Hey Chakki, can you introduce yourself?

Hey, I'm Chakki. My name is Keaton Gill, I'm 20 years old and have been playing Hearthstone for a bit over a year now. I started out on some smaller teams like Managrind and Clarity and participated some of the earlier events like ESGN Fight Night. I plan on playing Hearthstone pretty seriously in the upcoming year and I recently signed onto Team Dignitas.

Speaking of teams, I think you've been in more teams than anyone in Hearthstone. Care to comment?

Hmm, I might be tied for that "honor" I guess! I've definitely learned a lot from each experience even if it wasn't the greatest and I think I did get something out of each team. Sometimes things just don't work out long term and people go their separate ways. To be fair, with each team I left everyone else left, too.

Your last team was Team Coast, which you left with all your other teammates at the same time. One of the official reasons given for the team basically disbanding was that Coast was going to be sponsored by Azubu. Considering you don't stream often, was this a major factor for you? Were there other reasons that cause the team to disband?

Azubu was definitely a reason for me. I actually plan to stream quite a bit more often this year than I did previously and I didn't want to leave my Twitch viewer base behind. There were other reasons of course, the main one being personal issues in the team. Twisted and Impact had a falling-out and everyone seemed to have different levels of how seriously they wanted to pursue the game. All things considered, the team no longer seemed like the best place I could be so I came to a mutual decision with the Team Coast to leave early. The other team members followed suit after.

So let's talk about Dignitas. How did that come to be? Did the fact that both you and Blackout happen to be two of the youngest and most outspoken people in Hearthstone have anything to do with it?

After leaving Team Coast, I looked into the options I would have. After talking with multiple organizations, Dignitas had the best offer and also seemed to be a lot more on board with investing heavily into Hearthstone. Being friends with Blackout and Greensheep is great because I already know what the team atmosphere will be like. I guess that had a little bit to do with it as well. Overall, it seems like a great fit for me.

Last year, you gave up your slot at WCA in order to compete at the Blizzcon NA qualifiers. Can you explain what led you that decision and whether you regret it in retrospect?

Basically I couldn't miss X school days, and if I attended both events, that would put me over that threshold. Playing at/winning Blizzcon was a major goal of mine, so despite the Chinese event potentially being "easier" than winning in both NYC and at Blizzcon, I decided to go with that. I do regret giving up on an event as huge as WCA for school. This year I will be attending every event I can.

One of the things you're known for most the past year is your infamous double Doomhammer Shaman deck. Tell me, Chakki, how did you come up with such an idea?

I had been playing Shaman for a while ever since I copied Xixo's Shaman deck to play for tournaments. Every game I drew Al'Akir I kept thinking "man, I wish this was Doomhammer". Eventually I just decided to put in the second copy. At the time, very few people were playing Harrison Jones so the deck worked fantastically and the consistency was very good. In general, I'm a big fan of 2-ofs so the deck more reliably does what it's supposed to do. Unfortunately for now, however, Double Doomhammer seems to be getting sent to the museum quite a bit. Maybe it'll return some day.

One other thing you're known for is your love of Snapple, especially on streams. Why Snapple of all drinks and do you have a preferred flavor of Snapple?

It tastes really good! Peach Tea is the one true Snapple flavor.

And one final thing you're known for is your over-the-top BM. What do you think about your reputation, especially with regards to how you originally got it?

BM is a pretty interesting thing. The community's reaction to it seems to be pretty fickle: sometimes it's hilarious and sometimes it's "over the top". I think the reality of the first situation is that a lot of fans were upset their favorite player lost. A few days ago, Trump slowrolled lethal to the rope against someone in NESL Legendary Series and Twitch chat had a blast. There was no "over the top" thread. No tournament has ever had rules against slowrolling, emoting, playing extra cards, or anything of the manner. In fact, it's usually encouraged to give the event more of a storyline. I don't think BM ever has any truly harmful intent, this is a game, people should take it as such.

How do you think your reputation of being BM has affected your Hearthstone career?

I suppose some people will say any publicity is good publicity. I didn't intend to piss off a legion of fanboys but that was the result. I don't think I've used much BM since that tournament's backlash, in fact at NYC, opponents were the ones who would initiate emoting at me (if that's what we can consider BM). I have respect for all of my opponents, including Reynad from that match long ago, and I really don't think sending a few emotes someone's way is going to ruin their life. The people who might dismiss me because of a "BM reputation" are just people who aren't fans of me, and that's okay, not everyone is going to be a big fan. There are actually some people out there that love a nice BM .

What do REALLY think of Reynad?

PJSalt.

...Okay, in reality, Reynad's a fine guy. I have no bad blood with him and he's actually doing a lot of work for the community with the popularity he's achieved. Who knows, you might see some Tempo Storm content from me soon enough :^ ).

The only thing I dislike about him is sometimes shit talking people without really knowing much about them in front of 20k+ viewers can slander their name (regarding other people, not myself). Despite that, he's a public figure that people enjoy watching and he's created a great team and website for the game.

2015 is a new year for Chakki. What are some concrete resolutions you have regarding hearthstone this year?

In general, I want to get a lot better. I'm dedicating a lot more time to the game now in pursuit of that. I really want to make it to Blizzcon this year, as I've never been and I've heard it's a great experience. I'd also like to win some stuff, but we'll figure that out later in the year ^^.

Alright, any final shoutouts and stuffs?

Thanks to all of my fans for supporting me, it's really a big part of what keeps me going. Big thanks to my team, Dignitas, and their sponsors: I look forward to working with them this year. And thanks to you as well, Monk, for the interview: you're my favorite Kevin Dong in Hearthstone.

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