by hsdecktech - 4 years ago     show comments

As many dedicated players know, HSReplay has been an incredibly effective tool in documenting and shaping the ladder metagame since its inception. They offer a useful tool (Hearthstone Deck Tracker) to help inform your game-to-game plays by doing things like keeping track of secrets, and cards in hand, and fatigue, and then they use the data from all the players using the Hearthstone Deck Tracker to provide general statistics about all games and matchups at all levels of the ladder.

Today, they announced that they have launched–it’s live right now–a Battlegrounds page to their website so that they can provide the same types of services for that popular alternative game mode as well.

I spoke with Tiago Taparelli, Director of Business Operations at HearthSim, the company behind HSReplay.net and their Magic: the Gathering site, Untapped.gg, about what our readers could expect from the new Battlegrounds website, and how they could make the most of its features right away. So read up to find out how to hit the ground running with this awesome new tool!

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and ease of reading. The substance of all responses has remained the same. 

Blizzpro (BP): First things first, how long have you guys been working on this?

We’ve been working on HSReplay.net Battlegrounds for quite some time. Once our team got a chance to play Battlegrounds last year during Blizzcon, we quickly realized the Hearthstone team had created something special and started having some initial discussions about how we could support this new game mode and the community that would surely form around it.

The first step we took was implementing support for Battlegrounds in the Hearthstone Deck Tracker (“HDT”), which came in the form of being able to see your opponent’s last known board and then a list of all minions divided by tavern tier and tribe.

It was only after we knew we had some good features in HDT for users that we then started actively working on the website features that we’re launching today, which we’re very proud of and hope users will be able to enjoy as well.

BP: Let’s talk about those features. What does HS Replay Battlegrounds have to offer?

The HSReplay.net Battlegrounds features focus on three main areas: Heroes, Minions and Compositions.

In the Heroes section, users can find a tier list of all current heroes with data about their average placement, pick rate and placement distribution. We also have some really cool statistics about when you should be taverning up and using your hero power throughout the game, as well as which compositions better synergize with each hero (e.g. Reno Jackson has a good synergy with compositions like Deathrattle Mechs and Token Demons).

Sample image of the Heroes tab, provided by HS Replay.

On the Minions page, users can find a list of all minions and some of their key statistics, like Play Impact (which represents the average impact a minion has in the final placement in a lobby when it’s played), Combat Winrate, and Board Popularity. The list can be filtered by the minion tier, single turns or turn ranges, and even overall compositions. Each minion page has a dedicated page with great charts about how different metrics for this minion evolve throughout the game, as well as information to help users better position their minions on the board.

Sample image of a minion’s specific page, accessed by clicking on the specific minion within the Minions tab, provided by HS Replay.

Last, but certainly not least, the Compositions page also has a tier list for the different compositions and a lot of really insightful information about the composition, like when should you tavern up with this composition, how popular different minions are throughout the game with this composition etc. But by far my favorite feature is the examples of perfect games for each composition, where you can see how the board, stats and strategy for it evolves throughout different games played in high MMR ranks.

Sample image of the Compositions tab, provided by HS Replay.

BP: I’ve taken a look at it–thank you for the preview, by the way–and one thing I noticed right off the bat is that there is a lot of great data. The downside is that that can be a lot for a new user to take in.

Can you give our readers some tips on the basics of how to use the product effectively so they can get the most out of it right away while they take their time exploring the deeper, more complex features over time?

Of course! We built this product so that both more experienced Battlegrounds players and newer ones can obtain actionable information about the game to make more informed decisions.

Here’s one of the simplest and most effective ways new players can use the product:

• As you start a new Battlegrounds game, open the Heroes page and see how competitive each of the heroes are that you’re being offered.
• Once you pick your hero, click on it to see which turns first place players usually tavern up and how they use their hero power, which are good indicators of where you need to be in different points of the game.
• On the same page you can scroll down to see which compositions best synergize with your hero, or jump over to the Minions page and quickly see which minions you should be prioritizing in the first few turns.

As players familiarize themselves more with the product and the different metrics available, we expect them to start diving further into the product to obtain more nuanced insights on specific heroes, minions and compositions.

BP: That sounds great, thanks. Are there any other features you guys plan to add over time?

Yes, absolutely! There are many features that we’ve already talked about internally, but a lot of it will depend on the feedback we get from the Hearthstone community. If we hear from players that they are super passionate about a specific functionality we don’t have yet, or that they want statistics about a certain aspect of the game we don’t currently support, that gives us a lot of incentive to get out there and build it.

I’ll say that, personally, the thing I’m looking forward to the most is incorporating this really cool program that we recently acquired, called Bob’s Buddy, to the Hearthstone Deck Tracker. We’ll have more info to share on that soon!

BP: It sounds like a lot of work went into this tool and that people can get a lot of value out of it. Is there the same premium-versus-free dichotomy with this portion of the website as there is with HSReplay.net Classic?

In short, yes. Similar to the part of the website that users already know and love (which we’re referring to as HSReplay.net Classic), certain features of HSReplay.net Battlegrounds will be available to all users for free while others will only be accessible to HSReplay.net Tier7 subscribers, which is the new Battlegrounds-specific subscription we’re introducing with this new product.

Blizzpro note: HS Replay also sent us a press release that they sent to many members of the press. In that press release, they go over some of the stuff we cover in our interview–like what types of features this new product has to offer–and also clarify that the “Tier 7” subscription is a separate subscription from the HS Replay Classic subscription, priced at $4.99 per month. There is currently no bundle option, so if you want both, you just subscribe to both separately. 

BP: You were at the Hearthstone summit. Was there anything there—either from talking to Blizzard or talking to other influencers in the space—which helped influence how this ended up?

I’d say the biggest thing that came out from the summit related to HSReplay.net Battlegrounds was seeing how excited the Hearthstone team and other attendants were about Battlegrounds. Seeing that much passion and enthusiasm for this (still relatively new) game mode validated our own initial sentiment and that we’d made the right call in creating more tools and services to support it.

BP: How can we, the users, help you make the product even better?

This is going to sound very cliché, but the best way that users can help us make the product better is by using it and letting us know what parts of it they like, what could be better and what else they’d like to see added in the future. There’s nothing like direct feedback from users that are passionate about your product and the community we serve.

We love to have our community tweet at us @HSReplayNet with any questions, suggestions or anything else they might want to discuss related to our products.

BP: Is there anything else you want to say before I let you go?

I want to give a shoutout to the rest of the HSReplay.net team, who worked long hours and put a lot of love and care into this product. I’d also like to give a quick shoutout to everyone who helped us during the beta by sharing their feedback, including Nicholena, Slysssa, Ridiculous Hat and Botticus from Coin Concede, Jocelyn and Garret from The Angry Chicken, rayC and many, many more.