And finally, an interview with the Tsar!
Anton, let me congratulate you on your tournament victory! Have you realized that you've become the winner, that you are now the sole rightful Tsar? :)Thank you very much. Yes, after the long game we played in one sitting for 10+ hours until late at night, I couldn't fall asleep for another couple of hours and just lay there coming to terms with my royal title :D
Many were rooting for you. Did you expect yourself to come out as the winner? Especially after twaryna's total dominance mid-year?To everyone who supported and cheered for me, I send a "royal" greeting and express my gratitude. It really helped when people encouraged me on the stream, even in those moments when victory seemed to slip from my grasp... Before the first serious winning streak, I didn't even think about the possibility of winning; the random draw wasn't kind to me. And even after I took the lead, I of course harbored hopes for victory, but the year relentlessly drawing to a close made me doubt it... I'm glad I was given this opportunity and I made good use of it!
Yes, you first surprised everyone with your winning streak of 7 wins in a row, and then you struck at the most crucial moment at the end, when it seemed no one could compete with Yostairs and twaryna in points. What did you feel when the lot chose you at the end? How did you prepare for the game with Yostairs? Tell us a bit about it.Honestly, by the time I was drawn to play, I had already resigned myself to not being the King of the Hill... I didn't even think about such a possibility. Naturally, I was pleasantly surprised, especially at a moment when everything could be turned upside down in just 2 games — a real gift!) I never specifically prepare for games; I have no fear of players, and fighting a worthy opponent is always interesting. Plus, it gave me extra confidence that I had drawn the right conclusions. After watching a couple of streams and observing the trend in his template and town choices, I had a slight advantage)
As for the game itself, it was quite tough. Considering we played XL+U (8xm12a), I had good tempo and Necropolis, but I couldn't find Town Portal until the middle of month two. It was fortunate that my opponent had the same problem, and in terms of raw army strength, I dominated throughout the entire game thanks to an excellent striker %)
Thank you for the detailed answer. How did you generally approach banning templates and towns? After all, in King of the Hill, the system is a bit different from the standard one. Did you try to analyze each player's preferences, or did you have a default ban?I already had an idea about most players, especially those I considered strong competitors. With them, I acted according to the situation. For those I knew nothing about, I would sometimes quickly skim through forum posts and game reports, but usually in such cases I acted based on my own understanding of the strengths of towns on certain templates that were acceptable to me.
Let's take your favorite template — Jebus Cross. Playing on it and being the current King of the Hill, which two towns did you try to ban? (For reference: town selection was done using the following system: The current King of the Hill bans 2 towns and lets the opponent choose, after which he himself chooses one from the remaining ones.)In my understanding, there are 2 leading towns on Jebus: Castle and Necropolis. The more experienced and stronger the player, the proportionally stronger these towns are. So against particularly strong opponents, I banned exactly those, because if you leave both, the probability of pulling out a win with a bad draw is significantly lower... I also took player characteristics into account. Sometimes I knew I could get away with leaving one strong town that the opponent doesn't like)
Do you consider the result natural — that all the old-school top players were left out, and the top 3 places were taken by relatively newcomers: you, twaryna, and Yostairs? If we go back to the very beginning of the tournament, without knowing the result and seeing only the list of registered players, how would you have distributed the winning places?Calling this result "natural" is a strong statement, but I can say that the efforts we put in (I speak for myself and twaryna; I have nothing against Yostairs, but I simply didn't see much activity from him, although he performed surprisingly well) since we started playing Heroes exceed the diligence of those same old-timers. Naturally, we also spend more time on games, and then the question arises: what is more important — years of accumulated experience or "grinding" and a fresh perspective? Naturally, I wouldn't say that only new-generation players would make the finals. In my eyes, very strong participants are Stinger, BISHOP, Maretti. This is just my subjective view; it doesn't mean other players are worse. It's just that I've recently encountered these guys a lot on the battlefield, and they are the ones who surprised me with their play)
I can't disagree with you. Indeed, diligence and the thirst for victory play a very important role, and old-timers are starting to lack these qualities. What do you think constitutes hero skill? What qualities are important (e.g., experience, luck, etc.)? I heard you worked a lot on your game this year. What kind of preparation was that?In Heroes, many aspects are important. Since the game isn't interactive, experience plays a huge role, but naturally, without dexterity and training, experience can turn into mere chatter ;) Luck is a good thing, and yes, games are sometimes decided by luck, but nevertheless, I am more and more convinced that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and you can almost always fight back, because luck favors the strongest (and the most persistent!) As for preparation, I often did a detailed analysis of my games, loaded turns, and thought about what would have happened if I had done something differently. Of course, the analysis was almost always of lost games, especially those where I was just a hair's breadth away from winning. The bitterness of defeat makes you act; I don't like to lose... so I have to get better.
