Inside the Head of Lothar
Janek “jankke” Bergman: Twitter
Introduction
Hi Lothar! Tell us about yourself!
Hello Janek! I’m a 29 years old gamer from Poland, I’m getting married tomorrow (ding), board/card/computer games are my life from when I was 7 years old. I also play guitar in a progressive metal band and I love lifting weights. That’s basically it 
I struggle with that. Really, it’s hard to fit all my interest with a fulltime job, so I sleep usually for about 4,5-5 hours daily. But I know this will backfire eventually so I will have to find a way to solve this problem. It would be easier if I would still be college/high school but that is long gone ;F
Were you a vivid gamer even before the release of Hearthstone or is Hearthstone your first taste of professional gaming?I am a gamer from when I was a little kid. When it comes to esports my first try was with Counter Strike: Source when it was released (I am a CS veteran from 1.3 version) but the scene back then was like super small and chaotic. My clan ‘volenti nihil difficile’ was the best polish clan back then (#1 at Clanbase and ESL PL/EU ;D) so it was fun. Hearthstone scene on the other hand is developing so fast, it’s incredible. Can’t wait for the future.
Let’s talk about Hearthstone What is your opinion on the current balance of the game? Is every class viable?Personally I think Hunter is a little too strong. But the problem lies not in Unleash the Hounds (which in my opinion was fine for 2 mana, and would keep agro in shackles) but three other cards.
1) Flare – a viable card for just the cycling. 1 mana to cycle one card is a good deal (I like to make a comparison with the usual CCGs which have the same cost for cycling usually but their decks are 60 cards and not 30 like in HS, so the benefit of Flare is kinda doubled). The cycling alone makes the card playable in every hunter. Cancelling Stealth and destroying Secrets though – that’s insane. Destroying a whole archetype with one card isn’t funny at all. This card will only increase in value overtime so I think it needs attention. The same goes for the druid card – Innervate. I think HS is not a game in which we can play with such brutal ramp card.
2) Buzzard – I think the draw mechanic should be changed to ie drawing at the end of the turn or to draw a card when a beast dies (which would make sense flavor-wise, the Buzzard will eat a carcass = profit, but it may seem too harsh). I think I would prefer drawing at the end of the turn.
3) Hunters Mark – I think that every single card that costs zero mana is too good. Hunters Mark especially. Imho it should cost 1 mana to avoid playing a Buzzard/Combo for all of Your resources, draw a ton of cards, and still manage to kill a giant creature for free because, you know, HUNTER.
@Realz, do something about this ;D
Oh, and the classes – I think every class has a viable tournament deck. Which is very cool.
If you have to give a short advice to our readers in how to reach legend, what would that be?If You have a full month to get into legend You can basically play your favorite deck and just keep with a better winrate than 50% but this takes time.
If Your goal is to speedrun to Legend rank choose the FOTM deck (like now, hunter). In most cases this gives the best results. You also want shorter rounds to fit more games, so aggressive route is the way to go. After You hit Legend and consider going for the top placing – think about the metagame and consider which deck will give You the best quality in games, rushing games is no longer a prority, now You want a super crazy win streak.
Naxxramas has really shaken up the meta game. How long do you think it will take before people have found the most optimal decks with the naxxramas cards?The metagame in HS is constantly changing, I think it will stabilize after Blizzcon qualifiers and WCA tournament in China. So, let’s say, a month from now.
There’s a lot of talk about best classes and underpowered classes in Hearthstone. What class do you think is the strongest at the moment and what class do you think is the worst?Hunter and Rouge are the topdogs for now.
I don’t think we have like a worst class. When it comes to tournaments with the Blizzcon format every class will have an edge over something in particular so it’s more about the whole idea of deck synergy between classes, not the power alone of a class alone.
What class do you have the most fun playing with? And is there any class you rather not play and if so, why?I was a Hunter/Rogue player from the very early beta (I’m most known for playing Trap Hunter and the
old Miracle Rogue). I don’t know, I just like the flavor of those two classes, a lonesome sentinel/assassin is my type of thing. The power level is a bonus ;D
I still don’t like playing Priest, but that’s maybe it’s underplayed by me, but I will have to change that.
And now some questions about the competitive scene!
