One topic that has not been mentioned, is that a large player base and good matchmaking leads to lower chance of facing opponents with a different skill level.
When playing browser based CCGs with a few hundred players online, it was always obvious to me when an opponent was stronger or weaker than me, based on their choices. That is not easy to notice in Hearthstone, since the game doesn't just match me based on rank, but on internal MMR as well, meaning that my opponents will usually be approximately as good as i am.
The result of that is that when looking at one's own matches, luck is indeed the only remaining factor, since the skill is equal. One can only understand how important skill is when warching matches between other players (and when actually looking, not on a surface level).
One topic that has not been mentioned, is that a large player base and good matchmaking leads to lower chance of facing opponents with a different skill level.
When playing browser based CCGs with a few hundred players online, it was always obvious to me when an opponent was stronger or weaker than me, based on their choices. That is not easy to notice in Hearthstone, since the game doesn't just match me based on rank, but on internal MMR as well, meaning that my opponents will usually be approximately as good as i am.
The result of that is that when looking at one's own matches, luck is indeed the only remaining factor, since the skill is equal. One can only understand how important skill is when warching matches between other players (and when actually looking, not on a surface level).
That’s a great point actually. Tournament style formats with no (or little) barrier to entry would be pretty cool.