It's nice to see your progress. :) What do you think overall about the King of the Hill tournament? We talked several times during the year, and you gave me a couple of useful organizational tips. What would you like to improve/change in the tournament if it were held in the future?The tournament greatly impressed me. Every game holds a certain intrigue. Of course, the fact that there was a selection filter also played a role. The originality of the tournament gives it a special zest. I haven't seen the system of play, the selection of templates and towns in any other tournament... Improve and change... I don't even know. In the course of our conversations, the scheme already changed quite nicely for the better. Of course, I would like to try to model some more stable mechanic for selecting players for a game while preserving the RNG principle, but I'm afraid this might lead to even more chaos) Although there are plenty of bright minds; maybe someone will suggest something, but it certainly won't be me)
Well then, once again I congratulate you on winning the tournament. Very soon you will try on a brand new crown. For now, let's step aside a little from Heroes and talk about you. I'm sure not everyone even knows your name. Please introduce yourself — who is hiding behind the formidable nickname HellLighT? :) Where do you live, what do you do besides gaming?My name is Anton. I live in the glorious but small Siberian city of Tomsk. Apart from Heroes, I'm currently into Dota 2 in terms of computer games. Recently, I discovered a new card game from Blizzard, "Hearthstone." I love chess, I do sports (go to the gym, swimming pool), I even earned sports rankings :) Actually, I could list many more things; if I weren't lazy, I'd be a perfect guy :D
Judging by your avatar, you're into sports no less than Heroes. :) How old are you, if it's not a secret? Do you work? Study? Do you have a girlfriend? I think everyone will be interested in simple everyday things about you. :)I'm 26 years old, have a higher education. Things aren't going too well with a job yet, so I'm getting by with odd jobs, which is why I have so much time for games) Unfortunately, I'm extremely demanding towards girls, so they are quite a rare and short-lived phenomenon in my life :) I don't want to delve too much into simple everyday things; those who need to know will find out themselves!)
Thanks for the answer! You mentioned Dota — how long have you been playing? What are your favorite heroes there? In general, how long have you been interested in games? How did you come to Heroes III?I've been playing Dota for a very long time, back from the unstable versions. For several years, I was the captain of the Tomsk team; we held the title of champions of Siberia for 2 (or 3) years. I like to play interactive heroes like Scorpion, Akasha, SF, etc. I've been interested in games since I was 9 years old, when my father's friend from school got a computer. By the way, that's when I got introduced to Heroes (the second one). It was the first PC game I ever saw, and I fell in love with it immediately. Then I also liked the third one. I played with friends at an amateur level. I tried to go online a couple of times before, but I was always lured away to either WoW or Dota. I started playing more or less consistently from the moment I registered on HeroesWorld, which I found through a Google link)
In your opinion, does Heroes have a future? How should the game develop to at least approach being an esports discipline? Or will Heroes forever remain the domain of a handful of enthusiasts?I have mixed feelings about this. The game is certainly extremely awesome in my opinion, but it isn't spectacular for an outside observer, especially when high-level players are showing their game... and that's the key to success in our time, the era of streams... Nevertheless, I see an influx of new players. It's not as big as I would like, but it exists, which means all is not lost. With good advertising and the right presentation to people (again, shoutout to my teammate Alexander aka twaryna, who promotes the game to the masses like no one else), something might come of it.
Thank you for the interesting, detailed answers. Let's do a quick lightning round to finish — I ask a question, and you try to immediately answer with the first thing that comes to mind. Ready? :)Ready
Necropolis or Conflux?Necropolis
Tazar or Crag Hack?Crag Hack
2SM4d(3) or 8mm6a?8mm6a
Offense or Defense?Offense
M or XL?XL
Standard or chess clock?Chess clock
Favorite secondary skill?Earth)
Luna — imba?Ultimate imba)
Favorite unit of each level?Troglodyte, Gargoyle, Grand, Archmage, Minotaurs, Naga Queens, Black Dragon)
Name the three strongest Heroes 3 players today. Without worrying about offending anyone, just your purely subjective opinion. (Don't name yourself).I can single out Maretti from everyone for his very high-quality and super-stable play. From the rest of the list of strong players, it's hard for me to single out two, but if you're interested in the list: (Gomunguls, Pit, Stinger, Bishop, Dirty. Formerly included the weakling Sevensan, but he's already left; maybe I forgot someone).
If, purely theoretically, Heroes became a professional discipline, for how much $/month would you agree to drop everything and dedicate yourself to the game?Well, to dedicate yourself to the game, you need to live on something. I think no less than 20-25 thousand at current prices)
Favorite sport?Tough question) For personal practice — weightlifting or boxing; to watch — hockey and many other contact sports)
Favorite movie/book/music band?Snatch (many like this) / The Death of the Gods (Nick Perumov) / Celldweller (also more than one)
And finally, AK or QQ? )QQ, although I'm not even sure what that's about))
Thank you for the sincere answers! :) It was a pleasure talking to you, as always. Good luck in the game and in life!Likewise! Thank you for the conversation!
