The winner of the Hearthstone tournament at DreamHack, Rdu, is still grappling with the cheating allegations surrounding his victory against the crowd favorite Amaz. Rdu is now trying to use this criticism as motivation.
When Hearthstone fairy tales end quite banal, it has strange repercussions
At DreamHack in Sweden, there was really only one big story. The crowd favorite Amaz, revered by the Hearthstone subreddit and his YouTube fans, chose a Priest deck, usually the weakest class in the game, as one of his three tournament decks. With that, he defeated Miracle Rogue after Miracle Rogue, super deck after super deck.
He achieved the most absurd combinations, always having a “huge draw,” exciting the fans and delighting the commentators.
Meanwhile, in his shadow, the Romanian Rdu also played a strong tournament with a Frost Mage deck. When Rdu faced Amaz in the finals, he quickly took a 2-0 lead and was able to decisively win the final 3-0, even though Amaz’s fans believed in a Hollywood twist and a comeback victory.
However, during the second match, he received tips and comments via the Hearthstone chat function from people on his friend list. He won the match afterward. The incident was investigated and deemed void: The experts ruled that the match had already been decided at that point, and Rdu bore no responsibility for the misbehavior of some fans.
This decision sparked a conspiracy theory. Many on the subreddit demanded a rematch or a victory for Amaz. As a result, the media reported little about the actual tournament, focusing instead on the overshadowing cheating allegations. The 17-year-old Dima Rada, known as RDU, had achieved his dream, and the entire Hearthstone world was talking about him—in an extremely negative context.
As is now clear in an interview with gamersgosu, Rdu is still haunted by the incidents that took place over two months ago.
Rdu Wants to Prove His Critics Wrong, Aiming to Win Everything
In hindsight, Rdu wished, he says, that the organizers had simply repeated the second match. He was quite sure that he could have defeated everything Amaz could throw at him with his Miracle Rogue deck. He had only wanted to start with the Freeze Mage because it had been the weakest of his decks against Amaz. Winning all three matches with that deck surprised even Rdu.
After the final, Rdu struggled with many insults. People doubted his ability to play at all. Therefore, he worked even harder to prove his doubters wrong and worked hard to restore his reputation. He has not completely succeeded in the Hearthstone scene yet:
[pull_quote_center]I just try to ignore the haters and prove them wrong by winning everything there is to win.[/pull_quote_center]
In the aftermath of DreamHack, there have been numerous confrontations and provocations. For example, Rdu was challenged to a 1-on-1 for the trophy by pro gamer “Reynad.” For Rdu, it was merely an attempt by Reynald to profit from the situation and increase his own popularity.
However, Rdu has no problems with Amaz. He sees him as a kindred spirit who, whether winning or losing, does not attribute everything to chance but tries to keep the random factor in Hearthstone as low as possible.
You can find the complete interview in English in the sources.
