It seems that Nozdormu has spread his influence and wants to turn Hearthstone into a speedrunning game. What’s all this about?
As strange as it sounds, Hearthstone Speedrunds exist. During this past Summer Games Done Quick 2023 edition SRD_27 featured Speedrunning Hearthstone, which rose the interest of many community members to the point that some started attempting their own runs!
Let's hurry up. The clock is running. It's time to explain what's all this about.
Hearthstone Speedrun at SGDQ 2023
First thing first, what's Game Done Quick? GDQ is a YouTube channel that features high-level gameplay, through its charity marathons and weekly content. The organization has donated over $30 million dollars for charity, and it was in that context Hearthstone had its Speedrunning segment.
Now, you may ask how you speedrun a competitive card game, right? Well, fortunately for us, SRD_27 already answered the question for us in an interview prior to his Hearhtsotne Speedrun.
"Probably, people might be confused. Hearthstone has a lot of different single-player modes, and I'm gonna showcase one of them: Knights of the Frozen Throne."
Despite Hearthstone being vastly known for being a competitive PvP online card game, it has plenty of PvE content, and there's an interesting speed-running culture around it. During this Doctors Without Borders fundraising event, we got to discover some of it!
The show was pretty interesting. During SRD_27 Speedrun, a commentator explained how Hearthstone worked at a basic level, while SRD added some comments whenever he had the time. This made the experience also enjoyable for non-Hearthstone players, and for those who didn't know speedrunning existed for the game.
Speedrunning records
If you are curious about this, you can check every current Hearthstone record at Speedrun.com, this site compiles runs for every PvE mode. While some PvE adventures are years old, the leaderboards are constantly moving.
Unlike other games in which speedrunning strategies develop and perfect thru a short period of time, in Hearthstone, things are different. SRD_27 highlights how things change thru time with each expansion and balance patch.
"In Hearthstone, every couple of months, there is a new expansion set. You can keep improving your strategies over time even though the adventures were released a lot of years ago."
After the past Games Done Quick event, some players were inspired to test themselves to see if they could beat the current records. Dabbs was one of them, taking the #1 spot for the Curse of Naxxramas adventure.
On top of that, Rarran also took on the Hearthstone speedrun challenge. Known for his creative content, he couldn't pass on the opportunity, especially since he had already made a video about it in the past using his own rules for the challenge.
With attention spans becoming shorter and shorter, is it time for Blizzard to add a Nozdormu mode and turn Hearthstone into a must-speedrun game?
If you enjoyed this article, feel free to check out more Hearthstone content including guides. As always, stay tuned to esports.gg for more gaming news and updates!