In Hearthstone , Grandmaster Seiko made a serious mistake during a professional game because he was playing another game on the side and wasn’t fully focused. The community is buzzing about this. Seiko claimed that Blizzard was aware of the situation, but Blizzard gave a slight reprimand.
This is what the fuss is about: There are only 48 Grandmasters in the world, the best Hearthstone players. In one match, German Grandmaster Linh “Seiko” Nguyen faced off against Elias “Bozzzton” Sebelius.
However, during the match, viewers noticed that Seiko repeatedly looked down at his lap, away from the monitor, apparently focused on something else that took a lot of attention.
The Hearthstone pro seemed unfocused and made several mistakes, including a serious blunder that caused him to lose a match. Ultimately, the match ended with a score of 1:2.
After the match, it came to light that Seiko had been playing a qualification tournament for “Auto Chess” simultaneously with Hearthstone.
Caster says: An insult to the whole program
This was the reaction: Some parts of the Hearthstone community were outraged: “How can you take eSports seriously as a fan if the Grandmasters don’t do so themselves?”
The caster Sottle, who commented live, said he was in a very uncomfortable situation. He couldn’t just say: “Hey, everyone look, he’s playing Auto Chess on stream.”
Therefore, he had to pretend not to notice it. This made it seem that Sottle was unusually harsh on a player just because he made a mistake.
However, Sottle says: Seiko’s behavior is insulting to the entire program and to the thousands of players who would kill to be in his position.
Seiko said: Blizzard knew
This was the accusation against Blizzard: In the discussion, the question arose about how Blizzard behaved in the situation. Seiko told InvenGlobal, that he had informed Blizzard about the situation beforehand.
He had told Blizzard that he wanted to play both tournaments and asked Blizzard to postpone his match.
This postponement was denied. However, Blizzard said, according to Seiko: It would be difficult, but if anyone could manage to play both tournaments, it would be someone like him.
Blizzard says: It was a misunderstanding
This is what Blizzard said: The Product Manager of Hearthstone eSports responded (via twitlonger). He explains:
- It was a misunderstanding; they were okay with Seiko playing both, but not at the same time. The expectation was that Seiko would fit his Auto Chess games around his Hearthstone matches.
- They expect players to be fully focused when they compete in Grandmaster games.
- In the next week, Seiko must be fully attentive and play his match; otherwise, he will be treated as if he missed it.
- They expect the absolute best from their players and want to present the highest level of Hearthstone eSports to viewers every week.
The Grandmaster system is under attack from both sides
This is why the topic is sensitive: The whole “Grandmaster” issue is extremely controversial. Players accuse Blizzard of installing a system that doesn’t work.
Only 48 players are of A-class; anyone below that might as well stop playing Hearthstone professionally. It wouldn’t be worth it.
However, one Grandmaster says it is foolish to focus on just one game as a Grandmaster. Because if you drop out of that, you might as well stop playing Hearthstone. It is important to have a backup.
