Hey,
So, who has time in today's world?
I don't.
I just play this game casually. And I like meme and funny decks. Since BETA, Gwent promised that it will deliver a game with deception and bluffing mechanisms. And I bought that concept, because that was unique and because... pulling off a nice bluff is satisfying - just remember the last time you did that when playing Poker - it undeniably feels good.
So, first problem that I would like to highlight before I move to the main point of this thread, is that I continuously struggle to make decks where I can bluff, because most cards effects and synergies are too easy to predict, and there are many relatively unintelligent swarm decks, where you mostly have to play cards in correct order without doing anything extraordinary like scorching your own unit or discarding high gold card from your hand to completely shatter your oponent’s brain (just an example, but you get the point of what extraordinary can be now). Shortage of that, lowers the amount of joy I have from playing the game, and lowers the time I spent in doing so.
Image tells a thousand words. Just watch this video:
How cool was that ? Scarlett just destroyed this guy thanks to her two quick cheesy tactics. That's amazing ! I wanna do more stuff like this in Gwent. And keep in mind this happened on a profesional tournament! Just look at Scarlett's face after both wins. This kind of moments are unforgettable, and even if she stops playing the game, she will remember those funny cheesy builds she was able to execute on her 200 IQ enemies. Epic.
Okay, let's get back to the topic. I will say this to begin with -> I honestly don't care about all factions in Gwent. They are all nice, but I just (again) do not have enough time to learn how to build each of them.
And this brings me to the subject of this post - why can't we have tournaments where players can choose to play ONE faction (almost like in Starcraft
?
I can respect the level of IQ and skill the PROs have reached by playing all the factions at once, but there is no way how I can identify with them - I will never become even close to 20% of their skill, because of all the complex deck building decisions they have to make when applying for a tournament…
What I can imagine though, is that I could achieve a much better level with ONE of the factions from the game that I like. Bring my casual funny deck, and do something with it at the tournament.
There is also a level of fandom of a specific faction. Imagine if NG crashed the entire TOP 5 of a tournament. That would be cool. Some would cheer, some would cry, and say “broken NG”, but at least that would make people much more excited about the tournaments.
Again - Starcraft does that well (even though RTS don’t have the biggest audience these days, as they are too hard to play anyway). Of course in Starcraft you actually, can only play one faction, so that’s a bit different.
So how to make tournaments entertaining if some people would choose to play one faction only?
I think that I have a remedy for that..
Just… let players build their decks right before the game.
Actually, the middle ground would be: let people play whatever they want on masters, if they want to play just One Faction but with many different builds, allow them to do that. If they wanna play all of them - go for it. But don’t do pre-built decks and banning.
For what reason ? Diversity ? So that we do not watch the same build being played over and over again ?
What’s wrong in that ? If it works, it works.
Allow the players to build the deck in 5 minutes time window before the game.
That would much more imitate actual Quick Play (that we all play in rank games) and bring the surprise effect to the PRO games. I am definitely sure PRO players can pull this off. We would see how they adapt under pressure, and how they react to the play style of their opponents. Just like we do in Starcraft. And that’s real time deck building we are talking about.
Well, I cannot imagine that this could be implemented immediately to the game, but damn, I wish that there was at least a casual tournament organised in this way. That would further remove the word ‘meta’ from the game, because players could literally modify their decks on the fly the way they want. (Maybe there already is one, and I just don't know about it?)
And also… Casters would finally have something to talk about during each game, because they would watch the deck building process and be completely surprised about what the players are bringing to the table…
Upvote, if you agree with some of the points I make. Im not saying that I have a ready concept, but I surely do believe, that the ideas I was talking about should be the starting point for the discussion.
Because, in the end, key factor behind Masters (besides pride and money for some I guess?) is FUN, and actually, as a (filthy) casual, I am only interested in the latter. Anything else is just not for me, and I think, most casual players will at least agree with that.
With the ‘fun first’ principle in mind, the tournaments can become much more exciting and engaging event for us all.
Peace

PS @CDProjektRed - please bring more cheese and bluff back to the game
So, who has time in today's world?
