Hearthpwn

joe

If world champion got the last place in his group it's not esports at all.

Well, Firebat hasn't exactly set the world on fire since he won Worlds in 2014. Pavel also took quite a break after winning Worlds, and his result after that was far from great. Tom was in a tough group, so his results reflected that.

People who are at the top of their divisions are there on merit. There are tons of games where close decisions matter. You could even argue that this league format is an even better test of skills than the tournament-style World Championship.

The world champion is top of his group.  If you're referring to Firebat and Pavel they are former world champions who don't play at the top level so much any more.  Just like in any sport, just because you were World Champion 5 years ago doesn't mean squat today.  Just ask the Denver Broncos.

Rank 50 logic.

The new garbage format and a terrible meta are playing into this a lot as well. 

Tom Sex Tutu Nein,
What a joke for grandmaster.

Been watching it from the start, a few points:

1) Apart from one player (fail to remember who) who brought Shaman one week, it was nowhere to be seen. Rogues (before and after the nerf), bomb (mostly) and control warriors and mages rules supreme with hunters also making an appearance. Chef Priest was brought by people who either brought it for fun (Thijs) or misread the meta completely (Pavel) and were awarded by a 0-2 score that week.

2) Pathra will have to really step up her game in order to not be relegated along with the hopes of more female representation in high level tournaments.

3) Dog's win at masters seemed to reflect on his overall performance at grandmasters as well. 

4) Other than Hunterace, that even got a 2-0 last week when he had games straight after casting, former champions are not going to even appear in Playoffs.

5) The friendly rivalry between Bunny and Viper it still going strong, this week Bunny finally won, after being beaten by Viper in every turn, including semi-finals of last year's HCT global championship. They're fighting for 3-4th place, but it would be great if both somehow qualify despite Feno's insane rampage that dictates basically one less qualifier.

6) There are some great matches, it was definitely worth the time.

This seems like a fair analysis - a handful of GMs who weren't competitive tournament pros were invited for the inaugural season, and most of them are doing poorly. While I think it was perfectly fine for Blizzard to invite some of the "old guard," like Firebat, Pavel and Strifecro, as well as streamers like Silvername and Pathra, I suspect that GM will simply be a better showcase for competitive HS if the part-time players are weeded out more aggressively.

I'm not sure how relegation works - but it sounds like the last-place players have an opportunity to save themselves, which is unfortunate. Two years of watching the same 48 players every week isn't exactly appealing - there were plenty of top-level pros who were excluded when GM was announced. Given that the top three advance to playoffs, why not simply eliminate the bottom three, having their positions taken by the top-scoring players on the Masters' Tour? That way, we'd have 30 players returning, and 18 new faces each year. I'm not sure if the competitive scene is well-served by having to watch a handful of streamers, like Silvername and Pathra, try to eke out victories for the next two years against full-time HS pros, if they manage to avoid relegation . . .

I wrote this about Pathra in twitch chat (playHS channel) and got banned for 14 days. I guess you can never say anything even remotely questioning woman anywhere in the world. Feminism (and the community behind it) is such a bullshit.

Well, the part about choosing players because of "contribution to the hearthstone community" was iffy to begin with (I daresay that was why Pathra and a few others who haven't qualified to a lot of HCT playoffs or earned a great amount for money got it). However, calling full time streamers or team-members that actually get a salary for playing "part time" is not doing them justice.

Thijs was one of the highest money earners, btw, it's just GM is stacked with very good players.

Well, It's not actually two years, just two seasons which are one year (and still one too many if you ask me, I think your opinion of relegating every season is a just one)

That has nothing to do with Feminism, I suspect if you'd change "Pathra" with any other player you'd be banned as well.

I'm all for affirmative action, by the way, I just wonder how many players were ousted for streamers, and qualifying through masters is insanely hard. The score of all the GMs who not only didn't get to playoffs but were out of the tournament around round 6-8 says that pretty clearly.

That is not true. There are hundreds of people who are making fun of everyone who misplays /plays badly or something and I have not seen banning these. They clearly banned people who were criticizing exactly Pathra. They banned many.

I would like to have seen Jia and/or Cora included in this format. They are both superior technical players but sadly they are casters so that probably wasn't a possibility.

I'd like to see your evidence of that happening before I make a judgement. Estimator bias always runs rampant in these forums, you see.

Quite a few players got drafted to casting during GMs, I wonder if it can't work the other way around.

That Dog won't hunt!

I think at least 9 of the GM players he played against would disagree with you :)

Not to mention Gallen or any other player he beat on his way to #1 Masters tour Vegas.