LOTI 224 : Conversations

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo: 3040 Gold, Rank 12, 363/500 Shaman wins

Vast: 1155 Gold,

News

* Choose Your Champion is available again – Get 1 free pack for choosing a champion.  Earn as many as 4 card packs. Voting closes Feb 28th. * Dean Ayala asks on Twitter : “If Hearthstone used to be your main game but isn’t anymore, what would get you back?”* Vast: Keyword: Accomplishment, Everquest, Minecraft, Dark Age of Camelot, WoW (reminder cues)* Some discussion on this happening at Hearthpwn – https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/6420-dean-ayala-asks-what-would-get-you-back-into* Several conversations on Reddit : Reddit1, * Ideas: Achievements, tournament mode, Eternal, monthly leagues, statistics, community quests (ie. 2 million Deathwings, if completed everyone gets a reward)* Masters Tour Announced* $250,000 total prize purse, 1st place $50,000* Online Qualifiers in March-April* Masters Tour Las Vegas – June 14-16* Top finishing players in online qualifiers, will receive card packs based on their final standings. (1st – 20 packs, 2nd 20, 3rd-4th, 15, 5-8 10, etc)* New Competitive Rules Announced* Specialist – Maindeck/Sideboard format* Players submit 3 decks from the same class* Players designate one deck as a primary deck, the other two as secondary and tertiary.* Secondary and teritary decks may have up to 5 cards different from the primary deck. Two duplicate cards in the primary deck list count as two cards. * Players must play game one of each match with their primary deck.* At the beginning of game two and onward, players may decide to keep playing their primary deck, or switch to either of the others.* Deck decisions for games two and three, are performed at the start of each game simultaneously and in secret from the opposing player.* All Masters Qualifier and Ranked Ladder Qualifier matches will be best-of-three. All matches at Masters Tour events will be best-of-three, with the exception of a best-of-five finals.* Comments from Reddit:

I think this decision does three things:

* Streamlines the viewing experience. As HS has become more and more control/combo orientated, Bof5 matches seem to drag longer than ever before. Especially relevant in the Swiss formats where you can’t move onto the next round until everyone is done. This may even give production people more of an opportunity to “jump around” within a broadcast as matches will be shorter. Allowing for more exposure to players or unique lineups.* This format “looks more like ladder”. That has always been the biggest complaint about the old Conquest system. They made people grind ladder to qualify in a tournament that was completely different from that experience. While ladder points don’t mean anything anymore to competitive HS, it’s still something that has relevance to experiment and try things out in.* Deckbuilding and deck choices are still relevant. Gone are the days of just jamming the top 3 VS decks and hoping for the best. By limiting a person to one class, they can either choose the current “best” class or they can choose a class that best counters that “best class”. Or they can even go off the board and pick a class that has a fighting chance against both “the best” and the “best counter” classes.