We’re just a few weeks into the first season of the 2018 Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT), and we’ve already crowned an exciting victor after the year’s first Tour Stop in Andrej “Bequiet” Traudt. Although he’s played in other tournaments before, HCT Germany was his first stage performance—and we spoke with him afterward to learn more about the first of hopefully many breakout players from the Tour Stop ecosystem.

Prior to getting started with Hearthstone, Bequiet played for a couple of different organizations in competitive FIFA. Now, at 29 years old, he’s more focused on his full-time industrial mechanical job, as well as trying to be more physically active—but he’s been playing Hearthstone for quite a while. “I picked up Hearthstone in beta,” Bequiet says. “I came back after a year or so, and got legend multiple months in a row.” That was the point at which he decided to see where it could take him.

His years of practice took him to Dreamhack Sweden, where he enjoyed the competition and the camaraderie, but didn’t advance to the playoffs. In the weeks prior to HCT Germany, Bequiet missed his goal of a high finish on the Hearthstone ladder in January, so he chose to wait for the recent balance changes to test decks for the tournament.

That testing led him to a field of aggressive and control-oriented options. “The most comfortable deck for me was Murloc Paladin,” Bequiet says. He also preferred the Cube Warlock style to Control, and leaned on that, a Big Priest, and the surprising N’Zoth Control Mage to round out his lineup. “Early Deathrattle minions like Plated Beetle were better against decks like Secret Mage, and cutting cards like Alanna felt safe against the lineup I expected,” he explains. His only fear was playing into the emerging one-turn-kill (OTK) Uther of the Ebon Blade Paladin deck.

After his success in HCT Germany, Bequiet is now eyeing the rest of the season enthusiastically: “I wanna go for playoffs, so I have to grind some ladder. I'm looking at more Tour Stops, too.”

Asked what he would tell other players who might want to enter the competitive scene, the German player is all optimism. “Start competing in tournaments,” he says. “Don’t be afraid to start.” He goes on to explain that despite his “older age” he is still able to compete and enjoy his other hobbies, and has the support of his girlfriend and family. For serious competitors, he recommends getting some help. “Have a group around you," Bequiet says. "Practice groups help a lot—you can talk about different lines of play."

After his great breakout performance at HCT Germany, we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on Bequiet for the rest of HCT 2018 Season 1. Are you thinking about competing in a Tour Stop after reading about Bequiet’s journey? Have you tried out one of his deck lists and loved it? Let us know in the comments, or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter using #HCT.