Thefishou: "[it] was made to perform well against Zoo, as I was especially afraid it"

Congrats for qualifying for the Blizzcon European LAN finals. Can you first introduce yourself?

My name is Thomas Guedj, aka thefishou. I am French, and more precisely in Ardèche (South East), land of gorgeous rocky landscapes, neolithic caves, and bad internet connections. I'm lucky to be a member of the GamersOrigin Team, one of the leading structure in France for Hearthstone and Blizzard related games. I am currently 25 years old. I work in the field of horse riding equipment. Voila, you know (almost) everything about me .

Voila is such a french thing to say ^^

^^ ye

Do you have any other French-isms that you say in everyday conversation?

I mostly add french words when I try to pickup girls when abroad like ' beauté ' or ' mademoiselle' . Lol

That sounds like a very effective strategy. Man, I wish I were French now. I hear it's also effective if you're British here in the States.

Let's talk a bit about GamersOrigin. I know of the tournaments they'll be hosting and have hosted, but I wasn't aware GamersOrigin was a team. Can you tell me a bit about their team and how you came to join it?

GamersOrigin is a fansite that was launched in 2011, dedicated to Blizzard-made games, intially Diablo, and more recently Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. They decided to launch a Hearthstone esport team back in the beta days, to promote their site and increase the HS section's visibility. Now it is one of the leading French teams, and is still looking for new talents. I was recruited during the last season of beta test, after finishing in the top 50 that season. I'm really happy I did, the roster is really good and everyone is very friendly. It is really handy for playtesting and analyzing the game. The team is currently composed of Un33d, pAc, Nitroks, Harkhonen and Typhus.

What do you think about the French scene at the moment? From an outsider's perspective it seems very active yet very insular. For example, France has tournaments all the time but we don't hear about them very often.

Regarding french players, they tend to only stream in their own native language, which makes it hard for the international audience to get to know them, and thus they aren't invited anywhere. Also until now, most tournaments made in the French-speaking community had fairly low if any cash price, with no invitations for players known in the international scene. And sadly, viewers are not interested to watch a tournament stream where they don't know anybody. But things are starting to change as Hearthstone gets bigger.

The second edition of the GamersOrigin Cup, that will be held in October, will have a fairly sizable cash prize of 6000€ and 500 slots for players, making it the biggest HS tournament ever in term of attendance. Several international pro players will attend the event, and it will be cast in English by well-known Amaz and Gnimsh. So I hope this time a French tournament will be able to attract a lot of attention on our scene and our players, some of which are quite talented.

I heard from Savjz that you also played in the first GamersOrigin Cup. How did you do there and what was that experience like for you?

I'm glad to hear he remembers about me. He was really impressive at this tournament. I managed to beat him in the earlier rounds, but despite that he kept his Nordic cool and went undefeated. I think he's one of world's top class players along with Kolento and I was honored to play against him.

Unfortunately, things didn't get so well for me after this match, and I didn't manage to get to the final stage. At that time, despite having a solid experience with MTG tournaments, I wasn't really that much into the HS ones, I might have lacked a bit of experience back then. But since then I've worked into it and gained confidence and experience. I'm really looking toward the future events with a growing impatience.

I have a funny story about you that Savjz told me. He said in France he thought he was on the stream for first game and they said thefish first, and he replied "I already ate." Have you heard of this story before and do you find that a lot of people get confused about your name ever?

No, I didn't heard about that story, it's quite funny actually. I heard that Finnish cuisine is a lot about fish, maybe that's why he got confused. My name doesn't seems to confuse anyone here in France. People are used to see very weird "akas" on the internet with dubious use of English anyway. My name was actually a part of a mindgame I had back when I played poked. "Fish" is a poker slang term for someone that's really bad and giving away a lot of money. I expected people to underestimate my abilities based on that name. I'm not sure it worked that well, actual poker fishes don't even know what that means anyway. But the name stayed.

That's an interesting story about your name. Do you also know that Savjz considers you the best French player? Would you agree and can you give me a mini-ranking of the French players in the Hearthstone scene?

