Extension Divided in the Alterac Valley definitely bears its name because since its release divisive debates are legion in the community Hearthstone. This time, it is an evolution of the eSports rules that is at the origin of the divide, with the legendary minion Thief at the center of the problem. Maestra of the costume ball.
It was until now banned from official tournaments because its effect was problematic: a player knows which classes his opponent is supposed to play against him before the match begins, and if an unplanned deck is played, it is a loss for the player who made the mistake, what to do with the Maestra case? Some simply suggested that in this kind of case the player waits to see if it was really an error or if it was really the Maestra decklist, but others argued that if there was an error it was was an unnecessary waste of time playing against an illegal deck. It was therefore simply prohibited for reasons of simplicity. Till today.
Here are the rules concerning Maestra in tournament (you can find all the rules concerning tournaments Hearthstone on the site playhearthstone):
Translation
- If during a tournament a player submits a deck containing Maestra of the costume ball, that player must use the classic card back Heartstone for this deck and any other non-classic card backs for all other decks in his line-up so his opponent can identify that the deck contains Maestra when the match begins.
- If it turns out that a player has started a match with a deck containing Maestra that has any other card backs or a non-Maestra deck that has the classic card back while their line-up contains a Maestra deck , he then committed an offense. The initial sanction for this offense is a immediate defeat of the current game.
Applying this rule to the letter or not?
Beyond the disappointed players that the main interest of the map, that is to say the mystery side, disappeared with these rules, a moral debate began to arise on the networks, mainly Twitter, well illustrated by this thread of the player Orange :
To sum up, he rejoiced in his first tweet about the official inclusion of Maestra competitively and encouraged his community not to be abusive of this brand new rule in the first tournaments, especially the MT Qualifiers # 1 approaching. The two deviant behaviors that he seeks to avoid are:
- The simple act of taking a win because the opponent did not know this rule and therefore did not use the correct backs of cards. Orange calls for fair play and urges players to remember this rule among themselves before the match begins to make sure that it is known to both sides.
- the rule-sharking, a term that comes from the TCG Yu Gi Oh! and which consists in abusing the ignorance of the rules which a player would have to push him to the fault in order to inflict him a defeat by arbitration. In this case, the technique would be to push an opponent to play the wrong card back to take the automatic victory.
Unfortunately for the pro player, the community did not react as he would have liked and it was with great surprise and bitterness that he realized that many players did not agree with its recommendations and hid their lack of fair play under the guise of the following pseudo-reality: “if the opponent does not know the rules it is his fault“. A great lesson in sport.
Competition and toxicity
This debate reminds us of another discussion that took place a few weeks ago regarding the stream-sniping, technique consisting in launching a match against a player in the process of streaming to know his hand and be able to play around his solutions in order to increase his chances of victory. The player J Alexander recently denounced one of his opponents who was therefore banned from competitive by Blizzard, but for the pro player this is not enough:
Translation : “Sniping, and why it matters: 6 of my last 16 games are against the same cheater. A single sniper alone can cause a lot of trouble for a content creator. You should ban their account completely, not only competitive. “
Indeed, beyond the competitive the absence of fair play attacks the game even in leisure, which is unpleasant for everyone and which makes us ask the question: for what ends? In the midst of these debates, we can read a good number of comments advancing the argument: “You show your hand to an opponent in a competitive environment where wins increase MMR, which increases your chances of qualifying for the next Masters Tour, why wouldn’t he?”.
We will therefore leave the last word to Brian kibler which concludes perfectly on the subject:
OTK decks have not finished talking about them! After some annoyance following the expansion’s release and the announcement of the Worlds decklists, the issues with the current meta return to the table.