Coin Concede - Episode 153
“<Totem Golem Noise>”
Hat * Botticus * Appa/Cora* Guest*
Welcome to Episode 153 of Coin Concede, a Hearthstone podcast dedicated to making the competitive side of the game more accessible to you.
Joining you all from the Maelstrom, Louisiana, it’s me Appa!
Also joining us from Gadgetzan, New York, it’s RidiculousHat!
And last, but certainly not least - from Karazhan, California it’s Botticus!
Coin Concede is supported in large part by you, the listener. If you’d like to find out how you can support us and receive rewards in return, head to patreon.com/coinconcede
Thanks to Roger AG for joining our patrons and big thanks to Floral for being our NEWEST PRODUCER!!!!
Ladder?
Hat - Mostly even shaman, tbh, but I tried out a bunch of stuff - loved maly rogue, didn't like spiteful druid. Been focusing on league play more than ladder play and been doing pretty well there - excited for UHL to start this Friday and we're 2-0 in THL. Also I've done a lot of hearthstone… content
Appa - Shudderwock on NA, Odd Rogue on EU, chilling on Asia for now - focusing on Legend on the first two first
Botticus - Cubelock
Guest-
Akumaker was on camera visibly not wearing a headset, only using earbuds, while Sequinox was wearing both. During game 1, the administrator from Akumaker’s venue in Australia reported that the caster audio was playing out of the unused system headset and may also be audible to Sequinox at the Singapore venue.
The decision made after game 1 was finished was to replay the entire game and nullify the original score. Sequinox ended up losing the same matchup that he had previously won and was swept 3-0, losing out on a spot at the Season 2 champs – while Akumaker qualified and received his berth."
Statements:
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqlc41
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqlbuq
https://cdn.toucharcade.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/sequinoxakumaker-768x551.png ← Look at this one while talking
Break here! Talk!
OFFICIAL STATEMENT: "We’d like to provide more clarity regarding a technical issue which required a re-game in the 2018 HCT Asia-Pacific Fall Playoffs decider match between Akumaker and Sequinox.
During the first game, we discovered that caster audio—without the 15-minute broadcast delay—could have been heard by one or both players during the game. While the initial report was brought to our attention by the venue admin in Melbourne, the lead admin team independently verified that this was a technical issue that occurred at both venues. Once identified, the problem was resolved from the source of the broadcast in Burbank, CA. In order to preserve competitive integrity, the lead admin team invalidated the result of the game and issued a ruling to re-play it. No players or venue admins were involved in this ruling; the decision was made by the lead admin in the broadcast studio in consultation with members of the Blizzard Hearthstone esports team.
We are evaluating our processes to ensure we minimize opportunities for issues like this to occur in the future, as well as to establish better procedures for addressing such issues with the players and public.
Thank you"
I"m back
She's safe
HCT APAC!
Tyle+Bloodtrail qualified 2-0, Ryvius+Akumaker 2-1, Sequinox, Pan, strikeright, Alpe top 8 but not qualified
Dreamhack Montreal!
Justsaiyan > Feno, Gallon and Impact top 4, Jarla, DocPwn, Jee, Hunterace top 8
HGG top 16!!
Brazil, Singapore, Ukraine, UK, Bulgaria, China, Chinese Taipei, Chile, Spain, NZ, Switzerland, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Norway, US, Portugal.
Germany missed on tiebreakers
HCT Apac top 8
8 Druid - 5 Token Druid, 1 Togwaggle, 1 Mecha'thun!, 1 Malywaggle
7 Warlock - 4 Even, 2 Zoo, 1 Cube
5 Rogue - 3 Quest, 2 Odd
4 Hunter - 3 Cube, 1 Secret
3 Shaman - Shudder
2 Priest - Control
2 Warrior - Odd, Mecha'thun
1 Paladin - Odd
Most frequent lineup was Taunt Druid, Cube Hunter, Quest Rogue, Even Warlock.
2-0 Lineups -
Token Druid, Secret Hunter, Odd Rogue, Even Warlock;
Malywaggle Druid, Cube Hunter, Shudder Shaman, Odd Warrior
2-1 Lineups -
Mecha'thun Druid, Control Priest, Even Warlock, Mecha'thun Warrior!;
Togwaggle Druid, Quest Rogue, Shudder Shaman, Cube Warlock
Dreamhack Montreal! LHS
8 Druid - 7 Token, 1 Togwaggle
8 Rogue - 5 Odd, 3 Quest
8 Warlock - 4 Zoo, 4 Even
3 Warrior - 3 Odd
2 Mage - 2 Tempo
1 Hunter - Cube
1 Paladin - Odd
1 Shaman - Shudder
Most frequent lineup was Token Druid, Quest Rogue, Even Warlock, Odd Warrior
Winning lineup: Token Druid, Cube Hunter, Odd Rogue, Even Warlock
Second place: Token Druid, Quest Rogue, Even Warlock, Odd Warrior
3rd/4th: Token Druid, Tempo Mage, Odd Rogue, Zoo Warlock
Token Druid, Odd Rogue, Zoo Warlock, Odd Warrior
hunterace vs justsaiyan g3
evenlock vs togwaggle druid
Twilight drake vs TWig on curve, dumps his hand, plague and double tyrant, and hunterace actually goes aggressive - branching paths and malf brings Saiyan to TWO on turn 7!!! gains life back up to 7, sac pacts his own demon up to 12, and faces down a tempowaggle... into UI! Drawing TLK! But saiyan develops a reasonable wide board and keeps the druid deck on the backfoot... until the druid plays Hellfire+Defile obviously. And then an active hooked reaver. Mountain Giant comes down for Hunterace after that and Saiyan draws a Naturalize for the Reaver... but still, things are getting and staying weird. And UIing the Giant works pretty well to fill the hand with druid cards. The Lich King (Warlock deck, Druid player) gets Naturalized (Druid deck, Warlock player) and I'm getting dizzy. BUT... the Warlock has all the Druid armor cards and ends up using Thalnos, Swipe, and Hellfire to finish the game!