I see that Savjz is not only a gorgeous man, he is also very good at evaluating one's abilities. Jokes aside, I don't know if we can tell if anyone is the best at the moment. I've had some good tournament results recently, but there's always a part of luck and I know for sure there is a lot of talented French-speaking players. But it is a fact that I'm training and strive to improve my skills and knowledge of the game so I can reach the top.

As for the French-speaking community ranking, it is really hard to tell. I think my teammates are among the best, or have the potential to get there. Apart from them, a few names comes to my mind: Noisyboy, Protozoaire, Milithium... It is a non-exhaustive list though.

In fact, we had a lot of French player qualify to the EU finals: Noisyboy, Lowelo, and yourself. Protozoaire was also one game away from qualifying, so overall a really good performance from the French players.

We were talking before and you mentioned you were really into cinema. What kinds of movies do you enjoy, French, international, or all kinds?

Actually, I have a wide range of tastes. But as a proud geek, I must say I especially enjoy fantasy movies, like Peter's Jackson Lord of the Ring trilogy. The latest Batman Trilogy by Christopher Nolan is also a masterpiece of the genre. But I also enjoy less known French movies you probably never heard of.

If I had to pick a movie among all, even if that's a bit heartbreaking, I would say 2001 "I am Sam" with Sean Penn might be my first pick. People say I could be the french Tarantino official lookalike, so maybe that's why I'm so interested in cinema. ^^

Yes, I remember "I am Sam" very well. I believe it was one of Dakota Fanning's first movies and I'm not surprised you liked it. I especially thought Sean Penn was really good in it. Thee only French movie I've seen was "Love Me If You Dare." Is that a popular one in France?

You're refering to "Jeux d'enfants" with Marion Cotillard. I saw it, and it is well known, but I can't say it is really a cult movie here. I guess it was well marketed for the international audience. I'm surprised though you didn't heard of other recent French movies that managed to go across our borders like "Amelie," "The Artist," "The 5th Element," "Leon" or "the Intouchables." If you haven't see "Leon" I really recommend it. If you're also into older stuff, there is a lot of classic masterpieces by Renoir, Carmé, Cocteau, Truffaut and so on...

Editors note: "Leon" is known as "The Professional" (English title)

Alright, if I ever decide to go on a French movie binge, i'll be sure to look up this interview again. We also really have to talk about your job. Horse Riding Equipment? That's probably the most interesting job I've ever heard a Hearthstone player have.

Indeed, it is an exciting occupation. To summarize, I buy horse riding equipment that I sell to amateur and professional riders, especially during conventions and competitions. My parents were professional riders, so one can say I'm kinda born into that environment. For sure it is not the most known and understood job in the world, especially with gamers, but it allows me to travel a lot and to meet interesting people everywhere I go.

Where has this job allowed you to travel in particular?

Essentially in Italy, and soon in Belgium and Germany. But also in some of the most beautiful places in France, like Lamotte Beuvron, south of Paris, where was recently held the French national horse riding championship, with more than 12,000 riders, a number Hearthstone still has to match The site is in the middle of the ecological treasure that is the Sologne region and its forest.

That does sound very nice and hopefully your Hearthstone journey will let you travel to even more expansive places. Speaking of Hearthstone, let's start talking about the game now. You went through with a very impressive 5-0 run. How did you prepare for the tournament and how did you decide to end up with these 3 particular decks?

Recently, I had the chance to participate to three major tournaments with excellent players : the Millstone Party 7 in Paris, The Brussels Cup 4 in Belgium (as you probably guessed), and the online last call qualification for the Prismata Cup 2. I was lucky enough to win those three tournaments which of course gave me a lof of confidence for the EU qualifier, and made me think I had had a valid selection of decks, that stayed more or less untouched for Phase 2 EU Blizzcon Qualifiers as they performed well.

To name them, those decks are zoo, midrange hunter and miracle rogue. It was for me the best combination to deal with the whole metagame and answer every situation. They are also decks with a lot of raw power which means they can win several games in row if needed, since you can loose an entire deck because of bad draws.

Zoo is perhaps your most interesting deck since most players preferred Handlock as their Warlock deck of choice. Most players also agree that Zoo is unfavored vs Miracle and iffy vs Hunter. Can you explain what the benefits of Zoo are in today's metagame?

