Attending Your First Fireside Gathering – What to Expect, What to Bring!

While playing Hearthstone alone on your high-resolution curved monitor with a bag of Doritos and a bottle of Mountain Dew on your table may be immensely exhilarating, Hearthstone is designed for its social community base, which means going out and seeing other people. Thus, the Fireside Gathering was born!

Fireside Gatherings are public events for people who share a passion for Hearthstone to gather and have friendly matches! Events are organized by hosts, who have special resources to hold Hearthstone events in their respective venues. If you’re a beginner who is looking to attend his/her first Fireside Gathering, then this beginner’s guide will help you through your first event!

Why go to a Fireside Gathering?

You might be wondering, “Why should I trouble myself to go to a Fireside Gathering when I could just play at home?” Well, there are a number of benefits when going to such an event!

The Thrill of Competition

Attending a Fireside Gathering is an entirely different experience from playing ranked games on ladder.

On the ladder, you often choose to play the “best meta” decks (decks that have the fewest weak match-ups) in order to maximize your chances of winning against a variety of classes, therefore it is likely that you will pick an all-around deck that is capable of beating those classes, or a deck that has no strong match-ups, but have no weak match-ups either.

In a Fireside Gathering, matches are played in a tournament format, so your lineup often dictates your strategy. You are challenged to look at matches from a broader perspective, taking into consideration the match-ups of all your decks.

Some people enjoy the thrill of having complete freedom in terms of classes, deck composition, and unique strategy, because they are able to add unique twists that they otherwise wouldn’t on the ladder! Have you ever wanted to try a deck, but was convinced that it wasn’t viable for competitive ladder? Then, perhaps, you may find success using that deck as part of your line-up in an FSG. Quest Mage, for example, is a relatively unpopular deck for ladder, often seen in competitive play, because it fits into strategies targeting slower decks.

Loot and Prizes

Blizzard wants to promote the game to as many people as possible, and they do this by supporting and encouraging people to host their own FSGs. They do so by sending blizzard merchandise to the hosts to be used for prizes. Cafe hosts are also incentivize to host an FSG because it gives their cafe more exposure and publicity. These Blizzard loot would often include Hearthstone merchandise that would normally be difficult to find locally, or would cost a fortune from their online store. If you manage to place in the FSG, you might be able to snag Hearthstone accessories such as pillow plushies, mugs, figurines, necklaces, and much more! Sometimes, they would even give you free loot just for coming to the FSG! Also, did I mention that most FSGs are free of charge? If they ever do charge an admission fee, it would often go to the prize pool, where top finishers will be able to win cash prizes!

New Friends

What if I told you that playing video games can improve your social life? Unbelievable, right? Well, it’s true if you want it to be! You don’t want to be sitting behind your desk all day long. Who knows? Perhaps, you may be able to make long-lasting friendships from the most unexpected ways. The interaction in Hearthstone can be described as superficial, as most of its communication is really only limited to the triggering emotes and salty friend requests. In contrast, in a FSG, you’re able to witness your “friendly” opponent’s reaction first hand, and hopefully, there won’t be any salty arguments, but rather friendly discussions that will hopefully be the start of a new relationship!

Fireside Brawls (Beta)

In Blizzard’s recent campaign to promote Fireside Gatherings, they recently implemented new features that will encourage people to join them. One of which is the new Tavern Brawls which is a unique game mode that is only accessible in a Fireside Gathering! They are similar to tavern heroes, but they usually operate on a larger scale, and tavern brawls rotate monthly. These are a lot of fun, especially when played with your buddies. If you haven’t seen it already, here is Trump’s attempt on beating the Lich King in a Fireside Brawl!

Nemsy Necrofizzle

Blizzard has released a new hero portrait for the Warlock exclusively for established Fireside Gathering Taverns. More details on how to obtain this sweet Warlock skin here.

How to Find a Fireside Gathering?

So, you might be already convinced that you want to attend a Fireside Gathering, but you may have one problem – How? Where do you begin? Well, there are multiple media outlets that can inform you of upcoming Fireside Gatherings in your area such as your local Facebook groups, Discord chats, and Hearthstone friends. However, the most effective outlet, especially if you’re new to FSGs, is the official Blizzard website, that will list all the available and registered FSGs that are convenient to your location! It would provide details of the event, location, and time! You can check it out here.

Afterwards, it might be a good idea to ask the event organizer to add you to their exclusive Facebook group or Discord channel, where they post announcements on future FSGs!

What to Expect/Bring?

Now, before you jump straight to an FSG, you may want to brief on some terms and concepts that you may need to know beforehand, so that you can be prepared and already be familiarized with the rules.

Tournament Format

There are two main tournament formats in competitive hearthstone: Conquest and Last Hero Standing. Each format has their respective advantages and disadvantages, thus it may be useful to know what format the FSG you’re attending is adopting, as their own strategies completely differ from each other. Additionally, most FSGs are either a best of 3 (B03) or a best of 5 (B05). However, you may also be required to ban a class from your opponent’s line up. Make sure that your ban is in align with your own strategy and line up composition.

