Meet the trio that won Assembly: Vortex and his steamrolling Paladin and Mage

Photo: Sett.fi

On the last day of January, the first LAN event of 2015, Assembly Winter in Helsinki, Finland, crowned an unlikely winner. Teun "Vortex" Eielts of team LowLandLions wasn't seen in televised tournaments since the Autumn of last year and he was going to an event which featured names like Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen, Harald "Powder" Gimre, Petar "Gaara" Stevanovic, Jan "Faramir" Engelmann and Keaton "Chakki" Gill, to name a few.

That weekend, Vortex played only seventeen games over five Bo5 and Bo7 series because that's all he needed to win the Assembly Winter championship. Even though all players were required to bring four decks of different classes, Vortex only showed two - his Paladin and his mech Mage. He went 16-1 between them, beating Greensheep, Wampie, Xeno, Savjz and Numberguy.

As I sit down with the Dutchman for a post-Assembly interview, I know I have questions about his decks, the tournamnt, the metagame and tournament formats but I ought to start with another topic...

Where have you been, man? I haven't seen you compete since September, I thought you retired?

I was mostly playing online tournaments. I wasn’t very active but never stopped playing. It’s hard to compete when there are so many great players. I also focused a lot on Hearthstone coaching and got over 230 hours during the time I didn’t attend tournaments.

Was coaching more rewarding for you?

I enjoy teaching and it’s a great way to earn a little bit extra. I don’t make much of coaching since I am pretty affordable at €10/hour but I have a customer base and returning clients. When you pay a pro player 75$ I think you do it more to talk to your idol because one hour isn’t enough to teach someone Hearthstone.

I like to compete but also enjoy teaching and when you get exposure it’s a great way to get new customer. This is where I do it, by the way.

I've never experienced this personally - just like most of our readers - so give me the basic rundown. What does a Hearthstone lesson include? Where do you start, for example, and what direction do you take when you get a new client?

Well, I always want to offer the best coaching tailored for the individual client. I begin by asking a few questions to get a general understanding: What are your favorite decks? What card collection do you have? What rank did you get in the past? Why do you think you are stuck? After that I start reviewing their decks and suggest things and explain why and what the current meta is. You actaully see alot of old decks that were popular months ago.

After reviewing all that, we hit the ladder and I watch my client play and ask him what he would do and why. This way I get a general understanding of what mistakes this person makes and what to think about. Then I explain him what play I would make and why. A lot of players don’t see their own mistakes and this is why someone can get stuck at a certain rank. I had some great reviews and hit a couple times legend with my customers. Sometimes we even beat a pro on the ladder and the first thing they do is make a screenshot and be really happy. Then they show it off to their friends.

"I made over 230 hours of coaching in the time I didn't attend tournaments."

Speaking of mistakes, what are the most common ones? What's the thing that most newbies (no offense) need coaching through?

The most common mistakes are when to trade and when not to, playing around certain cards, etc. Seeing lethal in advance is something they tend to miss out on and rather trade the board away which is a huge mistake that cost them a lot of games.

Do you ever go deep into explaining more complicated card game concepts, like resource or tempo management for example?

Yes, I do. I always try to fill my hours with a lot of information since I have alot of returning customers I can explain more complex things as well.

How large is your practice currently?

I’ve had 40 different customers and I still keep in touch with. I keep all my customers on Skype and I provide a free services when they ask me question or want a deck list, etc. Most of my customers come back after some time and I am glad that my lessons stuck with them.

Back to competitive Hearthstone! What prompted you to exit the shell of online tournaments and travel to Finland for Assembly? Was it like "OK, it's time to get back to televised tournaments"?

I would love to compete in every televised tournament possible but unfortunaly this was not always possible because of LAN support or failing to qualifying. Now I am actually planning to attend everything and play all qualifiers that I can. You see that a lot of the big team names get invites because that increases viewership and I understand that. I would like to see more qualifier spots per tournament to give more people the chance.

You were invited kind of in the last minute when PTZ and Naiman couldn't go. How prepared were you?

