All day on January 29 the Twitch Rivals Hearthstone Arena Team Draft Challenge took place. The event provided a unique opportunity for twitch streamers to gain some notoriety for their efforts. It focused on those who aren’t competitive players on the Championship Tour but still have a lot to offer.
Whether it is that they are very good in the realm of Arena, or just being an entertaining streamer, many of those with small fan bases got a chance to be in the spotlight.
The Event
There were 30 teams of two that would compete to see who could accumulate the three best consecutive arena runs. 30 streamers were invited, and they were free to choose any team mate they wanted to play.
The players had to get a streak of their three best consecutive arena runs and combine it with their team mate within an eight hour time span. Given the short amount of time to play, teams would have to try really hard to get a 12 win run and play around that.
This also leveled the playing field between those who are constructed competitive players, more casual players, and arena players. Arena gives random cards to choose from in order to make a deck against other random decks. Learning to optimize all the possible lines of play of a deck you can only lose with three times proves extremely difficult.
Some players opted for a strategy of retiring all of their first decks until they found a perfect one. If they could potentially reach 12 wins with on the first attempt they could spend much more time on the drafting phase of the next runs. Time was a precious resource so playing out every single draft could kill a run. There is also a chance that the “perfect” arena deck ends up being unlucky and you are out a lot of time.
The Participants
Despite the event being won by two players that are Arena specialists, there are many other notable performers. One such duo brought the best of competitive together with the best of Arena. That team is infinite Arena player Collins “Educated_Collins” Mensah and Oldřich “faeli” Mahdal. Faeli is a top constructed player right now and proved that he is very good in all aspects of Hearthstone. He was one of the best Wild players at one time and his team finished second in the Twitch Rivals event by just one win.
Rumay “Hafu” Wang and David “Dog” Caero is another example of Arena specialist and constructed player. Dog being the constructed player actually performed well and pulled his weight. The couple finished fourth overall.
Paul “Zalae” Nemeth and Mark “Ike” Eichner may have surprised some despite being two constructed players. Ike is qualified for the Winter Championship like fellow competitor faeli. Zalae and Ike finished sixth overall.
Wesley “Shadybunny” Metten had an interesting approach that many thought was a possibility. He retired over 25 of his initial drafts before deciding to play out a run. It took over an hour into the total eight before he played a single game.
Some of the top constructed players didn’t have the best go of it however. George “BoarControl” Webb and Casper “Hunterace” Notto could beat anyone in the world in a constructed format. However the pair finished in 24th place, sort of proving the point that arena takes a different kind of skill.
Right behind the European constructed team was the team of Brian “bloodyface” Eason and Matt “noblord” Koutsoutis. Both of these guys are headed to the HCT Winter Championship but finished 25th in the Twitch Rivals tournament. The full standings for the tournament can be seen here. 
Why Its Important
Tournaments like these mean a lot to a lot of different people. Most of the people who play Hearthstone aren’t necessarily into the Hearthstone Championship Tour. Many players prefer to play Wild, or only play Arena, or play the game casually and enjoy the Solo Adventures.
There are a lot of people who would like to watch Hearthstone that focuses more on player personalities or different aspects of skill in the game. Twitch Rivals brought those names to the forefront and got thousands of eyes that were unlikely the same that watch HCT tournaments.
It also helps inspire those who do only play Arena or who are up and coming content creators in the Hearthstone community. There are multiple avenues for success in the game outside of being really good in Standard competitive formats. Playing the game, having fun, and interacting with others in the community is a great way for players to build themselves up.
Having the players invite whoever they wanted to be their team mate was also great for those less known. The initial 30 players required an invite to participate, but their team mates had no major requirements. We look forward to what other inventive tournament ideas sprout forth next.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment and twitch via the players respective twitch channels.
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