Legendary Interview: Gnimsh

Name: Marcin Filipowicz | ID: Gnimsh | Location: Warsaw | Date of birth: 07.12.1983

Gnimsh On - Twitter | Facebook | Twitch.TV | Youtube | IHEARTHU.com

What previous history do you have with CCGs?

In 1995 I’ve started with a game called Doom Trooper taking place in the post-apocalyptic world of the Mutant Chronicles. Both me and my brother quickly got a group of friends to play together and trade the cards. It was my first contact with an amazing feeling of opening boosters and winning 1v1 duels. In 1996 we’ve switched to Magic the Gathering as it seemed more popular in the area. It was the time of the 4th edition and Mirage block. We’ve played pretty competitively on a local scene and this is when I made a move to play on the national level. I was doing ok, but at the same time I’ve dreamed about making a move on the World, which sadly didn’t happen.

During that period I was also trying different card games like Pokemon, Legend of the 5 Rings, Star Wars ccg and Dark Eden.

In 2002 I’ve dropped ccgs in favour of mmo games and remained pretty passive till 2009, when my love towards the Warcraft universe pushed me into buying some WoW Tcg cards.

After joining the local scene just to play in a couple tournaments my dream of the World level play quickly rekindled and pushed me into getting serious about pursuing it again. After 2 years of doing my best at each event I could find and honing my skills something finally “clicked” on the Team World Champs in Paris and my Team finished as 3rd earning us some good money. This win triggered a series of individual wins for myself and my teammates, where we started taking down tournament after tournament to become one of the 2 most fearsome teams by the end of that year. In 2012 I’ve continued my winning streak, finishing as 8th in the Player of the Year race for that year.

Sadly WoW Tcg was discontinued by Blizzard Entertainment to make room for Hearthstone, but during my WoW years I again picked up some other game titles like Netrunner LCG, Star Wars LCG and Cardfight Vanguard, which I still casually play from time to time.

Did becoming one of the best Hearthstone players happen by accident, or was it a goal you worked towards?

As you can see above I have a “history” with card games, which always were a strong part of my life. Being a fan of Blizzard games and Warcraft franchise I was exhilarated, when Rob Pardo announced Hearthstone at Pax East. At that moment I knew that my goal is to become one of the best in this game. I can’t say if I managed that, but that’s my goal for sure and I will be working everyday to achieve it. You can never stop the practise if you want to become and then keep being at the top. People will always chase you, people will have more talent than you. I don’t know how much talent I personally have, but I do know that I put a lot of work into what I do and I always strive to improve.

How do you evaluate success in the context of a pro-gaming career?

I believe there are different levels of success that one can achieve. Some people just strive to be popular amongst the community, others want to always play their A-game and not make a single mistake. Creative players look to craft/brew the best deck and get props for that and so called “pilots” just want to win as much as they can. Personally I’m a mixture and value each one of them in different proportions, but the key is recognition. Nobody is the best, because they think they are the best.

What is your most memorable match to date?

The first thing that comes to my mind is “the sheep” game, where I ignore the sheep token from Polymorph and get slaughtered by it next turn. You can actually find it recorded on my Youtube channel to see how I react. Other than that I had some sick and high level games, when I was gunning for top10 Legend EU, but it’s hard to recall any specific ones.

To what do you attribute becoming one of the best players in the world?

You need to set it as a goal and work towards it. Nothing comes for free. A lot of people win a tournament or two, but if you really want to become one of the top and most recognized players that has a stable win rate and consecutive tournament wins you have to build it and reinforce it. I speak cleanly from my WoW Tcg experience as Hearthstone is still a fresh game. I identify the following traits that you have to take into account to achieve success in a card game:

• raw talent
• experience / skill (learn your strengths and weaknesses)
• preparation/practice (deck choice and playtesting)
• luck

The trick here is that if we add them up they will equal 100% of your potential during an event/match/game. The “pro” player always wants to maximize experience/skill/practice to reduce the influence of luck. I can probably write an article about this theory and try to expand it, so for now let’s finish at that.

What do you most look forward to in Hearthstone?

Live events. I love live events from my tcg days and I really enjoyed the live event in Berlin. I hope that I will be able to play Hearthstone at Blizzcon this year. It’s my dream actually.

Software-wise I’m really looking forward to the in-game tournaments organized by Blizzard.

Favorite class to play, and why?

I value Mage and Warlock pretty high, simply because I love aggro decks and caster classes. Unfortunately they seem to be pretty hated right now, so I’m looking forward to playing them when people think they are weak ^^ Also recently I’ve started to enjoy Druid a lot, because it gives me a lot of flexibility and till the last card you always have something to do and decisions to make.

Least favorite class to play against, and why?