I think that Zoo actually has a favorable matchup against Hunter lists that don't run explosive traps, and even then, without a good unleash, Hunter often can't really stand the over-aggressive start of Zoo. Against Miracle, I think it depends on who gets the coin, but that might become indeed a complicated matchup. But all things considered, it is a deck that is really reliable, very aggressive, and can sometimes perform so well in early game that it becomes almost impossible to stop if the opponent doesn't immediately answer the threats. Generally, Zoo has a good matchup against the majority of current meta decklists.

Your Hunter was also very different in that it ran 2 explosive traps, 2 tracking, and 0 flares. Can you explain the reasoning behind those decisions?

Initially it was a list that was made to perform well against Zoo, as I was especially afraid of this deck. The lack of flares is explained by the fact that I had in mind using Miracle to counter Hunter, and outside of this matchup (and maybe also against Mage), tracking does the same thing way better : filtering your deck so you can have smoother early game and access to threats or answers later in the game. Regarding explosive trap, it is of course an excellent solution against aggressive decks, and even against more control-ish lists, it is never a dead card as two damage and a potential charge on your bow is never negligible in a deck which has already so much damage output with cards like Leeroy or Kill Command.

In the qualifier, you hit quite a few known names, including Powder, Cupcake, and Forsen. Out of your five opponents, which one was the most difficult and how did that match go?

The hardest one was certainly Forsen. It is a player that I'm particularly fond of. I've heard he had some issues during the day two of the tournament, and I deeply sympathize with him : I think he really deserved to get to top 14. Anyway, against him I played Zoo in the first game, and he was playing the miracle he is known for. I must say I was quite impressed. He had the coin but unfortunately for him he didn't get his auctioneer early enough to answer my mid game threats.

From there it was pretty much over. Then he played a very aggressive Hunter, and managed to easily take the game thanks to a turn 5 unleash. Then I took Miracle to counter him and that's basically what happened, with a turn 3 farseer followed by turn 4 coin + auctioneer, I could easily deal with his minion while drawing a lot of cards. He was left with Priest, and I knew that my Miracle was really favored in this matchup, but it was my turn to get my auctionneer way too late, and I wasn't left with a sizable enough life bank to manage the situation.

I was afraid for the last game, as I know that my Hunter, with those explosive traps, wasn't at all favored against Priest. But thanks to a very good early game, I was able to lower his hp quite fast. Then he managed to handle my minions, and get back on his feet. At some point he had 8 cards in hand, and I was left with only 2. I still got to a point where is life was low enough that I could finish him with my bow, a Leeroy and double kill command.

I can see why he seemed devastated on Twitter and his stream. He was one game off from qualifying and the last game you described just seemed so close. Going into the LAN finals, I'm sure you'll face many more difficult opponents. Can you rank for me your top 5 most difficult opponents at the EU finals?

There is of course some major names like Reynad, Theude, Lifecoach, Thijs, and of course the genius Kolento, but I think everyone that managed to get to this stage has to be considered as a potential threat. I'm pretty sure we'll have some surprises and maybe new pros will arise from this tournament, as biggest tournaments until now were essentially invitationals, with the same pool of players.

Speaking of invitationals, what are your opinions about the state of invitationals vs open tournaments right now?

I think the community needs both. Invitationals are good for the show and being able to follow the players you know and love. But I don't think that open tournaments get enough attention currently, I'm pretty sure there is yet some relatively unknown players that have the skill to perform at top level, and I say this with having a few French-speaking players in mind. I'm pretty sure the audience would like to know some new faces.

Thanks for having the interview, any final shout outs or plugs?

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak Before I leave I would like to thanks Guillaume, the founder and leader of GamersOrigin, for all the work he has done and he's doing every day to ensure the future of the network, our team and and the support he provides. Sometimes I feel he's even more affected by the results of our team than the players themselves.

I really hope I'm going to perform well in Stockholm so that I can see how frenetic he can get ^^. I also wish the GamersOrigin Cup #2 to be a huge success, I know that more information about it will be released soon. And my very last word : Taz'Dingo. Don't ask my why, I just like how it sounds

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