Gaming
How a Fireside Gathering went from a tiny fan meet-up to being part of the road to BlizzCon.
Thomas Runhart, event organiser of the Netherlands Last Call Europe tournament, has a story that is rather humbling. We’re all fans of games, but to transition from playing and enjoying them, to being a cog in something that includes the words “World Championship” is mind-blowing. To think that all of this has been achieved in two years, though, well; that’s just crazy.
People who get through his Hearthstone tournament can have a shot at winning an astronomical $1m prize at BlizzCon. It’s one of just two qualifiers in Europe. This year’s Last Call Tournament will have the already-qualified pro Hearthstone player Thijs appearing, just to spend some time with fans and play the game.
But it all started with Runhart’s desire to be involved in a tournament in his home town of Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands. That's how Fireside Gathering came about. “When the game released I was hooked and wanted to play a tournament. But there was nothing in the Netherlands yet, so together with a friend, we decided to host one ourselves. Sixteen people showed up, but the amazing thing was, a few travelled for more than two hours. Everybody was enthusiastic and we decided to host one every month and share our experiences with Blizzard.”
Blizzard tend to keep fairly quiet on most things, but it appears something about this event grabbed them. “They were very interested in all our ideas and plans and we got to organise the Winter Preliminary to the European Championship together with a few other locations in Europe,” Runhart tells us. “Thereafter each event kept getting better, more professional and much more players who come back every time.”
Now, though, Runhart’s tournament is a direct qualifier to the Hearthstone World Championships at BlizzCon and where once the games played out at a small cafe, they’ve had to upscale quite a bit. “We are organising it in the beautiful Theater Castellum in Alphen aan den Rijn,” he says, “The top eight players on the Hearthstone ladder are invited to either go to our location in the Netherlands or Kiev. From there they will play until there's a winner. Hopefully hundreds of Hearthstone and Blizzard enthusiasts will gather at the theatre to watch the players live in action and play in cool side events where Blizzard will give away lots of goodies.”
Runhart is a busy man, it seems, and Last Call Europe is not his day job. He has a heavily pregnant wife, a two-year-old daughter and a “crazy dog”, and he works as an assistant air traffic controller at Schiphol (the main international airport in the Netherlands), so has a hectic life before even thinking about planning and putting on this October’s tournament.
He enlisted the help of friends to overcome hurdles in the early days. “Early challenges were definitely Wi-Fi. Even though Hearthstone uses very little data, lots of devices on one access point can cause disconnects. Thankfully my partner Nicholas works at IT in a school with thousands of students, so he's a real lifesaver when it come to those problems.”
But we can’t help wondering how this really came to Blizzard’s attention. Surely there are lots of fans playing the game and doing local tournaments. Why did his actions stand out? “We purely focus on the community and what they want. So we constantly thought of creative ideas and got feedback from players. This made us grow really fast and everybody helped us in finding new locations and events.”
Runhard had help, too: “Lots of people volunteered to help and now we have about 20 volunteers making sure every event runs as smooth as possible. Blizzard got so much positive feedback from players attending our events, they asked if we were up to the task in hosting something big, and so we got to do Last Call Europe.”
So nowadays, being a direct qualifier for the World Championship, the numbers are growing, but the temptation to start charging is something Runhard easily resists. “Because Blizzard cares so much about the community, the event will be free for everyone. They're giving away hundreds of goodies at the Last Call and you're able to meet many famous players as well. The live stream will probably get 1,000,000 views over the day and cameras will be broadcasting constantly. You also get to participate in many activities while you're there, so we even expect people from Germany, Belgium, and France coming over.”
Speaking of those famous players, top Hearthstone star Thijsnl will be attending Last Call this year, though he’s already qualified, just to hang out and play with the community. But there will be some big names competing, still.
“Hoej is currently the number two on the ladder in Europe and he's been very consistent lately and spending a lot of time training and preparing.” Runhard is a fan of GreenSheep, though. “He's been a pro Hearthstone player from the beginning and is such a great guy. But he also has won many tournaments, so hopefully he's ready to get this big one.”
With the constant support from Blizzard, Hearthstone has changed a great deal since it was first released. With story content adding new cards which change how people play the game, Runhart believes the current meta focuses on the mana curve to get high-value minions into the game. “There will be many Warriors, Shamans and Warlocks everywhere. And of course we’re going to see a lot of Yogg-Saron action.” He doesn’t think that card is broken, as such, either: “At our events, people go crazy when Yogg comes out. Excitement, drama; the card has it all.”
Predicting results is never easy, but there’s a real possibility Last Call could be hosting a potential Blizzcon World Champion. “Europe and America are pretty equal at the moment. And Asia have their own tournaments, so there aren't many details here about the players over there. But if I had to put my money on someone, I would definitely say Thijs. He's been at the top since the beginning, is the most consistent player and is famous throughout the world.”
It appears from small beginnings, Last Call is anything but, and a man and his friends' love for a game might just the beginning of something bigger. It’s something to aspire to, and proves you can do anything if you keep your motive pure. You probably don’t even need to own a crazy dog, either.
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