Summer Mansion's review with Lifecoach
A major Hearthstone event took place last weekend. The Summer Mansion, hosted by Lifecoach in Vienna (Austria), which has been watched by every Hearthstone fan. And for a good reason, a very high-standard field of players : 12 well-known pros and 4 qualified non-pros. These ones have made such a great performance that one of them, the Italian "ElMachico", has even picked up the big cashprize, in front of a surprised audience. Pavel, Stancifka, Maverick, Orange, Ostkaka, so many serious title contenders, who finally spent a great friendly time.
We have been able to communicate with the event's hosters, Adrian and Mirijam Koy (aka Lifecoach and Wifecoach) and they answered our questions. They agreed to make a review of the event's organization and the weekend itself, and moreover about their new career in Gwent. We sincerely thank them for their sympathy and availability.
Summer Mansion's three hosts : Wifecoach, Lifecoach, SuperJJ (from left to right)
Interview of Adrian "Lifecoach" Koy
Can you make a quick summary of this Summer Mansion ? Ambiance, players and progress of the week end.
Lifecoach : The event was just amazing! The reason for leaving Hearthstone was that I did not enjoy the game itself any longer, it was not because of the people that played it. For the last 3 years we met the same people at events and we shared big moments, that connects. Leaving Hearthstone was the right move for me but I did not want to leave the people bound to it behind. So we thought: Why not just make a HS event now and then and have a nice weekend with friends, BBQ, pizza, drinks, poolparty in the frame of a proper tournament ?
And this is exactly what it turned out to be: a good time with friends (and way too much pool party :))
The living-room and gaming area : Xixo, Powder, Orange, Pavel, Evangelion and some others are here.
How did you pick the sixteen people who were here ? Or the twelve pro players at least, knowing that four were here thanks to qualifyers. Affinities ? Fame ? One at least one per community (french/belgian, italian, german...) ?
Lifecoach : First of all we asked the 7 pros besides JJ (so he could host the event with us) that came to our last tournament, Throne of Cards 4. We did enjoy every minute with them this spring, had them living with us, shared the table and the wi-fi - that was really nice... All of them are more than just HS-contacts to us, some of them I would consider real friends in and out of gaming. Those were Crane, MrYagut, StanCifka, Xixo, Ostkaka, C4mlann & RDU. Last one needed so prepare for HCT so he could not come but everybody else was on board straight away.
Then we invited HS-pros who we like and who we thought would fit in well. There was no preference for their origin, but most of them were Europeans, just for the reason of logistics - Eloise and Pavel were the ones from further away but them and Xixo came straight from Seat Story Cup which took place in Germany the weekend before so we got to spend the whole week with them at our house before the event.
The participation of qualifiers is a general thing in all of our events. With all respect to the pro-scene we find that it is rather closed and lacking new faces. Making open qualifiers gives less known players the chance to shine - which is exactly what happened with ElMachico winning the SummerMansion!
Do you still have fun to organize and cast Hearthstone games ? Is it better than before ? I mean, RNG can only troll other people now :)
Lifecoach : Frankly speaking my wife did most of the organization for the event, as I am in the 100/hours per week Gwent schedule with JJ atm. I definitely do enjoy hosting them though and casting with JJ and other pros is always good fun. Crazy Yoggs might not be enjoyable while playing but it is something exciting for the watchers including the casters.
ElMachico and C4mlann in front of the swimming pool.
What can you say about ElMachico ? Did you know him before this event ?
Lifecoach : No, I did not know ElMachico before he qualified for the SummerMansion via Strivewire. This was - by the way - a 512 man tournament single elimination where 2 players qualified. This means he had to win 8 matches consecutively before he even got to Vienna, continuing his winning-streak there. He has my full respect not only for that but also for taking the pressure of facing pros, being streamed and having the prize money in mind. This is something widely underestimated and even big names crack during important matches making mistakes they would normally never do.
I would not say that he played flawlessly but winning a 512 man qualifier and then a 16 man event with 12 pros he cannot have done too much wrong :)
Do you have any regrets about leaving your Hearthstone career ? Do you wish to cast some other competitions in the future, like HCT/Dreamhacks or something like that ?
Lifecoach : No and no.
I saw you are on top of the Gwent's ladder with SuperJJ and Gameking. I won't ask if you're happy with that, but are you looking forward to have more "competitiveness" in front of you?
Lifecoach : I will be happy the day that JJ and myself are rank 1 & 2 of the global leaderboard but this is quite a challenge. ;)
We actually played a rank1 game with GameKing at the mansion during our in-house qualifier the weekend before the SummerMansion. He is in HGG Team Austria with my wife and they usually play their matches from here.
Generally speaking I am an extremely competitive person who is always looking forward to more competitiveness in front of himself.
Gwent's ladder seems very exhausting according to Lifecoach and SuperJJ
You are the first Gwent player in Evil Genius team. What is your competition's timetable on this game ?
Lifecoach : There is nothing officially planned right now but I am sure soon this will change :)
We saw a lot of videos showing you being fed up with Hearthstone, especially about it's RNG. Does the future new expansion still hype you ? Will you try to play it nevertheless ?
Lifecoach : I left HS behind me. I am grateful for all the great moments and people that this game brought to my life but this is the past. For now Gwent is the future and I do not look back.
The mistress of the house, Wifecoach, in front of her domain
A question about Wifecoach, who made pretty decent performances in HS especially in the Winter DH, and in the austrian HGG team. She's part of Evil Geniuses too, according to their site. Will she play competitive Gwent too ?
Lifecoach : My wife is an amazing woman - inside and outside who has always supported me to 100% with her brains and her heart. She is not officially part of EG but since I am a proud to be one their members, she is kind of an inoffical EG-member as well. The team has welcomed her not less warm than me and she feels connected to EG not only because of me but also because of their values.
She has played some Gwent, even in ranked mode but I think with 2 little kids, tourney organization, our other projects and me as a husband (smile) she is busy enough for now :)
A last word for the French community. Which french (or belgian) player do you prefer ? And who has, according to you, a great potential in CCG ?
Lifecoach : Well, France (and Belgium) has a big and strong HS-community in general with many strong names being unknown. If I had to decide on one name it would be Maverick. Not only is he a great player with good tournament results but a very decent person on top of that.
Maverick's seriously warming up for the tournament
