Over the weekend at the Hearthstone Championship Tour’s (HCT) Fall Championship held at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, Mihai “languagehacker” Dragalin emerged from the pack victorious.

After his 3-1 match against Brian "Bloodyface" Eason, they, along with David “JustSaiyan” Shan, who finished in the top four of the event, sat down to speak with the press about the current metagame, their thoughts of the tournament, etc.

The players got the opportunity to discuss particular cards they liked and disliked at the moment, in addition to mechanics they were hoping to have implemented in future card sets.

The recent champion went first while pointing out a specific problem for him: 

I'm going to speak on the behalf of a few other players within the community who have made their opinion known in the past few weeks about this. Heavily polarizing cards that increase win percentages just by themselves are probably things I would just want to get cut. Obviously, Prince Keleseth is one of the prime examples. If you have that on turn two your win-rate spikes, depending on your deck, 10%, 20%, or more. I don't know the exact numbers but there is a clear increase in percentage just by having that card. I would like to see less of that. But I would like to see more of, and it is kind of a cop-out answer, but I want different mechanics. Different mechanics make the game feel more interesting so something new would be nice. I know right now with the Boomsday expansion they brought back Mechs in a new way with “Magnetic” and I thought that was a cool way to do it. 

Bloodyface spoke more towards a card that was recently nerfed, Giggling Inventor, and the type of playstyle he favors and what Blizzard can do to expand upon that:

I know for me personally, and I'm probably in the minority, but I love Giggling Inventor as I think it is great for the game, aside from Blood Knight and in Mossy Horror blowouts. I just like cards like Sludge Belcher, Tar Creeper and Giggling Inventor and things that just slow the game down and make the game more focused on board-centric trading because I think that trading is one of the more interesting parts of the game. When you play a card like Tar Creeper or Giggling Inventor, Giggling Inventor might be a little too overpowered because it is playable in aggressive decks, in addition to Quest Rogue, but just being able to have a card like Tar Creeper that can't snowball but it just stops your opponent from what they're doing is great. I love cards that allow the game to progress and go longer. 

When asked to reflect on their performance and the support they have received from those watching at home, they each took a moment to voice their thoughts.

JustSaiyan kicked it off:

I think the thing that we all have in common is that we all have a good passion for Hearthstone and we've been playing for the game for so long. Like, I have known Languagehacker and Bloodyface for years now. Anyone out there who is still aspiring to play card games or whatever you esport is professionally, it takes some time. Just think about how you are going to realize your potential. Just know that it might not come immediately but when it does come, it kind of all just comes rushing in.

Bloodyface echoed those sentiments while digging a bit deeper into his preparation process:

Hard work pays off and if you try something long enough and you're passionate enough about it it might take some time but it does pay off.  If you really want it you have to work your ass off. Personally, all I do is play Hearthstone and any time I get the temptation to play another game I remind myself that, "No, I want to be a professional Hearthstone player." Any free time I have I need to put in more hours because there is always more you can learn. Not even the best players know every single matchup in the meta and the game is constantly evolving so you could always be growing.

The champion, languagehacker, summed up his thoughts as well:

It pretty much just starts with passion and from there you can try and blossom it into whatever you think you want out of it.