Rogue. I hate the fact that they have free spells and it’s very easy for them to disrupt my game rhythm. I somehow never liked Rogues even in WoW online, but probably because I mostly play caster classes

Do you play any other game genres or do you exclusively play CCGs?

I’m addicted to MMOs! I’ve already mentioned World of Warcraft mmo, but my adventure with mmos started with Ultima Online. I’ve spent a lot of time on different RPG servers improving my skills as well as role playing with people. Then I’ve played Lineage 2 a lot also on different servers mixed with some Ragnarok Online. I’ve actually picked up WoW pretty late and my adventure in Azeroth started for real only after Wrath of the Lich King was introduced. I’ve leveled a character in TBC, but it was an Alliance druid that nearly made me drop the game. I’m for the Horde at heart. After WoW I’ve picked up Star Wars the Old Republic on release as I’m a big SW fan. I casually play it all the time, mostly for the lore aspects.

You were just featured in the inaugural episode of the ESGN Fight night. How did you feel about how you did in your series?

I think I did pretty well, but I’m sad that it didn’t come through like that in the end. My experience with tournaments is that each player has to do their best to win. They bring what they think is the best deck, they practise it and then they show their skills. I had my 3 decks ready, but my winning streak didn’t allow me to show all of them to the public. I used the best deck at the time that got me a couple of tournament wins before, but many viewers were looking for a different kind of entertainment it seems. I also got pretty lucky, which probably overshadowed the decisions I made during mulligan and my turns.

I’m still happy though. I’ve opened the series with a perfect win for my Team and I was able to face Trump in a live 1 on 1 match. Overall it was a great experience!

You and Team Doge got some negative feedback. Can you explain what it was, and do you think it that feedback was justified?

It’s a complicated matter. Every member of the Team comes from the competitive background and we already had our share of success in our respective fields. This has build up a high amount of confidence that may for some be interpreted as arrogance. Especially because many viewers don’t exactly know who we are and would be quick to judge. The whole show also depicted us as an evil Team of pros that’s going to crush the good guys. This creates a bit of a drama and makes the show more interesting, but might be misleading in the end. I recommend to just get to know us better and enjoy the show. It’s a show for all of us Hearthstone players. It introduces a lot of high level plays, but also gives a good laugh from time to time. It’s just a start for Team Doge House and we will surely stay around in 2014 for more fun and drama!

Your Deck Check videos are extremely educational, and your youtube channel tends to lean towards education in general. Why do you tend to lean towards education?

I have a lot of friends from different games that started to pick up Hearthstone. Most of them were asking me the same questions, which pushed me into making a cohesive arena guides for them. As the feedback was pretty good I started thinking about a series for those starting their constructed play as well.

I wanted to start a series that can really tap into my experience and will be a bit different than those short reviews available on youtube. Being a very detail oriented person that likes to talk a lot it somehow worked out. I hope that those videos I make are educational enough and are in fact helping people to improve and understand the idea behind the deck.

A Few Questions from Twitter:

@im_zykon asks: Where does he rank Mage as it stands today(1-9 with 1 being the best)?

2-3 depending on the metagame. Right now Mage is a great counter to control Warlock. It’s also very much ok vs Rogues and 50-50 vs a lot of other matchups.

@KobayshiMaru asks: What 1 change would he make to Hunter, Shaman, Priest, Warrior (NonOTK) & Paladin to make them viable at top level.

This is a complicated question. I believe people can still experiment with those decks and build something unique. I’m often seeing aggro hunter and some of people got to Legend using it. Shaman is being countered by Mage and is generally a hard deck to play, so maybe that’s why it’s not that popular right now. Priest seems like it’s too slow and too easy to play around, but maybe people are not running correct builds. Warrior has this beautiful OTK builds, currently around 3 and the last one expand into a more control-ish build with OTK as an option. So I don’t believe I would introduce any changes to those classes right now. The metagame is stabilized, but any nerf to the big players like Pyroblast or Blood Imp will be a buff to those classes. I also prefer if the developers introduce new cards that offer new builds rather than cutting edges to force players to change what they play.

@d4kk0n asks: hey Gnimsh! do you think Hogger is a viable substitute for Cairne in StrifeCro’s Druid deck?

It seems like an ok card if you don’t have Cairne and choose to weaken your deck. It will be a lot weaker vs Rogue in contrary to Cairne who is really good vs Rogue, but overall it’s fine.

And that’s it! Any Shoutouts?

Team Doge House for being awesome! ihearthu.com for having me as a part of the Team, which I greatly appreciate. ESGNTV for inviting me and to all my fans, supporters and family! I receive a lot of positive feedback from people who find my work and it really makes me want to keep going and work even harder. Thanks a lot!