The controversial Hearthstone player only means business
Photo by Blizzard Entertainment
One cannot simply talk about the best Hearthstone players in the world without mentioning Luo ”Roger” Shengyuan, one of the participants in the grand culmination of the Hearthstone Championship Tour, the HCT World Championship 2019.
The Taiwan-based star was able to cement himself as one of the bests following his compelling victory at the HCT Winter Championship on March last year, a tournament which featured seven HCT World Championship 2019 participants. After his quarterfinal victory in the playoffs, Roger seemed to have forgotten how to lose a match and proceeded to stream roll against his opponents until he is crowned as the grand champion.
However, despite his impressive feats, Roger’s résumé is far from flawless. Last October, Roger, together with his teammates at Chinese Taipei, was disqualified from the 2018 Hearthstone Global Games after violating the rules to gain competitive advantage. The Hearthstone esports team’s investigation found out that they were using the delayed tournament broadcast to aid them in a decision during the game.
As a result, their victory over Singapore was rescinded and they were forced to forfeit the tournament without any prize money. Moreover, Blizzard Entertainment has also stripped Roger off of his chance to be invited to the inaugural year of Hearthstone Grandmasters, as its competitors require to be in their highest standards, not just in performance, but also in conduct.
Though the global Hearthstone community remains upset about Roger being able to participate in the HCT World Championship 2019, Blizzard Entertainment responded that their failure to adhere the community’s standards should not diminish the accomplishments of Roger, who qualifier to the world championship in his own hard work.
“My fanbase doesn’t really affect my playstyle, however, because of them I really try to work harder and get the best position at every tournament. I’m not here to prove anything at this tournament. Whether I win or lose, I will do my best, and that is enough for me,” Roger stated in his interview.
Barring the controversy surrounding him, there’s still one reason why eyes are all around Roger. It’s because among the list of participants, the decks Roger brought in front of his home crowd were rather unorthodox compared to his rivals. He was the only one who refused to craft a Tempo Rogue deck, the most popular deck in the HCT World Championship 2019, while bringing in the tournament’s only High Priest Thekal and Nozari combo-empowered Control Paladin.
His opponents also hold high regard for his potential. David ”justsaiyan” Shan, who advanced to the playoffs from Group C after his undefeated streak, admitted that he has a lower chance of winning against Roger, compared to other potential opponents in Group D. Meanwhile, Brian ”bloodyface” Eason, who outlasted Roger in the group stages’ winner’s final, 3-2, to advance to the playoffs, also stated that it was Roger who he was fearing the most and was ultimately glad that he’s out of the way.
Though he missed his first chance at securing at least a top-eight finish, the road to redemption is not over for Roger. He will come back for the decider matches and will face the winner between Tyler “Tyler” Hoang Nguyen and Torben “Viper” Wahl.
The HCT World Championship 2019 will continue tomorrow with a best-of-five match between Wu “BloodTrail” Zong-Chang and Wu “TGXiaoT” Juwei at 10:00 SGT. Check out our event page for more information and updates about the HCT World Championship 2019.
