Interview with Team ReplyTotem Legends of Runeterra player, Broken Ball
Broken Ball talks about his journey in card games and the home he found on Legends of Runeterra
It's been six months since competitive “Legends of Runeterra” has been a thing and today we have had a chance to speak with one of the strongest European players that has risen since, Cesar Rafael 'Broken Ball' Almonte Mendoza, about how things have been going for him and what we can expect in the future of the game.
Hi Broken Ball, how is it going? Thank you again for the interview.
Let's start with the beginning. Can you tell us how was the competitive experience that you've had before Legends of Runeterra? Had you ever played other card games before or was it your first?
Broken Ball: So, my first card game was Hearthstone, and I played it since the days of open beta, but I'd been a semi-casual player until they held a small tournament at the Spezia Comics (a comics and video games related event) in my city during its first year of release. My friends persuaded me to go and participate, even if I didn't think myself a very good player, but I actually got second place and from that day I started getting interested in the competitive scene. After some years I left Hearthstone because I didn't like the game anymore and it got too expensive to play at a high level, so when they announced Legends of Runeterra I got very hyped because it seemed like a must-play game. The first few months have been tough though, I feel like I was still playing as in Hearthstone, without using all the mechanics LoR provided, like the mana banking. The first Decks of Runeterra tournaments were what helped me change my playstyle.
And when you changed, your results were great! You represented Italy at the European Masters event with your teammates Meliador and Bulat, and got into the top32 of the “Monuments of Power'' seasonal tournament. Furthermore you've always been a prominent figure inside the community, being active on various Twitch chats and other competitive events like “Fight Nights'', you've been playing at a top level since then.
Broken Ball: Yes, and speaking how I got where I am, I never really liked playing too many ranked games and the ladder format isn't my favourite, because I think it limits the player and rewards less your own skill at the game, because of the closed deck lists system and the absence of bans. So when they announced the EUM and I had to get at the top of the ladder to qualify it was very hard, but in the end I did it at the very last minute. Representing Italy at the event was a very good experience and undoubtedly acted like a springboard for the confidence I had in my skill.
After the event, you joined Team ReplyTotem with the other two representatives, can you tell us more about playing, scrimming, testing and discussing with other two players of this caliber?
Broken Ball: Let's say that being in a team helps both with your presence on socials and with the game. It's always good to confront and speak about card games with other high level players, as i frequently do also with many players outside my team; i think that one of the most important things to do is in fact sharing ideas and beliefs about the game, especially with people that have a very different playstyle from yours. At first it may seem that keeping your strategies a secret is a good idea, but the more you play the more you realize that the gain in sharing them with others is much greater.
Just after the end of the EUM, Riot announced the proper Runeterra competitive scene, held every two months throughout the Seasonal Tournaments, that bring the first 1024 players of each server to play for a cash prize. What was and is your experience in that circuit?
Broken Ball: Honestly, when they announced the Seasonals, I couldn't believe they were making proper tournaments only six months from the actual release. And although the initial format was very debatable, a Swiss where you had to go 5-0 to make top cut isn't a very competitive format, even Steve Rubin himself (the Live Design Lead of LoR) said it, when they received from the community a huge amount of positive feedback towards Seasonals being much more directed at top level players they agreed to changing it into a 9 matches bracket, when you can lose up to 2 best of 3 and still qualify. And especially now with the announcement of the World Championship, we can see that Riot believes strongly in Runeterra's competitive scene.
Looking forward to the World Championship, Mogwai's tweet has had a lot of resonance. Do you think that when many other professional players will join the scene it will be much harder?
Broken Ball: The first thing I saw the morning after the tweet was TidesofTime playing Runeterra and that made me very happy because I'm a great fan. It's good to see capable people like him playing the game. I think Mogwai is right, it feels good to get good results, but since right now we play more for the glory than the actual money, their value is much smaller. Now that we all have a reason to compete though, it will be much different. Maybe we will not see it at this World Championship because of the retroactivity of qualifications, but starting next year Runeterra will be on a whole new level as far as competitiveness goes.
Lastly, to let our readers have an “interpretation key” for what they will see at the various Seasonals, can give us some insights about what you think will be the most played decks at the event?
Broken Ball: In my opinion, the “king” of the meta is Thresh/Nasus, it has a lot of positive matchups and while it has a few negative ones, they are still pretty much winnable. Lee Sin on the other hand, while it’s very strong, is a much more complex and difficult deck to pilot and many players don’t like playing it. Then the third deck which sets the meta is Trundle/Lissandra, that is much more easily counterable and has very polarized matchups (easy wins and hard losses), so we may see lots of strategies to bring it down. But definitely the first two decks are the undisputed top tier ones.
Thank you very much for this interview, it's been a pleasure to talk with you. Good luck for the future and Seasonals qualifiers, I hope you'll represent Italy once more at the World Championship.
Make sure to follow Broken Ball on Social Media to keep up with his most recent accomplishments!
