's why I like it, the least amount of mistakes in miracle rogue is what defines you as a good miracle player.

What changes would you make to the game and why?

Mr.Yagut: I would like more cards for this game. With more cards it wouldn't be probably so much RNG based like right now. Otherwise it's a pretty fun game like it is right now.

Do you think there is any other broken mechanics in the game and what do you think is the best hero power in the game?

Mr.Yagut: I'm not sure right now but card draw is one of the big factors in this game. The most broken mechanics like Buzzard or Leeroy already got nerfed so there's nothing I can think of right now. In my opinion the Warlocks hero ability. It's far superior to any other hero power and provides a huge edge in terms of card draw and how quick you are to answer your opponents plays or how quick you are to pressure them and force their hand rather than the opposite.

I think that's about it for today thank you so much for your time and once again commiserations for falling short of the next stages. Is there any shout outs or anyone in particular you'd like to thank?

Mr.Yagut: Shout outs to my friends and everybody who supported me at the qualifiers and of course any team that may be looking for a new player, keep updated on my Twitter which is twitter.com/Mryagut and my Twitch twitch.tv/mryagut. Last but not least thank you for inviting me and interviewing me today!