I don't.
I just play this game casually. And I like meme and funny decks. Since BETA, Gwent promised that it will deliver a game with deception and bluffing mechanisms. And I bought that concept, because that was unique and because... pulling off a nice bluff is satisfying - just remember the last time you did that when playing Poker - it undeniably feels good.
So, first problem that I would like to highlight before I move to the main point of this thread, is that I continuously struggle to make decks where I can bluff, because most cards effects and synergies are too easy to predict, and there are many relatively unintelligent swarm decks, where you mostly have to play cards in correct order without doing anything extraordinary like scorching your own unit or discarding high gold card from your hand to completely shatter your oponent’s brain (just an example, but you get the point of what extraordinary can be now). Shortage of that, lowers the amount of joy I have from playing the game, and lowers the time I spent in doing so.
Image tells a thousand words. Just watch this video:
How cool was that ? Scarlett just destroyed this guy thanks to her two quick cheesy tactics. That's amazing ! I wanna do more stuff like this in Gwent. And keep in mind this happened on a profesional tournament! Just look at Scarlett's face after both wins. This kind of moments are unforgettable, and even if she stops playing the game, she will remember those funny cheesy builds she was able to execute on her 200 IQ enemies. Epic.
Okay, let's get back to the topic. I will say this to begin with -> I honestly don't care about all factions in Gwent. They are all nice, but I just (again) do not have enough time to learn how to build each of them.
And this brings me to the subject of this post - why can't we have tournaments where players can choose to play ONE faction (almost like in Starcraft
?I can respect the level of IQ and skill the PROs have reached by playing all the factions at once, but there is no way how I can identify with them - I will never become even close to 20% of their skill, because of all the complex deck building decisions they have to make when applying for a tournament…
What I can imagine though, is that I could achieve a much better level with ONE of the factions from the game that I like. Bring my casual funny deck, and do something with it at the tournament.
There is also a level of fandom of a specific faction. Imagine if NG crashed the entire TOP 5 of a tournament. That would be cool. Some would cheer, some would cry, and say “broken NG”, but at least that would make people much more excited about the tournaments.
Again - Starcraft does that well (even though RTS don’t have the biggest audience these days, as they are too hard to play anyway). Of course in Starcraft you actually, can only play one faction, so that’s a bit different.
So how to make tournaments entertaining if some people would choose to play one faction only?
I think that I have a remedy for that..
Just… let players build their decks right before the game.
Actually, the middle ground would be: let people play whatever they want on masters, if they want to play just One Faction but with many different builds, allow them to do that. If they wanna play all of them - go for it. But don’t do pre-built decks and banning.
For what reason ? Diversity ? So that we do not watch the same build being played over and over again ?
What’s wrong in that ? If it works, it works.
Allow the players to build the deck in 5 minutes time window before the game.
That would much more imitate actual Quick Play (that we all play in rank games) and bring the surprise effect to the PRO games. I am definitely sure PRO players can pull this off. We would see how they adapt under pressure, and how they react to the play style of their opponents. Just like we do in Starcraft. And that’s real time deck building we are talking about.
Well, I cannot imagine that this could be implemented immediately to the game, but damn, I wish that there was at least a casual tournament organised in this way. That would further remove the word ‘meta’ from the game, because players could literally modify their decks on the fly the way they want. (Maybe there already is one, and I just don't know about it?)
And also… Casters would finally have something to talk about during each game, because they would watch the deck building process and be completely surprised about what the players are bringing to the table…
Upvote, if you agree with some of the points I make. Im not saying that I have a ready concept, but I surely do believe, that the ideas I was talking about should be the starting point for the discussion.
Because, in the end, key factor behind Masters (besides pride and money for some I guess?) is FUN, and actually, as a (filthy) casual, I am only interested in the latter. Anything else is just not for me, and I think, most casual players will at least agree with that.
With the ‘fun first’ principle in mind, the tournaments can become much more exciting and engaging event for us all.
Peace

PS @CDProjektRed - please bring more cheese and bluff back to the game
