Making it to a prestigious Hearthstone tournament is hard. First you have to grind for months to get enough HCT points and when you’ve finally let yourself suffer enough to make it, you still will likely spend days, if not weeks, on creating the perfect line-up to dominate the opponents. So when someone makes it to two prestigious Hearthstone tournaments, you know that player belongs to the absolute top.

After making it to the Summer Championships in 2016, Torben “Viper” Walh left craving more. His breakout performance was impressive, but he wasn’t satisfied yet. Now, two years later, he’s back at the big stage and faces off against the other regions’ best of the best this weekend. We spoke to him in a group interview, to ask how he was planning on claiming his ticket to the Hearthstone World Championships.

How does it feel to be back at a Summer Championships, almost two years after your last appearance?

It feels really good. Two years ago was the first Hearthstone tournament I ever played in, and I made it to the Championships. Now, two years later, I just want to get to the World Championships. I feel good making it again, it feels good to prove that I wasn't just lucky last time. I feel confident, I feel good about how I'm performing lately and I'm really looking forward to it.

Between two years ago and now there were three Playoffs, essentially all the 2017 Playoffs. I mean, you don't always get there right? So in 2017 twice I just didn't get through the Playoffs, didn't make the top four, and then I failed to qualify. I think the story of 2017 for many people was that they missed out on Playoffs by 1 HCT point because they weren't used to the new system, and there were more and more new people trying it out. But missing out by 1 point hyped me up even more to come back this year, and it worked out.

What are your expectations going into this tournament?

Eh, I don't know. I obviously want to make top four, I want to go to Worlds, that's obvious I guess. But expecting? It's hard to answer. Everyone is kind of close, no-one is like 80/20. I think I'm favored to make it out of the group stages. I think on average I make it out of the groups, but it's a bit awkward to answer that. It's a percentage-based game, and we're only playing one run.

Have you done anything new or unique in preparation for the tournament?

It's mostly just been as usual this time. But the difference was that there are so many different decks. We couldn't settle on a deck everyone would bring. We expected most people to bring the Even Warlock and Taunt Druid, but there's still an Aggro line-up. The four best decks on average are Aggro decks, so people would probably bring that. There were things to consider, but in the end it led to this. I'm gonna be fine against almost everyone, but I won't have an insane edge.

Who would you say is the biggest threat to you?

It's a difficult question. I always want to talk myself into thinking: "Everything is fine, I'm gonna be favored." I don't go into a game thinking about a disadvantage or that it's bad. Usually I feel fine going into my first game, like against Rase. And then looking at the other two people in my group I might face, Tansoku and XiaoT, I think I'm less favored than against Rase, but I feel confident going into those as well. I'd say it's between fifty and sixty percent against everyone in my group.

And not line-up wise, but skill-wise, who is the best player?

Hm, I always dislike answering questions like this. Because naming yourself probably feels a bit arrogant... Actually, I don't know much about the Chinese and Asia Pacific players. The guys I know, like Bunnyhoppor and Dog, I expect to play really well, and I expect myself to play well. So I guess those three.

Do you see any big differences between the European, Americas, Asia Pacific and Chinese region?

The most obvious difference is the point cut-off for players [to qualify], right? The Americas and Asia have a lower cut-off than Europe, so they just play less, take a month off whatsoever. By taking time off they probably miss out on a new deck, or something like that. But on the top-end of every region the players are really good, no one hopes to make any mistakes.

The one thing is that Europe always feel like there are more Control-style decks and Americas is a bit more Aggro heavy. But that's probably just my Ladder experience.

In your HCT Summer Championships statements you've said that you want to face off against
Turna, as he's one of the weaker players to qualify. Could you expand upon that statement?

I get asked this question so often the past few days. The basic answer is that when I was asked to make those statements I knew the four European guys who qualified: Bunnyhoppor, A83650, Turna and me. I know Bunnyhoppor is always playing well, always on top of his game and trying really hard. I know Kacper - A83650 - is always thinking everything through. I didn't know much about Turna, so I just knew of the games he played on stream, I knew the game he played against me. It felt like he was nervous on stream, making slight misplays. I'm not sure if he played fast, and thought about everything. He just didn't play optimally. He brought some weird cards in his line-ups and decks, at least from my perspective. So yeah said I want to face off against the guy who brought the weakest line-up to qualify. This is even a bigger stage, so if he was nervous then he's probably going to make some sub-optimal plays.

