



The second edition of the Hearthstone GosuCups was a repetition of success, but embarked in new territory regardless. For the first time not only Nat Pagle was banned but all his legendary and epic friends had to sit this one out as well - limited rules, endless creativity.

Working around those restrictions the best was Italian player Vayss, bringing home the check to Bella Italia. Not only was this the first time the player entered the ranks of a competition like this, it was also a monstrous comeback in the Grand Finals, trailing 0-2 and then winning out. Runner-up Kirstuvas still put up a valid fight, winning the silver medal a couple of weeks after Sotchi ended.

GosuCup #2 standings

1. Vayss

2. Kirstuvas

3. ReasonSkip

4. enzodinho

5-8. Chrylo

5-8. KASPERHOEJ

5-8. greensheep

5-8. VampAurora

Winners' decklists

Note: The entire tournament was held with "limited" rules, meaning no epics and legendaries were allowed

The feared array of various aggro decks in the competition was not coming true, although Vayss used the Zoo deck to mount the big comeback in the finals. In the interview he revealed his strategy going to the finals, carried by the mighty claws of Malfurion, while using interesting mid-range Hunter, Zoo and a control Mage to finish the deal and claim the title.





Vayss's final decks



Maybe one of the most obvious choices in the competition was the Rush hunter, that plagues the ladder for several weeks now. Vayss didn't go for it, Kirstuvas had that weapon locked and loaded. Charging the face, aiming the Steady Shot at his opponent and closing out the deal quickly led him to the finals, just like a control Shaman and a variation of a tempo Rogue did their part. Noteworthy here is, that the Lithuanian player didn't try to recreate Al'Akir the Windlord in his Shaman deck, going away from Windfury, rather playing a standup style of controlling the aggression and the board.







Kirstuvas's final decks

ReasonSkip's decks

Bearsuit's decks

Class stats

The GosuCups are continuing to pile up numbers in a bunch and stacking up our archieve more and more. With now over 800 matches recorded, we have more and more statistical evidence about the strong and weak classes, as well as seeing which one is the most popular among our avid players. Keep in mind this time, that the stats are now also reflecting a limited tournament, obviously altering the landscape of classes being played immensely.

Despite all that, the most successful class played in now three GosuCups is still the dark magic of Gul'dan. One might even say the loyal followers of dark rituals, self-inflicted damage and flooding the board have received a boost with the limited rules, seeing the Zoo deck gaining more and more popularity as a rush deck. Naturally that deck does not require a lot of epics or legendaries, making it an ideal deck to try out in a limited rules circumstance. The win rate of Gul'dan and his Warlock fanatics went up by more than two percent points, while the popularity of Warlock exploded from 29.6 percent to 37.3 percent.

For the first time Druid wasn't the most popular of the classes after all, most likely due to powerful cards like Ancient of Lore or Force of Nature being forced to take a week off with the limitations. Overall the trend away from the more expensive mid-range classes with burst potential like Druid or Shaman, as well as the very expensive control class Warrior took a huge dip in popularity, while typical rush classes like Hunter and Warlock saw their numbers increasing significantly.

The same goes for Mage, a trend maybe attributed to the recent climb of streaming star and third place finisher at SeatStory Cup, Trump. Over the course of many streaming hours and days, he showcased the strength of a Mage deck on a budget, climbing the European ladder with a fresh account all the way to Legendary ranks. Obviously, with his following and the quickness of new decks creating copy cats in all of Hearthstone, this is a trend that had to be expected and anticipated as well.

Still, the Mage might have become more popular, but less successful. In the winning chart Jaina lost three percent points in success rate. Alongside Shaman and Warrior, Mages are the losers of the week, being the only classes to drop down in the win-rate chart. As a matter of fact Warrior dropped from the top three into the bottom four, with Shaman and Mage only losing one spot. In the case of Mages that might sound "okay", but being in the bottom already, they could only really lose one spot, now being the absolute most unsuccessful class in GosuCups. Can some new Sorcerer's Apprentice turn that around next week?`We shall see.

Champion interview: Vayss

Hey Vayss, thanks for spending some time with us to give us your thoughts about the GosuCup #2 you just won. First of congratulations, what are you planning on doing with the $100 USD?

Well, my financial are pretty ok in this moment so im just gonna save it until I find something pretty to buy.

Sounds like a solid investment strategy to me! Away from the money, to you as a player. This was your first tournament overall, how surprised are you that your competitive debut is a championship right away?

I’m pretty damn surprised that I won this tournament, but in fact i was really confident in my ideas about this format with limited cards and how to play it so I just think everything went as planned.

The limited option definitely opened up some room for innovation, are you usually playing ladder with legendary decks or was this format something that came natural to you?

Yes I usually play ladder with mostly classics decks with legendary and such now, but I really like budgets ideas and I'm almost positive that knowing every card in the game will just makes creating deck really easy even with limitation.

So the limited stipulation of this tournament was more a blessing for you, being able to make your creativity count. We going to talk about the specific decks a little bit later, first I want to know, why you chose to join this GosuCup and not an earlier version?