Another important factor to also consider is whether the player’s deck lists are revealed to the players. This ruling differs depending on the tournament organizer’s preference. In most scenarios, deck lists aren’t revealed in order to save time, therefore sometimes adding tech cards such as Mind Control Tech or Golakka Crawler will catch your opponent off guard, and may outright win you games that you otherwise wouldn’t!

Conquest Format 

In a Conquest format, you’re required to win exactly once with each of your chosen classes. If you win a match, you’re not allowed to use that class for the remaining matches. On the other hand, if you lose a match, you have the option to either stick with your class, or switch to a different class.

Conquest Line Up Strategy 

Keep in mind, that these are my own personal and opinionated interpretations, and does not reflect the views of other professional players. Since this is a Conquest format, in general, you want to build a line up that is good in targeting specific archetypes. By doing so, you’re able to maximize your chances on winning against that specific archetype rather than playing random decks that have arbitrary percentage points against that specific archetype. In general, there are three main deck categories/archetypes in Hearthstone: aggro and mid range, control, and anti-control. Though, the line between these archetypes have been made more ambiguous and undefined due to the recent nerfs and patches, they’re still somewhat applicable. I have categorized the line ups that I most commonly see in Conquest into their respective layers.

• Layer 1: Aggro Line Up – Pirate Warrior, Evolve Shaman, Murloc Paladin, Midrange Hunter, Tempo Rogue, Zoo Warlock etc.
• Layer 2: Control Line Up – Control Paladin, Taunt Warrior, Dragon Priest, DK Priest, DK Mage, DK Warlock, etc.
• Layer 3: Anti-Control Line Up – Quest Rogue (RIP), Jade Druid, Jade Rogue, Jade Shaman, etc.

Keep in mind that these are just decks that follow a certain archetype, and may not be the most optimal line up. You decide on the line up you want to bring. In the past, each layer was arguably balanced, with each of them seeing a fair bit of play, but the recent update has shifted this trend. I dissected them into the following sections because Layer 2 is generally more favorable than Layer 1, Layer 3 is favorable against Layer 2, and Layer 1 is favorable against Layer 3. However, the percentages are slight and sometimes even unnoticeable, and maybe even contradictory depending on which data source you’re looking at, and of course there are decks that are just overpowered as hell, and isn’t completely unfavorable in any match up (ahem Jade Druid).

Again, to reiterate, this is only meant to serve as a guideline and is intended for illustration purposes only.

Last Hero Standing Format

In a Last Hero Standing format, it’s the exact opposite of the Conquest format. Instead of the player who won the match being required to switch to another deck, s/he will still retain the same deck, while their opponent is forced to switch to another deck. In essence, once you lose a match with a deck, you’re no longer allowed to use that specific deck for the remainder of the games. Thus, in a LHS format, it is possible for a player to win the entire series with only a single deck.

Last Hero Standing Line Up Strategy

Keep in mind, that these are my own personal and opinionated interpretations, and does not reflect the views of other professional players. Since the winner gets to retain the class s/he used to win, you generally want to bring strong decks that are capable of snowballing, or have high percentages against a wide variety of classes. Additionally, you want to build your line up with diverse classes that have different strengths. This is because if you bring a line up that have similar weaknesses, your opponent can easily capitalize on them using a single deck. For example, if your line up consists of Pirate Warrior, Murloc Paladin, and Aggro Hunter in a LHS format, and your opponent queues his/her DK Priest first, you’re basically unfavored in all of your matches, which is not a situation you want to be in.

Commodities

Since most Fireside Gatherings are conducted in cafes, there will probably be food and drinks around the area, so make sure to bring enough cash, so that you can enjoy the gratification of crushing your opponent without any interruptions from your hungry stomach.

Sometimes, the Fireside Gathering you are going to may have PC units that are available for use. However, there are times when the venue is fully packed, therefore to be safe, it is advisable for you to bring your own mobile device such as a smartphone or a tablet, so that you don’t have to worry about not being able to participate due to a lack of device.

Basic Rules

• No Deck Tracker 
• No Coaching
• No Side Decking
• No Cheating (obviously)

These rules are pretty self-explanatory. Essentially, anything that condones the unfair advantage of a player is not allowed. This includes using a software to track your and your opponent’s cards (though you are allowed to use pen and paper), soliciting external advice from others, using different variations of a deck in between matches (side decking), and obviously, looking at your opponent’s monitor, which should already be difficult to do so in the first place.

Conclusion

Hearthstone is not just a game meant to just be played alone in a room. Fireside Gatherings can add flare and spice to your Hearthstone experience! You can meet new friends, try out new game modes, obtain new merchandises, and overall have a blast! Who Knows? Maybe, this may be your first towards becoming the next World Champion!