Interview with Janne 'Savjz' Mikkonen, winner of the Hearth2P EU vs CN Qualifiers

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

A name familiar to many, both inside and outside of the competitive scene, Janne 'Savjz' Mikkonen is one of the most renowned Hearthstone players in the world. He is a former member of Team Dogehouse, in which he participated in tournaments such as ESGN Fight Night, the Seatstory Cup as well as winning multiple weekly tournaments. The Finn is generally regarded as one of the best Hearthstone players in the world. We talked to him about his success in the recent Hearth2P EU vs CN Qualifiers, the current prevalence of the midrange Hunter deck, the future of the Hearthstone competitive scene and more.

First things first, congratulations on your win in the Hearth2P EU vs CN Qualifiers! How do you feel about it?

Thanks! Feeling great about it, getting through a field of great players was not an easy thing to do.

So what was your opinion on the format of these qualifiers? We saw 2p take a completely different stance to most tournament organisers with their qualifiers, making them a 128 man swiss with a 16 player cutoff. Do you prefer the swiss format for Hearthstone tournaments and do you think we’ll see more swiss tournaments in the future?

I think swiss as a format is excellent and I hope they will stick to it. Bo3 would’ve taken too much time, but maybe there should’ve been more rounds so the tie break score wouldn’t have been such a huge deal with people having same score, 5-2 in this case. I hope swiss is here to stay. I hope there will eventually be a way to limit the time of each round to maybe 1 hour, so bo3 could be used.

A lot of people have been having success with the midrange Hunter deck that we saw you playing in the qualifiers. What deck have you had the most trouble against whilst playing the midrange Hunter? Do you agree with Lifecoach that there is “no real counter” to the deck?

I agree with Lifecoach that there is no hard counter. Every deck designed to go over 50 percent vs Hunter will suck in other matchups (ie cutting black knight and big game hunter).

Following on, a lot of people seem to think that Hunters are overpowered currently. What would you change about the class to make them more balanced, if anything?

I think the “combo" that Hunter has with Buzzard, Unleash and Hunter’s Marks is broken. I have talked about it with a Blizzard balance guy, and without giving too much away, Blizzard is aware of the power of these particular cards when used in combination.

How do you think the Chinese metagame will differ from Europe’s? Do you think we will see incredibly different decks such as in the last NA vs CN tournament, or will they play more standard decks such as the midrange Hunter?

I have no idea about the Chinese meta. I suspect some of them have watched twitch streams and injected the hunter domination to that ladder/region too. I'm just guessing here though.

How do you see the competitive Hearthstone scene developing in the future? With the announcement of a championship at Blizzcon, do you think we will see a WCS style tournament for Hearthstone hosted by Blizzard in the future?

History has shown that Blizzard prefer taking the approach of supporting community ran tournaments over organizing their own. I don't think they will be running leagues or many tournaments by themselves and the thing announced is more an exception than the beginning of something bigger. I hope I am wrong here.

You recently joined Team Curse as the first member of their Hearthstone team. Are you confident about where the team is heading and the players that will be joining you at Curse? Do you have any hints as to who else we’ll see representing Curse in the future?

Yeah I am very happy to be part of Curse. We will be picking up 3 more players, most likely 2 from NA and 1 from EU. We are in talks with a few individuals right now. I am unable to give any names here, but the players will be no strangers to those who follow the scene.

Furthermore, do you think that being a member of a team is important for a top class Hearthstone player? How does being in a team affect your play and which benefits does it bring over just representing yourself individually in tournament?

I used to think that Hearthstone would evolve into an individual game with very high competitiveness, but it seems that the community likes team formats. Also, as anyone who follows the Hearthstone subreddit knows that the competitive stuff does not really attract attention at all compared to for example goofy and lucky pictures. Most players are still very new to the game, and I hope the focus of community will shift at least a bit when spectator mode is released etc.

Looking forward to future tournaments, Dreamhack Bucharest is just around the corner. Are you looking forward to the event and do you think that Dreamhack expanding into Hearthstone is a real sign of its progression as an eSport?

I am very excited about Bucharest. I hope the event will be a big success, I feel like it will be an important indicator of how well Hearthstone does in that type of environment. Anybody interested in organizing tournaments should be watching and taking notes on which things in broadcasting/format etc work and which could still be improved. IEM was a great success for Hearthstone, but I still feel this event is even more important to show if Hearthstone can take its place in events like Dreamhack. I would imagine if it was very successful, they would include Hearthstone on the other 4 of their events this year, or at least some of them.

Favourite class?

My favorite classes are shaman and rogue.

Favorite food?

Favorite food... Korean bbq!

Favourite season?

Don’t care.

Any last words or shoutouts?

I will be streaming on azubu in the future. More info on that can be found on my twitter @savjz and facebook www.facebook.com/savjz . Shoutout to sponsors CMStorm, Alienware and Azubu. Shoutout also to my good friends Team Dogehouse.

Thanks for talking with us Savjz, and good luck for yourself and the rest of the future Team Curse!