Faramir Interview

Janek “jankke” Bergman: Twitter

Hi Faramir! Introduce yourself!

Hey! I am Faramir, I just turned 21, I study physical engineering in Berlin and I play Hearthstone for team DKMR.

Did you play any other games before Hearthstone? If so, what games?

I never played any other games on a competitive level but before I got my Hearthstone beta key, I mostly played League of Legends.

What got you into Hearthstone?

I watched a lot of League of Legends streams and a lot of players played Hearthstone in their queue time and I thought to myself: “That games looks really awesome!”. And from that point on I tried to get my key.

You are now a part of the team DKMR (Don’t Kick My Robot), with accomplished players like Brad, Kisstafer and Powder. What do you think about DKMR and how important is it to be part of team for you?

I think DKMR is definitely one of the strongest teams out there and I like to think that my addition made it even stronger. Being part of a team is great even in a game like Hearthstone where you mostly play on your own. It is really important for deckbuilding and preparing for tournaments.

You said you are a student, Is it difficult to balance the time between studying and gaming?

It can be, thats why I am taking the next semester off, to see how far I can get with Hearthstone. At the moment I am still on vacation so I got a lot of time to play and talk about the game.

The meta game has changed drastically since the release of Naxxramas. What are your views on the current metagame? Is it better or worse than it was before the release of Naxxramas?

Personally I think that the meta got better with the release of Naxxramas. Before The Curse of Naxxramas, miracle rogue was the dominating deck. Now we have a far bigger range of useable decks, even though hunter is the dominating force at the moment. The ban a class system in tournaments gets a lot more popular in the tournament scene, so we can see every class getting played in a high class tournament without just getting destroyed by the dominating deck used on the ladder.

How do you feel about the hunter? Is it fine, or should it be changed? If so, how?

There will always be a deck thats stronger than most of the decks. If you look back: First it was priest, then mage, then warrior, then hunter, then rogue and it’s back to hunter. The moment when every deck is balanced is the moment when this game becomes stale, because it won’t be needed to come up with solutions. I don’t think the hunter necessarily needs a change. We can already see what deck builders like Kolento or Strifecro can do with a new take on the druid, to counter the hunter.

What is your favourite deck and class? And is there a class you don’t play?

My favourite deck is still the tempo rogue, not to be confused with the backspace rogue, although my favourite class is Shaman. I played every class at some point, so I am comfortable with nearly all of them although I can’t say that I am a great Mage player since I just don’t think that it is as good as other classes in the current meta.

Are you a regular streamer? Do you think that streaming is a necessary part of being a professional hearthstone player?

Due to technical impairments, I am not a regular streamer although I enjoy streaming very much. I don’t think that you need to be a streamer to be a professional, but i definitely helps building your fanbase as well as getting to know the community.

What kind of person are you outside of the game and how does it affect you as a player? What are you strengths and weaknesses?

I like to think of myself as a calm and calculating player and person, although I catch myself from time to time getting emotional and a loss because of topdecking or general bad draw. But you can’t be too emotional about a loss or you will just tilt and lose a lot of ranks on the ladder, or just lose a tournament series. So I try to stay calm even when i suffer defeats.

Do you have any upcoming tournaments? Is there a specific tournament you’re really looking forward to?

Now when I’ve joined DKMR, you will see me a lot in the DKMR invitational. Other than that I will participate in the VGVN 3 qualifier and I have some other tournaments coming up aswell. I am really looking forward to thursdays DKMR invitational since I will be facing XiXo in a best of five. I know him pretty well since we both live in Berlin and I meet him every other week. So that will definitely be an interesting series.

Is there any players you look up to yourself and who do you consider the number one Hearthstone player?

I really liked seeing my old teammate Realz play. Unfortunately he can’t participate in tournaments anymore. I would like to use this opportunity to congratulate him on this job at blizzard. As of now I think Rdu is the player to beat. He wind tournaments consistently and one thing that really impresses me about him, is that he is playing all the weekly tournaments as well as the big ones. He wouldn’t have to do that, but he still accepts the challenge and always does well.

What are the most important attributes a player needs to become a successful Hearthstone player?

I think you need to be able to prepare well for tournaments with your deck choices, and you need to know your decks in and out, you have to be able to know which card will help you at every specific point of the game. You also have to know your matchups and be able to predict what your opponent wants to do.

If you could make one change to Hearthstone, what would that be?

I think I would remove innervate or soulfire. I am not sure.

I think that’s about it! If there is anything you want to add, now is the time!

I made a lot of new friends through this game which I am really grateful of, and I hope that more events pick up Hearthstone so that I can meet of all them some day. I would also really want to thank our sponsors: Gunnars, 2p, Soulfiremasters and Waypointmedia. Keep supporting us so that we can keep doing what we are doing and bring this game forward!