I met Markus, who also organize the IeSF Baku, and knew I was the first spot on the backup list to attend of someone should cancel. I did alot of research and followed the players in the most recent tournaments and tried to predict what would be popular. I was feeling really confident about my lists and knew what to expect. The only thing I was wondering if people would still bring Hunter or not after the [card]Undertaker[/card] nerf. I played [card]Kezan Mystic[/card] in two of my decks because I was expecting a lot of Mages which I met in the semis and final.

"When you feel really comfortable with a deck, you will perform well with it."

What's funny, though, is that we barely saw your full deck collection, it was all about that Paladin and Mage decks of yours that went 16-1 or something. How does one win an entire tournament with just two decks?

Yes, I went 10-0 with the pala and 6-1 with the mage and my only loss was versus Greensheep who played a face Hunter with double [card]Arcane Shot[/card] and I didn’t see it coming. After that loss I had a streak of 14-0.

I’ve always been a fan of Paladin; a couple months ago I played pala control almost exclusively. It wasn’t considered a strong deck but it actualy also brought me to IeSF. When you feel really comfortable with a deck you will perform well with it. It is still hard to pull off these results but [card]Quatermaster[/card]s love me so that helps.

What is amazing, I think, is that although Paladin has been climbing the power ranks quickly, few people pulled off such great results in tournaments. StrifeCro in the first Kinguin comes to mind but since then there's been no other that utilized the class to scoreboard such numbers. Where do you think the class actually stands? And is it that Quartermaster-dependent?

I think it’s one of the strongest classes for sure. It’s so versatile that you don’t have much bad matchups and it’s a safe pick. You have alot of ways to stay ahead on the board which helps against agro but also versus control. It’s not entirely dependent on [card]Quartermaster[/card] but it puts a lot of fear into players. Even when you don’t have it in your hand your dudes will always attract focus and opponents might lose a lot of pottential value because of that.

What will change now, with the Undertaker nerf? How much space will open for new decks which were unreliable during the Zoo/Hunter era?

That’s hard to say because I think there will still be plenty of aggro. Zoo will switch to a more mech build and Hunter more to face. Time will tell but I don’t expect new deck surprises. We might see some Rogue decks pop up but other than that I don’t know.

"I don't expect new deck surprises just because Undertaker is nerfed."

I want to get back to you as a player. You were a PkD member for a long time before leaving the roster, a move which didn't really make the headlines. When did you part ways with PkD and why?

I left PkD one month after IeSF. While I playing there I got contacted by the Dutch organization LLL and they made an offer for beter LAN support. PkD was getting a bit unactive and our contracts were ending.

Since I wasn’t playing much international tournaments I wanted to focus more on the local scene; we have four LANs a year in the Netherlands. This would help me get some exposure even if it is just local events. I was very happy with PkD and I am still great friends with all of them and I hope I will be seeing more of PkD in the future.

That's interesting. Most players do prefer international, high-scale tournaments for the exposure. Is your focusing on local soil tournaments something you want to do because they're offer more certain rewards compared to larger LAN events?

I would be the inernational player for LLL and help expand their brand. Our local esports scene is quite good compared to other countries but reward-wise it could be beter for Hearthstone – other games get the bigger attention but that will change in the future. Since my international exposure wasn’t so good I started looking for one on local soil. I want to stay sharp, compete and wait for a break through.

"Since my international exposure wasn’t so good I started looking for one on local soil."

Blizzcon-eligible tournaments is on your radar I'd guess?

Yes, this is one of my top priorities and will try to gather as many points as possible by playing in tournaments, ladder, and even fireside gatherings.

Do you think the format has taken a step forward compared to last year? Especially considering how there's a new format now that's to replace the good old deck elimination?

Yes, it is a pretty intressting format that will require you to bring solid decks. You have to be good at all classes and won’t be able to steam roll with just one. I will be looking forward to playing this format.

Should this be the new standard for regular events as well?

Blizzard has thought a lot about it and I think it will certainly see more play in the future. Pro players will adjust to it and will have a lot of new things to think about and try. I do think that community and weekly online tournaments will need some time to adjust and will keep to the old format for some time but I am sure they will adopt it eventually.

Decklists: