Hearthstone Q&A: Kripparrian © Blizzard / Red Bull

From the first round of beta invites Octavian Morosan – known to hundreds of thousands of online fans as Kripparrian – has been part of the Hearthstone scene and in 2013's Blizzard Stream Awards, Twitch named his channel Favourite Hearthstone Stream and Most Engaged Viewers. He favours arena mode, but at last year's Blizzcon Hearthstone Innkeeper's Invitational, he achieved second place, only just losing out to Artosis. Red Bull caught up with the fan favourite to find out more about the charismatic card player.

So, how did you get into Hearthstone? I heard about the game years before when I was still playing WoW. My guild thought it was a joke. When trying the Final Fantasy 14 beta I was bored and eventually banned due to a bug. Looking at my options at the time, I saw that I was invited to the Hearthstone beta and decided to fire it up. That day was the first that the invites had gone out.

What is it about the game which keeps you playing and keeps you coming back? It's strategy, it’s fun, and it involves all the cool World of Warcraft characters I (and everyone else) love. In contrast to many other games I have tried recently, Hearthstone is a game that I haven't yet managed to get burned out on or bored of.

How would you describe your playstyle? I play greedy and overly controlling. This type of playstyle often loses to rush decks and is vulnerable to the unlikely, but ever so common, perfect top deck [top decking is when you draw the exact card you need for your current situation from the top of your deck on that turn by chance].

What's the story behind your gamertag? When playing Dark Age of Camelot with my friend, now Krippie, we were amused at the name of a exceptionally awful opponent, Krippy. When it was time to roll new characters my friend named his new Druid Krippie and I was a bit envious of now cool it sounded. After some time, we went back to play Diablo 2 on a ladder reset event and I named my Barbarian Kripparrian. I wanted to be a Kripp as well. The extra 'r' is a misspelling that I kept just because.

Streaming is great for building an audience and a fan base, but for the 2013 Blizzcon tournament you were able to use it to get an idea of one of your opponents' decks – is tipping other players off about strategies or styles a worry when you're streaming? I don't play enough constructed to care about this any more. For most tournament players who stream this is a big issue. Any information you can get on your opponent is huge. Competitive gaming is often about unfair advantages.

Who do you think are the strongest Hearthstone players right now? StrifeCro is one of the best players because of his consistently good tournament and ladder results. I have to give some credit to Reynad as well. A lot of people joke that every deck is a Reynad deck. While not exactly true, more current meta decks are constructed or influenced by him than any other player I know of.

Hearthstone is developing as an eSport, but is there anything you think Blizzard or other tournament organisers could do to improve the scene? I like to see change and new things each time I watch a tournament. In several of the recent ones, there has not been much diversity among which decks the players bring. I'd like to see cards changed or added to the set more frequently. I'm also hoping there will eventually be arena style tournaments with drafted decks.

Unleash the Hounds has been tweaked – has that affected your play? No. I never liked playing Hunter to start. Now it is simply easier to pick another class in the drafting process.

You also do some game casting, although you've spoken about not enjoying the setup for that – would you be interested in doing more casting or is it just the playing side which excites you? Casting Hearthstone is far more enjoyable for me than playing in constructed tournaments. I don't play in tournaments much because I play almost exclusively arena when I stream.

What's it been like becoming well-known online? It's like being the biggest kid in the schoolyard on recess: everybody kind of knows you, but few actually care. I like it.

How does the financial side of being a high-profile streamer work? You get a mix of sponsorship, viewer donations and advertising money – does being a well-known Hearthstone player feel viable as a long-term career? I don't advertise my received donations and as a result, get very few. Financially it works very well, but I never really think of playing games as a career, or a job. Games are awesome and as soon as you see playing them as a business, it completely ruins the fun.

Finally, given your experience and expertise in Arena mode could you give your top five tips for people looking to improve their Arena play? Everything comes from experience. There is some preference on drafting a deck, but you should always have a deck that can beat a control arena mage if you plan on taking your run past five or six wins. If you think you have the better deck or are the better player, take fewer risks. If you feel your deck is worse, take risks. The rest is the same as it is in constructed: stay composed, be patient, and know that every game matters.