Introduction
Welcome back to the HalfBroke corner of Hearthstoneplayers.com. Thanks to everyone for checking out the last article I posted on here. I wanted to write a couple of articles that I think are important for all players that play the game of Hearthstone, beginner or expert. We all struggle with Tilt and I think that I posting some things I do to help me avoid would be helpful to some that checked it out. At least, that was the plan.
Now this is a two part article this time. I wanted to talk about being on the other side of Tilt. I think that we as players can do things that will help other people not Tilt when playing the game. That will be the second part of this article. The first part I wanted to post some thoughts on the new 2016 Hearthstone Championship Tour and the way things are going to be heading. There is many different opinions on this subject and I just wanted to throw my two cents in the hat.
Hearthstone Tour Thoughts
Let me say that I LOVE this new system for many reasons. I love it as a player of the game and as a fan of esports. I think the added majors along with the World Championship at Blizzcon is a great idea. It adds more meaningful events and that is always good…
But wait, there’s more
Not only is there more events but they have added a crap ton (Yes, that’s my saying and you can borrow it) more money to these events. The three smaller majors are going to have a prize pool of $100,000 and the WC at Blizzcon will have a prize pool of….(wait for it as I put my pinkie to the corner of my mouth)
ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!
Yup, that’s right. The 2016 WC at Blizzcon will have a prize pool of a million dollars. That is HUGE in my opinion. That makes Hearthstone seem as big as the other esports that is being played competitively, such as Dota 2, League of Legends, etc. Also setting up the season tournaments helps add excitement year round as it builds to the big dog tourney at Blizzcon.
Now that is just the first part of this, yes there is more!!!
Now not only is there more added events but they have made everything region locked. Those three season events are per regions worldwide. Not only is there those tourneys but there also a Last Call Invitational event for peeps to get in. I love that it is region locked because it makes it more of an opportunity for more players to be able to join in on the scene and get noticed.
Also there are going to be multiple Fireside Gatherings that are going to lead into the Season Preliminaries, which means more opportunities for any player to be able to qualify for events. If you win one of these, you are entered into the region’s Season Preliminaries. Hopefully Blizzard lives up to the hype and has MANY of these in different locations. It will be HUGE if they do. If it isn’t many and people have to drive 400-500 miles to get to one than it dampens my enthusiasm a little but word on the street is there is going to be A LOT of these.
Also, you get points for ladder, of course, and that can help you also. For instance, you get 1 point for making legend in a season. You get points also for finishing in the top 100 within a season, the amount of points depends on where you finish.
You can get all the info here but it all adds up to more major events, more chances for all of us to make a name for ourselves if you want to chase that dream.
Oh, and the formats can be Conquest, Last Hero Standing, 4 Hero 1 Ban Conquest and Blind Pick BO5. I love that there could be multiple formats too. I think it keeps things interesting and everyone on their toes. It means there isn’t one format to rule them all (see what I did there hehe).
I know some people are saying this hurts the players in the EU region but I am not one that thinks the EU region is the “be all end all” of Hearthstone either. It is one bad ass region but it shouldn’t be the place everything is based around either. I think this makes it fair for everywhere and players as a whole. This helps Hearthstone push its way forward in the esports world and I think Blizzard is doing a great job with this decision.
Hearthstone, in my opinion, is a great game and great esport game. I think that the Hearthstone community as a whole helps this grow as a competitive game and also helps the community be one of the best in the esport world. We all seem to help each other without treating others like they are stupid but we need to do more than that I think and that leads me to the second part of this article.
Manners and Helping Stop Tilt
In my last article, which is here if you haven’t read it, is all about helping players with Tilt and how to avoid it. The thing is, we as players, can help others avoid it too with the actions we take within a game. Gaming communities for other games, more specifically League of Legends and Dota 2, are very venomous. The community makes it hard for a new player to even want to start playing the games. They treat new people horrible, even in the forums and on Reddit, and that makes it very hard for n00bs to learn and not be a n00b anymore. I like to think the Hearthstone community is better than that.
