by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

DR23: Hello Crane, thanks for taking the time to talk with me today. There a lot of people out there who might not be very familiar with you, could you tell everyone a bit more about you?

Crane333: Yo, my name is Simon Raunholst. I am a 27 years old from Denmark, where I live in the 3rd largest (least-small?) city Odense. I started playing Hearthstone because since I was studying, I wanted to be less competitive in whichever game I was involved with. That went down the drain rather quickly.
My biggest achievements in HS so far is qualifying to top 40  Blizzcon this year after gathering 171 points, 170 of them by finishing consistently top 10/20 on EU/NA, qualifying for Viagame House Cup #3 as well as finish 9-16th in assembly Finland – which technically means I only got through round 1 but being invited was already a big thing for me, plus my group was one of the hardest with myself, Orange, and Gameking – 3 top 23 finishers in the WCS standings for Europe.
My teammate through almost a year now “Inderen” and I joined London Conspiracy very recently and it is indeed very exciting times for me in HS with the Blizzcon qualifier coming up, and hopefully there will also be some other opportunities for me to prove myself as I feel in the shape of my life at the moment.

DR23: Yeah man, Hearthstone can be a huge workout, I’m sure you are on great shape right now. Anyway, what’s the reason behind your Battletag? Why Crane? Why 333?

Crane333: I was about 13 or 14 years old when I got internet for the first time and I remember my friend showed me a game that he played which was Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. Back then he was top 100 on the EU ladder, which I thought was really sick. Anyways he obviously couldn’t let me play on his account so we created a new one on his computer and I had to come up with some sort of a nickname, and since we used to watch a bunch of TV shows before we went to sleep the best I could come up with was “Dr.Crane” because of the TV show “Frasier”. Since then I had a bunch of accounts in Warcraft 3 and at some point “Dr.” got lost. The 333 is simply because when creating an account in new games “Crane” was either taken or too short so I just added 333 – 3 being my favorite number since I was a kid so obviously 3 of those, right?

DR23: Obviously! How long have you been playing Hearthstone? Did you have any experience with card games or blizzard games before Hearthstone?

Crane333: I have played since Christmas 2013 and I have never played any card games before – apart from casual poker of course.

DR23: When did you decide to go pro? How did you end up joining your current team?

Crane333: I guess it just sort of happened.. I began to tryhard/skype with my teammate Inderen about a year ago and we both developed from high-ranked legendary players into decent tournament players with decent results in open cups within 3-4 months. Not long after, Inderen had his break-through when he qualified for back-to-back majors Katowice and Viagame House Cup #2 within a couple of weeks. I think his success inspired me a lot, because I realized the progress we had both made within a relatively short period of time.
I joined my current team because my manager since Christmas last year was transferring from H2K to London Conspiracy, and my teammate Inderen and I were allowed to follow him because of how long we have worked together with him. However, the main consideration is that I believe that as a member of LC, I have the best opportunity to develop as a player and establish myself on the competitive HS scene

DR23: You recently finished this Years Blizzcon Hearthstone World Championship Europe Qualifier tied for the #10 spot with 171 points, which would have been enough to make you top 8 on NA. A lot of the people who ranked over you got point boosts from winning tournaments in which they were invited to. Does that bother you? Do you feel you would’ve ended in a much higher place if were being invited to the biggest tournaments?

Crane333: The only thing that bothers me is that I wasn’t a bit cockier at the beginning of the year. If I would have been deadset on giving it my all for top 20 every single season I am sure I would have made top 8. However, I do not blame myself since I couldn’t possibly have known how consistent I would end up being. Also, the system for sure favors invited players but we should also remember that the system was =¤(%((/ awful last year whereas this year top 23 looks very stacked – and I don’t just mean judging by the pro names on the top 23 list, I know a lot of the lesser known players and I can assure you the quality of the players in top 23 is very high.

But yes, I do think 100 points for potentially being lucky in 5-6 series of HS in a big tournament where you were invited is a bit laughable…you might also say that getting 0 points in a qualifier for a big tournament is ridiculous when you can win 10 points in some of these weekly cups where you almost get an infectious disease every time you try to participate in them.

The reason why I didn’t bother playing in too many of these weekly cups is that some of the guys you have to play against are extremely idiotic and even thought you squelch them some of them even write to you during your turn, etc. 4-6 hours playing for 10 dollars or something while having to explain the rules to every 5th opponent is just not how I stay happy and motivated while playing this game.
However, I do not feel the least bit cheated by the point system. I knew the system since January and I didn’t make the top 8 cut – that’s on me.

DR23: What do you think about The Grand Tournament? Do you think its fun? Do you think it is a good expansion?  What are your favorite cards to come from it?

Crane333: Well I was hoping the game would slow down a bit because I feel like there was a time when less of the coin flip decks were top tier.. TGT brought the secret paladin which surely is a strong deck, but also not the type of deck I would like to see at the top of the food-chain. I had high hopes for jousting since the mechanic in some ways is awesome because it offers information about each others decks/hands which will always favor the more skilled player. The problem is that almost all the joust cards suck… overall I am afraid that the secret pally will be one of the only good decks to come from the expansion and that the meta will only change in a way where it includes secret pally in the deck-building consideration.

In the future I wish for more decks like Grim Patron or old Miracle Rogue where only the most advanced players will be able to pilot the deck anywhere near its full power – these are the decks I have the most fun with and I really enjoy watching other people play and fail because it reminds me that HS can in fact be insanely skill-intense at times.

My favorite card is King’s Elekk because it is both strong and favors late-game strategies, plus, it is one of the good jousting cards. Unfortunately it is also a Hunter card and as I have said many times before you build your decks around your Hero Power. Hunter’s Hero Power will never allow Control Hunter to dominate the other archetypes unless they keep printing op cards like King’s Elekk (3-2 draw a card 60-70% of the time would be op but you can only achieve those % in a control deck).

DR23: Which Pro Hearthstone Player makes you go KappaPride (if you know what I mean *wink* *wink*)?

Crane333: meh probably nobody, really does that, but the players I admire the most for their skill in the game are guys like Firebat and Kolento because of how consistent they have been for such a long period of time.

DR23: Hey man, thanks for your time. I hope we hear a lot from you in the future. Best of Luck on the European Hearthstone Championship, hope to see you at Blizzcon!

Crane333: Yeah no problem, any chance to talk about myself really 😉 – also shoutout to my new team London Conspiracy and each and everyone already following me on Twitter, etc!