Meet BaiZe - The HCT's First Championship Woman Impresses in LA
Learn more about BaiZe, her run through events this year, and how she's been doing so far in the HCT Summer Championship in a blog from Blizzard.
Quote from Kevin HovdestadThis weekend at the Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, the Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT) has its first-ever woman competing in a seasonal championship. Wang 'BaiZe' XinYu is a well-known Hearthstone competitor in China, and became more of a household name in the Western scene after advancing to the playoffs of the 2017 Hearthstone Wild Open. Her prior performances in NetEase's Gold Series are all notable, but she's making a big entrance on the world stage at the HCT Summer Championship.
Heading into the tournament, BaiZe was already making waves with her uniquely teched deck lists. She's modified a popular Token Shaman with Masters of Evolution, Cult Masters, and the tournament's only copy of Prince Taldaram. While her Zoo, Priest, and Tempo Rogue lists are more in line with what other players settled on, no other player brought the same lineup she did—in part because she's also the only person not playing Druid. Did BaiZe read the field better than her opponents? Read on to find out...
On Friday we spoke to BaiZe about her career leading up to this moment—and she's had some exciting moments thus far. "I started last March with the regional playoffs; we call it the Super Premier, which is the equivalent of the regional HCT playoffs," she said. "This year, in June, I traveled to the U.S. for the Hearthstone Wild Open. Finally, in July, I played in the Summer playoffs."
A lifetime Blizzard fan, BaiZe enjoyed Warcraft III and World of Warcraft before coming to Hearthstone. Besides playing the game professionally, she spends most of her time casting the game in China. What does she get up to outside of Hearthstone? "I enjoy reading and watching movies, and I've also started learning how to play the piano," she said.
Though BaiZe is having fun, that isn't to say that she isn't feeling the pressure, too. "As a professional Hearthstone player, you always want to tell people that you have what it takes to perform on big stages and be great," she said. "I don't want to go out there and have people say to me that I'm just the best woman they've seen play the game. I don't like that. I want to go out there and prove myself."
BaiZe's first series against Pavel 'Pavel' Beltukov on Friday was extraordinarily tense. She took a strong lead in the Shaman mirror, but Pavel tied up the series with his Tempo Rogue over her Highlander Priest.
Arguably the best game of day one followed, with BaiZe skillfully navigating the Highlander Priest mirror. At one point, she made an unexpected call with the 5-cost potion from Kazakus, holding it to confuse Pavel's read of her hand, and then executed a powerful swing turn using Lyra the Sunshard after baiting Pavel into a defensive Priest of the Feast.
Sadly, in the fourth game, BaiZe's Rogue deck fell to Pavel's Shaman, and game five was decided by a series of underwhelming draws for BaiZe as both players exhausted their hands.
Regardless of the outcome, it was a thrilling series, and case in point why BaiZe has to some extent been the talk of the tournament. She is thankful for all the new fans she's accrued this weekend, and wishes they'd follow her on Weibo—a Chinese microblogging service similar to Twitter—but admits, "It might be a little tough for my Western fans!"
Her whole heart has been in Hearthstone for the last few years, and she says she had been feeling as though she had hit a bit of a ceiling. "If I get another opportunity to compete in HCT, I'll come back much stronger," she proclaims, adding that her fans will still see her on the caster desk regardless.
She also shared some insight into her much-discussed Shaman deck. "There are two Shaman cards that I dislike that are prevalent in most people's decks—Mana Tide Totem and Thing from Below," BaiZe said. "I don't think they're effective against all the Druids and Rogues. I wanted to switch to something that was more aggressive, and thought Masters of Evolution and Cult Masters would work. All of those 4-cost minions left room for Prince Taldaram, which is a flexible and very interesting card to play around."
Watching BaiZe take on defending world champion Pavel and compete in Los Angeles has been amazing, and we hope to see her again in future tournaments. What did you think of her matches? Let us know in the comments!
First game represents all Hearthstone. Mirror decks of evolution shamans from both sides. Random creatures from evolutions from both sides... Random creatures from death knights evol, random creatures from portals and random creatures from masters of evolutions!
NICE SKILL GAME!
I played hearthstone from relise. And vanilla HS is better than random abomination HS now.
P.S. TES Legends and Gwent much better than Heathstone CC games. Hearthone popularity explains only spending millions of dollars for promotions..
Sorry for bad eng.
Of course Blizzard and Hearthpwn is going to promote the fact that a female made it to the Hearthstone Championship. Females make up over 50% of the population and Blizzard, as well as Hearthpwn, is in the business of making money. Doesn't it make sense that they would try to recruit over 50% of the population to a game that makes them money? Highlighting females and minorities that aren't their base supporters (non-white, non-Asian, non-male) to entice said minorities to their game in hopes of them spending money is just good business and marketing. They've already got all the white and Asian males they're going to get, why wouldn't they try to expand their user base? Why is everyone so butt-hurt over one article out of a thousand that happens to highlight a female competitor?
Imho it is kind of frustrating to talk about skill in a game where RNG rules because "players think it makes the game fun".
I'm ok with RNG, but I think cards in hearthstone do not seem balanced manawise.
I don't know why...but she is so cute <3
I thought she played well enough to win that series vs Pavel. Her losers bracket series against that other dude was almost entirely decided by draw RNG and there honestly wasn't much opportunity for either player in that series to showcase much skill. I don't understand the argument that because of her record she's a bad player or something, she seemed good enough to be in the tournament just not good enough to win it. But that's true for most of the other 14 people who didn't win as well.
You guys clearly didn't see their best plays. @4:31
yep, found my girl
Where did she impress? She was the worst performing player and not only in her group. I don't understand this post.
She's a female... That is literally all this post is about.
That said, she didn't play poorly; just failed the coin flips. She also had a carrot purse.
LOL was asking myself that same thing. What's with the purse?
She was 1 point off of winning returning champion Pavel. How is that bad?
Aaaand here it is at last the diversity drama. That was bound to happen with an article like this. Pls Hearthwpn, don't go the same road as MMO-Champion...
At least it didn't mention a Chinese woman in the article title.
I don't think the article is really a big deal. It's not titled "Why aren't there more women or black people playing in the Hearthstone tournament? Misogyny and internalized white oppression in Hearthstone?"
I wonder when Reyand is going to recruit her to Tempo Storm.
Sirens were a bunch of cam girls trying to make money that ended up being called on their bullshit.
Please don't compare legit players to those monstrosities.
Cute and elegant... BaiZe be my girlfriend!!!!! :3
Without her consent, unfortunately.
The article is fair enough.
Her performance might have been not as extraordinary as the article makes it, but in no way I read her gender put ahead of her skill: her skill is confirmed by her very presence at the tournament.
The article is just advertising the fact that HS is not, and should not be, a job for boyz only. Simple as that.
If you want to see discrimination in there, well, you are seeing discrimination in the very act-of-words that is necessary to even the scales.
We want equality and more representation while not talking about it, that's ridiculous.
EDIT: for clarity.
Being a female is no achievement in itself !
The fact that she is there is of course an achievement but she is no way any more special than any other guy who got there for the first time and I don't see an article for everybody that goes there first time so it's kinda "positive discrimination" if you ask me .
What's important here is Hearthstone skill and she didn't show much more of that than the other participants so nothing to brag about .
>It celebrates the first female Champion in a global stage, which is an achievement in itself.
It is not an achievement to have won a race while being a girl. Winning a competition takes ability, not knowledge of your gender or the color of your skin. Things like race and sex are not achievements. Please get that straight and figured out, and soon.