Hearthstone is a game that constantly changes. Most of the players who dominated the early competitive scene aren’t really around anymore, with less invites to tournaments and more lucrative avenues available to them.
One of the players who has made that switch is David “Dog” Caero. He competed in dozens of tournaments over the first year or so of Hearthstone‘s life, but in recent years has gravitated to more to streaming and content.
But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still compete. He was on the U.S. Global Games team last year, and now he’s arguably competing in his biggest tournament yet—the HCT Summer Championship. If he gets to the top four, he’ll be off the World Championship. He had to fight his way through the playoffs, and perhaps that lack of pressure is something that helps him succeed. Or maybe juggling streaming and competing means a split focus.
Dog spoke to the assembled media ahead of tomorrow’s tournament, touching on tournament over saturation, the current meta, and how he approaches his career as a streamer. Outlets that took part included Dot Esports, Vicious Syndicate, and Twin Galaxies.
Do you feel any pressure from being the biggest name in the tournament?
Dog: A little bit, mostly just because of the packs thing right? People put their packs on the line for me. Other than that it’s not anything I’m not used to.
Is there anyone in your group you’re hoping to avoid?
There’s a player in my group that brought Miracle Rogue and Big Spell Mage, I’m not really sure which one he is, but I don’t really want to play against that lineup because it kinda crushes mine. My group in general isn’t that great for me. My first match up is against Turna, I think I’m favored against him by a decent margin. But the other people who brought Big Spell Mage, I’m not too favored.
Is this the start of you competing a bit more again, or is this something that just happened alongside streaming?
It’s kinda something that happened. For me I usually put streaming ahead of competing just because it’s more beneficial to me. There’s so many people trying to compete but with streaming I’ve already established myself so what I do is I usually just take opportunities that are easy for me. So making prelims is pretty easy for me, and I’ll go to the prelims, I’ll prepare, it doesn’t take much time. So it’s one tournament out of two months. Then I take my ten percent or however high of a chance I think it is to make it and I’ll compete. I’ll do tournaments that are close to me but I’m not going to be travelling to DreamHacks or anything like that. realistically it’s just not worth it for me and people expect me to stream. It’s bad whenever I don’t stream because I let those people down. People want to see compete but the people who want me to stream… there’s a greater audience of that.
What were you expecting the meta to be?
I don’t break it down into individual deck types, I break it down into lineups becuase in conquest you have to have a fluid lineup. There’s the aggressive lineup, the token lineup, that I thought would be the most popular. That would be Token Druid, Even Shaman, Odd Paladin. The decks that generate a lot of tokens and are very aggressive. The other lineup would be the best deck lineup which is Even Warlock and Taunt Druid, because those have ridiculously high winrates. You can’t really bring Odd Paladin in that lineup, so you probably bring Shudderwock Shaman or something along those lines. I split those up into the camps. There are some other lineups that are a little odd, so you give a certain lineup Rogue or Big Spell Mage, and you categorize those. I didn’t really expect so many people to bring Big Spell Mage. I think there are only four or five in the whole tournament, but two of them are in my group, so it just depends how you roll into the lineups.
How did you feel about the most recent of nerfs, did the meta need a shakeup?
I think it was really beneficial. The meta was so stale after the release of the expansion, nothing changed. There were just so many powerful cards like Possessed Lackey and Quest Rogue was still everywhere, you just lost to the same things so it felt like nothing had changed. The new cards didn’t really add a good element so it’s definitely a necessary set of nerfs. The meta right now is fine, I think it’s actually pretty good. For me though it’s a little bit boring and stale, I think there aren’t enough cards. The decks just aren’t that much fun to play, maybe I’m just playing too much Hearthstone. I think there needs to be more cards to play with, it feels like the same thing over and over again. I feel like the power level is a little too low in some areas if that makes sense. Back in the day when Naxxramas was around, or Goblins vs Gnomes was around, everything was busted. Patron Warrior was busted, we had Reno, all these decks. Everything was busted and that felt pretty fun and fair. Now it feels like everything is kinda meh. That’s the thing with set rotations, the power level starts dropping and things become a little less exciting.
Have you found the time to prepare alongside streaming?
I usually get a lot of help from my team mate Fr0zen, I’ll ask people on ladder what they think the best decks are. I’m still playing Hearthstone while streaming so I think I have a good idea of what decks are good. I’ll lose to something and realize it’s really good. You just need to bring a good lineup, and learning the deck itself isn’t that intricate for the most part. Especially when you talk to people who are good at decks, you get really good insight into what’s good and what’s bad.
Was there anyone else you practiced with?
Fr0zen was the main person but I usually message five or six people other people to get their thoughts on my lineup. Doing that gives me a good idea of what other people will bring. I think I asked Amnesiac, Zalae, Feno, a bunch of people. It takes a minute or two out of their day and gives me a lot of information.
What do you think of the new Hearthstone Championship Tour system, with more Blizzard-run tournaments and Tour Stops?
There’s a lot more Blizzard hosted tournaments, but there are less independent tournaments. Like before we had sponsors like Kinguin or G2A that would run tournaments, I think StarLadder was really popular back in the day. We used to have Insomnia. There were a lot of big tournaments that were kinda different. I don’t really like what Blizzard is doing right now with the tournaments because there’s just too many. It’s kind of irrelevant to win them. They just don’t have the same hype. If there’s a tournament every single week, you get a little recognition but who cares if you won DreamHack 100 or 120? I think tournaments need to have a little more value to them. I think Blizzard made a little bit too many with HCT Tour Stops. For me as a large streamer it’s a lot harder to go to these tournaments because there’s so many and it’s just not worth it for me. That’s bad for the scene in general because I bring a lot of viewers, big streamers do in general. They can’t go because there are too many tournaments or it’s not worth it for them because the prizepools are too small because there are so many. They need to divvy up the prizepools which is not that great for viewership.
Doesn’t the new system allow for more talent to come through though, rather than big streamers just dominating?
I wasn’t making the point that invitationals should come back. Back in the day, pure invitationals were kinda bad. They were good for viewership but overall I agree new players needed a change. I’m just making the point that there are too many tournaments. Even if you’re a new player it doesn’t have as much weight or relevance. If you win it, no one’s really going to care. DreamHack has, I dunno, 10,000 or 20,000 viewers, it used to have 40,000 or 60,000. That wasn’t because it was invitational but the prizepool was bigger and bigger streamers would want to go. It was a bigger event I guess. I think there’s just too many. I guess more Tour Stops does mean it’s easier to see who’s better.
With streaming and playing so much Hearthstone do you every find yourself getting burnt out?
If I’m not enjoying the game I just won’t play, simple as that. I understand it’s a job, but I kind of value my happiness over other things. If II make less money or have less viewers I don’t really care, I just won’t stream or won’t play Hearthstone. That’s fine with me. It’s not that big a deal, I’m not going to suffer just to make a little bit more money.
