This time we have for you an interview with Santtu2x who is a professional Gwent player, winner of many community tournaments, one of the best and most experienced tournament player, from team Aretuza. This is part 4 of 10 episode series of interviews. So, check in every Sunday for some Gwent reading!
What feature would you want added next to Gwent?
I would like faction MMRs in pro rank to be visible again.
What’s your favorite seasonal mode to play?
Blitz Gwent is the only seasonal mode I have liked enough too play for more than the couple of games required for seasonal reward trees.
Many players feel Blitz Gwent should be included as a permanent mode – would you agree with that?
If any seasonal mode is to be added as permanent, I would have it be Blitz Gwent. However, I don’t really mind that much either way. I don’t see myself using a lot of time on a format that has different decks compared to tournaments.
What’s an archetype from the past you’d like to see return?
I really enjoyed spies in open beta, and while spies were recently introduced as an archetype in Master Mirror, they don’t have the same kind of consistency as open beta spies. I would love to see an archetype with a bronze core that strives for consistency and high synergy between cards. Whether or nor it has anything to do with actual spying units doesn’t matter too much for me.
How do you feel about the state of balance for the game?
I think most of the SK nerfs in the latest hotfix were good changes, but it is still a little too soon to talk about the balance after hotfix.
Would you want to see another faction added in the foreseeable future?
I don’t see a particular need for a new faction, but I’m not against it either. If CDPR comes up with a faction that would add something unique to the game like Syndicate did, I would be happy to see a 7th faction.
What’s your opinion on hotfixing in the middle of the season?
I think hotfixes are necessary in some situations, and most hotfixes CDPR has done have been in situations where I would agree with a hotfix being necessary. As long as the hotfix is done early enough in the season and not right before any important tournaments, it is a better alternative than keeping something completely unbalanced through the whole patch.
What’s your opinion on the reworked Ciri: Nova?
I would say Ciri: Nova is exactly where a meme card should be. It is strong enough for people to play it if they want to, while not being strong enough to be competitively relevant.
Scoia’tael might be the weakest faction at the moment, and didn’t receive much of a boost in recent updates. What would be your solution to that problem? Do your regret harmony being nerfed?
I think harmony was one of the best options to have as one of the top decks, so I wasn’t happy to see it completely destroyed. I can understand people wanting to see it nerfed after it was at the top for months, but it wasn’t necessary to completely kill off the archetype. Especially as at the same time they gave other factions great new cards that could have meant Harmony wouldn’t have been the best deck even if not nerfed.
How do you feel about nicks being hidden on Pro Ladder?
Personally, I would prefer if the names were visible, but I can understand the reasoning CDPR had for the change. I consider hiding faction MMR numbers to be a worse change than hiding player names.
What do you enjoy more, ladder or tournament play?
I have always been a tournament player who just happens to play some ladder when bored. For me Gwent is far more enjoyable in tournament formats compared to ladder.
How excited are you for the tournament mode?
Tournament client had been at the top of my list for Gwent features since open beta. I am excited about the tournament client, but my main source of excitement isn’t actually the client itself. I’m looking forward to seeing how many new tournaments will be hosted due to the tournament client being available.
Do you think tournaments will become popular for the wider Gwent community?
At the launch of the client, there will be a lot of new tournaments for sure. Whether or not that continues after the initial hype is harder to say, but I am hoping for the best.
Could you see the top 64 ladder roster being expanded to promote quality of play over grinding?
It is hard for me to say, on one hand there are players who would be better than some of the top 64 that don’t make it into qualifiers because they can’t play enough ladder games. But it is also important to keep in mind that those players are a minority in the players who rank lower than top 64. Back in beta we had qualifiers for top 200 players and that did result in some players who weren’t good enough to matter in the qualifiers. I’m not sure if 64 is the optimal number, but I would be careful about expanding it too much.
What game (except Gwent) are you playing the most currently?
I have recently played some Stellaris and Divinity: Original Sin 2, but I don’t play other games too often.
Thank you for your time, and good luck on the ladder!
