

In a recent stream, Romanian pro Hearthstone player for G2 esports Dima "Rdu" Radu was streaming Hearthstone battlegrounds to his audience of fans. After being questioned many times in chat about his recent performance during the current Hearthstone Grand Master seasons, Rdu took the opportunity to talk about a gripe he has about the way casters have a tendency to depict winning players as having superior skill than the opponent they just defeated.

Hearthstone is notorious as an esport for how many matches are ultimately determined by RNG or randomness. Though the debate over whether RNG is good or bad for Hearthstone is pretty much over (without RNG many argue Hearthstone would be a very dull esport), it is still a common source of frustration among fans and the competitive community.

Rdu's sentiments are fair, considering that each player within Hearthstone's Grand Master season is a skilled, dedicated professional. In fact, Hearthstone Grand Master features such a massive line-up of Hearthstone talent that matches are seldom determined by a gap in skill between two competitors. Instead, most matches boil down to the match up balance or a lucky (or unlucky) roll of the dice.

Rdu also mentions that he understands why casters can't be brutally honest and tell the audience "the worst player won". Blizzard has been fighting Hearthstone reputation as a "random" esport for years now and perhaps the casters, dutifully employed by Blizzard, have been asked to steer clear of such narratives.

What do you think?

Is Hearthstone esports too random, or are casters right to create a narrative that emphasizes outplays and the decisions pro players do have control over? Let us know in the comments below!