At the Polyvalent Hall in Bucharest, Romania, ROOT Gaming's Jason ‘Amaz’ Chan blazed through the 128-player Dreamhack tournament and finished tied for third place. He seemed nigh unstoppable until Peter ‘Gaara’ Stevanovic finally put an end to Amaz’s amazing run in the semifinals. I asked Amaz about his experiences at Dreamhack as well as other aspects of his Hearthstone career.
-
First off, how did you get started with Hearthstone?
Amaz: As I hit the seven-year mark of playing World of Warcraft, Hearthstone was announced. It immediately grabbed my attention because I am a big fan of card games. The Warcraft universe and my love for the fantasy genre made the game a no-brainer to play!
Did you make any special preparations for Dreamhack? What was your mindset going into the tournament?
I played a little more a few days before Dreamhack to get “in the zone” but in a tournament setting, it really depends on how much you played the game. Being positive and focusing on every single correct play was my strategy going into the tournament, as there isn’t much room for mistakes in any round.
This was your first offline Hearthstone tournament. What were the biggest differences between playing online and in an offline setting?
In an offline tournament, what carries me forward is my experience with the game. I know that many players go “auto-pilot” in a tournament setting with their plays, so it’s important to practice a lot even when you aren’t preparing to play a tournament. I traveled a lot when I was young so the sleeping schedule wasn’t much of an issue.
At Dreamhack Bucharest, you tied for 3rd in a tournament of 128 players. Did you expect to advance this far? Were you disappointed that you did not place higher?
I did not go into the tournament with any expectations, especially with the volatile nature of a single elimination. I was glad I made that far and looking back, I made some really good calls. I lost the semifinals to Gaara because I made mistakes. While I was of course disappointed, this lets me know that I still have a lot to improve as a player.
From the ro32 onward, you ran a Hunter and a HandLock deck. Your stream and YouTube viewers probably know you best for running a Priest deck. Is Priest competitive? What was your thought process on choosing the decks for the tournament?
I did not bring Priest because I thought there were going to be a lot of Zoo Locks. When I found out there weren’t that many, I was definitely regretted not bringing Anduin. The HandLock was actually to mainly counter ZooLock. The midrange hunter was just too strong not to bring.
In your first game against Ekop, it seemed like you were on the ropes until you top-decked the Starving Buzzard. Did you feel that Ekop could have taken either game?
If I were Ekop, I would have chosen the River Crocolisk for Tracking in order to chance one more card for the 1 missing damage he needed. For the second game, he put out Ysera instead of using Druid of the Claw. While it’s hard to play the right play every single time, I felt like those were the mistakes he made.
Ekop stated that you were lucky during the match. How do you respond?
I cannot deny that I got lucky in the matches, but there were actually a lot of outs I could have top-decked to win either game. If Ekop did not make any mistakes with his plays, he could have won the series. Still, I have a lot of respect for him!
In your series versus Gaara, you seemed to have a lot of trouble against his Ramp Druid. What separated his Druid deck from the other Druids you faced in the tournament?
Not much. It was my fault that I played poorly in the second match. I also wish that I brought my Priest deck against his ramp Druid. That would have been pretty exciting!
In the second game versus Gaara, you decided to use two Soulfires that cost you very valuable cards (Faceless Manipulator and Alexstrasza). Why did you decide to use Soulfire at those particular instances? If you could do it again, would you still take the risk or would you play more conservatively?
The first Soulfire was definitely incorrect and that really comes back to my inexperience with playing HandLock. It takes over two hundred games played with a deck to really know it and obviously my preparation was not enough.
What would you do differently against Gaara if you were to face him again in the future?
Not making any misplays is probably what I will have to do!
In the post-match interview, Kripp mentioned that you teach the saxophone. Does any part of playing music or musical theory translate into playing Hearthstone?
Hahaha I wish! Much of Hearthstone strategy actually came from poker, which I played around with for a year or so.
Did you have a positive experience at Dreamhack? Do you plan to attend other offline events in the future?
Dreamhack for me was all about meeting other Hearthstone players and having a fun time. The 3rd place finish was the icing on the cake. There were also many people who came up to me and recognized me. Meeting these people was definitely a highlight of my trip. I will definitely try to attend more events in the future.
Any shoutouts?
My teammate Xixo and his friends helped me prepare my Hunter deck before going in the tournament and that helped a lot! He is a really good player and I look forward to seeing him in tournaments too.
Thanks to everybody in Bucharest who made my trip so enjoyable. Savjz, Gnimsh, Reynad, Gaara, Frodan, Kripp, and many people whom I’m probably forgetting at the moment were all friendly people!
And of course, shoutout to ROOT. Watch out for us in future tournaments!
-
Amaz can be found on Twitter and on Twitch.
Written by David Wise (@WiseLingSC2).
Picture from esportsmax.com
No comments:
Post a Comment