Heartharena
According to a headlining post on Hearthstone Reddit, Kripp has officially partnered with Hearthstone Arena Drafting site HearthArena. While this speculation was teased out a while back, it is official now. What impacts does this have on the overall status of the arena?
Heartharena Battlegrounds
HearthArena is now using Twitter! At this time, the drafting tool of HearthArena is still in limited release. Please use our Reddit page to report any problems or bugs you come across. Drafting without registering is disabled during the limited release. HearthArena is a dynamic add-on that will rate each of your options with a corresponding score. The score is based on how effective that card is in Arena. However, the most important feature is that the application also takes into consideration your mana curve.
Heartharena Overlay
The HearthArena Companion app will enrich your Arena experience without the downside of having to do ANY typing. Get advice from HearthArena's groundbreaking algorithm and start tracking your arena runs and decks automatically. Our feature list includes: Auto-detect cards offered. The latest tweets from @heartharena. Compare statistics about all collectible Hearthstone cards. Find the cards that are played the most or have the highest winrate.
Heartharena.com
- More people will play Arena – Kripp has over 800k subscribers on YouTube, and his videos get hundreds of thousands of views. While he isn’t the best arena player with measured win rates, he is considered the most notable face of the arena. His recent success in the Old Gods meta has bolstered that claim. A guy with so much reach in the gaming community can only draw more people into the arena.
- More people will use HearthArena – I’m not sure what kind of agreement the two parties have in place, but Kripp will likely have to advertise HearthArena to some extent through his channels. Arena-main players already expect that most people use a drafting tool. Expect it all the time. This likely means less “really bad decks” and a more monolithic style, as more people are drafting with the same app.
- Slightly easier competition – Let’s say this partnership is a huge success, lots of people are playing Arena and using HearthArena. Well if this happens, the arena is getting a lot easier. I’d say that there will be moderate success. Some people try arena, think it’s too hard and don’t come back. Some people will keep sticking to it. The hardcores will remain in the arena no matter. I think a few Ranked/Brawl main people would move over to the arena, and this makes things slightly easier. Of course, you won’t expect to see these people when you’re fighting an 11-win final boss.
- Changes to the internal algorithm – Early indications are that Kripp will not work on tweaking any of the tier scores of the cards. Apparently, he will fill a branding role and show his face when displaying picks. Right now, that role is filled by the League of Explorers. I don’t know though. Something is amiss when you have one of the best arena players in your stable, and don’t pick his brain for improving your tier lists. The HearthArena algorithm is considered a trade secret of sorts, likely composed by data from the HearthArena users, plus tweaks from their arena experts. Kripp is a much bigger name than anyone else on the team, so he would likely have some sway in making decisions.
- Nothing happens – Let’s face it, Kripp and HearthArena are already well-known quantities. Almost everyone who plays Hearthstone watches or knows of Kripp. When people ask for arena help online, they are immediately turned to drafting assistance at HearthArena. So when you have two known quantities partnering, it’s possible nothing happens or changes to the arena.