I'm not really into tournaments thing and I think I really need to improve for the moment, but when I saw the rules of the cup I thought this was a good possibility to prove my abilities without stressing too much my expectation

Now on the other hand, does this immediate success motivate you more into entering other cups without the limitations? Maybe GosuCup #3?

That's for sure, I’m pretty confident now. It’s not hard to say that winning makes you feel good enough to do it again.

I guess that is a very fair assumption. Now let's dig deep into the decks you played and the idea behind it. The actual "comeback" deck of the Grand Finals looks somewhat like the Reynad Zoo deck - was that the inspiration for it or is there your twist on it as well?

Yes, I’m just a fellow follower of Reynad for a long time now. Watching his streams always help me learning something new and guess what? There’s no point of not playing decks made by someone you really admire.

A very fair point, although looking at the other two decks it appears that they are more your brain child’s. The most interesting one might be the mid-range Hunter. Can you walk us through the idea of that deck?

Well I just think somewhere in the future, Hunter control deck will become something serious and overtake classic face hunters, so I thought I should try to do something like that also in this tournament, Hunter's removal spells are really powerful and Eaglehorn Bow + Traps will just control the board for you, while you keep pressuring the opponent with Stranglethorn Tiger and Savannah Highmane.

That's a very interesting point, as a lot of us expected rush decks to dominate a limited tournament like this. You balanced it out with one rush, one mid-range and the Mage deck that plays the control game as well. Is the Mage something you came up with as well, or did you lend some ideas from a person like Trump, who laddered up a "Budget Mage" just recently?

Well my first expectation for this tournament was also to play against Zoo decks, Warrior Aggro and Trump's free mage but in fact it didn't happen. I'm really scared of mages so I decided to make one mage deck too in case of need, its nothing far from the Trump's one but I think those kind of mage decks are always the same, Polymorph+Fireball+Flamestrike what you put in the rest of the deck doesn't even matter.

Are you saying the Mage basic cards are ridiculous?

In terms of powerfulness? 4 Mana to rule the world is kinda good I suppose.

Well, you are definitely not alone in that believe and an entire subreddit is mostly going to agree with you on the stance against those magic tricks. That aside I would still like to figure out your general approach to the game. Your decklists vary from control to aggro, which one do you actually prefer and why?

The Druid deck was the one who definitely lead me to the victory, it almost never lost and the reason is, without big game hunter other Legendaries and Tinkmaster Overspark there's no way free deck can find a real answer to the big taunt creatures train of my druid deck, Druid of the Claw followed by Sunwalker and Ironbark Protector with Ancient Watcher in the early state of the match it’s just too much for every type of free deck.

Now I feel slightly better, because that was also an approach I tried - obviously with less success than you. Anyways, you are a newcomer to the scene after we had [dnL] Ignite winning the last GosuCup with a professional team behind him. Is that something you strive for as well?

How xD? I don't even know why I'm here. I think I'm somewhere over the average of players but I can't really look at that like something that important unless someone explain me how to get into that.

Well consistently doing well in tournament, increasing the exposure of yourself like debuting with a win in GosuCups definitely doesn't hurt, let me tell you that. It might come with time, so I don't want to use up any more of yours, bringing this to the last part of this interview. Some small questions, quick takes if you will on several aspects of the game.

Starting with your favorite card in the entire game and why?

Since my favorite class is Priest, my favorite card is Thoughtsteal making the plays with your opponents cards is so satisfying and fun at the same time. It’s actually a good combination of fun and serious business.

Great selection. Next question is for your favorite Legendary. Are you going to go Velen?

Oh it’s not Prophet Velen, but it’s still something venomous, my favorite legendary is Deathwing. The way you feel when you top deck him in the late state of the game its inexplicable and it’s also good if the enemy use it, watching your whole board disappear with that dragon still pretty funny

Funny frustrating at times, if you ask me. I was going to ask you for your favorite class, but you already answered that. So let's go with the negative rout and you tell me your most hated class, most hated legendary and maybe even most hated card in the game.

Most hated class is going to be Mage for sure, I mean its fine to freeze my creatures, Polymorph my legendaries, Flamestrike my board and top deck that Pyroblast...no wait it’s not that fine.

Most hated legendary is Tinkmaster, it’s not really because he is an RNG gnome but in fact it’s a wrong card in the game. Shaman and mage are supposed to have a sort of Polymorph in their specific class cards, why would you add the same thing for every class in the game? And it’s also a 2/2 creature, like?? Blizzard please.

The Mage hate is pretty big in this one for sure! Now, to end this short little interview, do you have any shoutouts you want to make? Any final words you really want to get out there?

Well I would really like to thank all the GosuCup staff and also the players who were really courteous and humble most of them still in my friend list. In the end I would also like to give a shoutout to every Hearthstone streamer because I think they are really doing a good job on their part for the community. Also if someone think it’s just their job, wasting all that hours for exclusively your entertainment it’s something I really appreciate. So that’s it.

Thanks a lot and congratulations once again.