Chapter I: The prodigy (Amnesiac)
Chapter II: The red flags (China)
DrHippi's Blizzcon line-up: Malygos Druid • Midrange Shaman • Tempo Mage • Aggro Secrets • Control Warrior
“One day, DrHippi will show up at an event and he will be like the final boss. Nobody will stop him and he will take it all home.”
-- TheChiv, 2016
It’s the twilight of September 2016. The place is Raleigh Studios, California. The eight players for the HCT Europe Championship are filming their interview pieces. They are bursting with anticipation, a Blizzcon spot just three wins away and from there – the biggest event and the biggest prize of their lives. They can barely hold it.
Except for one. Even with his birthday not two days away, Artem “DrHippi” Kravets’ face betrays no emotion, no doubt, no weakness. Only cold determination. His eyes are piercing, his expression – calculating. He knows the stakes are high. He’s played them before, during the winter of this same year where his trusted friend Ole “Naiman” Batyrbekov robbed him of a championship. This time, the young Ukrainian is not coming home with another silver.
Anyone who has watched DrHippi compete will agree his breakout has been long time coming. The star of the now Virtus.pro player emerged during the HCT Europe Winter Championship where he wrote the first chapter of what his fans hope to be a story that ends with quarter million in the bank. During those first steps of his, DrHippi awed the audience with the way he piloted the highly complex Freeze Mage deck, navigating through the match-ups and making heads-up plays with elegant brilliance, reminiscent of the fire-and-ice symphonies of his countryman and Freeze Mage god “Laughing”. DrHippi’s confidence with one of Hearthstone’s most difficult archetypes led to his Freeze Mage being permanently banned for the rest of that tournament.
Other opponents in other tournaments weren’t as wise, however, and is StarLadder Season 2, DrHippi’s Freeze Mage was once again a driving force behind his success, resulting in a bronze medal and $5,000, his path to the finals only stopped by eventual champion Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert.
Naturally, there was always more to DrHippi’s game than just good Freeze Mage turns. During his HCT campaign, the Ukrainian proved he can get away with most of the playstyles and archetypes in Hearthstone. Despite showing weakness on his Warrior play – his Dragon deck almost got him a first round elimination in Summer – DrHippi has made strong impression on combo decks like Miracle, midrange board-control decks such as Druid and Zoo and manically aggressive builds like Face Hunter. From the very first games he played on stream, DrHippi showed the versatility that is always associated with the greats of the game. He couldn’t be described as just the lover of control or the SMOrc guy, and to see him pilot everything with ease was terrifying and inspirational at the same time.
At age 20, DrHippi was already at Hearthstone great. All he lacked was the experience that came with mass wins.
Going back to that memorable September 24 of the EU Summer Championship shows another strength of DrHippi the champion: Curve-balling parts of his otherwise standard line-ups to throw opponents off balance. Changing his favorite Freeze Mage for a Tempo build was a move which worried experts and fans alike – nobody had seen him on the deck in a major tournament before – but there was no sign of inexperience or vacillation in DrHippi’s play. No opponent took a game off of the Tempo Mage that weekend and nobody could ban it as to not leave the ever-threatening presence of Midrange Shaman open.
DrHippi’s quest for perfection is a major part of his success story as he would think long and hard before making any play. “He spends a lot of time thinking about the possible choices and 99% of the time he does the best possible play,” says team-mate, rival and Blizzcon finalist Ole “Naiman” Batyrbekov. The way DrHippi approaches Conquest matches, especially against players he’s familiar with, has also been praised by his peers. In an interview for GosuGamers, DrHippi’s opponent in the Summer Championship grand finals George “Georgec” Connoly explained:
“DrHippi out-mindgamed me. When I played versus [him], I lost three favorable match-ups in a row but he queued the best percentage decks against Freeze because he knew what his strategy was, knew what he had to be doing.”
Yet, for all the reserved demeanor and deadeye stare fans are used to seeing on stream, the away-from-keyboard DrHippi is just another youngster in love with Hearthstone who, above all, wants to have a good time, says Naiman.
“DrHippi himself says that his career began when he came to Kiev [for the Winter Prelims]. He went there mostly to have fun and didn’t care a lot about winning. I think such kind of personality helps him in tournaments. Because of his young age, he doesn’t worry much about results and is open-minded, positive and social.”
If he wants to win this week, however, DrHippi might have to leave the offline easy-going persona and summon the stone-cold calculating machine which got him to two Championship grand finals and earned him upwards of $70,000 this year alone, his guaranteed $25,000 from his Blizzcon ticket included. On Wednesday, the Virtus.pro star will enter one of the two groups of death of the World Championship, featuring both the prodigy that is Will “Amnesiac” Barton and the Team Celestial veteran Yuxiang “Breath” Chen.
A friend said that one day, DrHippi will show up at an event and be unbeatable, taking it all home. And I don’t think he meant the Summer Championship.
Photos: Carlton Beener / Blizzard
