The stories of Blizzcon, Chapter I: The prodigy

It’s the summer of 2015 and one name has ignited the Hearthstone progaming scene, gathering awe and respect: William “Amnesiac” Barton. A #1 legend finisher, inventive deckbuilder, mechanical god and left-field thinker, Amnesiac is praised by his peers as the next big name in Hearthstone. Someone whose major breakout run is due any time soon. Someone, who will take the game by storm and reimagine it for years to come.

At the time, Amnesiac was only 14. A year later, he’s looking at challenging for the $1 million prize pool of the Blizzcon World Championship.

The appearance of a prodigy is always a memorable moment in eSports history. One can make parallels between the young card-slinger and names such as Young Ho “Flash” Lee, the legendary StarCraft player dubbed “The Ultimate Weapon”, or Dota’s Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, who became a millionaire at the tender age of 16 by winning his disciplines crown event in 2015. In Amnesiac's case, having actively competed for less than a year, the Massachusetts-born high schooler is yet to reach such high podiums and although in the past he’s expressed doubts about going full time, whether he likes it or not he now represents Americas’ best chance at a World Championship after the region’s rough loss in last year’s finals.

What does it take for talent and success to culminate at such young age? Though Amnesiac discovered Hearthstone at age 12, he’s been competing generally since his formative years, playing both basketball and tennis with competitive vigor. Blizzard’s CCG offered him the perfect opportunity to combine the thrill of the game with his mathematically inclined mind and in a blink of an eye he found himself on the path of ascension. His ability to read matches is almost unmatched and soon enough the big names of Hearthstone started to take notice.

On his way to conquering the Hearthstone ladder, Amnesiac was approached by Jason “Amaz” Chan, owner and captain of the hugely successful Team Archon, home of reigning world champion James “Firebat” Kostesich. Impressed by the youngster’s talent and his analytical skills, Amaz offered him a spot in his ranks and Amnesiac, still only 14, started coaching the stars of Archon. Besides Amaz, Amnesiac is credited with being a practice partner to some of Hearthstone’s most prolific competitors, including Jon “Orange” Westberg, Paul “Zalae” Nemeth and Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert. In October 2015, Amnesiac is officially contracted to Archon.

Despite all the excitement around his persona, Amnesiac’s high school duties and lack of tournament opportunities saw him end the year on a low note with a big question mark hanging over his young head: What will the prodigy do in 2016? In March, he answered in style and dropped only two playoff games on his way to an HCT Championship. At age 15, the prodigy was a lock for the World Championship. In November, he could become not only the youngest Hearthstone champion, but also game’s most winning player. What is even scarier is how easily it all comes to him.

There is no doubt he is one of the best players in the world,” Simon “Crane” Raunholst – a practice partner for Amnesiac and another name hugely praised for his ingenuity – said in an article published by the Daily Dot. “The special thing about him is how little effort he appears to put into something before almost mastering it. Picking up new strategies and such. Also, the combination of that and his age. I mean he is easily more intelligent than most adult people.”

All the peer praise and competitive success is backed up by Amnesiac’s rock solid confidence. Even with a relatively short career behind him, the now ex-Archon employee sees himself at the top of the Hearthstone mountain. While he will often confess his admiration for former team-mate Firebat, Amnesiac doesn’t feel overshadowed or threatened by the majority of his colleagues, an unusual attitude for a player who has played less than forty televised matches in his lifetime.

I definitely think I’m good enough to be helping [the Archon players] learn,” Amnesiac told PC Gamer in an interview from September 2015. “I’m not going to feed any speculation as to what team I’m joining, but I don’t feel as though I’m inferior as a player to any of them except maybe Firebat—because when I watch Firebat play it’s absurdly impressive. But I think they’re all amazing players, I just don’t really feel intimidated by anybody in the world when I watch them play. I’d never go into a best of five thinking I can’t win.”
 

 

While self-confidence is crucial to competitive success, a surplus of it could be damaging to one’s career. This is what multiple major champion Orange shared with GosuGamers in an interview in March this year, where he attributed his rapid decline in performance during the summer of 2015 to overestimating how unstoppable he really was. Arrogance is a temptation which can enthrall even the brightest minds – especially them, in fact – and Orange fears it could be what potentially brings his former team-mate to his knees.

Amnesiac is a god. That kid has some sick, sick talent. But I think he might start, and I don't blame him for it, getting in the same spot as me, where he just falls to his own arrogance. Because he's very, very self-confident. And he should be, too, because he is amazing. But I'm just afraid that one day he'll go out and not prepare as much because he thinks he's the best.

[…]

It's not like he doesn't take [the game] seriously, he prepares a lot, but maybe I'm just seeing it coming. He's incredibly good, but he's very young, he has a lot to learn when it comes to outside the game.”

On October 27, Amnesiac will have to bring the best of his meta-reading, deck building, mechanical skill and yes, even his cocky attitude, to the biggest challenge of his career. He opens his Blizzcon run playing “Yulsic” but he’s by far and away Amnesiac’s easiest opponent, as he finds himself in the company of Celestial’s veteran Yuxiang “Breath” Chen and Virtus.pro’s dead-eyed Artem “DrHippi” Kravets, who will very much love to end the prodigy’s campaign before it reaches the playoffs.

Amnesiac is a player who started as a Hearthstone child prodigy, and now, like proud parents, we watch him stride out to prove himself a man. The next two weeks could see him complete his rite of passage, becoming legend in the scene, but his path to glory takes him through the best players on the planet. At the end of it lies the metamorphosis from kid wonderkid to superstar and the birth of a new Hearthstone god.

Photos: Carlton Beener / Blizzard