Mishaps and mishaps at the Hearthstone tournament HCT Americas. The community perceives the event as a “slap in the face”.
Numerous tournaments take place throughout the year in Hearthstone, where large prize pools are sometimes at stake. However, despite Hearthstone having a relatively large eSports community, there are always problems at the tournaments. This was also the case at HCT Americas.
Particularly frustrating was the match between Luker and Nalguidan. The score was 1-2, but Luker had good chances with his Warlock to stand against the Pirate Warrior. He was clearly in the lead – when the mishap occurred. The provided computer crashed. After the computer was functional again, the match was repeated. This time, his opponent drew an almost perfect mana curve and thus secured victory.
You can see the corresponding match in this video. The disconnect occurs around minute 42.
After the disconnect and the start of the rematch, you can clearly see the anger on Luker’s face; the emotions have boiled over.
Although Luker loses his composure in the stream after this incident and lets his emotions (quite heavily) run free, he remains calm in hindsight. He is not mad at anyone – neither Blizzard, nor his opponent, or the tournament organizers. However, he hopes that Blizzard learns from these mishaps and that Hearthstone will finally receive the changes it needs by 2018 at the latest, such as a tournament mode.
Everyone dissatisfied with the HCT tournament
The tournament is receiving a lot of criticism from all sides. It is said to be absolutely irresponsible and simply unprofessional to rely on a Wi-Fi connection for tournaments. With many clients in close quarters, there will always be errors and problems. Furthermore, it would also be much too easy to cause a disconnect oneself to simply replay a poorly running match.
On Reddit, the tournament is for many “once again no proof that Blizzard wants to keep a pseudo-eSports scene alive with minimal effort”.
A statement from Blizzard on this is still pending. However, it is questionable whether there will be any further comments on this.
