The Impact Factor

Do It Live: The Hearthstone Americas Championship & Attending eSports

Special Article

I was awoken by the quiet bleeps and bloops of Portal 2’s “Halls of Science,” the ring tone I’ve had set as my alarm for the past couple years. It was pitch black outside. I staggered out of the room and into the bathroom. Within a couple minutes I was ready to go, scarfed some cereal down, and began my walk into the cool, dark & foggy morning. It was Saturday and I was on my way to the train station. I had somewhere to be. That place? The Hearthstone Americas Championship.

Living in San Francisco certainly has its perks. A couple weeks ago Blizzard announced that the Hearthstone Americas Championship would take place in the city at the Folsom Street Foundry. Admission was free. The doors opened at 9:30am Saturday and Sunday October 10-11. I wanted to take advantage of my geographical privilege: it was finally my chance to see competitive Hearthstone in person. I’ve been playing Hearthstone since April 2014. I find that I routinely spend a couple hours each week playing Blizzard’s excellent digital foray into digital card games. But that’s not all. I have watched hours and hours of Hearthstone eSports. I know the players, I know the strategies, I know the decks. It’s great to see what decks the pros bring and follow along with their plays, seeing if I make the same mid-match decisions.

The Hearthstone World Championship presented a perfect opportunity for me to finally see eSports live and in-person. eSports is something I’ve written about before in relation to EVO and fighting games and a frequent topic on The Impact Factor podcast. Despite huge strides towards broader viewership this past year (with several events even making their way onto ESPN’s SportsCenter), eSports still exists within a relatively small niche. For me, though, my eSports media consumption has far surpassed that of traditional sports. I love baseball, but nine times out of ten I’ll choose to watch competitive Street Fighter over nine innings on the diamond.

The choice by the greater gaming to community to title competitive gaming as ‘eSports’ is one I fought against for quite some time. It draws a lot of unhelpful comparisons to traditional physical sports that often derail conversations about the eSport scene. Regardless, the connection between the two does provide a foundation upon which I’ll relate my experiences at the Hearthstone America’s Championship. My fascination about how the two would compare all but solidified my decision to wake up at 6am on a Saturday morning to attend the event. Allow me to briefly write out some broad comparisons below. I’ll support a lot of my observations through pictures, plus who doesn’t want to see a bunch of photos from a Hearthstone tournament venue?

Camaraderie

The first, and most striking, parallel I noticed at the event was the bond shared by the audience. While waiting 2.5 hours in line everyone was talking Hearthstone. I came solo, but that didn’t stop me from hopping into topic after topic as the crowd talked about the game, the tournament scene, and strategies. The energy of people in line was not at all what you’d expect from a bunch of people who had wokne up before the crack of dawn. We talked about our highest rank in Hearthstone’s ranked mode (I had the highest of all those around me, so yeah I guess I rock), what decks we thought would dominate in the forthcoming matches (Patron Warrior, Demon Handlock and Combo Druid), and more. We were all connected by this card game, and the bond was pretty strong.

That said, it’s a feeling that any traditional sports fan can relate to. I’ve felt the same way sitting in Busch Stadium during a St. Louis Cardinals game. Of course it depends on the people you find yourself sitting next to, but I have a lot of fond memories of talking baseball with those around me. Everyone’s excited to be there and they share the bond of baseball. Thinking about my experiences with physical sports made me all the happier about my time at the Hearthstone America’s Championship. I’m glad that people who might not otherwise be able to experience this camaraderie at a football or hockey game can find this bond here.

Engagement

The crowd at the Hearthstone America’s Championship was the most engaged ‘sports’ crowd I’ve ever seen. Before I get any deeper into this, let me note: I understand that this observation isn’t perfectly controlled. At most, there were 200 or so people at the event. Sporting events can draw a crowd of 40,000. Still, the crowd was absolutely fixated on the screen. Side conversations were minimal, and most of those that were happening were discussing the game. The crowd reacted dramatically to the plays on screen: from gasps to cheers to applause. It was a great feeling. Everyone was there to watch the games. This has not always, or ever, been the case at traditional sporting events. I mean this not as a criticism, either. It’s part of their atmosphere. But eSports, or at the very least this one event I attended, felt totally different.

The Pros

The Hearthstone America’s Championship felt casual in all the right ways. As I’ve written above, people were friendly, the crowd was engaged, and the atmosphere was inviting. One thing I didn’t expect, however, was that this extended to the pros and casters of the event. Walking into the venue I was greeted with pros and casters and Blizzard employees just hanging out in the middle of the room. Fans, myself included, were able to go up and talk to some of the best competitors in the Hearthstone scene. For example, I had a brief conversation with the infamous Trump. I was able to wish competitors like Hotform and Purple and JAB good luck as they walked a couple feet in front of me. The accessibility between the fans and the competitors was not something I expected at all. For lack of a better word, it was crazy. And cool. And deeply impactful. For brief moments, I didn’t feel like just some fan, I was a part of the Hearthstone eSports scene.

Attending the Hearthstone America’s Championship was phenomenal. I feel so lucky I was able to attend. I wouldn’t hesitate to attend Hearthstone eSports events in the future. If you get a chance, I’d recommend going to one too.

That’s enough words from me, though! You can look forward to more of my thoughts on this week’s podcast. But now onto the photos!