As we all know streaming and being out there is huge part of the Hearthstone scene. But does it work for you to be regular streamer and still have suprising and fresh decks and ideas coming in to a tournament? And how do you balance streaming with preparing for a tournament?It’s hard for sure. Preparing for a tournament is a whole other thing than streaming. BO1 ladder games is a diffirent kind of animal than BO3/5/7 with diffirent classes. Also the ban system is affecting deck building. You basicly can’t prepare if You are only streaming. In my case, I have rarely time to stream for now, because I focus on practicing for upcoming big tournaments (and the fulltime job is not really helping with streaming). But I would love to stream more and I hope I will.
There’s one other thing that streamers can take advantage off – You can be like known for playing one class, and surprise Your opponents by opening with something completely diffirent 
But on the other hand, Your playstyle Is very visible to all Your opponents, if You stream consistently.
I’ve always wondered what kind of mindset professional Hearthstone players like yourself, have in a tournament in regards of facing other professional players. When you’re up against another famous player, do you play the player or do you play the deck and do you analyze specific players coming in to a tournament?That depends on the type of tournament You are in. If You know you’re in ie. Group stage before submitting the decks – You can build decks based on Your opponents playstyle. But in most cases You build the strategy based on the metagame and then adapt to the deck/playstyle of Your opponent. The thing is, most pros are prone to outplaying themselves when playing against someone who they don’t know, they tend to overthink the situations and predict the weirdest outcomes or play to safe.
As most other games, there is always talks about who is the best player. Who do you think is the best player or is it even possible to say who is the best player?
I think that skillwise ingame most of the pros are very close to each other, but what really matters is the preparation for tournaments and a stable mindset. The scene is building itself with each tournament and at the moment we can talk about who is the most successful player, which imho are RDU and Amaz. Shoutout to both, keep up with the good work.
I knew Gnimsh and Ekop before HS started, so we are friends but I bonded with so much people during the short time while playing HS it’s insane. Also I would have say that Frodan is the coolest/classiest person I know and he is a really good player which most people are tending to ignore and I spent a lot of time with Gaara, he’s so funny and energetic (and skilled of course), it’s a damn shame we are not friends from like when we were kids, growing up with those guys would have been awesome for sure.
My favorite HS career moment? Winning the open qualifiers for IEM Katowice. That was super important for me, it was really hard to do it and at the same time it’s also my saddest moment as I didn’t win the whole event, but I look forward to winning the next tournaments.
You are part of the team Planetkey Dynamics, and probably their most known player. In what ways are you team working together and how important is a team for you in a game like Hearthstone?Working with other players is very important. You won’t be able to establish a good strategy for yourself if You won’t playtest, and You won’t be able to playtest if You are not a part of a playtest group. Sharing ideas, brainstorming about improving matchups and motivating each other is crucial for doing well in tournaments.
Do you have any big upcoming tournaments and is there a tournament you’re really looking forward to?OW YISS. I’m looking forward to Blizzcon Qualifiers, it will be a tough competition and a very important tournament. If someone “new” will get to top4, he will be hyped to the maximum. I also can’t wait for each of the Dreamhack tournaments, especially in Bucharest, the organiser there (Tataie) really puts a lot of effort to make the best tournament. In October we will also see the WCA 190k tournament, can’t wait to see the details of that too. For online cups I look forward to Prismata Cup and King of the Hill, among many others.
Blizzcon is coming up, and with probably the most epic Hearthstone tournament to date, I’m guessing you will give your all to qualify for the tournament. Is it plausible to prepare for the tournament already, or do you think the qualifier is too stacked, so you have to take one step at a time. Do you think it’s too difficult to qualify for Blizzcon?
After I return from my honeymoon I will focus all my efforts on preparing for this tournament. And yeah, it’s stacked with pro players, this will be the most difficult tournament up to date. I really wonder what the format will be, because that has a huge influence on deckbuilding.
Is it too difficult? 4 spots for a region is rough, it will be super hard to do it, I think making the top4 of the Qualifier may be actually be harder than winning the main event later on.
I think thats about it! Do you have any final thoughts or anything you want to add?Thanks for the interview and the support and I would like to make a few shoutouts, to the my team, Planetkey Dynamics and all friends there and my sponsor Tt eSports.
Also if You want to be up to date with my streaming, deck ideas, random thoughts and mumbling follow my @lotharhs
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