You and Bunnyhoppor brought the same line-up, which does not contain a Druid deck. What was your decision not to bring Druid?

We were thinking of what people would bring, and it's really hard because there are so many different decks, so many different line-ups. Nothing is just straight up the best. But what you can say about the majority of people is they're probably gonna bring Even Warlock, because it's good against Aggro and it's good against nearly everything else. So your strategy should either be to ban it, or be able to beat it. If you don't want to play an entirely Aggro line-up you probably don't want to ban it.

So we decided that our decks had to be decent against Even Warlock, and by being decent against Even Warlock your decks are also good against Taunt Druid. That's why bringing Taunt Druid just felt bad, and we thought other people reached the same conclusion. There are a lot of Rogues, Recruit Hunters... we are really happy that we figured out a fourth deck that is just better than Taunt Druid.

You were recently voted on the German team for the Hearthstone Global Games. How does it feel to be picked by the community again?

I'm really happy and grateful to be voted in. Last year I was the anchor and got in by earning points, and now I kind of know that the community stands behind me and likes me.

Last year the German squad didn't perform well, how are you going to prevent the same thing happening again?

I don't know. Some stuff happened, some bad stuff happened. The tournament system was a little random, and we didn't practice and prepare together last year. I'm just gonna be honest about that. So this year we are four friends playing, and there's not anything bad between us. I'm pretty sure we'll put way more time in it, practice together and we'll do our best to not disappoint again.

Talk a bit about the team you're on, Team Genji. It's got quite a big Hearthstone roster with a blue, red and grey squad. How did you end up on the team, and what was the thought behind having such a large Hearthstone roster?

I mean, how do you end up on a team? You're kind of looking for a team, you look at the good teams that you want to represent and who's on it. Sintolol and Seiko, two of my best friends in the Hearthstone community were playing in Team Genji. Representing the team your friends are in feels good. So when I was asked to join a second squad together with Rosty and Deathsie, who I have fun with every time we meet up, there was just no downside to saying yes. It's a great team, friends are there, and we just work well together. It's not like you're in the team just for something like the Team Standings. We can be friends and we can be together without stressing each other out.

How do you balance being a student and Hearthstone player at the same time? Has it influenced you leading up to this tournament?

There are always those times when you're full. So at the end of the month you have to grind ladder, then there's a tournament you have to prepare for... those kinds of things. Being a student and being able to say "I'm gonna take some time off this week and I'll do more next week" is really great. It's probably the best kind of job you can have besides the job of playing Hearthstone, which is very time-consuming. It's hard to have free time in between both. But somehow it works out. Even though lately I've prioritized Hearthstone over some exams.

Last weekend the German Nationals took place, but it didn't go so well. What happened there, and what gives you hope that the HCT Summer Championships will go better?

Going into the tournament I just arrived in LA, so I had been awake for 24 hours and then six hours later the Nationals took place and I just stayed awake and played. It was pretty difficult. Then in round 1 I was slightly unfavored, had some bad draws, and then in round two basically the same happened. I was also awake for 32 hours so I probably made some misplays, I'm not sure about that, but I remember being unlucky and not feeling so well. My advice is that playing tournaments when you're awake for more than 30 hours is not good.

Also if I'm honest, I did not take the Nationals very seriously because I knew I was going to be in LA. I knew I was gonna be awake for quite some time, so I didn't prepare a special line-up for it even though I should've done that. The level of competition is different from the Summer Championships or a DreamHack whatsoever.

You and Bunnyhoppor are good friends. If you're in the finals facing off against each other, who wins and why?

The guy that just draws better, to be honest. I don't expect Bunny or me to make misplays.

Any last words?

Thank you everyone, thank you to my fans. I'm happy that my family and friends are always supporting me. I think that's the biggest one, I'm really thankful for their support. And I'm happy to have made it here again.