Meet the Challenger #3 participants — Part 1

[Dominika]

Meet the Challenger #3 participants — Part 1

by Sean "Swim" Huguenard​

Challenger is getting closer and closer, and while we’ve already talked about what decks you can expect to see, the time has come to talk about the players! The most important thing to any GWENT event are the people competing. Even though most of them should be fairly known by now, there are still a few names you might not be familiar with. Today, I’m presenting you with a very brief rundown of where our players come from and what they’ve done to get here!

You may remember the first contestant from our recent interview. It’s the Polish Tailgod himself! TailBot is best known for his cocky attitude — a running joke people are compelled to watch. He saw some success in the last Open by making sure to soft target some of the more meta decks, and he may very well do it again. His favorite card in the game is, of course, Scoia’tael’s Wardancer.

Next, we have an absolute Closed Beta veteran from Russia. Cmel, known for creating a concept of drypassing very early in the game’s lifespan, was the single person to go for Skellige in many of the Closed Beta’s metas and often held top spots on the ladder.

Third, Hanachan — the master of meta calls. Bringing decks that would soon become staples such as Alchemy and Greatswords, Hanachan was the winner of GWENT Open 4, and runner-up in the second Challenger, after getting reverse swept by a very confident TailBot. This event, Hanachan is looking to bring victory to China and his Chinese sponsor, Huya.

You probably wouldn’t paint Freddybabes, the winner of the second GWENT Open, second Challenger, and first Gwentslam, as someone who always attempts to play, what he considers, joke decks. This English player has halted his University studies in order to play GWENT, so expect him to be performing his best!

That’s all for now, stay on the lookout for Part 2 where we cover Adzikov, SuperJJ, I_aPOROgize, and Kolemoen!

 

[Kingoko]

Freddy nice troll with 45% winrate Anyway wish you to win

 

[SrdjanB]

Freddy nice troll with 45% winrate Anyway wish you to win

It is really smart move, no need to exhaust himself with tedious ladder grind, since he already had ticket to this Challenger and upcoming World Masters. Pro ladder how it is now is less than adequate preparation for the tournament, Ranked as well is seriously flawed for those purposes. They are at best side component of the preparations mostly used to be up to date on meta decks.

I strongly dislike the ladder system as the basis for the qualification, since it is more than prone to major impact of luck factor. Don't get me wrong, luck is important factor in tournament and elimination qualifications, but it is one thing to luck out form qualifications or tournament, no matter how grueling or high-stakes than to luck out after 500 hours long ladder grind.

I like the fact that Freddy got here regardless of ladder, won online qualifications for GwentSlam and 10 CP from that got him to Open even though he was 38 in the 1st Pro ladder season which is not that big of a thing as only top 8 get you to the Open in the other circumstances. Then he won Open and Challenger, while that second Open he played, he memed to hard for his own good.

When you have such an amazing player who only got the opportunity to show his outstanding skill because Lifecoach organized a tournament and put open online qualifications for the spot on it, you gotta ask how many players of skill comparable to Freddy's Gwent has (or had) that haven't got the chance to compete at tournaments because of the punishing and time intensive nature of ladder qualifications.

 

[ThorSerpent]

It is really smart move, no need to exhaust himself with tedious ladder grind, since he already had ticket to this Challenger and upcoming World Masters. Pro ladder how it is now is less than adequate preparation for the tournament, Ranked as well is seriously flawed for those purposes. They are at best side component of the preparations mostly used to be up to date on meta decks.

I strongly dislike the ladder system as the basis for the qualification, since it is more than prone to major impact of luck factor. Don't get me wrong, luck is important factor in tournament and elimination qualifications, but it is one thing to luck out form qualifications or tournament, no matter how grueling or high-stakes than to luck out after 500 hours long ladder grind.

I like the fact that Freddy got here regardless of ladder, won online qualifications for GwentSlam and 10 CP from that got him to Open even though he was 38 in the 1st Pro ladder season which is not that big of a thing as only top 8 get you to the Open in the other circumstances. Then he won Open and Challenger, while that second Open he played, he memed to hard for his own good.

When you have such an amazing player who only got the opportunity to show his outstanding skill because Lifecoach organized a tournament and put open online qualifications for the spot on it, you gotta ask how many players of skill comparable to Freddy's Gwent has (or had) that haven't got the chance to compete at tournaments because of the punishing and time intensive nature of ladder qualifications.

Your point is crystal clear, but 2 players competing in this Challenger actually qualified by winning Online qualifiers for top 200. So while Pro ladder still plays an important role, it's fair to say that there are, in fact, different ways now for new stars to emerge.

 

[SrdjanB]

Your point is crystal clear, but 2 players competing in this Challenger actually qualified by winning Online qualifiers for top 200. So while Pro ladder still plays an important role, it's fair to say that there are, in fact, different ways now for new stars to emerge.

Yeah I know I was there

And I was among the first to praise CDPR for the introducing qualifiers ever since the ones for previous Challenger, which I wasn't part of.

In fact I stated Freddy as a crystal clear example of using different way to emerge as it for him all goes back to the open online qualifications for the GwentSlam.

I do think that different way, through qualifications preferably open, is superior to the almost exclusive status of ladder as a way to tournaments, and that is a opinion many in the community share as I am aware of.

This is not "grapes are sour" thing, just personal preference and well-intention feedback, even if my tone could possibly be misinterpreted.

Anyway, it is really good to see you REDs respond on the forum, that is the part of why I have tremendous faith in future of Gwent.

All the best,

Srdjan