Wow.
HGG - Netherlands vs POland game 2 (Thanks Edelweiss for the shout out)
We are only going to talk about the fatigue turns of this incredibly long game, but let's set the stage - Dr Boom vs Frost Lich Jaina, the warrior is behind on life, and fatigue is ticking like crazy. The second to last turn was fascinating here- Warrior had make 3 1/1 bot hero power, MCT, Owl, and Shield Block in hand. Opponent at 22, they're at 12. Fatigue is 6 for Mage and 5 next turn for Warrior.
Poland elects to play MCT but hold the Owl and the 1/1s instead of playing both - the math doesn't work out here. 22 to 16 from fatigue, 3 from the MCT (plus 3 from the zap cannon) puts mage to 3. Instead, the Warrior takes 1 from the ping twice, 5 from fatigue, and 6 from fatigue and dies. Interesting decision point but the call they made mathematically eliminated them unless they got 7 armor specifically on the following turn because they were scared of elementals.
HCT APAC!
HGG - Week 6 is underway, final group stage
Every meta has its ups and downs and some have been more diverse than others, while others have been more powerful, while others have been dominated by a single deck. Every meta is different and right now we’re in a diverse meta where every class can be reasonably expected to appear in top ladder or win a tournament, but player disengagement and disillusionment (for lack of a better word) seems high right now. Why is that?
-Make sure we let people know that the sky is not falling at all, the game is fine
-Round table why we think this specific meta is not as appealing to people
-Bott talk about his personal experiences, I know you’ve needed to take a break before. And you and Hat have been playing a lot more WoW recently (before BfA too)
-Appa talk about when he left the game for a bit
-Highlight Kibler stuff I did too
-Things and other things, let things flow naturally
Okay, so Kibler is super smart. I had talked about this in the past in regards to recruit, but Kibler identified a much bigger issue at an angle that I hadn't seen.
Here's a paste from my recruit thread:
"recruit
spiteful summoner
keleseth
barnes
raza/kazakus/reno"
"deckbuilding challenge", going forward, should likely be deciphered as Extremely Dangerous Thing. Most of hearthstone's nerfs have been based around cards that create too much consistency and game states out of sync with the power level of other decks at particular pivot points. Recruit is *designed to do this. When a mechanic basically comes down to binary broken or bad, that strikes me as a poorly designed mechanic. This one has very few shades of gray and requires very, very little in game effort to abuse. The payoff is immediate and barely counterable
It just seems like the decision is almost always "take everything out except one target" for the cards you mentioned and most of recruit. And that really limits the amount of cards you can play - warlock can't run ANY demons right now except for voidlord and sometimes doomguard.
And Kibler is really smart and talked about how the same thing happening every game makes the games less interesting - and the decks less interesting - and he's right. For the same things I was close to but hadn't identified as clearly…
Quests make the deck do one thing starting turn 1. Baku makes the same thing happen every other turn. Recruit makes the same thing happen every game as much as possible. And the hard variance aspect of cards like Keleseth and Reno are the other alternatives, though at least those games play out differently. And when these decks have such consistent execution, the ways to beat them are also extremely consistent - hence, the polarized matchups that we've heard about so many times in this meta.
Kibler is smart. And I don't love high variance (Keleseth, Reno, Tuskarr, and the peak baddie, OG Yogg) but I also don't love this level of streamlined consistency.
Interesting to note - Top decks as of vs right now are Odd Warrior, Token Druid, Big Mage, Cube Hunter, Even Warlock. All of them play hero cards - some are more relevant than others, but… worth noting.
Let's get final thoughts and wrap up, 2 hr
-Thanks to Stéphane L. for letting us use his cover. Check him out on his channel linked on our show notes. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0jtEailO_LSFMikTj6eukg
-Big thanks to Wickedgood for deck analysis, Hearthpwn for decklists, Liquipedia for tournament info and Hearthstone Tournaments on youtube for tournament VODs.
-The show notes for this week’s episode are on our website; www.coinconcede.com
-You can monetarily support our show at www.patreon.com/CoinConcede
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BIG THANKS to our producers VIRIATUS, TACOS and DONALD!!!
Badass Women of Hearthstone tournament
IWL! UHL!
-
Hat- Hockeyboyz! Pod people again! Schwal! Wickedgood!
Botticus- andrewisliving, itinerantwizard, barefoottodd
Appa - Hockeyboyz for being the hero we needed
Guest-
Nickolias, where can people find you?
Follow me on Twitter @Nickolias123
Botticus, where can people find you?
Follow me on Twitter @BotticusHS
Follow me on Twitch: Twitch.tv/Botticus
Appa, where can people find you?
Follow me on Twitter @appa_hs
Follow me on Twitch: Twitch.tv/appahs
RidiculousHat, where can people find you?
Follow me on Twitter: @RidiculousHat
Follow me on Twitch: twitch.tv/RidiculousHat
Keep Calm and The Age Of Flesh Has Ended.
And if you see us on ladder…
“Coin Concede” Appa
“Coin Concede” Hat
“Coin Concede” Bott
“Coin, concede!” Guest
