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Interview with dignitas Chakki: "Personally, I think I’ve been weaker since GvG hit"
Team Dignitas has recently been expanding their Hearthstone roster to the international scene, with the acquisitions of American player Keaton “Chakki” Gill, and South Korean Hakjun “Kranich” Baek. Chakki, a veteran of the Hearthstone scene, joined Team Dignitas after short stints on Managrind, Clarity Gaming and Team Coast.
Hi Chakki, what made you want to join Team Dignitas after leading the exodus away from Team Coast’s Hearthstone team back in November?
Chakki: Well, after leaving Team Coast, I was still searching for another Hearthstone team to play on in 2015. I have known Blackout and Greensheep for a while now, so naturally I talked to Dignitas as one of my options. I consider what they have to offer the best I can get, and being on a team with friends is great, so here I am.
Do you feel you being on so many teams is a representation of the instability of the Hearthstone scene as a whole? We’ve seen many teams attempt to start only to disband shortly. Other than Archon and Tempo Storm, it seems that the organizations already prominent in other E-sports have found the most success in Hearthstone, like C9, TSM, Team Dignitas, and Team Liquid.
Chakki: Well, Managrind and Clarity were definitely fairly new and inexperienced organizations just coming around with the birth of Hearthstone. Managrind wasn’t really prepared to deal with competing organizations, so when teams like Curse, Liquid, and more started coming in and offering players better things, that team collapsed. As far as on a more general level, it’s definitely a bit new for organizations and even players to feel out what works for a new game like Hearthstone.
People expect that since Hearthstone is a single player game, any group of people can work as a team. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that and sometimes personalities clash in different teams. Concerning startup teams, I think they face the same issues that they do in other games, more established organizations just have more to offer and have less risk for players joining.
You just got back from the Assembly Winter in Finland, what happened that made you fall short in the group stage?
Chakki: Multiple factors. I don’t really want to come up with excuses, but I wasn’t feeling great, had a few questionable deck choices, and RNG wasn’t quite on my side.
What questionable deck choices? You brought a lineup of Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warlock, why not those decks?
Chakki: A lot of players chose to ban Druid since it is probably the strongest deck in a tournament setting. Instead of doing that, I spent a lot of time testing a new Hunter deck that had around an 80% winrate against Druid along with great matchups vs. control decks (which I expected to be pretty popular). So, I decided not to ban Druid. My opponents both ended up banning my Hunter, so that kind of threw a wrench in my plans. Also, I took a Shaman deck that I hadn’t played much last minute, and it was terrible in both of my matches. The Warlock deck choice was mostly for comfort, and ended up not meshing well with the meta and my lineup.
Your teammate Blackout did particularly well in the Tournament, getting to 4th place. Do you think he played better, or just had better draws or an easier group?
Chakki: We didn’t really get to watch each other’s games since the tournament ran simultaneous matches, so I don’t think I can really comment on his play. In a ban format, you have to make some meta calls, one of his was bringing a greedy Miracle Rogue list which ended up working well for him.
What are your opinions on Vortex having such a dominant run in the tournament, especially his 4-0 sweep of the finals with Strifecro’s Paladin?
Chakki: Well, to be 100% honest, any player who gets a 16-1 tournament run, especially with such standard decks, had to have gotten extremely above average draws. Again, I didn’t really watch his games, so I can’t comment on if he played great or not (chances are he played solid). I don’t really like the fact that stuff like Mech Mage and Midrange Paladin can completely dominate with good draws, though.
You traveled to Berlin for ESGN fight nights back in early 2014, have you gotten used to traveling across the world for E-sports?
Chakki: This trip was a bit rougher, but I’m getting used to it. The plane rides aren’t too bad, and I actually like traveling.
Photo Credit: ESGN
Later in the month, you’ll be competing in the ESL LAN in Southern California, after barely qualifying in a last minute tiebreaker. What are you anticipating for the LAN, both in terms of competition and the decks there?
Chakki: The competition is actually quite a bit different than the usual, with 5 people being complete open qualifiers. The three players who got invited (and then qualified) are actually part of the old Fight Night scene, including Darkwonyx, Savjz, and myself. It’ll be nice meeting back up with them as well as some new faces. I’d expect some fairly standard decks at the event, but quite a few of the players have their own flavor. I think the competition will be tough, but I’m really looking to get a breakthrough result there.
Speaking of decks, what are your thoughts on the Undertaker nerf? As an infamous lover of Hunter, do you think Hunter is finally “dead?”
Chakki: Dead, no. Weaker, probably. There are actually some extremely powerful Hunter builds right now, but they tend to be weak to aggressive decks like Mech Mage. My hunter still has been banned in every LAN match I’ve been in, but there are no bans in the ESL finals, so…. ;)
How have you adapted to GvG? In his interview, Greensheep stated that you and the team have been innovating all sorts of decks with other teams.
Chakki: When new cards come out, everyone tries to hit the ground running. We coordinated with some other pros to try to be on the forefront of making new decks. Some stuff, like Paladin and Mech Mage hit the mark, and other stuff missed. The meta is constantly shifting and we’re always trying to make new decks. Personally, I think I’ve been weaker since GvG hit, and haven’t really been at the top of my game since the Starving Buzzard and Leeroy Jenkins nerfs.
Do you think that GvG had enough of an impact on the meta?
Chakki: Well, Paladin is a class now. Priest kind of still isn’t a class. Mage went from being mediocre to being one of the best classes. Warlock went from god tier to just good. I’d say things got shaken up quite a bit.
With the meta considerably slowing down in favor of more control decks, in seems that Druid and Paladin are automatically included in every professional’s lineup of decks. Are these the strongest control decks right now, or are they just broken?
Chakki: Paladin is quite strong now, I don’t think it’s really at auto include status yet, though. Druid is still strong as ever, and I still hate it!
My hate for Druid mostly comes from the fact that it’s constantly been one of the most powerful decks, had zero nerfs against it, and wins games it shouldn’t due to draws, all while having very little player decision-making. Every single nerf Blizzard has done in the past months have improved Druid’s place in the meta, and Innervate is among one of the most frustrating cards to lose because of. Oh, and they have one of (if not the?) highest from-hand burst damage, which Blizzard is apparently against.
Furthermore, in his Interview Greensheep really emphasized how much him, you and Blackout practice together. With Kranich joining Team Dignitas, has he joined your practice sessions?
Chakki: Kranich joined right before we all left for Finland, so personally I haven’t had much time to practice with him. We have shared decks and strategy talk to prepare for tournaments, though.
Finally, how the hell do you still not have a liquipedia page?
Chakki: I dunno, I guess you can just make one yourself, but I’m too lazy? Where are my superfans when I need them?!
Any Plugs or Shoutouts?
Chakki: Shoutout to Team Dignitas and my new teammates obviously, everything has been great so far, and I’m hoping to have an excellent year on the team. Shoutout to the fans who have been following me between teams all this time and continue to support me even when my results haven’t been too great. And shoutout to Snapple for being the greatest drink on Earth.