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!
Hopefully in the next article about Pavel they will underline the fact that he's a white heterosexual male.
No offense to BaiZe, she did great and I was cheering for her in the match against Pavel.
well if getting till summer championship is not an achievement then maybe you show us how to do it. basically by being there she is already part of the worlds elite. While I disagree with some of her choices, maybe it is because the chinese community still needs to adept to international tournements. such as omegazero chosing and playing with hunter and not winning a single game? or bai ze bringing naga corsair in a deck that already has trouble with golakka crawler.
She played well for a newcomer (with the exception of the fourth game but everyone makes mistakes now and then), and it was quite entertaining to see her match against Mr. Pavel! I really we hope we get to see more of her in the future.
Hafu is bae
BaiZe is bae.
My thoughts exactly. I wonder if the writers can see that its counterproductive?
It is good to note when steps towards the goal of equality are being made. Games were marketed as a boys thing for so long, and when we begin to see women participating in major events its cool to note that, but that's all it should be: a note.
Just this article would be fine, but everything around her participation was about the fact that she's a woman. Watching her matches and introduction, you learn nothing about her beyond that she's a girl. Every time you need a bit of fluff commentary to fill airtime - hey look, a girl is playing this game! It was really disconcerting.
So yeah. I think the article would be fine, if that was it. Focusing the entirety of commentary about her on the fact that she's a girl? Not so much.
Fair enough. I’ll admit that I may have gotten too excited about seeing a female and that might shift the focus towards her chromosomal genetics rather than her actual merits and who she is as, well, a person. Still, it’s a little nice to see the video game community progressing now and then.
Hopefully, we’ll learn how to balance between recognizing changes to encourage them and treating changes as the status quo so that they still aren’t considered as exceptions.
"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."
Doesn't want to be seen as just the best woman, gets an article written about her solely because she's a woman.
Completely disagree and I am female. I was actually really happy to see Hearthpwn write an article about the first female championship competitor! It matters to me, a lot.
So, my thanks to the Hearthpwn writers.
You know Hearthpwn didn't write this right?
Whoops, ah well the sentiment remains the same :)
She played very well, its awesome to have a woman in the circuit. Open doors for more girls to join the competitive scene
She's very popular in France.
She just threw the chance to comeback and lost FeelsBadMan