James "Firebat" Kostesich, Hearthstone's first World Champion, has quit competitive Hearthstone.
The news was announced late this evening in a tweet from Firebat himself and follows his relegation from Hearthstone Grandmasters.
Quote From Firebat My competitive hearthstone career is over. I want to thank everyone that supported me over the last 7 years. And the people running all the events that made it possible to compete. I never imagined it to last this long. I feel truly blessed.
Firebat is currently one of the top earners of all time for Hearthstone players sitting at a comfortable 12th place with total earnings of $263,303 USD for the title. We don't know what he's planning on doing in the future, but he does have a great YouTube channel and Twitch stream so be sure to continue to follow his adventures there.
Quote From Firebat I just couldn't find anything that worked for me this meta. Kept trying different things every week but nothing was really clicking. So, I lost enough in the league to get relegated.
If I'm honest I wasn't putting in the time necessary to play at the level required to win championships. I was putting in the just enough to get by kind of energy. And focusing on other things, YouTube, Twitch Streams, moving house, relationships. So, I'd say it is a deserved relegation. Still hurts though, and I keep running back in my mind all the times I could have done a little more. Or what the hell I was thinking with that control warrior + highlander hunter lineup! Even if I didn't like the current iteration of the system that much, I loved competing and it has done so much to enable me to be where I am today.
I plan to continue making content, maybe not as much Hearthstone content as before. But, I still plan on trying to promote and help out the competitive scene wherever I can so that others may be given the chance at the same opportunities I've had. I know its switched to YouTube now instead of Twitch and its harder to follow. But, if you haven’t had the chance to tune in to the broadcasts I can't recommend watching it enough. It really is a life-changing program that allowed me to take my passion, turn it into something and become a content creator. I know competitive hearthstone gets memed on a lot, but I hope it continues to enable others to achieve their goals as well.
Firebat's World Championship 2014 Run
Here's where Firebat won the first Hearthstone World Championship almost 6 years ago. NAXXOUT!
Firebat's Tribute
Firebat received a tribute card for winning, Fiery Bat. You can learn more about all the other tribute cards in our dedicated guide.
Comments
Frankly, competitive Hearthstone kind of sucks. The early days where outside forces could run tournaments was so much fun, had so much flavor. Once Blizzard pushed everyone else out, it just got less fun, less interesting. There were still good tournaments, but my interest waned and hasn’t much increased.
It’s a lot like Hearthstone really, good stuff is still coming out, but it just doesn’t have the excitement of the early days. I really miss that time in this game.
Sorry to see you go, Firebat.
Even though it saddens me a bit that one of my favorite players to root for will no longer participate in competitive HS, I can fully understand his decision and wish James joy, success, and happiness in whatever he chooses to do instead. And I hope that will include streams and videos about HS. Sometimes thoughtful, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartwarming, always interesting and positive, and never taking himself too seriously!
I'm glad he stuck around for so long.
I'm also glad that he didn't let negativity bleed into his content toward the end like what happened with Savjz and Toast.
Knowledgeable pro player, memer, and positive.
I hope he finds success and happiness where ever he goes next
In case anyone wants to see what he said on r/hearthstone
I kind of saw this coming after the missed game situation earlier this season. I hate it because Firebat is easy to root for as an og player. I do hope they still involve him in the community with special events like the battleground brawls and such.
Fingers crossed that he'll get back into casting some. I became a fan of his through his amazing game analysis before I even knew he was a former world champ.
Old champs leave, and new ones step in. It’s the way of things.
I hope he succeeds in his future, he’s a genuinely fun guy to watch play hearthstone (which is rare) and I’m sure he’ll do well with whatever steps he decides to take.
I thought this might happen if he gets relegated. All the best luck to Firebat.
RIP - my favorite streamer's competitive career.
He started out so well this year too.
Worth noting that I believe ETC is retiring as well. So 3 American GM spots will be open.
Finally time for Josh Graham? I remember him as a kid in his YGO days.
Yes, ETC has indeed announced his retirement already earlier. That will mean there are FOUR open spots in Americas, and Josh Graham aka Impact is currently second in the prize money table which decides who gets in, so the chances seem good. One more Masters Tour event to go though.
As long as he still does Deck Doctor I'm happy :)
Watching early HS tournament feels weird looking at those basic and classic cards being played and actually mattered in the games. We sure have gone far, aren't we..
Good luck for whatever Firebat will be doing next.
Honestly, money is not the real motivator here. I heard that the grandmasters format is turning a lot of pros off, by the awkward scheduling, clashing with their streaming schedules (which, lets be honest here, is where they get most of their revenue and is a thousand times less stressful than competing on high levels), and the rewards for competing is generally not that great (exposure, which for pros like firebat and dog, is really moot. And money, doubly moot since some of these guys earn more from streaming).
Scheduling remains the main problem here. Perhaps grandmasters can be on record, rather than presented live. In this way its easier for the pros to sort out their schedules, and still present us with high level plays. I mean, who really sits down live for the entire 12 hour show anyway? Even a singular region can be somewhere around 4 hours of watch time. Hearthstone, unlike other competitive sports like football, basketball, DoTa or LoL, is a thinking man's game where one game lasts around 20 - 45 minutes, with an average of 3-4 games, and there's like 4 matchups per region. I don't think whether its live showing really matters here.
Leaves competitive card revealing too, hopefully :)
Sad news but (for me) unsurprising.
The old guard seem to be rotating out (Kolento, Dog, Pavel, Amnesiac, etc.) and past champions seem to have lost interest (Firebat, Otskaka, Pavel, Hunterace(sorta)) in competitive play. This isn't too bad as long as those that replace them have the desire to be in GM.
Honestly, I think they should remove the cap for the prize pool to increase the incentive to participate. Crowd source the prize pool like DOTA. Right now, streaming seems to be more lucrative than tournaments.
They first need to do away with qualification system based on prize pool, should be points or something... then redo prize pool...
Just letting that nostalgia set in watching the first hearthstone world championship. I remember Keeper of the Grove was MVP back then...
All the best to Firebat, I'm sure he'll have fun with his own content creation, like many have said.
I had not been following the recent Grandmasters so am sad/surprised to hear of his relegation. He'll always be the first of firsts in Hearthstone - nothing can take that away from him.
Big Firebat fan here. Even though this news makes me a little sad, I think it's for the best. I could go into how he's making way more money in content creation than competitions anyways, but honestly: he always just seemed so stressed out and unhappy when competing, and that's a problem. Especially comparing him to how happy and chill he seems when just doing his own thing. I think he's going to enjoy post-competition life very much.