We, as a community, usually like to help people get better. Inside of comments and forum posts all over the internet, we help each other with tips and deck tech all the time. The problem though isn’t there, it is within the game. We all try our best to climb as high as we can but sometimes Tilt can get the best of us and sometimes the problem may very well be the players you face and how they act.
Sometimes we as a community, when we play the game, should have some manners and respect for the people we are playing and I am going to give some things we shouldn’t do when we play the game.
Kill when you can
One of the things that can drive a person mad is doing more than you should when you clearly have lethal on the table. It is rude, in my opinion, and can feeds into the problems that lead to others tilting.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are playing someone and you have their life total down to 7. It is your turn and your opponent has nothing on the board. Sitting on your side, you have a piloted-shredder, asludge-belcher, and 10 mana. You have lethal on the table but you go ahead and play your dr-boom and a hit them with a forgotten-torch and then hit them for lethal.
STOP IT!!
There was no reason to do that. Just swing to the face and call it a day. It makes it look like all you were doing was showing your opponent how much more you could have beaten them, like rubbing their nose in the fact that they have lost. In the end, it just makes you look like a jerk and your makes your opponent get upset. You won the game, just win it. Don’t show off because in the end no one cares about how you won, as long as you did. Doing things like that helps people Tilt and we should keep in mind how to help the community not do that.
Emote rudeness
Yes, I know sometimes you are just trying to be funny and I get that. You get that. The thing is your opponent just thinks you’re trying to be a jerk constantly hitting the threaten emote. I know that you can hit the squelch button but we shouldn’t have to. Those are there to communicate with your opponent. It’s there to say you’re sorry and oops when you make a mistake.
As I said in my other article, use the emotes to help your opponent and support them. For instance, if they made a mistake, hit sorry. Don’t hit thank you and then proceed to load up the board for lethal and then hit threaten. It is only amusing you and making your opponent tilt.
If all else fails, squelch your opponent if they do this. Think about what you are doing and if you would want it done to you.
After Game Messages
The rudest thing you can do, and the biggest thing to not do, is send your last opponent a friend add just to send a nasty message. Also, if you can’t control yourself and just have to do it, don’t be a chicken and send a message and then unfriend the person. At least have the guts to let them respond to you. Otherwise, you are just being rude and cowardly.
The thing is, there isn’t any reason to get so tilted that you have to send a message with some colorful language just to try and justify what was done. You as a player are better than that and should avoid it at all costs. Try something different, if they beat you with some unexpected cool play then send them a message about how good the play was and see if they would like to play again sometime. We can all learn for one another and maybe, just maybe, you can learn something from them that could take you a little farther in your Hearthstone journey.
I accept any friend request when playing because I like to think that everyone is kind hearted and may just want to comment on the game that was just played or may just need someone new to play against from time to time. Yes, I get the fools that send the rude message and that’s fine. I usually kill them with kindness by saying something like “good game anyways and thanks for playing” or something corny like that. I try my best to rise above the situation because I don’t want to Tilt and despite their actions, I try not to tilt them either.
In Closing
I think that 2016 will be a huge year for the game of Hearthstone and all of us that play the game will have a blast. With that being said, we as a community need to do our best to be better than other gaming communities because, as a whole, we should want the game we love to grow. If it does, than we reap the rewards of it. We should all want to respect one another and treat each other kind, that way more new players will want to join in on the fun.
I know that I may sound like some weird hippie with all this be kind and nice to each other talk but I think in the end it helps us all avoid Tilt and that helps us all become better players. It also helps other players join in the fun that is Hearthstone. I love being in the Closed Beta back in the day and seeing what this game has become. It is exciting and I am proud of this community and think that we all can help each other become better.
Just remember that we were all n00bs once and that we needed a little help too. Just be nice and treat others within the game like you would want to be treated.
Make sure to follow me on Twitter and Twitch for some more of my Hearthstone ramblings. Thanks for checking this article out and hanging out with me again and finally…..
