Keep it Alive: An Interview with compLexity Gaming’s SEA Ambassador Grace ‘SylvanHunter’ Naces

It was an unusual morning.

Facebook news feed shows the usual viral stuff, advertisements for gaming rigs, news about Cloud 9 G2A winning the Nanyang Championships American Qualifier and Nihilum Gaming winning almost Php 7,000,000~ in the Archon Team League Championships!

Lots of things happening in the international eSports scene, where’s Southeast Asia?

Then as if someone heard me, there it is. Grace ‘SylvanHunter’ Naces joins compLexity Gaming (coL). A Filipina working in Singapore is now a part of an established international eSports organization as a player, scout and ambassador for Hearthstone in the Southeast Asian region. I read the official announcement immediately and made this news.

Oh, of course I follow SylvanHunter since she does editorial stuff for TempoStorm. She also post unique Hearthstone decklists and shares her thoughts about other gaming stuffs in general.

I immediately sent her a message.

Ivan ‘Van’ Espineda: Grace! Allow me an interview this time please?!

I have asked her for an interview before. One sensitive topic that she declined to officially comment on as she was still in the process of joining a team that time. I understand and let it pass.

But she should grant me one now, right?

Grace ‘SylvanHunter’ Naces: Good morning! I like your early morning energy. Haha. Sure, no problem.

V: Well you have a very good early morning story. Done with breakfast?

SH: Not yet, will do in an hour. I just woke up and now preparing for work.

SylvanHunter is a UX (User Experience) designer. She’s currently residing at Singapore for that gig.

V: UX huh. Made me wonder, what skills do you have as a UX designer that will help you with your new Hearthstone career?

SH: UX takes the psychological aspect into account, basically you want to make life easier for the user. Most of my guides portray the same. For example, my guide for beating the Heroic Solo Adventures  try to get the easiest way to finish the boss fight as much as possible.

V: Haven’t bothered to beat Heroic yet, I should read that one.

SH: I should update it first though, the guides were pre-nerf Naxx (Hearthstone Solo Adventure – Curse of Naxxramas).

V: Alright, looking forward to that. How excited are you as part of coL? Do you have projects planned already?

SH: I’d be at the Hearthstone Southeast Asia World Championship finals as the SEA Ambassador for coL.

What I like about coL is that they treat you like family and they really take care of their teams. I’m very happy to be one of the first steps they took as they expand to SEA.

Leaving for Manila at midnight, gonna meet with Blizzard peeps and players for the #Hearthstone World Championships SEA tomorrow 🙂

— Grace Naces (@coLSylvanHunter) September 17, 2015

V: We see that’s a great move for coL. Really. Especially since SEA has lots of great talent. We agree, right?

SH: Of course I agree. Haha!

V: So let’s say, coL have tasked you to recommend three SEA players for them to take, who would you recommend?

SH: Secret! Though I have my eyes on two already.

V: Okay, there are lots of people who want to be the third, me included. What skill-set should we, aspiring coL Hearthstone players have?  At least for you guys to just take a look at us and consider.

SH: Being good at the game is an obvious one. Haha. Having a good attitude and knowing how to build rapport will earn you points.

V: Say I’m pretty well-known Hearthstone community guy, performs consistently on tournaments and always at the top on season rankings. Am I a 100% coL take?

SH: Nope, we also look at how they work/interact with their team or people in general because coL teams work closely with one another.

Do good; get better as a player and as a person. Keep the passion for what you do alive. it sounds trite but it works. There’s this thing about continuous learning too. When you get too comfortable, you’ll stagnate.

V: Now that’s what I call tips! Thank you for that. Let’s talk a bit more about your life if you don’t mind. I know you also play Magic: The Gathering. Aside from that, how many years have you been playing games already?

SH: Computer games would be since I was 9. Magic, Dungeons and Dragons… I played that 10-12 yrs ago but I quit. Then one day last year, WiFi was down at my flat and I couldn’t play Hearthstone. I went out and bought M:TG pre-constructed decks and played with my friends. Best decision ever. Haha.

SylvanHunter playing Magic: The Gathering while sporting a Hearthstone Shirt.

V: How about other games outside of the TCG genre?

SH: I used to play a lot of World of Warcraft. I was pretty good at Sim City, Red Alert 2 and uhm… Diner Dash? Right now, I’m liking Heroes of the Storm and looking forward to play Fallout 4. First game that hooked me on games was Prince of Persia. That game was a lot of fun!

V: Horde or Alliance?

SH: For the horde!

V: Oh no. How about your favorite Heroes of the Storm hero?

SH: Sylvanas of course, but I play Tyrande these days. Her Starfall is so annoying for opponents. Haha.

V: Are you by any chance looking forward to Overwatch?

SH: Of course! Blizzard fan here. I’m almost always signed up for alpha/beta tests. I was in HotS alpha and Hearthstone closed beta.

V: Let us know your insights on the SEA region. What else do you think can be done for the SEA Hearthstone and eSports scene to improve?

SH: More major tournaments. I was so happy when Blizzard decided to have the Blizzcon SEA finals this year. I believe so much in the skills of our SEA players. We don’t have that many major tournaments that could bring our players “out there”.

V: Well, how about those that are in control of the players? We know there are lots of organizations able to host major tournaments around here but the thing is they’re not willing to invest.

SH: Within the players’ control, you just need to continue being passionate for doing what you like to do. Never give up even when the struggle is real. When I saw Staz and Chalk win the Blizzcon NA qualifiers last year and saw how the community gave all the support they could give, I saw that passion for the game within SEA.

Sometimes I hear Miley Cyrus’ song, The Climb. Hahaha. It takes too much effort really to be a SEA player.

V: Very well said. Final message?

SH: There are many ways to play Hearthstone. Some people like to ladder, some compete, some do both… Sometimes people forget that you can play to have fun too (you can have fun competing and playing ranked, dont get me wrong). When I started Hearthstone, I just liked making fun decks for me and my friends and we get to laugh when we pull it off. They’re not necessarily the most viable decks in the meta but they could give you those ‘wtf’ moments. There are still many underutilized cards in Hearthstone, think how you could make those work and have fun. Hearthstone is supposed to be fun—i’d like to keep it that way.

Also don’t forget.

We have the passion. Just keep it alive.

That’s how the mornings went. A chat with Grace ‘SylvanHunter’ Naces over coffee at my end and sandwich-on-her-one-hand-while-typing over hers. We talked about other topics as well but they’re irrelevant. Like her crafting a golden Ysera then getting it on a spectate quest after a few months, how she doesn’t like the Paladin class even though she thinks it’s very good in Arena and how she slept late the evening before, thanks to Fallout Shelter.

You can follow SylvanHunter on her duty as an Hearthstone Ambassador on her Twitter and Facebook account.

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