BatStone #1: Hearthstone Differently - A Standard Tournament with Card Bans
Firebat has announced plans to create a new kind of tournament series which focuses on "weird formats". The first iteration of BatStone is bringing card bans to the inn which will restrict competitors from using certain cards chosen by the community.
Say goodbye to your tournament netdecks, this is going to be awesome.
All the currently available information on the event can be found below. We'll be providing deck lists after the event concludes and we'll be sure to let you know of any major updates.
Tournament Info
- Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2016
- Time: Games start at 12 PM ET (4 PM CET, 9 AM PT)
- Players: 8 Total (7 Invites, 1 Qualifier)
- Game Mode: Standard Conquest (1 Ban)
- Bracket: Single Elimination, Best of 5
- Casters: Firebat & Zalae
- Stream: Twitch.tv/Firebat
Card Bans
A feature unique to this event. The community picks 5 cards which cannot be placed directly into decks, but if generated through random effects, can be put on the board. The current card bans are:
- Yogg-Saron, Hope's End - 7188 Votes
- Tuskarr Totemic - 3242 Votes
- Fiery War Axe - 1154 Votes
- Barnes - 1045 Votes
- Call of the Wild - 1023 Votes
Competitors
So far, two competitors have been announced with more to follow.
Stream
Watch live below next Wednesday or head on over to Twitch.tv/Firebat.
I think there should be a tournament format where half the cards are banned completely at random.
Firebat didn't ban these, they were voted on. Stupid people have voted to ban cards that are good instead of random. In fact, fireboat's entire rant, iirc, was about trying to eliminate random in a competitive format. So banning cards that are not random doesn't make much sense.
Also, Barnes shouldn't even be on this list. He requires a specific deck build to even really be usable and only will he occasionally hit an amazing target. Also he's legendary so you won't get him every game either.
Also, its nice to see that people want more features like bans that are used in MTG.
Surprised to see Doomhammer not in the list.
Surprised that people are banning call of the wild and fiery war axe. Like come on, its not even rng, youre just banning good cards at this point. Also dissapointed to not see arcane giant banned, 0 mana 8/8's are cancer in a competetive format and in certain matchups there simply is no answer at all.
Banning Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is too obvious, we should ban Flamstrike! ;^)
Yoggsaron ruined this game
Lame
I would ban cards that are highly valuable for certain decks. Tuskarr Totemic as well as Yogg are fine. But you need to ban Flamewaker as well. Fiery war axe is fine too. Call of the wild is also fine...yeah just missing flamewaker here. Barnes is actually a card everyone can bring in my own, I don't care about a card that can be removed easily. Change it with flamewaker and I will be happy with this list.
cool idea, but stupid card choices IMO. the only one that rises to the level of ban-worthy is Call of the Wild
Yogg totally doesn't belong in tournaments...
I cant wait for tournaments like this, but with a legitimate Banlist, something refined over time by top-level players, rather than community salt over a class-essential card like Fiery War Axe.
So they are banning the card that is keeping hunter relevant. War axe ban is stupid as well. Tuskar totemic, Barnes, and Yogg make perfect sense given the uproar over rng harming the competitive scene. Those 3, I can understand but the other 2 are just salty players. Believe me, I have been on the receiving end of those cards as well.
I have a better idea for 2 card bans.
Knife juggler and flame juggler.
None of the juggler bans would change a shit, stop being delusional. Axe and CotW were banned because sheer wr difference playing vs not playing them on curve in many match-ups.
Yeah, but taking away call of the wild makes hunter borderline unplayable, something that is stupid to do.
Well, because of COTW, other classes such as Priest/Rogue/Warrior/Paladin became unplayable.... so it'd rather to have one class unplayable rather than many others....
Firebat is one the best hearthstone players out there (not just speaking about skill and winrates here) he is always trying to improve the game and then he makes his own tournament that looks promising so far. I have mad respect for him after watching some of his video discussions and fan interactions.
at last we ll witness a decent tournament!
Always thought it'd be best to have some limitations like this, even more severe -- but mainly, announced just before the matches. So part of the skill would be creating the deck in the last minute.
I'm not sure what the precise best implementation would be, but great idea.